Why is Africa Poor?

Chris Blattman writes and asks for suggestions:

That's the (informal) course title for my spring undergraduate lecture. Turns out that's too long and rambling a name for a transcript, and so the Yale powers that be had me shorten it to the duller, "African Poverty and Western Aid"...What can the West do? The course has students read the new canon of development: Sachs, Collier, Easterly, Rodrik, etc. Putting it together, I was struck with the preponderance of rich white male academics. Don't get me wrong. I aspire to be a rich white male academic myself (I am 3 for 4--and only held back from that goal by the preponderance of student debt). But it would be nice to have other perspectives.

So the course is now set up to read other points of view--mostly, admittedly, rich black male perspectives--and think critically about the new canon. Ayittey, Ake, Ekeh, Sawyer. Mamdani, Ndulu, Wainaina. Mwenda, Mkandawire and Soludo. And some optional Franz Fanon, just to appease Chris Udry...[continue reading]