White Malice

Young, idealistic leaders across the continent, as well as African Americans seeking civil rights at home, heeded his call. Yet, a moment that signified a new era of African freedom simultaneously marked a new era of foreign intervention and control. In White Malice, Susan Williams unearths the CIA’s covert operations from Ghana to the Congo to the UN, which frustrated the attempts of Africa’s new generation of nationalist leaders to establish democratic governance. These revelations dramatically upend the conventional wisdom that African nations failed to establish effective, democratic states on their own accord. As the old European powers moved out, the US moved in. Drawing on original research and recently declassified documents, Williams introduces readers to idealistic African leaders and to the secret agents, ambassadors, and even presidents who deliberately worked against them, forever altering the future of a continent.