The fiftieth anniversary of independence celebrated in many countries in 2010 led to a spate of publications that attempted to draw up a balance sheet on the significance of the transition that operated in or around ‘Africa's Year’ – 1960. This is a tall order by any standards, as a thorough understanding would, in principle, require a longitudinal analysis of broad historical developments stretching over several decades – both before and after the year that was purported to constitute that ‘rupture’. This book, published under the auspices of the Institute for Ethnology and African Studies in Mainz, one of Germany's principal centers in the field, pursues this question by looking at trends and developments since that ‘constitutive’ date in the entire range of human endeavor. Four parts treat broad societal developments; issues of nation and nation building; aspects of political economy; and various cultural dimensions (media, literature, film, music). A fifth and more explorative part looks at current and possible future trends. Written in German, each chapter is followed by an English summary and extensive bibliography.

Treatment of the significance of the onset of the independence era is rather uneven, depending, amongst other things, on the field of human activity through which the several authors were asked to pursue this meta question. For example, a chapter on media is squarely focused on issues that arose after 1990, cramming historical developments of the three preceding decades (and the entire colonial period) into a mere three pages. Is there not more to be said about media and the press during the era of one-party rule? More broadly, the volume suffers somewhat from the lack of historical analysis of the era preceding independence. While it does not contain an overall concluding chapter, nor an index, the editors' introductory chapter draws together the many threads that are woven into this volume. It argues, on the line of Frederick Cooper's 2008 article, that 1960 was, in retrospect, not such a milestone as many thought – or hoped – it would be; that many of the changes, which at this juncture culminated into formal independent statehood, had their roots in a broad transition process that began to manifest itself very clearly at the end of the Second World War; and that, by contrast, it is the late 1940s and 1990 that constitute the true turning points in the recent history of Africa. If 1960 owed its significance to an external perspective and one that focused unduly on the role played by elites, this volume nevertheless could be a good textbook for undergraduates studying Africa's political and socioeconomic developments since 1960. In that sense it is regrettable that it was conceived in German. The best chapters are by Thomas Bierschenk, who presents a very subtle analysis of the complexities of African bureaucracies, based on years of anthropological research; Paul Nugent, who interestingly ponders the idea of national identity through food and drink culture; and Carola Lentz, who analyses the different ways that African states celebrated their fiftieth anniversary of independence, an original contribution based on the work of doctoral students.