by JOHN HATCH
Commonwealth Correspondent of the New Statesman
[n the past few years the man in the street must often have gained the impression from reading his newspaper that Africa is a savage and brutal continent, where time and again regimes have changed through violence and bloodshed. where tribalism has proved stronger than statehood.
John Hatch regards such a view as both a distortion and an oversimplification. He examines the extent of African violence, comparing it with what has happened in other continents.