White malice The CIA and the covert recolonization of Africa

The quest for African unity was undermined by America's imperialist machinations, according to this labyrinthine study, which focuses on the Congo Crisis and the execution of Patrice Lumumba in 1961. University of London historian Williams (Spies in the Congo) chronicles Lumumba's rise to power as Congo's first prime minister following independence from Belgium in June of 1960, and his rapid downfall amid an army mutiny, a Belgian invasion, a secession movement backed by Western mining companies in the province of Katanga, and a coup launched by future dictator Joseph Mobutu. It's a chaotic saga with many antagonists, but Williams focuses on the U.S. government, which suspected Lumumba of pro-Soviet leanings and wanted control of the Shinkolobwe uranium mine in Katanga. She documents how the CIA funneled support to Mobutu, bribed Congolese politicians to oppose Lumumba, and plotted to assassinate him using poisoned toothpaste, but her allegations of skullduggery sometimes outrun the evidence, as when she speculates that the agency may have played a role in the premature deaths of other African leaders and the novelist Richard Wright. Hampered by Williams's styling of Lumumba as the great hope for Pan-Africanism and an eye-glazing tangle of code names and shadowy ties, this is a reductionist take on a complex tragedy. (Aug.)

A deeply distressing history of CIA involvement in plots to eliminate certain regimes in Africa, particularly in the Congo and Ghana, just as the countries shook off European colonial rule in the mid-20th century. Between the independence of Ghana in 1957 and the CIA--backed overthrow of President Kwame Nkrumah in 1966, the CIA made an intense, rapid infiltration into Africa. Though not well known to lay readers, this history comes vividly to life in the capable hands of Williams, the author of Spies in the Congo (2016), among other investigative works. Despite being democratically elected, the popular leaders Nkrumah of Ghana and Patrice Lumumba of Congo were vilified by U.S. officials, who were nervous about (fabricated) overtures to the Soviet Union. Ostensibly for reasons of national security during the Cold War--and to keep precious uranium and other minerals within American control--the CIA operatives swung into action, at President Dwight Eisenhower's behest, orchestrating the 1960 coup d'etat in Congo, led by Chief of Staff Joseph Mobutu, which resulted in Lumumba's assassination. Through interviews and meticulous archival research, Williams exposes the extent of CIA agents' involvement, both American and African, delivering a consistently authoritative and astute narrative. She also shows the collaboration of businessmen such as Maurice Tempelsman, who had massive financial interests in Africa. These operations were not only dubious, but expensive. In fact, they "ranked as the largest covert operation in the agency's history, costing an estimated $90-$150 million in current dollars," and many were undertaken by so-called cultural organizations such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom, "a CIA front with an Africa programme based in Paris and with fingers in most parts of the world." While the Senate's 1975 Church Committee investigation into the Lumumba affair was rightly hailed as a major breakthrough in accountability, Williams emphasizes that the results are inconclusive due to missing documents and ongoing secrecy. Rigorous reporting reveals "America's role in the deliberate violation of democracy" in newly independent African nations. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.