The second part assesses the challenges of regionalism in Africa through the efforts of the Organisation of African Unity, AU, Southern African Development Community and the Economic Community of West African States, as well as regional integration initiatives involving Africa and the Caribbean; and Afro-Asian co-operation.

Part three focuses on the broad topic of African politics, diagnosing the continent’s successes and failures — through its politicians and soldiers — as well as covering conflict resolution, regional hegemons and the role of youth.

The fourth section analyses — based on 21 years of living in SA — the prospects of Africa’s two regional hegemons, Nigeria and SA, providing continental leadership, offering critiques of Mills Soko and Peter Fabricius.

The fifth part assesses Africa’s international relations, examining the prospects for Kenyan scholar Ali Mazrui’s concept of Pax Africana while assessing 14 Nobel peace laureates of African descent. Issues of regional security are also discussed, with the efforts of African actors and the UN to silence the guns in Africa. I analyse the roles of the EU, France, the US, China and Russia in Africa. The neocolonial musings of Paul Collier are critiqued, while the perspectives of Francis Kornegay and Greg Mills on Libya are scrutinised.

The sixth part examines the Nigeria-hosted second World Black & African Festival of Arts & Culture in 1977; the phenomenon of Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood; Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s play and film Death and the King’s Horseman; and SA director Mandla Dube’s movie Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu. I analyse too global Africa’s fatal attraction to, and triumphs in, Hollywood; and review six important African American films: Selma, Black Panther, If Beale Street Could Talk, Harriet, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and The Woman King.

The seventh part examines the history and achievements of African football, the genius of Brazilian football and New Zealand rugby, pan-African athletes excelling at the World Athletics championships and the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, and the golden age of West Indian cricket. 

The eighth section presents travelogues across some of Africa’s great cities: Lagos, Abuja, Accra, Abidjan, Johannesburg and Laayoune. Part nine examines the world beyond Africa, analysing the legacies of impactful conferences in Berlin (1884-85) and Bandung (1955), as well as the evolving struggle between Pax Americana and Pax Sinica.

I assess the efforts of the Global South to revive nonalignment, before highlighting the EU’s region-building initiatives; the UN’s legacy at 75 and its institutional reforms; the global body’s humanitarian mission in Iraq; and the futile attempts of the G8 and G20 to alleviate global poverty.

The final section addresses the Anglo-Saxon world of Pax Americana and Pax Britannica, countries in which I spent 21 years. Issues of unilateral imperialism, hubristic hypocrisy, delusions of grandeur and racism are analysed in the politics of both countries.

This book thus provides a panoramic view of the Black Atlantic in Africa, America, the Caribbean and Europe.