Pg. 12
Whether it is in the middle of a big city like Yaounde, Johannesburg, Dar es Salaam, or Nairobi, or in the countryside, the story is the same: slash and burn, plant, harvest once or twice, and move on to new land to repeat the same unsustainable process.
Pg. 17
I strongly believe that Africa, particularly that part of the continent south of the Sahara, is to progress so it is no longer dependent on aid from the international community, or if is to cease being a byword for poverty, conflict, and corruption, it is on hillsides like these and with women such as that farmer that we must work. That's where those of us concerned about the fate of Africa and her citizens must focus our energies, for it is where the vast majority of Africa's peoples are, and it is with their lives that we must engage.
Pg. 18
Africa needs a revolution in leadership - not only from the politicians who govern, but from an active citizenry that places its country above the narrow needs of its own ethnic group or community. Those in power - the presidents, prime ministers, politicians, and other elites - have to recognize that the way Africa has been conducting its affairs of state has neither protected nor promoted the welfare of the continent's citizens nor provided for the long-term growth and stability of its nations. This ought to be unacceptable to the new leadership in Africa.
Pg. 19
The revolution demands that its leaders not merely support honesty and transparency in government from the president and the highest ministerial level to the grassroots, but embody it in their behavior as well.
Pg. 23
And while Africans should continue to welcome the international agencies, donor nations, and private ventures that have expressed an interest in helping the continent develop in a manner both sustainable and just, ultimately the fate of the continent depends on its citizens.
Pg. 55
In the 2007/2008 UN Human Development Report, all of the twenty-two lowest ranked countries - in terms of life expectancy at birth; adult literacy rates; combined gross enrollment ratio for primary, secondary, and tertiary education; GDP - were from Africa south of the Sahara. Alone of sub-Saharan African states, the island nations of Mauritius and the Seychelles were ranked in the top of the hundred of the report's Human Development Index.
Pg. 71
Economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Colombia University in New York City, has identified what he terms the "Big Five", a set of multipronged investments in development that can help communities climb the ladder out of extreme poverty. They are agricultural inputs; investments in basic health; improvements in education; more efficient and regular power, transport, and communication services; and the provision of clean drinking water and proper sanitation.
Pg. 77
Although in recent years the state of development in Africa has risen on the global agenda, the voices of Africans speaking to these challenges are muted in comparison with those of the industrialized world speaking about the needs of Africa.
Pg. 81
Now for our own, let me say: I don't want to be putting the developed countries on the dock. We [Africans] also have a task, we also have a challenge; because we also have a capacity to some extent of funding on poverty ourselves: organizing our economies, organizing our revenue collection systems, organizing our own budgeting, being more accountable and transparent. Those we can undertake. A combination of dictable advance in the war against poverty.
President Mkapa knew what the right actions were. For me, however, the questions still remains: If African leaders know what they ought to do, why aren't more of them doing it?
Pg.104
In 1967, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda formulated arrangements to create a stronger political and economic union, the East African Community. It lasted for a decade before geopolitical interests and internal political conflict led to its collapse. If it had been nurtured, the East African Community could have taken the region very far by removing the artificial economic and political barriers created by the colonial powers and continued by the postcolonial African leadership.
Pg.105
New efforts are being made to re-create the East African Community, this time including the original three members plus Burundi and Rwanda, with the objectives of expanding and strengthening cooperation between the nations. Regrettably, such efforts are, as they have been for years, riddled with suspicion and mistrust between both governments and citizens of the countries concerned, so movement toward the unity and development the community envisions is very slow. As a consequence, the imbalances in trade between Africa and the industrialized world remain.
Pg.106
Unless African leaders embrace their common goals and work together to make their individual nations and the whole continent stronger, Africa will remain a victim of globalization and unfair global trade rules, not a beneficiary.
In recent years China and other Asian nations have been assuming a larger role in African affairs. Drawing upon common experiences with Africa as victims of imperialism, countries like China have begun to form bilateral arrangements, offering African nations development aid and construction assistance on one hand, and seeking access to oil and mineral deposits to fund its own exponential growth on the other. For instance, currently China gets nearly a third of its oil from Africa. Chinese development assistance to African nations is around $2 billion, while trade between Africa and China increased from $10 billion in 2000 to $70 billion in 2006, a nearly fivefold increase since 2003. China considers herself a friend of Africa and works closely with the Group of 77, the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states in the United Nations, comprised of 130 countries, many of them former colonies of European powers. China, as one of only five countries which veto power on the UN Security Council, can and indeed has, used this power to protect the interests of African states.
Pg.117
"We need to develop and root in our societies a culture of peace. We need to promote regional integration. We need to encourage public-private partnerships and give a more robust role to our private sector. We must fight corruption and promote integrity and good governance. And we need to establish a sustained process of national dialogue and reconciliation in all the countries emerging from conflict. In short, we need to work towards building capable states in Africa"
Joaqim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique
Pg.124
An illustration of this is how quickly new leaders ensure that the previous incumbents of high government offices are immediately stripped of any status the minute they leave their position. This expresses the chronic paranoia and desperation that hang around the offices of so many presidents and prime ministers of Africa - a disorder that, as was witnessed during the deeply flawed elections in Zimbabwe and Kenya, can have terrible consequences for the state of its people.
Pg.126
A bright spot in 2005 was the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia. It is admirable that even though she hadn't won the presidency in an earlier vote, she tried again. It was also especially empowering for African women to see her succeed. Indeed, every time someone from a "disadvantaged" group makes a big leap like this, it is an inspiration to others in that group, who can now think, Maybe I can do it too. It also clearly changed men, who until then had assumed that only they could be elected African presidents or prime ministers.
Pg.129
Almost half the population of sub-Saharan Africa lives on less than one dollar a day, the highest level of poverty in the world.
Pg.133
For years, Kenyans had complained about their taxes being misused by the ruling elite so that few of those funds, in the form of services, trickled down to the people - especially the rural poor; here, the government, for the first time, was attempting to ensure that some of the revenues it collected went directly to those who needed them most.
Pg.149
The income of many coffee and tea farmers is extremely low: many cannot pay school fees for their children, or afford to go to the hospital when they or members of their family are sick; the clothes, they wear and the food they eat are both of poor quality. They might even need help burying their dead.
Pg.184
The modern African state is a superficial creation: a loose collection of ethnic communities or micro-nations, brought together in a single entity, or macro-nation, by the colonial powers. Some countries include hundreds of micro-nations within their borders; others, only few. Kenya has forty-two; Nigeria, two hundred and fifty; Cameroon, at least two hundred; Mozambique, more than ten; Gabon, more than forty; Zimbabwe, fewer than ten; and Burundi and Rwanda, three. The largest of the micro-nations can have populations in the millions; the smallest usually number only in the thousands. With few exceptions, it is these numbers that determine political power.
