You already know these stereotypes. So often Africa is depicted simplistically as an ari red landscape of famines and safaris, uniquely plagued by poverty and strife.

But in this funny and insightful book, Dipo Fayolin offers a much-needed corrective. He explores a wide range of subjects, from each country’s colonial heritage to lively food and football rivalries and the dangers of stereotypes in popular culture.

By turns intimate and political, Africa is not a Country celebrates the energy and fabric of the continent’s different cultures and communities in a way that has never been done before.