The Fate of Africa, by Martin Meredith

The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence (2005)

Covers six decades of post-independence Africa and shows how the process of decolonization comes in many different forms. Each colonial power left a different legacy and scar that needed to be overcome. A necessary corrective to any single story about institutional failure.

Read it asking: All colonialism is obviously bad, but not all colonialism is equal. How did the different institutional architectures (or lack thereof) shape the post-colonial world?