Freedom for the captives?

At the moment, thanks to my friends at charliechikankata, I'm reading 'The Shackled Continent' - an enlightening if uncomfortable read. Recognising that Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer over the last three decades Robert Guest seeks to diagnose the sickness that conitnues to hobble Africa's development.

Geography, colonialism, poverty, AIDS and the prevelance of disease, power-thirsty tyrants, bad governance, poor aid, unfair, and iniquitous trade restrictions amongst other things are all examined and critiqued:

'[The] problem with blaming the legacy of colonialism for Africa's current woes is that it gives little clue as to how these woes could be ended. history, like geography, cannot be changed. Grieving for past wrongs is natural and human, but it can also provide an excuse for despair. If today's problems are the fault of the West, the obvious thing to do is demand that the West should solve them. The trouble with this approach is twofold. Firstly, today Westerners do not feel particularly guilty about the sins of dead people who happened to come from the same country. Secondly, efforts by rich countries to solve Africa's problems have, over the last few decades, been spectacularly unsuccessful. Put differently, countries that prosper tend to do so by their own efforts.'

Grieving for past wrongs is natural and human, but it can also provide an excuse for despair.

Having spent time in this wonderful continent and with many African friends I'm finding Guest's book a shockingly stark and painful book to read, but there are stories of hope as well. Uganda's success in curbing the spread of AIDS, Botswana's peaceful prosperity and the continent's economic engine, South Africa, avoiding a full-blown civil war.

Guest's own question is 'how can Africa keep pace with a world that won't slow down?'

[Funnily enough, as parents of two small boys who show no signs of 'slowing down' (or sleeping!) Lisa and I have been asking a similar question?!]