Reddit reviews The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence

The Fate of Africa

The answer to this is incredibly complex and involves a myriad of factors. To be honest I dont know if you can really ELI5 it, but here goes.

ELI5 - Colonialism really, really sucked, the international aid & assistance system often hurts more thatn it helps and Africans didnt do themselves many favours.

The first thing I will say is do not thing of africa as 1 entity, it isn't. Africa contains the most ethnically diverse set of people on the planet, who live in a geographically and geologically diverse continent (everything from the largest desert in the world, to impossibly dense jungle, to grasslands to luscious arable land), now that is out of the way lets try and answer our question.

1. Colonialism - had a massive impact on the continent whose legacy is still felt to this day.

• The first thing the European powers did was carve up the continent drawing boundaries and borders (ever wondered why africa has mysteriously straight borders). This created nations where there were none before, lumping different groups together who had barely had any contact with each other before, or who had bad relations, or simply just tarted with each other but had very different cultures and governance systems, it has and continues to be a perennial source of conflict.
  
• The colonial economic systems were purposely built to extract resources and economic output of the colonies for the benefit of the colonizing power (the most extreme example of this is King Leopold of Belgium in the Congo). So even when African countries did get Independence their economies were deeply tied to their former colonial masters.
  
• Thirdly, the colonial system of governance, was designed to subdue and control natives, not create lasting democratic systems and norms, and government institutions. Furthermore in order to control natives ethnically divisive and cynical policies were pursued (divide and conquer) i.e. the Belgians in Rwanda emphasized and manipulated the differences between the Hutu's and Tutsi's and therein lies the genesis of the genocide
  
  so at independence you had countries, whose people had no stake in the idea of the Nation they were now a part of, very little capacity to govern, competition between various groups for very limited resources, and economies tied to their former colonizers.
  
  2. The international aid and assistance system is fucked A lot of money has pumped in, you are right, but often not for the right reasons or in a manner that didn't help at all. During the Cold War both the West used aid and assistance to support/prop governments they supported (i.e the USA's support to Mobutu in Zaire).
  
  
• Secondly aid is used as a backhanded domestic stimulus, for example food aid from the USA is used to mop excess supply and keep farmers happy (the government buys it at market prices) or you give a country money to build a dam but its financed by US banks, and the construction work is done by a U.S. company (or its local subsidiary).
  
• Thirdly, Aid or assistance has a history of being poorly planned out, badly implemented and not being properly contextualized for the country in which it is being applied (diversity means due diligence is key when planning a project).
  
• Finally Aid has become an industry in and of itself there are hundreds of thousands of people earning lots of money working in the aid or development industry its scale is mind boggling. It is now its own industrial complex in control of huge sums and wielding enormous influence and having a limited impact.
  
  3. Africans fucked up I say this as an African myself. Despite the disadvantages with which we were hobbled at independence, it does not mean that we had to spend the second half of the 20th century becoming caricatures and that is squarely a failure of leadership on our part. African leaders post Independence were short sighted, self indulgent and (worryingly) violent and murderous. Botswana proves this, that proper leadership can be a stimulus for development.
  
  
  In my opinion those are the three main answers to your question, but as i alluded to earlier there are more reasons and the depend upon which country you are talking about, and how far back in time you want to go. If you are interested I would suggest reading "The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith" its comprehensive and accessible and will give you a good understanding of Africa's history and what went wrong (and right).
  
  All this being said Africa is changing, fast. It has over the last decade consistently had some of the highest growth rates in world, its economies are evolving, the middle class is growing and innovation and technology are changing millions of lives. There is still a very very long way to go but it is not at all despair and death (despite what you may see in the news.).
  
  Edit: I am a terrible speller

Once you start accepting orphans, how are you going to feel if you have to turn away children because you've reached your limit or they don't fit your age group? This is one of those things a lot of people struggle with.

I think that having some foreign volunteers is great, but I'd caution too much about depending on foreigners volunteering (or being paid) for too many things. Remember that any time you can hire locals you're providing a much larger contribution to the local economy than when someone volunteers for a year. Not to say you won't need volunteers or use them, but try to be careful to use locals when you can.

I'm not sure what you have as far as land, but hopefully you can set up a small scale farm, so as to provide most of the food for your orphanage as well as have some to sell/trade for the things you don't grow/raise. Vegetables/bananas/Chickens/etc are all fairly easy to raise and provide a return very quickly. Also, children can learn valuable skills as well.

While their may be profit in minibuses and other ventures, remember that you're a foreigner. It can be difficult to deal with all the petty theft and extra bribes that come with the knowledge that the owner is a Mzungu. Not to say don't try-but be careful.

Africa is an awesome place, and I often long to go back. You'll learn to love it too. It does have some issues from time to time though, as you're noticing. Long term you are likely going to want to invest in a generator and perhaps some solar panels. Until you're more developed and established though you probably can't plan out that need.

These books don't quite relate to orphanages, but more in general to Africa and aid throughout the world-if you haven't read them I'd recommend you get your hands on them as it can help with understanding a lot of why things are the way they are in Africa.

Africa Doesn't Matter

The Fate of Africa

Festival Elephants and the Myth of Global Poverty

And not quite related, but a nice story from a wonderful woman (who's sadly now passed away) that went to Africa in her youth, lived there her entire life, and ran an orphanage: Land of a Thousand Hills (Disclaimer: I lived very close to her house at Mugongo and I knew her as a child; I last saw her in 2005 on my last visit to Rwanda.)

Sadly, my work keeps me busy where I am and I don't really get a chance to volunteer... I'd love to transition to working with an aid agency though instead of what I do now. No luck so far, but I'll keep trying...

Hi, here's a good list of books to get things going. https://www.reddit.com/r/Geopolitics/wiki/book

/u/alexderlion /u/n4kke /u/thucydidesnuts

Recently, there's quite a bit of interest in starting a book club in /r/geopolitics. It would be a great idea to team up.

/u/uppityworm and I were talking about working together with them, and he has contacted /u/fusionsc2 about that. /u/fusionsc2 is a fellow book lover and is interested in discussing geopolitics with people of similar interest.

Given the large amount of responses to reading a book about Africa in the thread mentioned above, we were thinking about doing a book on Africa for our next book. Let us know about your opinions.

/u/fusionsc2 has mentioned African Conflicts and Informal Power: Big Men and Networks. In the book list listed above, there are also some additional great books on Africa,

[The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence] (http://www.amazon.com/Fate-Africa-History-Continent-Independence/dp/1610390717), a critically acclaimed book that provides a comprehensive primer on political, economic, and major social developments in post-colonial African nations.

Season of Rains: Africa in the World, This book captures the broad spectrum of political, economic, and social foundations that make Africa what it is today. According to the Amazon reviews, it touches on recent economic and tech development in reviews. So might be good for future estimates.

China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence Among the specific topics tackled here are China's interest in African oil; military and security relations; the influx and goals of Chinese aid to sub-Saharan Africa; human rights issues; and China's overall strategy in the region. It seems to be THE book on the relationship between China and Africa, according to many of the Amazon reviews.

So take a look at the books and also the book list, and we can discuss our next book after the our 3rd sessions. It would be great if you have any other additional books to recommend on Africa.

I am not a historian, but what is interesting to me is that three countries - Botswana, the Gambia, and Senegal ( as of 1989) were the three notable functioning multi-party states. Most other African countries were ruled by a one-party state or a military government.

I think that colonialism made it hard for Africa to develop. The African 'big man' in many ways, just replaced the colonial governor, as a person who handed out patronage to a specific ethnic group to keep control and extract resources without developing the country. Additionally, I think the imperialism's association with the West and capitalism in the minds of many African ruling elites created a tendency to follow the centrally planned, import substitution model (either Soviet or Fabian Socialist) which turned out to create stagnation not growth (hydroelectric plants that were expensive but inefficient, steel plants that produced expensive, low quality steel when cheaper, better steel could have imported, etc.). Ivory Coast's post-independence ruler is one of the few who embraced a more American style, free market model (with mixed results). An ineffective leader in Africa could always turn to be being anti-Western and still, at least early on, tap into lingering grievances from colonialism.

However, after independence (1960s), African country were positive about the future. If multiparty states could have been established in these states instead of one party states or military governments (something the fact that Africans were 'states not nation-states', the dynamics of the Cold War, and unfortunate cycles of rain and drought, and how dependent African economies are on a fluctuating commodity prices made really unlikely), my uneducated guess is that Africa would have had a much different path despite the obstacles created by colonialism.

Source: Meredith, Fate of Africa (2011). I am on page 460 right now. I'll return to this comment when I am done with the book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Fate-Africa-Continent-Independence/dp/1610390717

Sure. This is not a list of what I consider the most important books on the subject but rather my attempt to select good works with similar profiles to the books found on the list.

The Fate of Africa - Meredith

The Boer War, Pakenham

Britain's Gulag, Elkins

Neoliberal Frontiers, Ethnography of Sovereignty in W. Africa, Chalfin

Africa in World Politics, Harbeson

African Perspectives on Colonialism

Can you cite some studies to support your argument? I'm not saying that I believe what I do because a lot of people do, just that there is a lot of evidence to support it and most academic publishing agrees with it. If you pick a random recent anthropology textbook you're generally not going to see things that agree with you. As you're arguing against the current scientific viewpoint (which I have no issue with) the burden of proof does kind of rest on you.

Ethnicity now isn't considered to be what you're referring to as race. It has more to do with culture, ancestry, and nationality than anything else.

> better societies

As defined by who?

> whites and Asians being the most successful

Again, according to who? Major civilizations flourished in the Americas before colonization from Europe, Egypt for thousands of years was one of the biggest players in the Mediterranean. Egypt lasted longer than Rome.

A book you may be interested in in is The Fate of Africa. It does a good job of showing how fucked over the continent got by colonialism (and the botched ending of that) any why some of your viewpoints might seem to be supported (ie: why didn't Africa become like Europe if that's what's better).

Can you try to provide some recent peer reviewed work supporting your arguments?

Thanks? I certainly don't think I've got an astounding knowledge of history. I've just been reading a history of postcolonial Africa (which everyone should read) and it's really shocked me with how the systemic issues of colonialism affected postcolonial African states.

I'm a dude.