Description: PART 1. Development ISSUE 1. Is Africa a Lost Cause? YES: Gavin Kitching, from "Why I Gave Up African Studies," African Studies Review and Newsletter (June 2000) NO: Jeff Popke, from "'The Politics of the Mirror': On Geography and Afro-Pessimism," African Geographical Review (December 2001) Gavin Kitching, professor of political science at the University of New South Wales, left the field of African studies because he "found it depressing." According to Kitching, Africanist scholars have failed to see Africa's own ruling elites as the principal culprits for the continent's dire predicament. He suggests that we "have to ask what it is about the history and culture of sub-Saharan Africa that has led to... its disastrous present." Jeff Popke, a professor of geography at East Carolina University, challenges the notion that "Africa's 'failure' is due to its backward and uncivilized culture." He suggests that Afro-pessimists are prone to ethnocentric assessments of Africa that judge the continent on Western rather than African terms. While African realities may not reflect our own assumptions about modernity, he argues that Africans are pursuing their own vision of development with great skill. ISSUE 2. Has the Colonial Experience Negatively Distorted Contemporary African Development Patterns? YES: Marcus Colchester, from "Slave and Enclave: Towards a Political Ecology of Equatorial Africa," The Ecologist (September/October 1993) NO: Robin M. Grier, from "Colonial Legacies and Economic Growth," Public Choice (March 1999) Marcus Colchester, director of the Forest Peoples Programme of the World Rainforest Movement, argues that rural communities in equatorial Africa are today on the point of collapse because they have been weakened by centuries of outside intervention. In Gabon, the Congo, and the Central African Republic, an enduring colonial legacy of the French are lands and forests controlled by state institutions that operate as patron-client networks to enrich indigenous elite and outside commercial interests. Robin M. Grier, assistant professor of economics at the University of Oklahoma, contends that African colonies that were held for longer periods of time tend to have performed better, on average, after independence. ISSUE 3. Have Structural Adjustment Policies Been Effective at Promoting Development in Africa? YES: Gerald Scott, from "Who Has Failed Africa? IMF Measures or the African Leadership?" Journal of Asian and African Studies (August 1998) NO: Macleans A. Geo-Jaja and Garth Mangum, from "Structural Adjustment as an Inadvertent Enemy of Human Development in Africa," Journal of Black Studies (September 2001) Gerald Scott, an economist at Florida State University, argues that structural adjustment programs are the most promising option for promoting economic growth in Africa and asserts that mismanagement and corruption are responsible for prohibiting economic growth. Macleans A. Geo-Jaja, associate professor of economics and education at Brigham Young University, and Garth Mangum, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Utah, argue that structural adjustment programs and stabilization policies rarely have been effective. Rather, they contend that the available evidence indicates that these policies have "accentuated the deterioration in the human condition and further compounded the already poor economic conditions in many African countries." ISSUE 4. Are Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) More Effective at Facilitating Development Than Government Agencies? YES: Maria Julia, from "One NGO's Contribution to Women's Economic Empowerment and Social Development in Zimbabwe," Journal of Social Development in Africa (1999) NO: Giles Mohan, from "The Disappointments of Civil Society: The Politics of NGO Intervention in Northern Ghana," Political Geography (2002) Maria Julia, professor of social work at Ohio State University, argues that the

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