What is wrong with the Western approach to African development?
MICHELA WRONG: A Kenyan journalist once said to me, “Western governments need to lend to us more than we need to be lent to.” There is such a western liberal guilt complex toward Africa. Our default position is to feel sorry for Africans, then to feel guilty, and then to throw money at the problem. I don’t think we should cut all aid. There are levels of aid that will always have to be there because they save lives and prevent people starving and dying of malaria. But I can’t agree with the Jeffrey Sachs position, which is that what we need to fix things is essentially more aid, and more and more and more. This strikes me as a form of neo-colonial thinking which puts all the emphasis on Western intervention in order to save Africa from itself. It’s been said many times: countries are not built on aid. There are no examples. In our desire to keep lending to Africa I think we can do a great deal of harm. And I think we often do. In our desire to keep lending, it becomes irrelevant what e
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