What Went Wrong with Africa

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ISBN-10:: 9068325485
ISBN-13:: 9789068325485
Pub. Date:: 08/28/2004
Publisher:: KIT (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen)

ISBN-10:: 9068325485
ISBN-13:: 9789068325485
Pub. Date:: 08/28/2004
Publisher:: KIT (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen)

What Went Wrong with Africa

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Overview

The last fifty years have seen unprecedented changes in people’s standards of living all over the world. Despite explosive population growth, it has proved possible to dramatically elevate the quality of life. On average people’s lives have improved, all over the world, on every continent. Except Africa. Africa is the only large, contiguous region left out of the worldwide rise in prosperity. Why is that? Why has Africa failed to develop? Roel van der Veen (the Netherlands, 1957) is a historian by training. He deals with sub-Saharan Africa in his daily work. In "What went wrong with Africa" he describes the recent history of the continent and explores the causes of its widespread poverty, the AIDS epidemic and the misrule, corruption and disintegration afflicting so many African states.

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Table of Contents

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789068325485
Publisher:	KIT (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen)
Publication date:	08/28/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

	Country information	11
	Introduction	13
1.	The Cold War	21
	African independence	21
	The Africanisation of politics	24
	International support for the new states	27
	Anglophone Africa following decolonisation	30
	Francophone Africa following decolonisation	34
	From the Belgian Congo to Zaire	38
	Late decolonisation in Southern Africa	41
	The strategic importance of the Horn of Africa	45
	Africa and the shadow of the Cold War	49
2.	Economic decline	53
	Colonial influences on economic development	53
	The rise and fall of the African economies	57
	The oil crisis and the fall of the Berlin Wall	60
	Economic decline and externally imposed reforms	62
	Effects of the structural adjustment programmes	66
	The CFA: a separate exchange rate, a separate course	69
	Economic problems in conflict regions	73
	The social costs of the reforms	75
	A new danger: the disintegration of the state	77
3.	Democratisation	81
	Upheaval in Benin	81
	Many paths to the one-party state	84
	The call for social and political change	87
	Democratisation in Francophone Africa	89
	Democratisation in Anglophone Africa	92
	Failed democratisation in the Great Lakes region	96
	Obstacles to the development of democracy	101
	The democratisation years: an overview	104
4.	Renaissance	109
	A period of promise	109
	Peace in Ethiopia and Eritrea	112
	Positive developments in Southern Africa	116
	Mbeki's African renaissance	122
	New leaders and a wind of change?	125
	The United States' new policies on Africa	127
	Optimism versus pessimism	132
	Nelson Mandela	134
5.	Disintegration	139
	Failing states	139
	Mobutu and the erosion of the Zairean state	142
	New threats	145
	The demise of Somalia	148
	Liberia's path to revolution	152
	The battle for Monrovia	154
	Sierra Leone and the tragedy of Africa's youth	158
	Proliferation of light weapons	162
	Disintegration and violence in perspective	165
6.	War	169
	The genocide in Rwanda	169
	Causes and consequences	172
	Central Africa's Great War	176
	Ethiopia and Eritrea once again at war	180
	Continued fighting in Sudan	183
	Congo and the enemies of Kabila	185
	Congo and Kabila's allies	189
	The Lusaka Accord: untangling the web	192
	Refugees and internally displaced persons	196
	Conflict prevention on the agenda	200
7.	Globalisation	205
	The world economy: a runaway train	205
	In the grip of the international market	207
	The devaluation of the CFA franc	210
	Relative decline in trade and investment	213
	Slow economic growth	217
	Regional cooperation and African unity	221
	Continuing economic dependence on Europe	225
	South Africa: an emerging market	230
	Africa joins the technological revolution	233
	Cultural and religious responses	235
8.	A new population	241
	The population triples	241
	Mass migration to the cities	244
	The environment ravaged	249
	A poor outlook for the elderly	252
	Frustration among the youth	254
	To the prosperous West in search of a better life	257
	The rapid spread of the AIDS epidemic	260
	AIDS and Africa: the progress of a virus	263
9.	Poverty and aid	269
	Absolute and relative poverty	269
	The poor continent	272
	Strong yet vulnerable women	275
	The human rights situation: political poverty	278
	Mounting debts	281
	The aims and approach of development cooperation	284
	Money and effectiveness	287
	Aid and politics	292
	The psychology of aid	297
	The Netherlands: a committed partner for Africa	304
10.	Stability	311
	A patchwork of weak states	311
	Rampant corruption and increasing crime	315
	Reassessing the role of the state	318
	Attempts at decentralisation	322
	Democratisation around the turn of the millennium	325
	Winds of democratisation in Nigeria	331
	Delayed decline in Southern Africa	335
	The road to statehood: disappointment and determination	339
	International uncertainty	344
	Conclusions	351
	The slow surge of the past	351
	Why Africa failed	356
	Plenty of change, but little progress	359
	The postcolonial state: a comparison between continents	363
	An African renaissance?	366
	Notes	371
	Bibliography	379
	Abbreviations	393
	Country index	397

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

"[a]ny personal, professional, or academic library reference collection strong in African social issues and history won't want to miss Roeel Van Der Veen's powerful What Went Wrong with Africa, charting the unprecedented changes in people's standards of living in Africa over the years. Africa is the only large contiguous region left out of the worldwide rise in prosperity: What Went Wrong with Africa seeks to explain why."
"This work is commendable on several counts. First, it is arguably one of the most ambitious syntheses of contemporary African history and politics to date, combining the study of internal and external factors, usually treated separately in the literature under the rubrics of African politics and African international relations. Furthermore, van der Veen adops a unique multi-disciplinary perspective, as well as a long-term historical perspective, rightly arguing that 'in order to understand Africa's present-day situation, we must look not only at outside influences but also at long-term, indigenous African elements."

From the Publisher

"[a]ny personal, professional, or academic library reference collection strong in African social issues and history won't want to miss Roeel Van Der Veen's powerful What Went Wrong with Africa, charting the unprecedented changes in people's standards of living in Africa over the years. Africa is the only large contiguous region left out of the worldwide rise in prosperity: What Went Wrong with Africa seeks to explain why."

Library Bookwatch

"This work is commendable on several counts. First, it is arguably one of the most ambitious syntheses of contemporary African history and politics to date, combining the study of internal and external factors, usually treated separately in the literature under the rubrics of African politics and African international relations. Furthermore, van der Veen adops a unique multi-disciplinary perspective, as well as a long-term historical perspective, rightly arguing that 'in order to understand Africa's present-day situation, we must look not only at outside influences but also at long-term, indigenous African elements."

African Studies Review

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Overview

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