Africonomics : a history of Western ignorance / Bronwen Everill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Everill, Bronwen, 1983- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic development--Africa--History.

Economic development.

Economic assistance--Africa--History.

Economic assistance.

Investments, Foreign--Africa--History.

Investments, Foreign.

Africa--Economic conditions.

Africa.

Economics--Africa.

Economics.

Physical Description:

294 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : William Collins, 2024.

Summary:

For centuries, Westerners have tried to 'fix' African economies. From the abolition of slavery onwards, missionaries, philanthropists, development economists and NGOs have arrived on the continent, full of good intentions and bad ideas. Their experiments have invariably gone awry, to the great surprise of all involved. Historian Bronwen Everill argues that these interventions fail because they start from a misguided premise: that African economies just need to be more like the West. Ignoring Africa's own traditions of economic thought, Europeans and Americans assumed a set of universal economic laws that they thought could be applied anywhere. They enforced specifically Western ideas about growth, wealth, debt, unemployment, inflation, women's work and more, and used Western metrics to find African countries wanting.

Contents:

A king with holey stockings, or measuring weath

Learning to be farmers

Getting people back to work

Money problems

Unequal development

Financing freedom

Helping you to get rich quick

Women are nothing more than slaves

Epilogue: How to think differently about African economics.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780008581145

0008581142

9780008581152

0008581150

OCLC:

1462196977