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A review by jerrylwei
White Malice: the CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa by Susan Williams
3.0
A valuable but seriously flawed read. The book only focuses on Ghana and DRC, and very incompletely. Other African countries are not covered at all, making the title of the book and the marketing around it misleading (*there is a short subplot about Angola that is more enticing than informative and really nothing about South Africa as mentioned in the book description).
Furthermore, Susan Williams really focuses on the CIA and CIA-affiliated actors and initiatives within Ghana and Congo. You don't get a complete historical narrative regarding the internal politics or struggles in Nkrumah's Ghana or 1960s Congo.
Williams writes in a scattered way, with plots and characters being introduced or returned to at inexplicable times, making the narrative and, more importantly, the larger message hard to follow. The overall feeling is being snowballed with facts and names. At times, Williams is good at clearly stating her conjecture for what is it. She is also good at pointing out distortions of or gaps in the historical record. At other points, however, she makes declarative statements without providing evidence. I'm generally inclined to believe her narrative but her occasional failure to provide support makes the book read like a polemic.
The closing chapters are the best part of the book. Williams succinctly lays out what historians have learned in recent years about the CIA in Congo, as well as remaining gaps in the record and things we may never know. I can only hope future writers will be able to tell a more comprehensive history of US intervention in Ghana and Congo that properly situates Ghanaian and Congolese politics as an explanatory factor.
Furthermore, Susan Williams really focuses on the CIA and CIA-affiliated actors and initiatives within Ghana and Congo. You don't get a complete historical narrative regarding the internal politics or struggles in Nkrumah's Ghana or 1960s Congo.
Williams writes in a scattered way, with plots and characters being introduced or returned to at inexplicable times, making the narrative and, more importantly, the larger message hard to follow. The overall feeling is being snowballed with facts and names. At times, Williams is good at clearly stating her conjecture for what is it. She is also good at pointing out distortions of or gaps in the historical record. At other points, however, she makes declarative statements without providing evidence. I'm generally inclined to believe her narrative but her occasional failure to provide support makes the book read like a polemic.
The closing chapters are the best part of the book. Williams succinctly lays out what historians have learned in recent years about the CIA in Congo, as well as remaining gaps in the record and things we may never know. I can only hope future writers will be able to tell a more comprehensive history of US intervention in Ghana and Congo that properly situates Ghanaian and Congolese politics as an explanatory factor.