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Africa's Economic Ills
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17029 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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8 / 1990 |
2,673 Words |
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George B.N. Ayittey
George B.N. Ayittey, a native of Ghana, is Distinguished
Economist at American University and president of the Free
Africa Foundation in Washington, D.C. He is the author of a
forthcoming book, The African Predicament (St. Martin's
Press). |
SOUTH AFRICA: The New Revolution
Don Caldwell Saxonwold, South Africa: The Free Market Foundation of South Africa, 1989
255 pp.
THE CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE DINKA PEOPLE OF SUDAN
John Wuol Makec
London: Afroworld Publishing Co., 1988
287 pp.
Africa continues to jail and kill its intellectuals: the tombstones of novelists, professors, journalists, and editors litter the continent. The dearth of African books is not due to lack of talent as much as to prevailing intellectual repression. Of the fifty-one African countries, only six (Botswana, Egypt, Senegal, Mauritius, Gambia, and arguably Nigeria) permit free expression.
The media in much of Africa are state owned. The smallest deviation from the official line elicits sanctions, often fatal. Beyond the punishments, the absence of freedom of expression itself has more far-reaching and pernicious ramifications than many realize. Homegrown solutions to a country's problems cannot be generated if people are afraid to express their opinions. Africa will not find the answers that it so desperately needs if its people are brutalized for thinking of alternatives. In fact, intellectual barbarism on the part of African leaders has held the region back.
Today civil wars and political strife rage in at least fifteen African countries, scattering refugees in all directions and
... (1998 of 16605 Characters)
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