Suffering and smiling : a diagnosis of African impoverishment / Sterling Johnson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Sterling, 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poverty--Africa.

Poverty.

Infrastructure (Economics).

Africa.

Infrastructure (Economics)--Africa.

Physical Description:

x, 539 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : University Press of America, [2009]

Summary:

Suffering and Smiling is an examination of the myriad challenges of impoverishment facing Africa and Africans in the new millennium. Selected African states and institutions are examined using the patient-physician relationship and the various systems of the human body as models. The major diseases and maladies and the impact of HIV/AIDS are examined as well as the challenges to the continent's cardiovascular system (educational), nutritional needs (food and nutrition), skeletal system (infrastructure), respiratory system (resource use), and autoimmune system (police and military systems). The Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe are individually diagnosed.

Contents:

Introduction 1

1 A Continental Medical Crisis 7

Diagnosing a Continent 15

2 The Chief Complaint: Impoverishment 19

Economic Marginalization 20

Trade, Aid, Debt and Development: 26

The Locus of Control 26

Foreign Aid Flows 27

NGO's and Debt Relief 29

Fair Trade? The Banana War 32

3 What is Africa? A Continental Profile 49

European Misperceptions and Prescriptions 51

Traditional African Spirituality 52

Ancestral Worship 56

Traditional Medicine 57

The Home of Human Language 58

Traditional Political Systems 61

4 The Major Maladies 67

Malaria 69

Bird Flu 77

Cholera 78

Dengue Fever, Diarrhea & Diphtheria 81

Meningitis 82

African Trypanosomiasis or Sleeping Sickness 83

Yellow Fever 87

5 HIV + Africa 93

HIV Politics 94

HIV + Mozambique 99

HIV + Nigeria 100

HIV + South Africa 101

HIV + Uganda 102

HIV + Zambia & Zimbabwe 103

6 A History of the Present Illness the Atlantic Slave Trade 109

Colonialism 115

Resistance & Liberation 124

Part II: Patient Examinations 136

7 The DRC: A Diarrheatic State 137

Mobutu 141

The Kabila Regimes: Contagious Conflicts 146

8 The War-Traumatized Cote D'ivoire 167

The Political-Economy of Cocoa 169

Neo-Colonial War 171

9 Kenya: Cancerous Corruption & Poisonous Politics 179

The Uhuru Revolt 180

Kenyan Women's Rights 189

Prosperity for the Few 193

10 Liberia: Political Schizophrenia 199

Samuel K. Doe 200

Charles Taylor 202

11 Nigeria: Administrative Sclerosis 219

Olesegun Obasanjo 220

Administrative Sclerosis 223

'Come and Eat' Politics 226

Petro-Politics 237

War in the Delta 239

Election Allergies 255

12 Rwanda: Mass Psychosis & Genocide 267

Under the Tree Justice 270

13 Sierra Leone: Compromised Auto-Immunity 279

Outsourcing Security 281

Blood Diamonds 287

The Chinese Prescription 289

14 South Africa's Mixed Prognosis 293

Apartheid South Africa 296

The New South Africa 305

Jacob Zuma 314

Myriad Challenges 317

15 Uganda: Psychotic Leadership 325

War Crimes 327

Peace or Justice? 333

16 Zimbabwe: Starving to Vote 341

The Mugabe Regime 344

Morgan Tsvangirai 356

Economic Hypertension 360

17 Death Merchants 373

18 The Heent Examination 383

Eyes and Ears: The Media 384

19 Education: The Cardiovascular System 389

Colonial Education 389

A Hunger for Learning 394

20 Nutrition: The Gastrointestinal System: 401

Water and Climate Change 413

21 The Respiratory System: Inert Resource Usage 419

Diamonds 419

Gold & Platinum 425

22 Auto-Immune Systems: The Military and Police 435

From the OAU to the African Union 436

Protecting Human Rights 446

War Crimes 448

23 The Skeletal System: Infrastructure 461

A Pathological Fracture 462

Surface Transportation 464

Rail Travel 466

Air Travel 467

The Ports 472

Telecommunications: Crossing the Digital Divide 473

Internet Access 476

24 The Central Nervous System: 485

Political Leadership 485

The Problem With Parties 488

25 The Psychological State 493

Metaneeds & Metapathologies: 495

The Locus of Control 495

The Psychology of Corruption 498

African Perceptions of Globalization 501

African Views of the US 502

26 Diagnosis, Prognosis & Treatment 507

Western Prescriptions 508

Phineas Gage's Story 511

Culturally Compatible Democracy? 514

The Differential Diagnosis 517

Treatment 518.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [523]-531) and index.

ISBN:

0761843515

9780761843511

0761843523

9780761843528

OCLC:

256529775