How Africa Works
One of the most original and important books on Africa in years. Especially in the dazzling first section, almost every page bristles with ideas and challenges to lazy (often prejudiced) thinking. — Read the complete FT review
Synopsis
A radical reassessment of one of the most pervading myths of our time: that the African continent is uniquely ill-suited to economic development
The birth of new nations, independent democracies, the unprecedented growth of cities from Lagos to Cairo; the African continent is booming. So why do myths about underdevelopment, unproductive land and overpopulation remain?
In a groundbreaking new study of Africa’s developmental history, economist Joe Studwell debunks long-held views about the continent’s presumed resistance to growth, charting monumental changes in government, demography and asset management.
Considering everything from settler colonialism to soil conditions, mineral extractivism to disease development and eradication, Studwell persuasively argues that the seizing back of land, people and states across Africa, has also been the seizure of mass economic development.
From slavery to independence and beyond, this is the definitive account of the world’s second largest continent - and an optimistic look to its future.
