Africa Unchained: the Blueprint for Africa's Future.

• Author: Acs, Alex
• Position: Book review

AFRICA UNCHAINED: THE BLUEPRINT FOR AFRICA'S FUTURE

George B.N. Ayittey

(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 483 pages.

Born in Ghana, American University economist George Ayittey's most recent book, Africa Unchained: the Blueprint for Africa's Future, is a scathing critique of fifty years of post-colonial African leadership and the international order that supported it, as well as a cogent and nuanced defense of Africa's untapped economic potential. The central message of Ayittey's book is clear: Africa is not poor but, due mostly to a mismanaged concentration of political and economic power amongst the urban elite, its history of corruption has stymied development, wasted trillions of dollars and propped up a depressing list of ineffectual leaders.

The book begins by detailing, somewhat repetitively, the fundamental problems of Africa's development in the post-colonial era. The evidence presented in the first 300 pages is built upon a litany of examples chronicling the continent's economic, political and humanitarian maladies, many of which will be familiar to readers of international news.

The final third of the book focuses on how to right the many wrongs that African governments have created for themselves. In general, Ayittey's diagnosis...