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Title: Africa Works: Disorder As Political Instrument (African Issues) by Patrick Chabal, Jean-Pascal Daloz ISBN: 0-253-21287-1 Publisher: Indiana University Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: An Illogical Chain of reasoning
Comment: When I read this book, I was amused by it. To say that the disorder in Africa benefits someone--e.g., via corruption--has been around for some time and is nothing new. To say that this disorder somehow makes the societies "work" is new but illogical. For something to "work" for the continent as a whole it must have positive net benefit. Right now, the disorder in Africa is such that the benefit to those who gain is far less than the loss to those who lose. This is a well-known research result. Africa doesn't work; the disorder results in a net loss to Africa. Why Africans do not do enough to change the institutional and organizational order is an interesting reasearch topic. How one can help Africans do something about this predicament is also an interesting research topic. But to say that the disorder works is illogical.
Rating: 5
Summary: Difficult questions that need to be asked
Comment: The authors of "Africa Works" pose a series of challenges to the existing Western orthodoxy about African politics and government. What if Africa is headed neither toward anarchy nor Western-style modernity, but toward its own unique brand of the future? What if politics is envisioned in a fundamentally different manner in Africa than in the West? What if African political elites were not being manipulated by international institutions, but were in fact doing the manipulating themselves?
In asking these questions, Chabal and Daloz force the reader to reexamine his or her view of Africa and its place in history. They require that Africans no longer be looked at as perpetual victims in the patterns of world events, but as agents in their own destinies. They suggest that African elites have actually engineered the present state of disorder on the continent and do everything in their power to preserve it, and they explain why it is in these elites' interest to do so.
I find their arguments intriguing to say the least, and a refreshing change from the stale, politically correct views that always cast Africa as a helpless pawn of outside powers. "Africa Works" resonates very strongly with my own experience living and working in Africa.
Having said that, though, I am not entirely convinced that the authors are 100 percent on target. They tend to paint developments across the continent with very broad strokes, and offer little in the way of evidence that isn't anecdotal. Furthermore, perhaps their break from the orthodoxy on African politics isn't as significant as they make it out to be. Jean-Francois Bayart, one author whom they repeatedly go out of their way to beat up on, has written articles sounding similar themes.
"Africa Works" is nonetheless an important book and I hope that it touches off a new debate on the character of governance in Africa. The old ideas have clearly done nobody any good.
Rating: 5
Summary: This IS how Africa works!
Comment: After working in Africa off and on for twenty years in development, relief and human rights, I would recommend that every expat who is planning to work there read this book. I would make it compulsory reading for all WB, Dfid, USAID, UN, etc employees... even Peace Corps, WUSC, VSO, etc people! The alternative is personal frustration arising from becoming aware of the structures identified here, without understanding their origin and functionality. Instead of seeing perverse events as idiosyncratic, you will begin to understand that they are part of a larger whole, rooted in the political economy and history of the continent. Excellent book!
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Title: State Legitimacy and Development in Africa by Pierre Englebert ISBN: 158826131X Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Africa: Dilemmas of Development and Change by Peter Lewis ISBN: 0813327555 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999 by Nicolas van de Walle ISBN: 0521008360 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 24 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: States and Power in Africa by Jeffrey Herbst ISBN: 0691010285 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 06 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Criminalisation of the State in Africa (African Issues) by Jean-Francois Bayart, Stephen Ellis, Beatrice Hibou ISBN: 0253212863 Publisher: Indiana University Press Pub. Date: June, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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