The Challenge for Africa

March 9, 2009
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.

Starred review from November 1, 2009
In this refreshing tract by Kenyan activist Maathai ("Unbowed"), the Nobel laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement analyzes what she considers to be the major impediments to Africa's development and calls for change at the community level. Maathai draws on her wealth of experience and doesn't hesitate to speak her mind, particularly in her summons that Africa's leaders assume a greater degree of personal responsibility for the continent's problems. A fact-filled and stimulating book made even more engaging by Nigerian actress Chinasa Ogbuagu's distinctive narration; highly recommended.R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2009
Unbowed (2006) recounted Maathais courageous campaigns against environmental degradation in Kenya, an effort recognized by the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. This work elaborates her diagnoses of socioeconomic ailments and presents her prescriptions for ameliorating Africans lives. As do many analysts, she indicts misgovernment for, if not causing, assuredly aggravating woes that she roots in the legacies of colonialism. But while she exhorts the leaderships of African countries to adhere to standards of transparency and honesty, she characteristically not only argues for grassroots action to create a democratic space but also describes local development programs she promoted as a recent member of Kenyas parliament and government. Defeated in the 2007 election, Maathai, referring to the communal violence that ensued from Kenyas disputed presidential election that year, elaborates how she believes the ethnic allegiances of Africans ought to be embraced by their national governments. Dubious of top-down and foreign-aid approaches to development, Maathais confidence in locally oriented paradigms of progress to meet Africas health, agricultural, and environmental problems well may energize readers as well as advocates.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)