Ndirangu Mwaura has degrees in sociology and history from the University of Nairobi. He lives in Nairobi; this is his first book to be published in the West.

The author analyzes modern African history to identify the reasons for conflict, economic collapse and other disasters, revealing a world of victims and executioners. The process of selection and emphasis in history...

The author analyzes modern African history to identify the reasons for conflict, economic collapse and other disasters, revealing a world of victims and executioners. The process of selection and emphasis in history inevitably entails taking sides; this work is skeptical of governments whether domestic or foreign. Mwafrika tells the story of the brief but bloody 1997 war in Congo (Brazzaville) from the standpoint of the oil connection, not the ethnic aspect that is usually given broader coverage. Similarly, he presents the dismal objective results of various events that have been painted as cultural but the impact of which has been economic, and initiatives that have been promoted as being for the "welfare" of Africans while in fact worsening their plight. The author strives to cover all major topics, problems and trends as they affect the central questions of poverty and inequality, and tries to anticipate a new future as well as to propose solutions. Part One is an investigation of the historical roots of African underdevelopment. Part Two traces the mechanisms by which poor African countries become trapped in their backwardness, including aspects of domestic and international politics which frustrate positive reform through political instability and war.

Development and underdevelopment are two terms that have found common usage in Africa. In Kenya, nearly all politicians plead their cases by promising to bring 'development'� to the people. Although there is no fixed meaning of the term, development can be described as the capacity to deal with the environment. The ability to fully comprehend science and apply this knowledge in the production of tools, which are then used to deal with the environment, is economic development1. An underdeveloped country is one which has an untapped potential for using more capital or more labor or more available natural resources to support its present population on a higher level of living. Western propaganda uses the term 'developing'� instead of 'underdeveloped'� to describe Africa, in order to give the false impression that African countries are making progress, moving away from a state of economic backwardness, and that they are freeing themselves from the relationship of being exploited by the countries of Europe, North America and Japan ' which is simply not true. In fact, exploitation of African countries increased in the last decades of the 20th century and first part of the 21st century, both in scope and degree. ...

INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: FACTORS HINDERING DEVELOPMENT 3 CHAPTER 1. NEOCOLONIALISM 5 CHAPTER 2. FOREIGN INVESTMENT 19 CHAPTER 3. LIBERALIZATION 31 CHAPTER 4. LACK OF LEADERSHIP 41 Sedar Sengho

INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: FACTORS HINDERING DEVELOPMENT 3 CHAPTER 1. NEOCOLONIALISM 5 CHAPTER 2. FOREIGN INVESTMENT 19 CHAPTER 3. LIBERALIZATION 31 CHAPTER 4. LACK OF LEADERSHIP 41 Sedar Senghor 45Mobutu Sese Seko 46Jomo Kenyatta 47'Democracy'� versus traditional structures 49Others 51 CHAPTER 5. LACK OF CAPITAL 55 False economic theories 56Loans and Aid 57'AID'� 77The Repercussions of Aid 82The solution 83 CHAPTER 6. UNDERPOPULATION 85 International policy on African population 88Family planning 93Diseases 96Reducing food availability 103Tainted water and food supplies 111Poverty 113Population and economy 113Urbanization and economic development 125 CHAPTER 7. CHARACTERISTICS AND CONSEQUENCES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT 129 Political and military weakness 129Economic weakness 133Mass poverty 135Tribalism 138 CHAPTER 8. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO THE ECONOMIC DILEMMA IN AFRICA 145 Ideologies 147 CHAPTER 9. THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND AFRICA 151 PART TWO: HOW NEOCOLONIALISM IS SUSTAINED 155 Introduction: sustaining neocolonialism 157 CHAPTER 10. RELIGION 161 How the European 'Christian'� church entrenches Neocolonialism 163Church structure 164Worship Aids 166Religious follies 168 CHAPTER 11. EDUCATION 171 The education system 171Language 173Education content 176Educating African students directly 180Consequences of neocolonial education 183Possible reforms 185 CHAPTER 12. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM 187 Television as a conduit of cultural imperialism 188Radio as a conduit for cultural imperialism 189The cinema as a conduit for cultural imperialism 189The family 194Hotels 197Classic Western culture 197The settler problem 199Consequences of cultural imperialism 202Misinformation 205 CHAPTER 13. MILITARY AND POLITICAL THREATS 207 Introduction 207Civil Wars 208Assassinations 209Economic Destabilization 209The UN as an Arm of Imperialism and Neocolonialism 210 EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN INTERVENTION 211 Egypt 211Nigeria 213Zaire 215South Africa 219Angola 221Mozambique 225Libya 226Kenya 229Others 230

Sound Bite A scholar from Nairobi decontructs the ways in which aid programs, trade, politics and imported culture are being grafted onto the historical roots of African underdevelopment. Neither a Marxist nor an apologist for capitalism, Mwaura shows neo-colonialism is still at work.

Sound Bite A scholar from Nairobi decontructs the ways in which aid programs, trade, politics and imported culture are being grafted onto the historical roots of African underdevelopment. Neither a Marxist nor an apologist for capitalism, Mwaura shows neo-colonialism is still at work.