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It may be easy to read this book as a libertarian celebration of hustling, hacking, and free-form development in sub-Saharan Africa. And it is. (page 232)
Last summer, at 4 AM on an overnight layover, I struck up a conversation with a French-South African woman, a choreographer, also stuck in the aeroport. We didn't have all that much in common, but it was a pretty awesome (technical term) conversation -- scattered, wide-ranging. Politics and dance and Justin Bieber and food banks and diversity.
This book reminds me of that -- not the people so much (I've never met the author and only spent a few hours with the choreographer; they're both connected to multiple cultures, but as far as I know, the similarities end there), but the fascinating-scattered feel. You know that sense, when you read something, that the author has all this knowledge and all this passion and if you sat down and had a conversation, you'd leave with your head bursting with new things and it would be a highlight of your month? Yeah. That.
I say 'scattered' for a reason -- there are a ton of ideas and anecdotes in here. Some of them could be developed into books of their own. (Some of them probably have been.) The author's a journalist who's had the opportunity to see a lot and travel a lot; she sees a great deal more hope and possibility in sub-Saharan Africa than many other writers. She talks here about the things that are working -- often in the shadow of, and because of, those that aren't.
It's interesting to consider how some of the things that she describes as working would be viewed elsewhere: the Bridge school model, for example (pages 131-134) -- which basically works because Bridge teachers are told exactly what to teach and how to teach it -- would be decried elsewhere because it limits individual teachers' creativity, etc., etc. But in Kenya it's a positive thing because many kids' other options are much worse, and because Bridge takes the uncertainty out of teaching. She also points out some (perhaps controversial) criticisms of concepts such as microfinance -- which, done right, can improve situations, but by how much?
Sometimes it's the briefest mentions that pique my interest: in this case Makoko, which I'd never heard of. (Kibera, yes, but not Makoko, a slum in Lagos consisting of buildings on stilts in a lagoon.) Or the age differences between heads of state and the average citizen -- in Europe and North America, the average political leader is 55 and the median age of the public 39; in sub-Saharan Africa, the numbers are 62 and 19. (Okay, I might not read a book about politicians and ages. But I'd love to know more about Makoko.)
Olopade points to that which works, much of which is on a smaller scale than you see in, say, [b:Dead Aid|7090761|Dead Aid Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa|Dambisa Moyo|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316635738s/7090761.jpg|6364466] (sorry -- comparisons are inevitable, and anyway I just read Dead Aid). These solutions can't touch a number of problems on a broader scale, but it's a very interesting run through patchwork problem-solving.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
Last summer, at 4 AM on an overnight layover, I struck up a conversation with a French-South African woman, a choreographer, also stuck in the aeroport. We didn't have all that much in common, but it was a pretty awesome (technical term) conversation -- scattered, wide-ranging. Politics and dance and Justin Bieber and food banks and diversity.
This book reminds me of that -- not the people so much (I've never met the author and only spent a few hours with the choreographer; they're both connected to multiple cultures, but as far as I know, the similarities end there), but the fascinating-scattered feel. You know that sense, when you read something, that the author has all this knowledge and all this passion and if you sat down and had a conversation, you'd leave with your head bursting with new things and it would be a highlight of your month? Yeah. That.
I say 'scattered' for a reason -- there are a ton of ideas and anecdotes in here. Some of them could be developed into books of their own. (Some of them probably have been.) The author's a journalist who's had the opportunity to see a lot and travel a lot; she sees a great deal more hope and possibility in sub-Saharan Africa than many other writers. She talks here about the things that are working -- often in the shadow of, and because of, those that aren't.
It's interesting to consider how some of the things that she describes as working would be viewed elsewhere: the Bridge school model, for example (pages 131-134) -- which basically works because Bridge teachers are told exactly what to teach and how to teach it -- would be decried elsewhere because it limits individual teachers' creativity, etc., etc. But in Kenya it's a positive thing because many kids' other options are much worse, and because Bridge takes the uncertainty out of teaching. She also points out some (perhaps controversial) criticisms of concepts such as microfinance -- which, done right, can improve situations, but by how much?
Sometimes it's the briefest mentions that pique my interest: in this case Makoko, which I'd never heard of. (Kibera, yes, but not Makoko, a slum in Lagos consisting of buildings on stilts in a lagoon.) Or the age differences between heads of state and the average citizen -- in Europe and North America, the average political leader is 55 and the median age of the public 39; in sub-Saharan Africa, the numbers are 62 and 19. (Okay, I might not read a book about politicians and ages. But I'd love to know more about Makoko.)
Olopade points to that which works, much of which is on a smaller scale than you see in, say, [b:Dead Aid|7090761|Dead Aid Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa|Dambisa Moyo|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316635738s/7090761.jpg|6364466] (sorry -- comparisons are inevitable, and anyway I just read Dead Aid). These solutions can't touch a number of problems on a broader scale, but it's a very interesting run through patchwork problem-solving.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.