The Challenge for Africa

The first time I read this book, it was from the library. But after my 5th mission trip to Kenya, I decided I needed my own copy and purchased it. Wangari Maathai is very articulate in explaining the challenges of Africa, but yet offering her opinion of how things could be improved. I found it very enlightening in how one might go about working with ministries and NGO's and encouraging progress in this area. Often we Westerners think we have the answers, but she points out some of these downfalls. Thanks for this great book Wangari Maathai!

I have chosen to buy and own one of this books after recommending it to the Hedberg Public Library (Janesville, WI) for the following reasons: 1) Of all the books I have read on Africa's problems, this is by far the best. It's directly from someone who has actually been in the political arena and seen all for herself regarding what most people out of that loop do not see and know- the politics of deceit. 2) The language is also very rich and easily understandable. One can feel the passion and the need to chart a different path for the continent in those words. And her commitment towards this goal is easily noticed. 3) Last but not the least, the facts (or truism) of the information presented is just amazing; very up-to-date analysis of the continent's pre-historic times, colonial past, the current situation, and where the continent is heading and/ or must head. I'll encourage all those who want to know about the problems of Africa to read this amazing book! And the sons and daughters of the continent must also read this book.

Of the three of four books I have consumed so far for an introduction to Africa's current condition, this one is by far the best, and if you buy only one, this is the one. The other two, each valuable in its own way, are: The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa Tomorrow I will plow through Africa Unchained: The Blueprint for Africa's Future and post a review. The author, a Nobel Peace laureate for the Green Belt Movement, delivers a very straight-forward, practical "woman's voice" account of both the past troubles, present tribulations, and future potential of Africa. This book is replete with "street-level" common sense as well as a real sense of nobility. Early on the author addresses the reality that uninformed subsistence farming, what 65% of all Africans do, is destroying the commons. I find that ignorance--and the need to educate and inform in their own local language (no easy task when speaking of thousands of local languages)--is a recurring theme in this book. I see *enormous* potential for the application of what the Swedish military calls M4IS2 (multinational, multiagency, multidisciplinary, multidomain information-sharing and sense-making). The author provides an ample tour of the horizon of aid, trade, and debt imbalances, of the dangers of culture and confidence of decline, of the need to restore cultural and environmental diversity, and of the need to reprioritize agricultural, education, and environmental services instead of bleeding each country to pay for the military and internal security (and of course corruption). CORE POINT: The *individual* African is the center of gravity, and only Africans can save Africa--blaming colonialism is *over*. The author's vision for a revolution in leadership calls for integrity at the top, and activism at the bottom, along with a resurgence of civil society and a demand that governments embrace civil society as a full partner. CORE POINT: The environment must be central to all development decisions, both for foster preservation and permit exploitation without degradation. Later in the book the author returns to this theme in speaking of the Congo forests, pointing out that only equity for all those who are local will allow all those who are foreign to exploit AND preserve. I am fascinated by the author's expected discussion of the ills of colonialism including the Berlin division, the elevation of elites, arbitrary confiscations of lands, and proxy wars, what I was NOT expecting was a profound yet practical discussion of how the church in combination with colonialism was a double-whammy on the collective community culture of Africa. The author observes that any move away from aid, which has been an enabler of massive corruption at the top, and toward capitalization and bonds [as the author of Dead Aid proposes in part] will be just as likely to lead to corruption absent a regional awakeni

This is an outstanding book and it helps one to understand Africa's past and present.