This Africa Idea

A Memoir of Discovery, Diplomacy, and Opportunity

Witney W. Schneidman

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780815750017
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In this riveting memoir, one of the country's leading Africanists shares his story of five decades of work across the African continent at senior levels of government, business, and law.

In 1971, months out of high school, Witney Schneidman found himself at a secondary school in Mbarara, Uganda listening on the radio as Idi Amin announced his takeover the country. He soon understood that Africa was a continent of sweeping change-colonialism was ending, independence was on the march, and liberation movements were fighting tall odds to end white rule in Southern Africa- and he made the decision to dedicate his life to fostering strong ties between the United States and African nations.
Schneidman details the many risks and setbacks that stood between him and his dream of shaping U.S. policy toward Africa and contributing to progress on the continent. He recalls the isolation of being the only American studying at a university in Tanzania at the height of the Cold War, travel across 30 African countries, and policy successes that formed the cornerstone of U.S.-Africa relations. His inspiring story is a clarion call about the importance of engaging with the continent shaping the future of the world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Prologue: Why Africa?
• 1 Main Line Socialite Weds Dress Shop Manager
• 2 Kibbutz Ein Dor
• 3 Borders Are Closed Until Further Notice
• 4 The Hippie Trail
• 5 Setting My Compass
• 6 My Own Backyard
• 7 An Early Reckoning
• 8 Almost to Timbuktu
• 9 Liberation City
• 10 Frelimo
• 11 Keep Moving Forward
• 12 The Most Unlikely Revolutionary
• 13 The Racial Holy War
• 14 A Washington Analyst
• 15 Khayelitsha
• 16 “What Would You Have Done?”
• 17 Adjusting Africa, Or Trying To
• 18 Successful Vote, Failed Election
• 19 What Do You Know About the Continent?
• 20 Clinton’s View of Africa
• 21 Ron Brown
• 22 “Can You Scrub Your Schedule?”
• 23 Headwinds in the Reset
• 24 A Visit to Andulo
• 25 The African Growth and Opportunity Act
• 26 Osama bin Laden and Viktor Bout
• 27 The Twin Crises of Debt and HIV/AIDS
• 28 Bush In, Schneidman Out
• 29 The Face of Corruption
• 30 “It Won’t Be My $30 Million”
• 31 China, Africa, and Me
• 32 Obama for President
• 33 The Merry Band
• 34 Leapfrogging A Generation
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index