“Disaster parades today with impunity through the length and breadth of much of Africa: war, genocide, dictatorship, military government, corruption, collapsed economy, poverty, disease, and every ill attendant upon political and social chaos.”

Chinua Achebe, African writer, Another Africa,1998.

“From South Africa to Botswana, from Ghana to Senegal, democratic governments are ushering in a new era of vitality and development.”

Jesse Jackson, U.S. special envoy to Africa, San Diego Union-Tribune, March 29, 1998.

Africa is the world’s second largest continent (next to Asia) in both area and population. Its area of 11,699,000 square miles is more than three times the size of the United States, and its 1990 population of 642 million made up 12 percent of the world’s total. Africa encompasses over fifty nations, ranging in size from Nigeria (with a population of more than 120 million) to small island countries such as Cape Verde...