Author: Mary Lawhon.

The significance of Africa to the rest of the world has risen and fallen over the centuries, but if recent media reports and popular literature are anything to go by, Africa is on the rise. Once again attention is turning to the “lost continent”, though this is only partially – if at all – motivated by changes in Africa itself. For the most part, as the books reviewed in this piece show, our1 attention turns to Africa when it is prudent for us, and in ways that largely serve our interest. The three books reviewed here make this argument in different ways (some problematize it more than others), but together clearly argue that the outside world is once again starting to pay more attention to Africa. The reasons for this differ amongst the books; reading them together provides a diverse but complementary set of arguments explaining and promoting our shifting gaze.