This book is a mixed-bag in many ways. In terms of the positive, William's work on the CIA's involvement in colonizing Africa is excellent and truly the book's most valuable asset. As a white woman, she has more access to that sort of archival work and thus its dissemination here adds it to the historiography of America and Africa. Where is falters is the way the book suggests this is a new idea. Many Black and African scholars and activists have spoken about the American efforts to colonize and restructure African countries, and we have opted not to listen to them seriously (and by we, I mean white people). That truth has always been there and known, it didn't need to be said by a white lady in a book for it to be made true. Williams isn't going around Columbusing on this, but there is a feeling of novelty in it (and by other reviewers) that is unnecessary. But again, there is significant value to this text.

Thank you to NetGalley, Perseus Books, and PublicAffairs for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

To start, there’s a truly excessive number of quotations and initialisms. For the quotations, Williams quotes from dozens and dozens of people, and it’s hard to keep up with. And the initialisms! On every page there’s probably two or three different ones, and I had to keep going back to see what they stood for. I get why you can’t keep spelling out “All African People’s Conference” every time, but I personally could not keep up with them all.

I ended up skipping around until about halfway through and then I DNF’d. Williams was incredibly thorough in her research but this reads more like a research paper, and it was hard to get into.

When all of the French and British African colonies gained independence in the 1960s, Ghana was the first and most looking to make the continent free from Europe. The Congo (Leopoldville) didn't get off to the best start (Nkrumah wanted to help get rid of the Belgians) ending up with four different governments (in four places) and UN mission troops to try and help sort things out. These are the two countries that Williams focuses on.

Ghana, unlike many new African nations, had a competent government and was able to convert over to independence without a civil war breaking out. The British had worked hard to help train the bureaucracy, but not so well the military. Almost all of the Officers of the Army were ex-Brits and did not always agree with how Nkrumah wanted to rule. Ghana was one of the countries who contributed troops to the Congolese mission.

The Congo on the other hand was trying to get started with very little help from Belgium, which withdrew all of the colonial administration after independence. But unlike the Brits, few locals had been trained at management (and above levels). So there were real questions as to who was going to run the country, Kasavubu was the choice of the Belgians and Lumumba the choice of the voters.

At the same time the CIA was worried about the Soviets getting their hands on the premium uranium mine in Katanga province, which has announced it was breaking away as well as South Kasai (where the civil war is still raging). But the CIA wanted to get rid of Nkrumah who had the idea to united Africa as a "United States of Africa" with everyone working together to improve their countries without ending up in the West or Red Camps.

So the CIA had a two pronged strategy, get rid of Nkrumah and place some one more amenable and compliant in his place who wouldn't insist on "helping" the other new nations create real government and cooperation across Africa. In the Congo they wanted to put Kasavubu in power so as to have a better chance of controlling the resources of Katanga province (uranium and diamonds).

In the end they were able to create enough trouble for Nkrumah so that he had to give up power. They also were involved in the assassination of Lumumba, which let to the government of Mobuto and decades of misrule and dictatorship which has left the country in permanent civil war.

A marvelous book that gives great details about the horrifying CIA. The way they have worked to destroy Africa over the last century is a disgrace.