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George B. N. Ayittey
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Africa Unchained: The Blueprint for Africa's Future 2005th Edition

by G. Ayittey (Editor)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
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In Africa Unchained , George Ayittey takes a controversial look at Africa's future and makes a number of daring suggestions. Looking at how Africa can modernize, build, and improve their indigenous institutions which have been castigated by African leaders as 'backward and primitive', Ayittey argues that Africa should build and expand upon these traditions of free markets and free trade. Asking why the poorest Africans haven't been able to prosper in the Twenty-first-century, Ayittey makes the answer obvious: their economic freedom was snatched from them. War and conflict replaced peace and the infrastructure crumbled. In a book that will be pondered over and argued about as much as his previous volumes, Ayittey looks at the possibilities for indigenous structures to revive a troubled continent.
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  1. ISBN-10
    1403973865
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1403973863
  3. Edition
    2005th
  4. Publisher
    Palgrave Macmillan
  5. Publication date
    September 25, 2006
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    5.51 x 1.16 x 8.5 inches
  8. Print length
    509 pages
  9. See all details
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
36 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Bonita Evans
    5.0 out of 5 stars Africa Unchained: The Blueprint for Africa's Future
    Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I am so completely in agreement with Ayittey's observations. I was living in East Africa when he was probably a child. I saw Africa when it was a continent with great aspirations. In those days a person could speak with the presidents of these countries personally. I came to work in what was then the Kenya Parliament, so I met all of the most outstanding politicians. I also had an opportunity to meet with and speak to Sekou Toure. During that period, I spoke to him about Africa and also talked about the manner in which the French left his country. He confirmed everything I had read, and then more. I lived in Kenya from 1964-1974, so I was able to see what would have been possible and its creeping divergence from those aspirations. In many instances I am heartbroken. Some years ago, I wrote a book for my students "Kijani" which looked at five strata of society and revealed the initial steps of the slide into today's condition, at a level freshman students could understand.

    Now and then I get snippets (via film) of what became of places like Kariako and Kaloleni and Bahati where I once lived. It seems that many of these suburbs have fallen into the same condition as that of Pumwani. I am very concerned about Africa's future. It seems everyone talks about corruption as the main cause, but my question is, "If those in government have something to sell, how is it possible to make the sale without a customer?" We need to examine the purchaser as closely as we do the salesman.

    Bonita Evans, Ph.D.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Manalive
    4.0 out of 5 stars Best book i've read on Africa--by far!
    Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Note--I base my 4-stars on having only read the first four chapters--but those knocked my socks off. I was at chapter four when I gave it to an African (Ghanaian) friend. I will be purchasing another copy for myself and additional copies for friends. Can't wait to finish reading this book!
    One person found this helpful
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  • David Suze Manda
    5.0 out of 5 stars Africans remain responsible for their development
    Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    Ayittey is an economist who remains very realist in revealing how much some African leaders have ruined their continent. The hope relies in the generation of Cheetah, ready to dirt their hands and to sustain the local capacities. The former generation considered as hippo who seat in chairs and ready to grab everything to the expenses of real life of the population. The development will come only from within Africa and not from outside.
    One person found this helpful
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  • king'ori
    5.0 out of 5 stars Out of an abundant Heart...
    Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2005
    Verified Purchase
    He put's his faith on africa's young up and coming "cheetahs", and so do I. I feel empowered by George's bare knuckle rumble in the jungle with the political elite and can't wait to join this fight.

    They'll fight dirty, and we'll fight smarter and faster and with a good old man like George to show us the tricks, we shall overcome.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Eric
    2.0 out of 5 stars Some good ideas, poorly presented
    Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    George B.N. Ayittey's *Africa Unchained* contributes some important points to the contemporary discussion of Africa's (lack of) development. His main focus is the abysmal leadership offered by African politicians who have used the mechanisms of the state to enrich themselves at the expense of their populations. Here Ayittey is at his best, ridiculing and excoriating the corruption, avarice, and stupidity of African political leaders in a way that would be difficult for a non-African writer to pull off. His book argues for policies aimed at improving the productivity of Africa's rural agricultural masses, for recognizing and supporting indigenous institutions such as free markets and local politics based on traditional chieftaincy, and for a reduced role of the state in economic activity.

    Although Ayittey's ideas have a great deal of merit, they are poorly, incompletely, and haphazardly presented in *Africa Unchained*. The book reads a bit like a drunken rant from a stranger at a bar: it begins relatively coherently, but quickly becomes disjointed, repetitive, and long winded. The author seems unable to make a simple point without numerous tangential diversions. Chapter and section divisions seem to have been distributed at random throughout the book's 450 pages, which is at least 400 pages more than necessary to make the book's substantive points. Africa Unchained is perhaps most remarkable as a marvel of poor editing.

    Besides being overwritten and under-edited, the real disappointment of *Africa Unchained* is its failure even to attempt anything approaching its ambitious subtitle as "the Blueprint for Africa's Future." Ayittey offers a few policy ideas, but leaves them largely undeveloped. The book is long on anecdotes but surprisingly short on the kind of evidence and rigorous analysis one would expect from a professor of economics writing about economic issues. Rather than the promised blueprint for success, the book's conclusion offers little in the way of constructive recommendations or even optimism about Africa's prospects. "Africans have no future because their leaders don't use their heads and the Western donors who give them money don't use theirs, either." It's easy to imagine our stranger at the bar muttering this, the book's final sentence, suppressing a few hiccups, then turning back to the bartender, ordering another drink, and continuing, "but did I already tell you about price controls? You know, traditional chiefs never controlled prices in local markets..."
    17 people found this helpful
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  • TW from SATX
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2016
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    As expected.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars I am so inspires by Professor Ayittey's historical approach to ...
    Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I am so inspires by Professor Ayittey's historical approach to African economic theory ... I will be following his work
    One person found this helpful
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  • Doc 47
    2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2017
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    Capitalist viewpoint.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Pj
    3.0 out of 5 stars Important but outdated
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This is a fascinating book written with passion and offering a persuasive argument that African problems need African solutions and why so much of the blame for the failures of leadership across the continent are misdirected.

    However this book is now badly outdated and the shifts across Africa with the Arab spring, the rise if Islam, Boko Haram (although interestingly this is almost foreseen in the explanation of how/why this happens), the longevity of Mugabe, the impact of oil wealth in places such as Angola, the increase in Chinese investment etc. could not be addressed. The book urgently needs a new edition (please George can you write a new one?) or a replacement that take these valuable arguments forward and gives them relevance to the present day.
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