Neither Devil Nor Child: How Western Attitudes Are Harming Africa

If you boil a kettle twice today, you will have used five times more electricity than a person in Mali uses in a whole year. How can that be possible? Decades after the colonial powers withdrew from Africa, the continent is still struggling to catch up with the rest of the world. When the same colonists withdrew from Asia, it kickstarted several decades of sustained and unprecedented growth throughout the continent. So what went wrong in Africa? And are we fixing it, or making matters worse? In this provocative analysis, scholar Tom Young argues that so much has been misplaced: our guilt, our policies, our aid. Human rights have become a cover for imposing our values on others, our shiniest infrastructure projects have fuelled corruption and our interference in domestic politics has only entrenched conflict. If we really care about Africa as much as we say we do, it is time for us to leave.