Maier, a foreign correspondent in Africa for over ten years and author of Angola: Promises and Lies (Serif, 1996), has produced a remarkable book dealing with the spirit of a changing sub-Saharan Africa. It is no easy task to articulate an intangible undercurrent in an area so geographically large and culturally diverse, but Maier has succeeded admirably in revealing how African peoples today are "summoning their tremendous inner vitality...to adapt to a rapidly changing world around them."

In clearly written journalistic prose, Maier illustrates his thesis with individuals, places, and events from all over the sub-Saharan continent; there is, unquestionably, a movement to return to the pre-colonial, pre-Christian, pre-Muslim African spiritual beliefs, and the reassertion of the African spirit can be seen in politics, medicine, education, religion, even the military. African peoples face huge hurdles (AIDS, civil wars, famine) as they enter the 21st century, but Maier gives us hope that they can rebound and even thrive. [from Library Journal]