Learning to Love Africa: My Journey from Africa to Harvard Business School and Back

As someone who grew up overseas much like Monique, i deeply admire how she chose to use her acquired skills and network to give back to a continent in dire need of what rare individuals like her have to offer. The book is enjoyable to read and deeply inspiring to anyone interested in contributing to third world development.

This book is for the many Africans living in the diaspora, longing to return home and make a difference/dent toward many of the problems that face us. As one who feels torn between economic self-preservation and answering the call to return home and make a difference, this book has inspired me to no end.Thank you.This book will also touch anyone and everyone who feels socially responsible no matter where they are from.Read it!

Maddy provides probably the best description of the ground-level problems facing entrepreneurs in Africa I have ever read. The chapter on how her father was forced to reverse-integrate every aspect of his restaurant business in order to offer anything like a decent service was fascinating. Maddy points out how the struggling sole entrepreneur must surmount many of the same barriers that multinationals face, but with limited resources and no ability to just pack up and go home when things fall apart.That chapter alone should be required reading in every graduate course on development economics and at every Davos Forum.It's nice to see someone finally challenge the not just the efficacy but the legitimacy of Laputa, Inc. (the aid industry, NGOs, the UN bureaucracy) from the free-enterprise end of the spectrum. She doesn't just thrown down gauntlet, she slaps them in the face with it. It's a confrontation that is long overdue and I hope Maddy gets the fight she seems to be looking for.

Ms. Maddy's book is the inspirational tale of entrepreneurship in one of the most difficult regions of the world yet filled with tremendous opportunity. The model for business in Africa clearly requires rethinking all assumptions about the role of the "do gooders", who seem more determined to perpetuate their existance than to actually improve the continent. I agree with her conclusion that entrepreneurship can make a difference and is the key to change. Certainly the cure for despair and poverty is by providing jobs, pride in work and dignity. As she outlines, only companies that seize market opportunities and provide value adding goods and services can make the necessary changes that will transform Africa. Maddy's tale is one of a great challenge, as she struggles to overcome what seem to be insurmountable obstacles in her pursuit of a continent wide communications empire. The lessons about finding the right partner, team and investors, identifying and using leverage points against corruption and politics, and to focus are all valid. If there were only a few dozen Monique Maddys, the continent would be a very different place.

"Learning to love Africa" inspired me to keep going with the start-up I'm involved with. Despite the huge obstacles that plagued her start-up, Monique Maddy kept following her dream of starting a company in Africa - despite warnings from everyone that it was not possible. This story of persistence and perseverance will inspire anyone involved in a start-up organization. Maddy's style of writing is really personal and informative. She takes you on both her physical, as well as emotional journeys. So much so, that you feel like you're reading her journal, or are a good friend of hers. She is refreshingly frank and honest when talking about her experience with the UN, and she doesn't mince her words when giving her opinion of organizations such as the UN, the World Bank or the IMF. Her book helped me gain rare insights into these global policy-making institutions. I also felt like I learnt a lot about the history of Liberia and Tanzania. Although she really educates the reader in detail about the history of the different countries, organizations, and situations she comes into contact with, you never feel like she's being patronizing. Or even that you're being educated. I found myself just wanting to know more.This is a book I couldn't put down, because I really really wanted to find out what happened at the end. By the end I felt like I'd been on a long, challenging, but gratifying journey to and from Africa, and was more savvy as a result. "Learning to love Africa" shows how much one person can do if they not only set their mind to it, but persist in the long-run.