By Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o and John Mwazemba

John Ruganda, the departed hard-hitting Ugandan dramatist once wrote: "A beggar’s knees are supple".

We have perfected the art of begging; with supple knees firmly planted on the ground, bowls in our hands and eyes fixed beseechingly to the West. We put to shame the optimism of American journalist Lincoln Steffens, who on returning from a visit to the Soviet Union in 1919 proclaimed: "I have seen the future, and it works."

Our homemade, watered down version of Steffens’ famous phrase seems to be "I have seen the future, and it is donor-funded!"

However, in her new book, Dead Aid: Why Aid is not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa,

Dambisa Moyo rounds up all sacred cows, ruffles our feathers and blasts our old, mildewed ideas of depending on aid. She unflinchingly confronts

one of the greatest myths of our time: billions of dollars in aid are sent to developing African nations

but they have not reduced poverty levels. As a critic noted, "In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined — and millions continue to suffer."

Moyo notes of African nations: "There are, sadly, common ties that bind sub-Saharan African countries.

Well-publicised are the degree of poverty, the extent of corruption, the incidence of disease, the dearth of

infrastructure, the erratic economic showing, political instability and the historical propensity for violent

unrest and civil war. These are universal themes shared, in varying degrees, across most African nations.

They are the issues that policymakers and governments grapple with… Africa’s common challenges are real and undeniably stark. Fortunes and misfortunes are intertwined".

Moyo is a compassionate writer who argues hauntingly for a besieged continent. She starts her book by writing: "For me, finding a sustainable

solution to Africa’s woes is a personal quest. Having been raised in one of the poorest countries in the

world, I feel a strong desire to help families like my own, who continue to suffer the consequences of economic failure every day of their lives. Throughout my professional and academic life…, I have pondered the question of development. I have often wondered, while other emerging regions have ostensibly turned the corner towards economic prosperity, why my continent has failed".

She is a Zambian with a PhD in Economics from Oxford University.

She has also worked for the World Bank as a consultant. In her book, she uses her economics knowledge and experience to lay bare the failures

of aid in Africa over the last four decades.

With piercing analysis backed by figures and historical accounts, she pronounces aid as a "dead end" for the future of Africa. Aid has not, is not and will not fund Africa’s development. If anything, like Walter Rodney said in the early seventies, it will

simply "underdevelop Africa".

Moyo offers four alternative ways of financing development in Africa: international bond markets; large-scale inflow of Foreign Direct Investments

(FDI) to finance infrastructure in particular; genuine free trade, especially with emerging markets like

China, India and within Africa itself; and intensifying financial intermediation especially micro-financing to unlock the capital potential in both rural and urban Africa.

With its big population, natural and mineral resources, a robust agricultural sector, a favourable

geopolitical position and a human resource base waiting to be tapped, Africa has no reason to remain poor in the 21st century. But aid, among other things, stands in the way.

And with aid comes such other ‘man-made’ drawbacks such as corruption, mismanagement of public resources, inappropriate policies, confidence deficiency and dependent mentalities of power wielders in developing countries. Coupled with being ravaged by diseases, the dislocating effects of civil wars and resultant ineffectiveness of governments,

which no longer can spearhead national development agenda, African nations find themselves regressing

into poverty.

But, as Satan observes in Milton’s Paradise Lost "though heaven be lost, all is not lost." Likewise, Africa can still regain her claim in history by forsaking the easy way of relying on aid and climbing onto the ladder of investment-led, trade-stimulated

and market-based development agenda.

Interestingly enough, this is where China, India, Malaysia and Singapore have all succeeded while

many African countries have been groping in the dark — with the exception of South Africa, Botswana

and Mauritius.

Somehow, somebody must bell the cat. Who is going to get Africa out of the dead end that aid has led us to?

Moyo asks this question but does not really confront it within the African context. Her appeal to the West to come to Africa’s help is weak.

To argue that: "there are good reasons based on national interest for the West to help" is romantically optimistic. The onus is on social forces in Africa to

capitalise on "these good reasons" by first and foremost spearheading a domestic agenda for national, democratic and popular changes that will

go beyond dead aid.

—Nyong’o is the Minister for Medical Services while

Mwazemba is the publishing manager of Macmillan