Don't know much about Africa, but I've been engrossed in Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari," about 80 percent finished.
I'd be interested in reactions from anyone who has read it and knows something about African economic development (sic). I'd also be interested in suggestions on good progressive surveys of economic development.
The book is a travelogue. PT goes (mostly) by land and water from Cairo to Capetown. So far I've followed him through the Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi.
Theroux was in the Peace Corps in Africa in the 60s. He has lots of friends in assorted countries and tries to visit them all, many he hasn't seen in 40 years. He can get by in several African dialects.
He observes that humanitarian aid is a total racket and failure. Ditto for African socialism (especially of the Tanzanian variety). Less often he admits that capitalism hasn't done well there either. Privatization has also been a scam. He is not soft on European colonialism. (He praises the book "King Leopold's Ghost" at one point.)
His predominant impression is of men sitting around doing nothing, of rampant destitution and beggery, and of utterly corrupt, incompetent government. Coming from others, some of his writing might come off as racist, but for his ability to find many points of light (not in a particularly ideological way, I would say) along the way. You might say he's got a right to sing the blues.
He sees subsistence agriculture as preferable to tourism or aid-based economies. His depiction of tourism reminded me of the nature of downtown urban redevelopment in the U.S.: isolated, subsidized pockets of economic activity, surrounded by blight. Aid is just a vehicle for the subsidy of corrupt politicians and middlemen. Where there are no opportunities for capitalist accumulation, you have either economies languishing in destitution and barely propped up by aid. He is not hostile to industrial development, but is left to wonder why there is so little.
Theroux also wrote 'Mosquito Coast,' which became the basis for an excellent movie about a failed libertarian venture. It provides some insight into his thinking.
His mentor was V.S. Naipaul, of whose books on Africa he disapproves, basically dismissing Naipaul's antagonism as an artifact of psychological trauma.
He is particularly scornful of tourists who come to see the animals and never venture into the slums or the bush. He includes Hemingway in this category in a broad sense. He stays as far away from tourist routes and venues as possible, traveling in life- threatening vehicles over awful, dangerous roads, eating unspeakable food, etc.
PT does not very much push pretensions to economic analysis. Perhaps he is more convincing for that. In any case, I'd be interested in texts that help me square what he reports -- assuming it's true -- with how we should be thinking about development.
mbs