Replace AID with Debt

Book Review Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo

Dambisa Moyo tries to make the point that African governments should have long term plans for economic growth rather than just relying on government aid. Her tone however is condescending and her book does what Americans call ‘preaching to the choir’, winning her the applause of Steve Forbes and a few Africans in the Diaspora. She engages in a lot of generalities and addresses the issue of aid on a continent basis yet when she compares with other places she makes country to country comparisons. She paints Africa with the same paint brush as if the African experience is monolithic.

Moyo seems to suggest that corruption, market distortion, and further poverty are attributed to aid and not other factors. This seems too simplistic, she ignores the effects of colonialism, culture, brain drain and other factors. If aid is responsible for poverty in Africa how does Moyo explain poverty before aid began?
I am not a fan of people living in the Diaspora writing about the problems that face Africans on the continent particularly if they have spent a long time away from the continent and relying on secondary information to make their assertions. Ms Moyo who herself is a recipient of aid through scholarships has taken a new turn on the very action that afforded her a prestigious education that even Americans and Britons can only dream of. She is surprised that the road that Cecil John Rhodes the colonialist who dreamt of colonizing from Cape to Cairo is 85% tarred. I wonder why she is surprised.

Ms Moyo explains that the Chinese aid has accomplished in a few years what the western aid has failed to do over several decades. Why? Moyo does not answer the question satisfactorily. She raises an interesting question about why the U.K and U.S were giving aid to Zimbabwe of which she seemed unwilling to address perhaps because she knows the answer to that.

I am curious why foreign companies say that want to help Africans do not have Africans who live in Africa on their boards and opt for those like Moyo who have not lived on the continent for decades. Ms Moyo highlights Botswana has a model for Africa because of their large cash reserves and their adoption of capitalism and democracy. There is no doubt that this has been helpful because peace and stability give rise to foreign investment. Is foreign investment the measure of success in Africa? I would like to see us measure success in terms of the Africans that own the businesses. The Tswana may be successful but why have we not seen not even one of them on the Forbes billionaire list as we have seen from South Africa and Nigeria?

Moyo seems to engage in double speak as Orwell would call it. On C-span interview she denounces critics and says that she is talking about government to government aid but in her book she talks about micro-financing as the solution so which is it? Micro or macro which is it Moyo?

Her solution is Goldman Sachs in Africa and not Africans coming up with their own solutions. This culture of imitation & dependency through looking outside the continent for answers has to stop. If Goldman Sachs which is nicknamed in America Government Sachs had to receive government aid to avoid insolvency are they the right teacher of Africa economics?

Moyo is the sales person for banking industry that now wants to go into Africa to engage in a new market of debt.
She never mentions the thousands of millionaires in USDs out of Africa instead the sad stories that are perpetuated in main stream media. Her solution for Africa is not innovation but borrowing from World Bank, is that right? The borrower is always subject to the lender, let us not forget. Moyo wants to move from aid to debt, wow this is really the way forward? Look at Western economies riddled in debt is this really the model Africa should aspire to?
I am interested in what her answer would be about Spain and its use of aid to build infrastructure. Is she critical of that aid too? Moyo espouses the idea that some African countries are worse off now than they were under colonialism. This statement begs the question who is paying Dambisa Moyo to say these things? Again she engages in double speak you get the impression first that she is all for African economic independence then she makes such an ill informed statement. Undermining her own voice she appears to be a salesperson without her own authentic African voice. She is smart to stay on generalities rather than go into specifics because she knows that such statements are for some uninformed in certain circles.
Dambisa makes a valid point about why there are different models for developments for the rest of world and for Africa? She however does not answer the question. She knows the answer but turns a blind eye perhaps not wanting to offend those giving her a fat check.
Why does Moyo address Africa as a continent and not just individual countries? Does anyone know what percentage of African economies aid makes up?
Dambisa is right it is the responsibility of the government to provide solutions to Africa’s problems. The problem I have is that she seems to suggest that Africa’s solutions lie in Golden Sachs coming to Africa rather in Africans coming up with their own solutions as if they cannot come up with their own solutions.
I think that the fact that we have African entrepreneurs who are changing the lives in their own lives. She seems to feel that there is only one solution to Africa’s problem which negates her whole American experience. Americans believe that there is more than one solution to a given problem and this is perhaps the single genius of America. Just because there is bureaucracy in Zambia does not mean that her friend should have quit helping out her country. Look at Indians who are making it in India they are not full of excuses but have tenacity and perseverance to better their own land rather than making money bad mouthing their fellow people through overseas book sales.
Ms Moyo a Harvard and Oxford educated employee of the World Bank and Goldman Sachs has tremendous book knowledge of the continent, I am curious what her hands on experience is; and whether it goes beyond the boardroom and think tanks and lecture rooms. Perhaps Dambisa Moyo should run for President of Zambia and put into effect the ideas she espouses then we can judge whether or not they work.
What are Dambisa’s credentials in terms of what has she done besides her personal academic accomplishments and her employee status at prestigious firms? How many lives has she changed in Africa? Is it right for those who have received aid such as Dambisa herself to now become advocates against it just because they have benefited?



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