Critical Issues in African Development.

• Author: Ntiru, Richard C.
• Position: Review

By Eric Kashambuzi, 1997 New York: Rivercross Publishing Inc.

Reviewed by Richard C. Ntiru

Eric Kashambuzi, a development professional par excellence, deploys his broad scholarship to examine the influence of a wide range of factors, including geography; climate and soils; tropical disease; population explosion; the economic globalization process; the slave trade; and the colonial exploitation that has marginalized weak African economies. With more than 25 years of exposure to, and participation in, the African development debate to back his position, he concludes that "polities pursued by colonial, apartheid and post-colonial regimes are primarily responsible for the present sorry state of African economy, society and the environment".

Four of the seven chapters of the book address themes of general relevance to Africa as a whole, while the other three are devoted to South Africa and Zambia. This may be perceived as constituting an imbalance, especially if they expected the volume to cover African countries such as Botswana and Mauritius, which have recorded commendable levels of social achievement and economic growth, or "strongly adjusting" countries such as Ghana and Uganda (of the "Lazarus economy" fame), which are constantly showcased as models of success of World Bank/International Monetary Fund adjustment policies. Readers may argue exclusion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and the Sudan renders the study incomplete. But the recommendations made in the areas of food security, population growth and family planning, debt, adjustment and deforestation...