Back to Blog
Dead aid5/10/2023 The tragedy is compounded by the fact that so much effort has been expended to alleviate these problems. And indeed, there seems to be no end to pitiable circumstances, whether it is the ongoing genocide in Darfur, perpetual war in Somalia, or endemic poverty, disease, and political instability in virtually all of Sub-Saharan Africa. Now that colonialism and Communism have been relegated to the dustbin, another vision has evolved: Africa as beneficiary of our collective pity. and the Soviet Union vigorously courted opportunistic African leaders, depicting them as virtuous, forward-looking statesmen genuinely committed to their side in the struggle between Communism and democratic capitalism. Following World War II and the decolonization of European empires around the globe, Africa became the repository of the dreams of Fabian socialists, who taught a generation of African bureaucrats about the wonders of central planning. From the beginning of the European encounter with the African continent, it was seen mainly as a place of barbarism (the “Dark Continent”), and it was on this basis that the imperial powers carved up its territories at the 1884 Berlin conference. The political scientist Benedict Anderson once observed that Africa functioned as a kind of continental Rorschach blot for intellectuals, who tended to project onto it their grand ideas about economics and government. Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africaįarrar, Straus & Giroux, 208 pages, $24.00 Assessing the Costs of the West’s African Pity Party
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |