Introduction: On the Wrong Bus
One The Farmer of Yaoundé
Two A Legacy of Woes
Three Pillars of Good Governance: The Three-Legged Stool
Four Aid and the Dependency Syndrome
Five Deficits: Indebtedness and Unfair Trade
Six Leadership
Seven Moving the Social Machine
Eight Culture: The Missing Link?
Nine The Crisis of National Identity
Ten Embracing the Micro-nations
Eleven Land Ownership: Whose Land Is It, Anyway?
Twelve Environment and Development
Thirteen Saving the Congo Forests
Fourteen The African Family
Acknowledgments
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1940. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which, through networks of rural women, has planted 40 million trees across Kenya since 1977. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya’s Parliament in the first free elections in a generation, and in 2003, she was appointed Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources, a post she held until 2007, when she left the government. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 2004, Matthai has been honored around the world for her work, including an appointment to the Legion d’Honneur by France and the Order of the Rising Sun by Japan. She is the author of two previous books: The Green Belt Movement and Unbowed, a memoir, and she regularly speaks to organizations around the world. Maathai died in 2011.
“A powerful and compelling look at the problems facing Africa and
the promises of the future.”
—Forbes
“A positive first step for the discussion to shift away from what
the outside world owes Africa and toward what Africans owe
themselves.”
—Slate
“Penetrating. . . . Poignant. . . . A book that gives substance to
the hollow mantra of African solutions to African problems and
provides a powerful case for Africans to take their own destinies
in hand. . . . Admirable. . . . Thorough. . . . A penetrating
assessment of the corrosive legacy of Africa’s history on its
inhabitants, and the failure of most contemporary African leaders
to rise to innumerable challenges. . . . The Challenge for Africa
is a poignant counter to the suggestion that nations can so readily
shake off their history.”
—Financial Times
“A manifesto for change whose message [is] vital. . . . Far from a
cry for help; it is a call to arms. . . . It holds important
lessons for the West.”
—The Ecologist
“[Maathai] offers pragmatic but hopeful advice on resolving the
problems of her native continent—from achieving gender equity to
saving Congo’s forests to removing the stigma of HIV and AIDS and
giving victims of the disease the tools to empower themselves.”
—Ms.
“Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement demonstrate the
intimate connection between sustainable management of Africa’s rich
natural resources, democracy, good governance and peace. Such are
the solutions that will bring new light to Africa. I hope the world
will support her vision of hope.”
—Nelson Mandela
“The Challenge for Africa reads like an African version of The
Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. . . . It is both an accessible
primer on the challenges facing Africa and a lucid manifesto on how
to address them. . . . Maathai’s idea, that Africans must look back
first, is audacious and noble.”
—The Irish Times
“Wangari Maathai is the rare leader who knows how to create
independence, not dependence.”
—Gloria Steinem
“Maathai’s writing is as clear as an African sky. . . . This book
represents her accumulated insights, wisdom and recommendations for
the continued recovery of the continent. . . . [It] should be
placed at every African seat of learning, and should become
prescribed reading for every African politician.”
—Cape Times (South Africa)
“As one of the women leaders that are changing Africa she is an
inspiration to us all.”
—British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
“A wide-ranging study of Africa’s current predicament and a
no-nonsense, tightly argued proposal of the way forward for the
continent. Written with a measured tone and in plain, simple
language, it would be a mistake to underestimate the book’s
validity and sheer intellectual power.”
—African Business (London)
“Wangari Maathai has been a champion of the environment, of women,
of Africa, and of anyone concerned about our future security.”
—Kofi Annan
“Exposes the most obstinate ‘bottlenecks to development,’ proposing
ingenious initiatives aimed at overcoming a legacy of colonialism,
an unforgiving global economy—and, most intractably, a mentality of
dependency. In such troubled times, women with experience—and the
conviction to match it—offer a hopeful way forward.”
—Vogue
“From one of Africa’s most positive and far-sighted thinkers comes
a wonderful book combining an elegant critique of Africa’s troubled
past with a rallying cry for how Africans can use culture, nature
and self-belief to reverse their continent’s decline. The Challenge
for Africa is a milestone in African writing that both educates and
inspires.”
—Tim Butcher, bestselling author of Blood River: A Journey to
Africa’s Broken Heart
Africa's moral and cultural dysfunctions loom as large as its material problems in this wide-ranging jeremiad. Maathai (Unbowed), a Kenyan biologist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for organizing the tree-planting Green Belt Movement, surveys Africa's struggle with poverty and disease, political violence, climate change, the legacy of colonialism and a global economy that's stacked against it. But the deeper problem she sees is the selfishness, opportunism and shortsightedness of Africans themselves, from leaders who exploit their countrymen and loot their nations' resources to poor farmers who ruin the land for short-term gain. Maathai means this as an empowering message aimed at a mindset of dependency that would rather "wait for someone to magically make development happen"; she urges Africans to recover indigenous traditions of community solidarity and self-help, along with the virtues of honesty, fairness and hard work. Maathai shrewdly analyzes the links between environmental degradation and underdevelopment, and floats intriguing proposals, like banning plastic bags as a malaria-abatement measure. But the challenges she addresses are vast and intractable-and sadly, many of the development and environmental initiatives she extols seem to have already fizzled. (Apr.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
"A powerful and compelling look at the problems facing Africa and
the promises of the future."
-Forbes
"A positive first step for the discussion to shift away from what
the outside world owes Africa and toward what Africans owe
themselves."
-Slate
"Penetrating. . . . Poignant. . . . A book that gives substance to
the hollow mantra of African solutions to African problems and
provides a powerful case for Africans to take their own destinies
in hand. . . . Admirable. . . . Thorough. . . . A penetrating
assessment of the corrosive legacy of Africa's history on its
inhabitants, and the failure of most contemporary African leaders
to rise to innumerable challenges. . . . The Challenge for
Africa is a poignant counter to the suggestion that nations can
so readily shake off their history."
-Financial Times
"A manifesto for change whose message [is] vital. . . . Far from a
cry for help; it is a call to arms. . . . It holds important
lessons for the West."
-The Ecologist
"[Maathai] offers pragmatic but hopeful advice on resolving the
problems of her native continent-from achieving gender equity to
saving Congo's forests to removing the stigma of HIV and AIDS and
giving victims of the disease the tools to empower themselves."
-Ms.
"Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement demonstrate the
intimate connection between sustainable management of Africa's rich
natural resources, democracy, good governance and peace. Such are
the solutions that will bring new light to Africa. I hope the world
will support her vision of hope."
-Nelson Mandela
"The Challenge for Africa reads like an African version of
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. . . . It is both an
accessible primer on the challenges facing Africa and a lucid
manifesto on how to address them. . . . Maathai's idea, that
Africans must look back first, is audacious and noble."
-The Irish Times
"Wangari Maathai is the rare leader who knows how to create
independence, not dependence."
-Gloria Steinem
"Maathai's writing is as clear as an African sky. . . . This book
represents her accumulated insights, wisdom and recommendations for
the continued recovery of the continent. . . . [It] should be
placed at every African seat of learning, and should become
prescribed reading for every African politician."
-Cape Times (South Africa)
"As one of the women leaders that are changing Africa she is an
inspiration to us all."
-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
"A wide-ranging study of Africa's current predicament and a
no-nonsense, tightly argued proposal of the way forward for the
continent. Written with a measured tone and in plain, simple
language, it would be a mistake to underestimate the book's
validity and sheer intellectual power."
-African Business (London)
"Wangari Maathai has been a champion of the environment, of women,
of Africa, and of anyone concerned about our future security."
-Kofi Annan
"Exposes the most obstinate 'bottlenecks to development,' proposing
ingenious initiatives aimed at overcoming a legacy of colonialism,
an unforgiving global economy-and, most intractably, a mentality of
dependency. In such troubled times, women with experience-and the
conviction to match it-offer a hopeful way forward."
-Vogue
"From one of Africa's most positive and far-sighted thinkers comes
a wonderful book combining an elegant critique of Africa's troubled
past with a rallying cry for how Africans can use culture, nature
and self-belief to reverse their continent's decline. The
Challenge for Africa is a milestone in African writing that
both educates and inspires."
-Tim Butcher, bestselling author of Blood River: A Journey to
Africa's Broken Heart
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