During the last decade or so, Africa, once labeled by the Economist as the “Hopeless Continent,” has been rebranded by the same magazine as “Africa Rising.” described by then–British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2001 as “a scar on our consciences,” Africa has become the home of “roaring lions” and the “fastest billion”—contrasting with the image of the world’s most impoverished “bottom billion,” in the words of the economist Paul Collier. These new monikers and the ebullient optimism they reflect are a welcome change. They have replaced a costly “Afropessimism” that reigned in Western media and academic circles during much of the 1980s and 1990s. The costs of the negative stereotypes of that period were felt not only in terms of Africa’s self- esteem but also financially: They depicted Africa as economically much riskier than it ever was and dampened the animal spirits of investors. Afropessimism never caught on in Africa itself. With 70 percent of its population under the age of 20, the continent is perhaps too youthful to indulge in despair. Now the threat to sound reflection on the future is “Afro-euphoria.” But opinion surveys by Afrobarometer suggest that Africans may also be immune to the new fad. Read the full article, Can Africa Turn from Recovery to Development? by Thandika Mkandawire here:currenthistory/Article.php?ID=1153
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 18:40:12 +0000
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