Decoding 'Dead Aid': A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide to Africa's Path Forward"

Hello Everyone, welcome back to my blog after a long hiatus. I've been struggling with grief after the loss of my beloved father, May Allah have mercy on him. Instead of wasting my time distracting myself from this pain by using my phone more, I decided to instead get into reading books again. I did read a couple of books but the idea of reviewing books didn't occur to me until recently. There came a moment of indecisiveness about which book to review but that was soon gone when I decided to be spontaneous. There are numerous small free libraries in the form of wooden boxes scattered around the greater Boston Metropolitan Area neighborhoods and cities that I really enjoy looking through  and picking whichever book that catches my attention. I have to admit, I have the habit of picking books but not adding my collection of books to those libraries. I'll train myself to add books to the libraries I come across from now on. This is where I found my first ever book review and it's called; Dead Aid Why Aid Not Working And How There Is A Better Way For Africa by Dambisa Moyo. 

                        Context

With every book, this one has a foreword and it's  written by Niall Ferguson who is a Scottish-American Historian. I found out that he's married to Ayan Hirsi, the woman who left Islam and made a career out of abusing Islam and Muslims but that's beside the point here. He sets the stage for this book by first and foremost expressing his long held belief that's it's problematic and embarrassing that the public debate about Africa's economy are conducted by non-African white men. He points out that the African discussion has been colonized just like Africa was colonized a century ago.

I share this sentiment together with most of the African people and it frustrates me how our so-called leaders continue to let us down Everytime an African issue is addressed by a white person. Why can't we make decisions and come up with solutions ourselves? Why should we look upto a white man to help come up with a solution that most of the times is in the interest of the white man and not the African People? 

               Author's Credentials

Dambisa Moyo is born and educated in Zambia and she brings her real world experience and academic expertise in this book. She is trained in economics which has led her from the World Bank to Harvard, Oxford where she obtained her doctorate to working at top institutions and firms like Goldman Sachs. Someone with her CV is qualified to write about the economic woes that plague the African continent in my opinion and one good reason why we should read her book. It's not like she's the first person to write about the topic but her background qualifies some attention given to her work more so than other people. 

              Purpose of the book

The purpose of the book is outlined when Moyo asks herself , 'Why majority of Sub-Saharan countries are in what seems like a never-ending cycle of corruption, poverty , disease and aid dependency despite the fact that they've received more than $300 Billion in development assistance since 1970'. Her answer is that African countries are poor precisely due to all that aid and she presents it with rigour and conviction. In her own words, ' Aid has been and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world.  

We will meet in the next chapters In Shaa Allah........ Stay tuned