Review: Africa: The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation
| Author | Michael F. Lofchie |
| Date | 01 December 1986 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208604100409 |
| Published date | 01 December 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
AFRICA
THE
POLITICS
OF
AFRICA'S ECONOMIC
STAGNATION
Richard
Sandbrook,
with
Judith
Barker
New
York:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1985,
xiv,
18opp,
US$24.95
cloth,
us$7.95 paper
Richard Sandbrook
and
his
co-author,
Judith
Barker,
have
presented
a
cogently
written
overview
of
the
roots
of
Africa's
contemporary
economic
crisis
that
should
prove
to
be
of
considerable
value
in
classes
dealing
with
current
African affairs.
Although
little
of
the
material
presented
is
new,
the
book
does provide
a
comprehensive
synthesis
that
avoids
ideology
and
sets
forth
a
range
of
plausible
explanations.
The
authors'
treatment
includes
both
internal
factors
such
as
inap-
propriate
policy
and poor management
and
external
considerations
such
as
the
adverse
international
economic
environment. Indeed,
the
volume
is
so
well
balanced
in
its
presentation
that
it
is
likely
to
arouse
the
criticism
of
scholars
and
professional
developmentalists
who
place
primary
emphasis
on
one
or
the
other
of
these
sets
of
explanations.
The
point
of departure
for
the
Sandbrook-Barker
analysis
is
the
mood
of
disillusionment
among
Western
scholars
of
African
devel-
opment.
Here,
the
book
is
at
its
most
evocative,
raising
fundamental
questions about whether the
West's
initial
expectations
were
not
pro-
foundly
unrealistic,
given
the
objective
conditions
of
African
societies
at
independence.
Perhaps
political
and
economic
analysts
should
have
paid
greater
attention
to
the
writings
of
African
novelists
and
poets
such
as
Ayi
Kwei
Armah,
Chinhua
Achebe,
and
Okot
p'Bitek
who
early
on
demonstrated
their
anguish at
Africa's
pervasive
problems
of
corruption,
repression,
and
economic
mismanagement.
Perhaps
we
should
also have
paid
greater
attention
to
our
own
laments
about
the
negative
impact
of
colonial
rule and
the
extent
to
which
it left
African
societies
ill
equipped
to
deal
with
the
harsh
realities
of
the
international
economic
system.
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