Description: The Idea of Development in Africa challenges prevailing international development discourses about the continent, by tracing the history of ideas, practices, and 'problems' of development used in Africa. In doing so, it offers an innovative approach to examining the history and culture of development through the lens of the development episteme, which has been foundational to the 'idea of Africa' in western discourses since the early 1800s. The study weaves together an historical narrative of how the idea of development emerged with an account of the policies and practices of development in colonial and postcolonial Africa. The book highlights four enduring themes in African development, including their present-day ramifications: domesticity, education, health, and industrialization. Offering a balance between historical overview and analysis of past and present case studies, Elisabeth McMahon and Corrie Decker demonstrate that Africans have always co-opted, challenged, and reformed the idea of development, even as the western-centric development episteme presumes a one-way flow of ideas and funding from the West to Africa.
Brief description: Elisabeth McMahon is Associate Professor of History at Tulane University, Louisiana. She is the author of Slavery and Emancipation in Islamic East Africa: From Honor to Respectability (2013) and numerous articles in International Labor and Working-Class History, Slavery and Abolition, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Women's History Review, Journal of Women's History, Africa Today, Journal of Social History and Quaker History. She led the digital humanities project, the African Letters Project in conjunction with the Amistad Research Center, making letters written by Africans during decolonization accessible globally.
Review Quotes: 'This refreshing and innovative study packs a double punch. First, it offers a bracing critique of the development industry, locating its roots deep within the colonial mind-set. Then it follows through with a brighter vision of Africa, one that emerges from the continent's own artists, thinkers, and leaders. A feast to which all are invited.' Gregory Mann, Columbia University