Adéwálé Májà-Pearce’s Shine Your Eye is the kind of travel book that refuses to let anyone off the hook—including Africans themselves. Traversing 13 West African countries from Nigeria to Côte d’Ivoire, Májà-Pearce confronts uncomfortable truths at every border: African complicity in the transatlantic slave trade, Francophone immigration officials extracting brazen bribes, Liberian warlords who went unpunished for their crimes, and France’s violent grip on its former colonies long after nominal independence. In a section dedicated to the Sahel, Májà-Pearce grapples with today’s military coups, examining Burkina Faso’s Captain Traoré with clear-eyed ambivalence—acknowledging his genuine reforms while refusing to romanticize authoritarian rule. Ultimately, Shine Your Eye argues that understanding West Africa’s past is key to confronting its present challenges.
African Business
