Africa Unchained : The Blueprint for Africa's Future

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Summary: Ayittey takes a new fresh look at Africa's future
Review: In Africa Unchained (January 2005), Ayittey takes a new fresh look at Africa's future and makes a number of daring suggestions.

First, he says economic development requires investment, both foreign and domestic. Investment, however, does not take place in a swamp or vacuum but in an "enabling environment," which must have, among others, the following features: security of persons and property; rule of law; and basic functioning infrastructure.

This environment does not exist in many parts of Africa because of the absence of a few key critical institutions: an independent media, an independent central bank, and an independent judiciary. These institutions are established by civil society or parliament, not by corrupt leaders since they are fundamentally opposed to the establishment of institutions that will check their arbitrary use of power.

Second, looking at how Africa can modernize, build, and improve their indigenous institutions, which have been castigated by African leaders as "backward and primitive," Ayittey argues that Africa should build and expand upon these traditions of free markets and free trade. Asking why the poorest Africans haven't been able to prosper in the 21st century, Ayittey makes the answer obvious: their economic freedom was snatched from them.

War and conflict replaced peace and the infrastructure crumbled. In a book that will be pondered over and argued about as much as his previous volumes, Ayittey looks at the possibilities for indigenous structures to revive a troubled continent.

Reviewed by David S. Fick, Author of Africa: Continent of Economic Opportunities, STE Publishers, Johannesburg SA, May 2005, www.ste.co.za