Customer Reviews

The Challenge for Africa

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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 awakening of integrity.

The author discusses China, observing that China has used its Security Council veto to protect African interests, and the author observes that the West continues to destroy Africa with arms sales, France and Russia especially, followed by China, with the US a low fourth.

I learn that patronage and the need for protection are the other side of corruption as a deep-seated rationalization for keeping power, and I learn that pensions in Africa are so fragile that retirement is fraught with risk, another reason to seek long-term power holding. I am inspired to think of a regional pension fund guaranteed by Brotherly Leader Muuamar Al-Gathafi.

On a hopeful note the author praises the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as leader of Liberia, and sees real promise in the AU leadership summits that she attends.

CORE IDEA: Leadership training at all levels must keep pace with the changes in technology and the complexity of Africa's engagements. Civil Society in particular must be understood and embraced by government leaders at all levels.

The author spends time around page 134 discussing her pilot project to create local empowerment, devolving decision-making to create a multi-layered structure that establishes priorities while also providing accountability and transparency, minimizing corruption. Using a trained facilitator, the author brought together around 40 fifteen-person committees to create a strategic plan, and that is now useful as a map regardless of turn-over.

On page 158 the author briefly discusses ECOSOC (Economic, Social, and Cultural Council of the African Union) founded in 2005 to bring the voices of the people into the AU deliberations; to educate the peoples of Africa on all aspects of African affairs; and to encourage civil society throughout Africa.

My reaction: ECOSOCC is a center of gravity and could be the lever needed to create a regional M4IS2 network that substitutes information for violence, capital, time, and space. A harmonization of investments to address regional cell phone access (Nokia ambient energy devices), regional radio stations using solar power; and a regional public information program on the basics of mosquito control and other key public health topics, all call out for action in partnership with ECOSOCC.

Later in the book the author equates misinformation with alcohol and drugs. Ignorance is a recurring theme.

The conclusion of the book is full of deep wisdom on re-imagining community, restoring family by returning the men, stopping the brain drain, and making it easier for remittances to return; of the need to create micro-nation forums within each macro-nation; of the need to create local radio stations in each of the local languages and dialects; of the need to address energy shortfalls while stopping the march of the desert; and finally, of the need to address the pressing twin issues of land ownership and tourism management so as to restore the primacy of African interests.

The book ends on a hugely positive note calling for Africans to reclaim their land; reclaim their culture; and reclaim themselves.

Other books I consider relevant to respecting Africa:
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025
Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict
A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility--Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era

I was very impressed with Dr. Maathai's book, "The Challenge for Africa". This was not just a book of complaints about Africa but also a book of solutions, ideas and suggestions for a greater and more inclusive populace. Africa's problems are numerous and complex and should be solved by Africans. The book reiterated that some nations are on the brink of collapse due to corruption, gross mismanagement and lack of the peoples' trust and faith in African leadership--this is one of Africa's biggest challenges.

I was particular pleased to read the juxtaposition of the "tradition" vs "modern" culture and how African culture was obliterated by the Europeans causing untold psychological and emotional damage. The lines drawn by the Europeans, in the late 19th century, to designate their domain, divided ethnic groups and destroyed family ties that existed for centuries. After the colonial period, the European system of governance was not suited for nor appropriately designed for African nations to use as a political template.

The vivid description of the micro-nation she described was extremely interesting. The "ethnic typing" correlates to the "kinship corporation" identified by Dr. Peter Ekeh where allegiance and loyalty are more associated with the "micro-nation"(tribes) than with the nation-state or "macro-nation".

Monetary gifts sent to assist African leaders in resolving the myriad of issues and problems have not worked. Dr. Maathai calls for African leaders to reject these "handouts". Further, she advocated that the political process include rural people to assist in building stronger infrastructures; economic, social and political.

One of the key highlights of the book is Dr. Maathai's vision and commitment to the environment which revealed information that should be widely disseminated. Her analysis of the deforestation in Africa's Congo Basin and the linkage to the Rain Forest in Brazil may be the cause for the unusual climatic conditions in many parts of the world. Her remarkable leadership in the Green Belt Movement played a key role in the planting of over a billion trees in Kenya and is a vital part of the structure for introducing farmers to proper techniques in soil conservation, crop rotation and diversification.

Globalization has had a negative impact on locally-grown products which have had limited success in competing with mass-produced goods distributed by transnational corporations. The African market place is the centerpiece for economic and political activities in most countries and has been unfairly affected by the international markets.

Dr. Maathai's book is a must read for those wanting to learn more and to know more about Africa and the challenges facing this huge and diverse continent.

Africa is one of the richest continents on the planet, and yet most Africans remain poor, according to Wangari Maathai in this book. Africans have inherited a legacy of woes from colonial times, and they are still held back by a lack of principled, ethical leadership. Africa needs to move beyond aid and the culture of dependency it has helped create in Africa's leaders and her people.

The author's most compelling arguments are made in her areas of particular expertise: conservation and the environment. Environmental degradation, and in particular destruction of rain catchments and waterways by forest-clearing and the use of unsustainable farming techniques, is a significant contributor to poverty and famine in Africa today. It is vitally important that natural vegetation be restored and that the Congo Forests be preserved.

I found the author's arguments on reviving culture and embracing the micro-nations (a less pejorative name for "tribes") less convincing. While it is good to affirm people's origins, I think that economic well-being is built by looking to the future and not the past. The idea of encouraging people from micro-nations to learn the languages of other micro-nations in addition to learning Kiswahili and English just seems too much. In my view, African countries need to follow Tanzania's lead in encouraging their citizens to elevate loyalty to the country above loyalty to the micro-nation.

Africa's challenges can only ultimately be solved by Africans, and so the world needs to be listening to African voices. That is one reason why the author won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is a reason why this book deserves a wide readership.

This book is a stirring critique for both those inside Africa and those concerned outsiders. She writes to both and minces no words. She addresses the histories of obstacles to Africa's progress and can speak from a grass-roots level as well as from a policy-making level...we need more people like her! I was reading this book while touring around Kenya and much of what she wrote just came to life in the friendliness of the people and their industriousness and determination to do well for the reputation of their country. Compared to other African countries, I could sense and see the difference she has made in Kenya...and what a difference that is! I wish I could take some West Africans on a field trip east to Kenya so that they could experience the hope that is blooming there!

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.

Wangari Maathai presents a lucid, convincing account of how Africa got where it is and how the continent as a whole can move forward. She is able to rationalize why Africa's people have tolerated so much bad government and still express urgency and hope about ending such tolerance.

Her vision for a sustainable future for Africa, one which encompasses environmental sustainability as well as economic growth, is persuasive. I was struck by the parallels between what she describes in Africa and what has been going on in the United States.

We are really not so far apart.

The Challenge for Africa: A New Vision, by Wangari Maathai, was reviewed in African Business Magazine, by African Business journalist, London: Aug/Sep 2009. , Iss. 356; pg. 70, 3 pgs

Copyright International Communications Aug/Sep 2009

A Force of Nature Rooting for change The Challenge for Africa A New Vision By Wangari Maathal £20 William Heinemann ISBN: 978-0-434-01980-9

From the pen of one of Africa's most influential thinkers and social activists, The Challenge for Africa is a wide-ranging study of Africa's current predicament and a no-nonsense, tightly argued proposal of the way forward for the continent. Written with a measured tone and in plain, simple language, it would be a mistake to underestimate the book's validity and sheer intellectual power.

Many observers made a similar error when Wangari Maathai was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Why, they asked, was an environmentalist being honoured rather than others candidates who had been working to halt armed conflicts around the world, to prevent terrorism or the development of weapons of mass destruction?

What they failed to recognise was the link between environmental degradation and the kinds of social upheavals that can lead to open warfare as competing interests battle over diminishing natural resources. It is only comparatively recently that this linkage has been widely acknowledged and accepted in mainstream political thinking.

Born in 1940 in Kenya's rural central highlands, Maathai has dedicated much of her adult life to addressing social and environmental issues. Following a spell studying in the US, in 1971 she became the first woman to earn a doctorate in East and Central Africa, reading for a PhD in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi. But while a lifetime academic career may have beckoned, she instead chose to reconnect with her rural upbringing.

She began to organise her fellow countrymen and women to deal with the immediate and crucial issues caused by a degraded environment - the lack of firewood and deforestation; the absence of clean drinking water and sanitation; the increase in soil erosion and other pressures on Kenya's rural communities.

It was while Maathai was active in the National Council of Women of Kenya in 1976-87 (becoming its chairman from 1981-87) that she introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. She continued to develop this idea into a broadbased grassroots organisation, the Green Belt Movement, whose main focus is poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting.

The Green Belt Movement Maathai founded has assisted women in planting more than 40m trees on community lands including farms, schools and church compounds. In 1986 the Green Belt Movement (GBM) established a Pan-African Green Belt Network (later to become the Green Belt Movement International) that has exposed many leaders of other African countries to its unique approach. Some of these leaders have established similar tree-planting initiatives in their own countries using Maathai's methods. Countries that have successfully launched such initiatives in Africa include Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Lesotho, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.

Beaten, Jailed, then elected

Becoming a leading political activist in Kenya inevitably brought her up against powerful vested interests. As she became increasingly more outspoken against government corruption and human rights abuses, she suffered the consequences of challenging the regime of President Daniel arap Moi. But despite beatings from thugs, and briefly being jailed, Maathai continued to agitate for social justice.

She survived her incarceration to be released shortly before the elections that swept Moi from power and saw Kenya's veteran politician, Mwai Kibaki, leading the NARC coalition, become Kenya's new Head of State.

Winning an overwhelming 98% of the vote, Maathai was also elected to the Kenya parliament. Until 2007, she represented the Tetu constituency, in her home region of Nyeri district, and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in Kenya's ninth parliament.

But it is not necessary to know Maathai's life story before reading The Challenge for Africa as she relates many of her own experiences within the broader narrative. One interesting fact is recounted early in the book: after winning a Kennedy Scholarship, Maathai travelled to the US to study for a bachelor's degree in biology and then a master's of science from the University of Pittsburgh. Travelling to the US, she flew on the same plane across the Atlantic as Barack Obama Snr, the father of the US president and a fellow Kenyan Kennedy Scholar.

"I have written The Challenge for Africa for all those with an interest in the fate of the African continent, from the general reader to advocates, researchers, development specialists, and government officials, including heads of state," Maathai writes in her foreword. She then goes on to construct the book in five distinct sections.

Section one comprises two chapters that explore the contemporary face of the challenges before moving on, in chapters three, four and five, to examine the economic, political and international context and dimensions they present. Chapters six and seven deal with the challenge of leadership and good governance both at the top of society and at the grassroots while chapters eight, nine and 10 examine the complex and problematic relationship of ethnic identity to the nation state in modern Africa.

Then, in chapters 11, 12 and 13, she tackles an explanation of the centrality of the environment to Africa's development challenges and solutions to them. There follows a final chapter, 14, that speaks of Africa's challenges and what they require of individual Africans both at home and within the diaspora.

In the opening chapter she reflects on a women she observed in Cameroon whose farming techniques were causing soil erosion and water loss. "Subsistence farming is how a large majority of Africans make a living," she writes, "and the challenges facing that one farmer are, in many ways, a microcosm of the myriad challenges facing the African farmer in particular, and Africa in general."

This farmer, instead of making furrows across the grathent of the hill so the rainwater would pool in the small depressions and sink into the ground, was directly contradicting every principle of soil and species conservation by doing just the opposite, ensuring the precious topsoil would be washed away and making it less likely that anything would grow on that hillside in future. "If she is not given assistance to stop farming the way she was," Maathai notes, "she'll finish the business of destruction begun by previous generations..."

Colonialism's impact

The second chapter deals with the challenging legacies facing Africa, including colonialism. Here, while she does not belittle the way that colonialism was devastating for Africa, she argues that it has become a convenient scapegoat for continuing conflicts, warlordism, corruption, poverty, dependency and mismanagement in the continent.

She observes: "Africa cannot continue to blame her failed institutions, collapsed infrastructure, unemployment, drug abuse, and refugee crises on colonialism; but neither can these issues be understood fully without acknowledging the facts of Africa's past."

The issue of good governance is tackled in chapter three where she introduces the metaphor of a three-legged stool. She makes the interesting point that all too often in Africa, the term 'democracy' has simply become a bromide offered during election campaigns rather than empowering the public to become active partners in development. The three-legged African stool, she explains, is made of a solid block of wood, and each leg, or pillar, supports it and is reinforced by the others.

Similarly, the milieu in which sustainable development can take place is the stool's seat, which is supported by robust democratic principles, equitable distribution of resources and a strong culture of peace - the three legs.

"In Africa today," Maathai notes, "a number of countries are trying to balance on two of the stool's three legs. Some are teetering on one leg; a few have none whatsoever and have collapsed."

Hunting the big five

Maathai then examines, in chapters four and five, how aid, trade and debt foster imbalances in Africa's international relations. Describing the dependency syndrome that is so entrenched across the continent, Maathai refers to Jeffrey Sachs, who has identified the "big five" that Africa should go "hunting" for its own development.

This is a reference to the animals that white hunters wanted to bag: the lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo. But in Africa's case, it is agricultural inputs: investments in basic healthcare; improvements in education; more efficient and regular power, transport and communications services; and the provision of clean drinking water and proper sanitation that have been identified as preconditions to kick-start development.

"My concern," writes Maathai, "is not simply to criticise the international community for unfair trade practices and the heavy burden under which Africans still labour, it is to challenge all Africans to escape the culture of dependency...

"Likewise, [discussing chapter six, which takes issue with the continent's leadership] my aim is not to shame or blame but to challenge all of African society, especially its leadership, to break free of the corruption and selfishness that exists from high office to the grassroots."

In many ways, the heart of this book is chapters seven through to 10, which describe in detail the loss of a cultural identity and self-respect that post-colonial Africa still suffers from, or in Maathai's words "the consequent devastating loss of self-confidence in many ethnic groups - what I call micro-nations - throughout the continent." She argues that for decades, Africans have belittled or ignored the fundamental cultural and psychological importance of the micro-national identity, instead using identity for political gain.

This is an important point. The unwelcome legacy of the colonial era was when artificial 'national' boundaries were imposed across the continent's micro -nations. Insult was added to injury when traditional societal order was replaced with totally alien systems.

Leadership issues

Maathai describes her own people's leadership structures to illustrate her point, claiming that "pre-colonial Kikuyu society developed its social and leadership societies from birth". Midwives could apparently tell a child's vocation and the community would watch a child's development to see whether they were developing the talents that were expected of them.

"There were always older authorities, both men and women, ahead of them to make sure the younger person understood their responsibilities," Maathai explains. "This meant that by the time the individual became a priest or a counsellor [i.e. a leader] they would have been in their 60s and 70s, and well seasoned and well judged by the community. This is why old age in Africa is associated with wisdom and respect, even though the cultural context of creating just and seasoned leaders has been lost"

Just and seasoned leaders are exactly what Africa needs to lift itself out of the quandary it finds itself in - precisely why the Mo Ibrahim Foundation has established a good governance prize, a powerful incentive for African leaders to accept the will of the people and step down from power when their allotted time has run.

For with effective leadership, as Maathai acknowledges, all else follows - but the people's disempowerment, she warns, "whether through lack of self-confidence, apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's life is the most unrecognised problem in Africa today". And what greater disempowerment is there that having no means to hold your leadership to account?

Nevertheless, Maathai describes how ethnic loyalties can override political freedoms. In her case, when President Kibaki called for a new referendum, she believed it would split the country along ethnic lines and opposed it. Her constituents, in the main Kikuyu, believed it was important that "the president, a favourite son, be supported right or wrong".

The environment

If the previous three chapters represent the heart of this book, it might be argued that the following three chapters, 11, 12 and 13 are its soul. For these three chapters discuss the centrality of the environment in all discussions about the continent. Drawing upon a lifetime's experience, Maathai elegantly and authoritively looks at the issues of land, agriculture and conservation of Africa's bounteous natural resources - unsurprisingly paying particular attention to the continent's forests.

She deals with the contentious issues surrounding land ownership declaring "the issue of land ownership will continue to roil African nations until politicians stop using land as a political tool, and just settlements to controversies over land are agreed upon". The reader might be justified in thinking "easier said than done", but Maathai 's vision would appear to be to move towards embracing a pre-colonial model where land is held by communities rather than individuals. She certainly wants to see more rural cooperatives being formed by poor farmers, cooperatives that can provide accurate and timely information about their crops and weather conditions, affordable essential inputs, and vibrant local and regional food markets.

And to tackle the challenges that will, inevitably, be thrown up by climate change, Maathai writes that much comes back to conservation: "Governments in Africa, as well as individuals, need to do all that they can to improve land and water management - by, for instance, preventing erosion by covering the soil with vegetation and trees, avoiding overgrazing, harvesting water, and retaining essential nutrients in the soil."

Later, she argues, "all governments must make a concerted effort to stop unsustainable logging and find mechanisms, such as reforestation programmes, whereby the poor can secure a livelihood by protecting and not degrading their environment ... well managed, participatory tree-planting programmes that serve as carbon offsets for industrial-country emissions are an important mechanism to support responsible global warming mitigation efforts in developing countries."

It has been estimated by the World Bank that her own work promoting tree planting with the Green Belt Movement will capture 375,000 tons of CO2 by 2017. She is now involved with the Congo Basin Forest Fund - the subject of the book's 13th and penultimate chapter - co-chairing this initiative to protect the largest rainforest in Africa, and the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon, as well as a sustainable future for the 50m people that live in this rainforest.

But extraordinary achievements in Africa such as these, Maathai insists, "should not provide an excuse for industrialised countries not to take serious and immediate steps to reduce their greenhouse gasses".

Maathai's concluding chapter draws together a message for the African family. "Quietly and out of the spotlight of international attention, the conferences and concerts, Africans are organising themselves," she avers.

"The watchwords for Africa must be accountability, responsibility, equity and service . . . Africans must make deliberate efforts to move forward together toward more cohesive macronations, where all can feel free, secure, and at a peace with themselves and others, where there is no need for any group to organise violence against their neighbours. Then everybody would reap the benefits of unity in diversity."

Wangari Maathai has been a constant advocate on the international stage for protecting the environment and promoting social justice. Many years ago Maathai travelled to the US together with fellow Kennedy Scholar, US President Barack Obama's father. Recently in Kenya, Maathai and Barack Obama planted a tree together, one of many millions the author and the Green Belt Movement have planted over the years.

Wangari Maathai's The Challenge for Africa is a wide-ranging, erudite, essay that discusses some of the plethora of vexing problems facing Africans and her thoughts about how these problems might be addressed. Her approach seems even-handed, scholarly (but not pedantic), and directed at the goal of having Africans do whatever is necessary to solve their own problems. For me, the key point of the book was her discussion of the problems of tribalism, (which, I confess, seems to me to be the "elephant in the room" of African travails.) She euphemistically refers to tribes as micro-nations,and suggests that such micro-nations (numbering in the hundreds in certain countries and speaking dozens of languages) need to be brought together for the common good. It is obvious from her observations that Herculean effort will be necessary to achieve the goals she sets.

This book is written in easy to read English, is well-organized, has a decent index, and adequate endnotes. I read the book in one day in two sittings. It is worth the time.

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