"So much of the history of Africa has been written by people who were not only not from the continent, but actively despised it... It is time to tell the story of a continent that has been long misunderstood." — Dipo Faloyin
March was one of those months at RBC where the book did exactly what the best non-fiction does: it made the world feel bigger, more complicated, and more interesting than before.
The Book: Africa Is Not a Country
Dipo Faloyin's Africa Is Not a Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa won the March member vote with 45% of the votes, ahead of An African History of Africa by Zeinab Badawi (33%) and It's a Continent by Astrid Madimba and Chinny Ukata (22%).
The theme was Africa — and the framing said it all: we are moving past the Western gaze to explore the cradle of humanity on its own terms.
The book isn't a dry history lesson. It's witty, subversive, and sharply argued - a journalist's take on a continent that has been flattened into a single, lazy narrative for far too long. Faloyin moves from the Berlin Conference of 1884 (where European powers carved up a continent they'd never lived in) to modern Lagos, from the Kony 2012 campaign to the rise of Afrobeats, from Kagame's Rwanda to Nollywood. His voice is both forensic and warm, equally at ease satirising colonial legacies and celebrating the joys of pan-African identity.
"For the next three months, these men worked towards an amicable agreement for exactly how to partition the African continent without starting wars with each other." — p. 27
Members responded immediately. Within days of reading starting, the community WhatsApp was full of reactions:
"I just wanna say I'm enjoying this book SOOO MUCH that I've actually switched my audiobook speed to 1x instead of my regular 1.5-2x. AND I'm also reading the text as I listen to Dipo recite the book. He is such a compelling storyteller; I feel the need to be as immersed and locked in as possible without any distraction." — Priyanka
"It's a great read so far. His stories of Nigeria are teaching me more about my roots and helping me understand and appreciate my mother more." — Ossie
"I am only 40 pages in and indeed it is a great book! It brings a much needed nuance and personal anecdotes. I have read books on Africa before but they were very much politics/economy focused and not personally relatable. This book is." — Dmytro
We Got to Talk to the Author
One of the month's highlights was having Dipo Faloyin join us for our Global Digital Event on the last Monday of the month. Joining from Lagos, where he was based at the time, our conversation covered everything from the fury that drove him to write the book, to the joy of Jollof rice.
Q: The book opens with the Berlin Conference. Was there a moment in your research where the fury really kicked in — where you thought, people need to know this?
A: I came into it with quite a lot of fury already, and that grew across the writing process. A lot of my motivation came from growing up in Lagos and going to boarding school in the UK at eleven or twelve. I was excited to tell people about my home city — seventeen, eighteen million people, a real metropolis — and yet people's interest largely came down to asking whether I had lions and tigers as pets. That experience sticks with you. And then you get to the summer of 2020 with the Black Lives Matter movement, and I knew Africa should be part of any global discussion around race, identity, and colonialism. The Berlin Conference chapter was actually the first thing I wrote. Starting there — seeing the threads from that initial conference to so many issues that remain today — it's impossible to study without feeling immense frustration.
Q: Have you been surprised by how much people respond with "I had no idea it was at that scale"?
A: I've been really pleasantly surprised by people's curiosity and their excitement to learn more. I knew these were stories that needed to be uncovered. But what's moved me most is how many teachers have reached out to say they want to introduce this into their own classrooms, regardless of what the curriculum encourages. And it's not just people from Africa — it's people who've never been, who see echoes of colonialism's impact in their own regions, who have empathy for the world around them and want to understand their fellow humans better. That's been such a wonderful experience.
Q: How far do you think we've moved away from white savourism? Are we in a healthier place?
A: I definitely still feel it's a myth we have to bust. But one of the really positive things I've seen is a generation of young people who are more willing than any generation before them to have difficult conversations around race, identity, and history. The audience is there. At the same time, there are forces pushing back — as we've seen in the backlash to Black Lives Matter and diversity initiatives. But I remain positive. If we put the reality of the region in front of people, give the right people the platform to tell their own stories, and reject the single narratives created in the late 1800s — then there is real hope. It's not going to happen automatically. It requires work. But I don't blame people for growing up with these stereotypes. That's the danger of stereotyping. It requires effort to put something else in front of them.
Q: From Priyanka: Writing this book — how has it changed the way you see Africa compared to when you started?
A: It's connected me more deeply to my own roots and to understanding how my culture was shaped. It's inspired me to think about my own role in the future of the country, and how I can help others find theirs. There's a danger at the start of these projects of wanting to list facts and figures — and then this happened, and then that happened. But it becomes so much more personal. The book I ended up writing was far more personal because of that research experience, and because I kept coming back to this: these are fundamental human stories, and you have to put the humanity at the forefront.
Q: From Diana: You describe Africa with such prose and fervour instead of the doom and gloom we're used to. Is there a specific memory from your childhood that inspired that style?
A: I come from a family of storytellers. There are so many memories of my parents stumbling over themselves to tell the same story, but each in their own unique way, with this great energy and joy. That's the spirit I wanted to get across in the writing — with a bit of humour and personality. I wanted the reader to never forget there is a human being behind this book, and human beings behind the stories. These stereotypes and myths impact us on a human level. That humanity is essential for any storytelling, but especially for a book that's trying to break down these myths.
Q: From Hana: Which part of Africa do you want to learn more about next?
A: Central Africa is a region I think is harder to put into a box. There are more established stories of Southern, Western, and East Africa. But Central Africa — and many of the smaller countries across West Africa — deserves so much more attention. Coming from a big country like Nigeria, we often soak up a lot of the spotlight. I'd love to explore more of that.
Q: From Preet: Which of the seven dictators was the most fun to write — and are you worried about your answer?
A: I liked writing about Kagame. The first couple of paragraphs describe him as this sort of scientist figure, this evil scientist from a film — that was fun to write. And the complications of him as a figure, both the downsides and the genuinely positive impact he has had, made it a fascinating case study. Mugabe was also incredibly interesting — a subject filled with far more nuance than the world has typically given him credit for, both positively and negatively. So those two — Kagame and Mugabe — were probably the most interesting case studies in terms of governance and dictatorship.
Q: Is there a next project on the horizon, connected to this work?
A: Nothing announced just yet. But the ability for Africans to tell our own modern story is something I continually want to keep working on — creating opportunities for others to tell that story. There's such a richness of material. So many chapters in this book could have been books themselves. I certainly plan to keep focusing on providing that platform. And I'm extremely grateful that so many members of the book club have really embraced this work. That's exactly why I set out to write it in the first place.
What Happened Across the RBC Cities
March saw Africa Is Not a Country spark conversations across 10 cities and online, from record-breaking turnouts to some of the most personal discussions.
Vancouver and Bristol had record attendance, with a great mix of regulars and new faces.
Edinburgh had an Africa expert in the house: Will, who has worked in International Development in Africa for over two decades, shared a deeply personal view of his experience across 7+ countries on the continent.
London welcomed 80+ members alongside three special guests: Peju 'The Spark' Abuchi, Award-winning Poet and Storyteller; Yvonne Nagawa, Founding Partner and COO of Black Seed Ventures; and Mustapha Obalanlege, Son of the Olota of Ota, who shared stories about growing up between cultures, navigating life in the West and much more. Watch the London recap on TikTok and LinkedIn.
More on the Theme: Africa
If Dipo's book left you wanting to go further, here are some of the resources we shared with members throughout the month:
🎤 Talk — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story (TED, 19 mins) — The perfect companion piece. A Nigerian author on how one-dimensional narratives strip people of their dignity, and why stories are never neutral.
🎙️ Podcast — Dipo Faloyin on Intelligence Squared (56 mins) — Dipo in conversation with journalist Yousra Elbagir, covering colonial borders, media myths, and why 54 very different countries keep getting flattened into one.
📖 Read — Global Media Tell Only Part of Africa's Story — A sharp, data-backed look at how 20 of the world's biggest news outlets cover Africa: who does it best, who does it worst, and why the stereotypes stick.
🎬 Films referenced in the book — Black Panther (2018) and Coming to America (1988), both cited by Faloyin as rare examples of Hollywood representing Africans with specificity rather than as a generic backdrop. And for Nollywood specifically: Blood Sisters and Oloture, both on Netflix.
Up Next: April 2026 | Book #132
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"We are constantly told to make the most of every precious moment. But what if all that advice was wrong, and letting the brain rest, and the mind wander, could improve our lives?"
After a month of looking outward at the world, April turns the lens inward — to the brain itself. The theme is Mind Games, and members voted for The Brain at Rest: Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life by Dr Joseph Jebelli, which won with 45% of the votes.
A neuroscientist's case for doing less, The Brain at Rest explores the science of the default network — the part of the brain that switches on when we stop trying so hard — and why rest, mind-wandering, and doing nothing might be the most productive things we can do. Drawing on cutting-edge research, Jebelli shows how napping can enhance brain size, time in nature can boost creativity, and silence fosters the growth of new brain cells.
Reading starts Tuesday 1st April. Member events are Monday 27th April (Global Digital Event) and Tuesday 28th April (in-person events).
We'll see you there. 📚
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