There are many books about Africa, and I seem to have read a lot of them. Richard Dowden's Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles is certainly amongst the best. It distills his experiences travelling widely in sub-Saharan Africa for nearly 40 years, interpreting what he has seen and learnt . (He is now Director of the Royal African Society in London.) Like other outstanding journalists, Dowden brings two particular characteristics: the extent of his conversations, based on the access that being a foreign journalist has made possible; and a perspective that is both engaged – because who could avoid making moral judgements in many of these circumstances – and also distant, a bird's eye view.

There are lots of things about this book that I liked. One was learning something new on every page. It's a great read, combining vivid reportage with intelligent analysis. Another was the author's refusal to generalize. Almost every chapter is about a specific country, or sub-national region, or ethnic group, or village. The stories are used to illustrate wider points, but no reader could emerge from this making bland generalizations. Any of the chapters makes a great, concise introduction to an individual country's history and political landscape.

However, there are two quite powerful generalizations that emerge, not from being chapter subjects, but from the way they crop up in every specific example throughout the book. One is the utterly corrosive and pervasive corruption. Like Martin Meredith in The State of Africa, Dowden thinks this has its origins in colonialism, in the expectation formed by colonial rule that the state steals from the people. Between two and fourteen times the amount paid to African countries in official aid has been sent overseas to private bank accounts in London and Switzerland, he suggests. (And here's another charge to lay at the door of the financial services industry, the bankers for whom all money is welcome, no matter what its provenance.) But unlike Meredith, he firmly blames current political leaders in Africa for betraying the hopes and promise of liberation with every bribe they take or profit they skim. In this he is in harmony with a growing chorus of critics of everyday politics in so many Africa countries – including, of course, Barack Obama.

A second theme which emerges unannounced is the damage being caused by the aid industry – and here too Dowden is adding his authoritative voice to other aid critics. This ranges from his critique of the way the agencies feed the image of helpless, starving Africa to ensure they can raise funds to pay themselves and ensure their activities continue (p7) to drawing attention to their perverse role in supporting those who committed the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 (p248). The aid debate is raging amongst economists; those who advocate more aid won't find in this book any testimony at all to the positive effects they claim for it. Quite the contrary, although Dowden did often manage to travel only as a hitch-hiker on an aid agency plane or vehicle.

My personal interest was caught by brief sections about the impact of mobiles. Somalia (p113-117) is one country singled out as being unexpectedly transformed, but mobile anecdotes crop up throughout.

For all his criticisms of politicians and aid agencies and western governments, for all the moments of despair about horrific conflicts or the impact of HIV/AIDS, this is also an optimistic book. Its final words are: “Africa is finding itself.” I believe – hope – that this is the case. The end of the Cold War, the advent of new communications technologies, some easing of access to US and EU markets for African exports, have all made some contribution, as indeed has Chinese investment. The next 40 years will be better than the past 40 years Dowden describes.