Download or read book The Failure of Leadership in Africa s Development written by Ike Okonta and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-13 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Failure of Leadership in Africa’s Development examines the dominant scholarly theories about the cause of Africa’s underdevelopment and argues that none of the traditionally invoked causes—an alleged black racial inferiority, the colonial and neo-colonial expropriation of Africa, purported natural defects in Africa’s geography—is plausible as the explanation of the main cause of the continent’s underdevelopment. Rather, the book argues that the chief cause of the continent’s lag is the failure of leadership of Africa’s ruling classes. This failure of leadership, the book shows, is most evident in the historically traceable indifference of a long succession of Africa’s ruling classes to the scientific and technological advances that were emerging from Europe and Asia during the most critical periods of Africa’s history. It was this indifference, the book argues, that set the stage for the subsequent conquest, expropriation, and technological stagnation of Africa. The book recommends a blueprint for the continent’s future development.
Download or read book Power in Action written by Steven Friedman and published by Wits University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that South Africans, like everyone else, need democracy for a more equal society What are democracies meant to do? And how does one know when one is a democratic state? These incisive questions and more by leading political scientist, Steven Friedman, underlie this robust enquiry into what democracy means for South Africa post 1994. Democracy is often viewed through a lens reflecting Western understanding. New democracies are compared to idealized notions by which the system is said to operate in the global North. The democracies of Western Europe and North America are understood to be the finished product and all others are assessed by how far they have progressed towards approximating this model. Power in Action persuasively argues against this stereotype. Friedman asserts that democracies can only work when every adult has an equal say in the public decisions that affect them.Democracy is achieved not by adopting idealized models derived from other societies–rather, it is the product of collective action by citizens who claim the right to be heard not only through public protest action, but also through the conscious exercise of influence on public and private power holders. Viewing democracy in this way challenges us to develop a deeper understanding of democracy’s challenges and in so doing to ensure that more citizens can claim a say over more decisions in society.
Download or read book Institution Building and Leadership in Africa written by Lennart Wohlgemuth and published by Nordic Africa Institute. This book was released on 1998 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control
Download or read book The Trouble with Nigeria written by Chinua Achebe and published by Heinemann. This book was released on 1984 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This novel about Nigeria prophesied the 1983 coup.
Download or read book Why Africa is Poor written by Greg Mills and published by Penguin Random House South Africa. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic growth does not demand a secret formula. Good development examples now abound in East Asia and further afield in others parts of Asia, and in Central America. But why then has Africa failed to realise its potential in half a century of independence? Why Africa is Poor demonstrates that Africa is poor not because the world has denied the continent the market and financial means to compete: far from it. It has not been because of aid per se. Nor is African poverty solely a consequence of poor infrastructure or trade access, or because the necessary development and technical expertise is unavailable internationally. Why then has the continent lagged behind other developing areas when its people work hard and the continent is blessed with abundant natural resources? Stomping across the continent and the developing world in search of the answer, Greg Mills controversially shows that the main reason why Africa's people are poor is because their leaders have made this choice.
Download or read book The Green Belt Movement written by Wangari Maathai and published by Lantern Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wangari Maathai, founder of The Green Belt Movement, tells its story including the philosophy behind it, its challenges, and objectives.
Download or read book The State of Africa written by Martin Meredith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 1082 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Meredith has given a spectacularly clear view of the African political jungle' – Spectator 'This book is hard to beat... Elegantly written as well as unerringly accurate' – Financial Times The fortunes of Africa have changed dramatically since the independence era began in 1957. As Europe’s colonial powers withdrew, dozens of new states were born. Africa was a continent rich in mineral resources and its economic potential was immense. Yet, it soon struggled with corruption, violence and warfare, with few states managing to escape the downward spiral. So what went wrong? In this riveting and authoritative account, Martin Meredith examines the myriad problems that Africa has faced, focusing upon key personalities, events and themes of the independence era. He brings his compelling analysis into the modern day, exploring Africa’s enduring struggles for democracy and the rising influence of China. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the continent’s plight and its hopes for a brighter future.
Download or read book Democracy in Africa written by Nic Cheeseman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.
Download or read book Regenerating Africa written by Muchie, Mammo and published by Africa Institute of South Africa. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been long overdue to address the principal problems that Africa continues to have. How to bring real African solutions to these problems remains unresolved. Palaeontologists have discovered that Africa is the origin of humanity. Africa has also experienced the commodification of its humanity through slavery, colonialism and apartheid. The African continent has been influenced by a melange of races, cultures, religions, ethnic nationalities making the project of how the differences can be managed to forestall conflict and promote the unity of the current 54 states to turn the cacophony of noises into a single voice that can protect Africa a di? cult challenge. This book on Regenerating Africa: Bringing African Solutions to African Problems addresses why Africans must come together and try to address their own problems. They must look back to the spiritual, struggle and knowledge heritage to re-imagine and innovate a new Africa with leadership, governance, systems and institutions that can address the security and well-being, the employment, social inclusion, poverty eradication and the equality of the people. In fact the key problem to find a solution is how to Africanise those that originated from Africa and those that became settlers with different racial, cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic variations. How to manage inter-African relations? How the settlers from the colonial legacy, the apartheid legacy, the Arabs in Africa and the varied tribes within Africans can all share being Africanised above all else is a real challenge to bring lasting solutions to Africa's enduring problems. This book is one of the few books that addresses the real problems Africa continues to face by suggesting solutions which policy makers and all Africans must learn and never ignore but use to advance a free, united, renascent, proud and dignified independent Africa in this unpredictable time the world is going through. The contributors address in the book how African solutions to African problems in the current global context to create a sustainable African future can be thought, designed and engineered to advance the well-being of people and nature for all. The African Unity for Renaissance series of conferences that over 10 partners contributed to run is the true source for generating the quality papers that have been peer reviewed to constitute the contributions in the book to make African solutions to African problems in reality and not just in talk.
Download or read book Dead Aid written by Dambisa Moyo and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world's poorest countries.
Download or read book Leadership Failure in Africa written by Robinson Philip Okoro and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Leadership failure reviews the natural resources deposit and its overflows in Africa. It brings to fore the faulty leadership structure, bad governance and sharp practices in politics, public service and government which have hindered the greatness of Africa. The book recalls the true picture of poverty, hardship, insecurity, conflicts, human right abuse and unemployment which corrupt-prone mentality has inflicted on Africa and her People. It explains in detail the accusation of the western world by our leaders for Africa's woes and backwardness and reveals the real collaborators of the plundering of Africa wealth after 50/60 years of self rule. It reminds African leaders and Africans that the backwardness of the continent is the effort of every Africans and challenges Africans to rebuke the enemies within so that Africa can be given a facelift in the comity of nations."--back cover.
Download or read book Democracy and Development in Africa written by Claude Ake and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2001-09-19 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa, the economies of most African nations are still stagnating or regressing. For most Africans, incomes are lower than they were two decades ago, health prospects are poorer, malnourishment is widespread, and infrastructures and social institutions are breaking down. An array of factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of development in Africa, including the colonial legacy, social pluralism, corruption, poor planning and incompetent management, limited in-flow of foreign capital, and low levels of saving and investment. Alone or in combination, these factors are serious impediments to development, but Claude Ake contends that the problem is not that development has failed, but that it was never really on the agenda. He maintains that political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development. In this book, Ake traces the evolution and failure of development policies, including the IMF stabilization programs that have dominated international efforts. He identifies the root causes of the problem in the authoritarian political structure of the African states derived from the previous colonial entities. Ake sketches the alternatives that are struggling to emerge from calamitous failure--economic development based on traditional agriculture, political development based on the decentralization of power, and reliance on indigenous communities that have been providing some measure of refuge from the coercive power of the central state. Ake's argument may become a new paradigm for development in Africa.
Download or read book African Freedom written by Phyllis Taoua and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive synthesis of the ideal of freedom in African culture from a pan-African perspective after independence.
Download or read book Corruption and Development in Africa written by K. Hope and published by Springer. This book was released on 1999-08-18 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together a distinguished cast of contributors, the book provides an authoritative and definitive analysis of the theory, practice and development impact of corruption in Africa. Combating corruption is demonstrated to require greater priority in the quest for African development.
Download or read book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa written by Walter Rodney and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A call to arms in the class struggle for racial equity”—the hugely influential work of political theory and history, now powerfully introduced by Angela Davis (Los Angeles Review of Books). This legendary classic on European colonialism in Africa stands alongside C.L.R. James’ Black Jacobins, Eric Williams’ Capitalism & Slavery, and W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
Download or read book The Bright Continent written by Dayo Olopade and published by HMH. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “For anyone who wants to understand how the African economy really works, The Bright Continent is a good place to start” (Reuters). Dayo Olopade knew from personal experience that Western news reports on conflict, disease, and poverty obscure the true story of modern Africa. And so she crossed sub-Saharan Africa to document how ordinary people deal with their daily challenges. She found what cable news ignores: a continent of ambitious reformers and young social entrepreneurs driven by kanju—creativity born of African difficulty. It’s a trait found in pioneers like Kenneth Nnebue, who turned cheap VHS tapes into the multimillion-dollar film industry Nollywood. Or Ushahidi, a technology collective that crowdsources citizen activism and disaster relief. A shining counterpoint to conventional wisdom, The Bright Continent rewrites Africa’s challenges as opportunities to innovate, and celebrates a history of doing more with less as a powerful model for the rest of the world. “[An] upbeat study of development in Africa . . . The book is written more in wonder at African ingenuity than in anger at foreign incomprehension.” —The New Yorker “A hopeful narrative about a continent on the rise.” —The New York Times Book Review
Download or read book Political Leadership in Africa written by Giovanni Carbone and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative analysis of political leadership in Africa between 1960 and 2018, drawing on an entirely new dataset.
