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How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier
The birth of new nations, independent democracies, the unprecedented growth of cities from Lagos to Cairo; the African continent is booming. So why do myths about underdevelopment, unproductive land and overpopulation remain?
In a groundbreaking new study of Africa's developmental history, economist Joe Studwell debunks long-held views about the continent's presumed resistance to growth, charting monumental changes in government, demography and asset management.
Considering everything from settler colonialism to soil conditions, mineral extractivism to disease development and eradication, Studwell persuasively argues that the seizing back of land, people and states across Africa, has also been the seizure of mass economic development.
From slavery to independence and beyond, this is the definitive account of the world's second largest continent - and an optimistic look to its future.
In a groundbreaking new study of Africa's developmental history, economist Joe Studwell debunks long-held views about the continent's presumed resistance to growth, charting monumental changes in government, demography and asset management.
Considering everything from settler colonialism to soil conditions, mineral extractivism to disease development and eradication, Studwell persuasively argues that the seizing back of land, people and states across Africa, has also been the seizure of mass economic development.
From slavery to independence and beyond, this is the definitive account of the world's second largest continent - and an optimistic look to its future.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published February 17, 2026
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When Joe Studwell’s How Asia Works came out in 2013, it was a book deeply out of consensus. In an age of randomized control trials and micro-interventions, it resurrected macro policies—land redistribution, industrial policy—that had virtually disappeared from mainstream development economics. Moreover, it returned East Asia, the only developing region in the world to successfully make the postwar climb out of poverty, back to the center of debate.
Thirteen years on, Studwell probably deserves some kind of triumphal march. Industrial policy is back in a big way. Through How Asia Works’s influence on Noah Smith and a host of bloggers, a generation of young tech-adjacent males were primed to rant about semiconductor subsidies at parties.
I am no exception. Reading How Asia Works was a formative intellectual experience for me—a jolt out of the mathematical slumber of PhD coursework. I have a complex relationship with the text (more on this in a moment), but I still recommend it effusively to anyone who wants to learn about East Asia.
Now, thirteen years later, Joe Studwell is back. How Africa Works aims to do for Africa what he achieved for Asia—becoming the natural first stop for readers who want to learn about the economics of the continent.
A Dismal Inheritance
The first part of How Africa Works addresses the perennial question: why is Africa poor?
Historically, low population density, induced by pests like the tse-tse fly, discouraged the formation of large urban centers. The slave trade—first Arab, then Western—further depopulated the continent, breaking down social bonds. When Europeans arrived in force in the 19th century, they did colonialism on the cheap, with few policemen and even fewer schools. Unlike (say) the Japanese in Korea or Taiwan, the colonial state rarely penetrated much farther than the capital or key ports, leaving governance in the vast hinterland to invented or upjumped chiefs.
Decolonization left a dismal inheritance. In spite of superficial similarities in GDP with East or South Asia, Africa had far more problems on its plate. Levels of education were far too low to sustain an effective civil service, let alone communities of engineers or innovators. Incoherent states encased in inappropriate borders meant Africa’s founding fathers had to stitch nations together from unrelated ethnic groups.
Studwell’s diagnosis of Africa’s problems is steadfastly conventional, leaning heavily on the academic consensus established by Jeffrey Herbst, Robert Bates, Nicolas van de Walle, Leonard Wantchekon, among others. This is no dig; Studwell is an elegant synthesizer. I have some quibbles around the margins—the underrating of precolonial Africa reflects some lingering Western state-centric bias—but as a diagnosis for Africa’s poverty this is a far richer, textured, and more accurate account than the memelike “extractive institutions”.
Four Success Stories
Having set the scene, Studwell turns to four successful case studies: Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. This itself is a refreshing approach to economic analysis of Africa, which so often wants to dwell on failure. Unlike Taiwan or South Korea, none of these countries is an unqualified developmental miracle, but their relative success provides clues to how an African economic transformation might take place.
Botswana
Botswana is Studwell’s poster child for a successful democratic developmental coalition. (For this reason, it featured heavily in Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail as an example of “inclusive institutions”.)
Under the sound leadership of Seretse Khama, local chiefs were carefully co-opted at independence and the Botswana Democratic Party built up into a genuine national force. Khama also created a capable civil service, initially staffed by remaining Europeans, but gradually Africanized with sterling Batswana talent. This meant that when diamonds were discovered just around independence, the windfall was carefully managed, avoiding the worst effects of Dutch Disease. These mining revenues helped raise Botswana to upper middle-income status, making it the fourth-richest country in continental Africa.
Botswana’s chief failing, in Studwell’s view, was adhering too much to responsible policy orthodoxy—i.e., not enough industrial policy. There was no vision for large-scale industrialization, no coherent plan to create large numbers of factory jobs. Moreover, the political dominance of large cattle owners (Botswana was a society of pastoralists rather than farmers) meant that redistribution was never in the cards. The result is a relatively rich society, but one that is highly unequal.
Mauritius
Mauritius, which is often not thought of as an African country, is perhaps the most unusual choice. An uninhabited island before Dutch colonization in the 17th century, its ethnic makeup of Indians and Creoles resembles the Caribbean more than continental Africa. Moreover, Mauritius became independent in 1968 at an income level that most contemporary Africans would envy (see chart above).
Nonetheless, Mauritius’s developmental record is impressive. Originally a sugar colony, a tax on sugar receipts was used to funnel landowners’ capital from agriculture to manufacturing. In the subsequent manufacturing drive, powered by the exports of apparel and textiles, GDP rose 6% a year. With egalitarian, broad-based growth, poverty was virtually eradicated.
However, Mauritius was unable to make the leap from garments to higher-value manufacturing, and the sector’s share of GDP has since halved from over 20 percent to just 11 percent by 2020. Alongside Seychelles, it is one of only two African countries ranked “very high” on the UN’s Human Development Index.
Rwanda
Ethiopia and Rwanda, as recent developmental darlings and conscious emulators of the East Asian example, are perhaps the least surprising inclusions in Studwell’s list.
Under President Paul Kagame, Rwanda has explicitly modeled itself after Singapore (including Lee Kuan Yew’s authoritarian tendencies). At first blush, this struck me as absurd: Singapore is an island state on the crossroads of the world’s richest sea lanes; Rwanda is a landlocked country in poor central Africa.
Studwell’s account convinced me there is an economic logic to this strategy. The high cost of road transport means that importing goods into Central Africa is prohibitively expensive. Rwanda does not necessarily need to compete with the world; by delivering on infrastructure projects and maintaining rare political stability, it can attract investment as a kind of entrepot to Africa’s Great Lakes. Under this formula (with perhaps some slight fudging of the numbers), Rwanda has maintained impressive 7% growth for the past decade.
The big question surrounding Rwanda is if the growth coalition can hold together. Nowhere else in Africa is the tragic legacy of ethnic division more apparent; the present Kagame regime took power by overthrowing the perpetrators of the infamous 1994 genocide. Rwanda’s military involvement in the Eastern Congo, which represents both a source of raw materials and a lucrative market of 30 million, adds a further dark cast to its developmental success.
Ethiopia
It is Ethiopia that comes the closest to achieving all parts of Studwell’s formula. As a country of 135 million people, it has the scale to set a major example to the world and to take a serious bite out of Africa’s poverty all on its own.
Meles Zenawi, prime minister from 1995 to 2012, was an avid student of East Asia. (His thesis outline is available online; for any economist with a wavering faith in the power of ideas, read the bibliography.) Under his leadership, the Ethiopian state invested heavily in agricultural extension and irrigation, improving the yields of smallholder farmers. It began (with Chinese support) building industrial parks to support an export manufacturing base. Most ambitious of all, it began work on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, one of the largest hydropower projects in the world, to find a permanent solution to Ethiopia’s energy woes.
No student of How Asia Works could have done better. Had How Africa Works been published before November 2020, it’s easy to see how a celebration of Ethiopia might have occupied most of the book.
But the outbreak of civil war derailed Ethiopia’s progress, and demonstrated the continuing risk of ethnic conflict to the prospects of economic growth.
Read the rest of my review on my blog, Global-Developments.org
Thirteen years on, Studwell probably deserves some kind of triumphal march. Industrial policy is back in a big way. Through How Asia Works’s influence on Noah Smith and a host of bloggers, a generation of young tech-adjacent males were primed to rant about semiconductor subsidies at parties.
I am no exception. Reading How Asia Works was a formative intellectual experience for me—a jolt out of the mathematical slumber of PhD coursework. I have a complex relationship with the text (more on this in a moment), but I still recommend it effusively to anyone who wants to learn about East Asia.
Now, thirteen years later, Joe Studwell is back. How Africa Works aims to do for Africa what he achieved for Asia—becoming the natural first stop for readers who want to learn about the economics of the continent.
A Dismal Inheritance
The first part of How Africa Works addresses the perennial question: why is Africa poor?
Historically, low population density, induced by pests like the tse-tse fly, discouraged the formation of large urban centers. The slave trade—first Arab, then Western—further depopulated the continent, breaking down social bonds. When Europeans arrived in force in the 19th century, they did colonialism on the cheap, with few policemen and even fewer schools. Unlike (say) the Japanese in Korea or Taiwan, the colonial state rarely penetrated much farther than the capital or key ports, leaving governance in the vast hinterland to invented or upjumped chiefs.
Decolonization left a dismal inheritance. In spite of superficial similarities in GDP with East or South Asia, Africa had far more problems on its plate. Levels of education were far too low to sustain an effective civil service, let alone communities of engineers or innovators. Incoherent states encased in inappropriate borders meant Africa’s founding fathers had to stitch nations together from unrelated ethnic groups.
Studwell’s diagnosis of Africa’s problems is steadfastly conventional, leaning heavily on the academic consensus established by Jeffrey Herbst, Robert Bates, Nicolas van de Walle, Leonard Wantchekon, among others. This is no dig; Studwell is an elegant synthesizer. I have some quibbles around the margins—the underrating of precolonial Africa reflects some lingering Western state-centric bias—but as a diagnosis for Africa’s poverty this is a far richer, textured, and more accurate account than the memelike “extractive institutions”.
Four Success Stories
Having set the scene, Studwell turns to four successful case studies: Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. This itself is a refreshing approach to economic analysis of Africa, which so often wants to dwell on failure. Unlike Taiwan or South Korea, none of these countries is an unqualified developmental miracle, but their relative success provides clues to how an African economic transformation might take place.
Botswana
Botswana is Studwell’s poster child for a successful democratic developmental coalition. (For this reason, it featured heavily in Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail as an example of “inclusive institutions”.)
Under the sound leadership of Seretse Khama, local chiefs were carefully co-opted at independence and the Botswana Democratic Party built up into a genuine national force. Khama also created a capable civil service, initially staffed by remaining Europeans, but gradually Africanized with sterling Batswana talent. This meant that when diamonds were discovered just around independence, the windfall was carefully managed, avoiding the worst effects of Dutch Disease. These mining revenues helped raise Botswana to upper middle-income status, making it the fourth-richest country in continental Africa.
Botswana’s chief failing, in Studwell’s view, was adhering too much to responsible policy orthodoxy—i.e., not enough industrial policy. There was no vision for large-scale industrialization, no coherent plan to create large numbers of factory jobs. Moreover, the political dominance of large cattle owners (Botswana was a society of pastoralists rather than farmers) meant that redistribution was never in the cards. The result is a relatively rich society, but one that is highly unequal.
Mauritius
Mauritius, which is often not thought of as an African country, is perhaps the most unusual choice. An uninhabited island before Dutch colonization in the 17th century, its ethnic makeup of Indians and Creoles resembles the Caribbean more than continental Africa. Moreover, Mauritius became independent in 1968 at an income level that most contemporary Africans would envy (see chart above).
Nonetheless, Mauritius’s developmental record is impressive. Originally a sugar colony, a tax on sugar receipts was used to funnel landowners’ capital from agriculture to manufacturing. In the subsequent manufacturing drive, powered by the exports of apparel and textiles, GDP rose 6% a year. With egalitarian, broad-based growth, poverty was virtually eradicated.
However, Mauritius was unable to make the leap from garments to higher-value manufacturing, and the sector’s share of GDP has since halved from over 20 percent to just 11 percent by 2020. Alongside Seychelles, it is one of only two African countries ranked “very high” on the UN’s Human Development Index.
Rwanda
Ethiopia and Rwanda, as recent developmental darlings and conscious emulators of the East Asian example, are perhaps the least surprising inclusions in Studwell’s list.
Under President Paul Kagame, Rwanda has explicitly modeled itself after Singapore (including Lee Kuan Yew’s authoritarian tendencies). At first blush, this struck me as absurd: Singapore is an island state on the crossroads of the world’s richest sea lanes; Rwanda is a landlocked country in poor central Africa.
Studwell’s account convinced me there is an economic logic to this strategy. The high cost of road transport means that importing goods into Central Africa is prohibitively expensive. Rwanda does not necessarily need to compete with the world; by delivering on infrastructure projects and maintaining rare political stability, it can attract investment as a kind of entrepot to Africa’s Great Lakes. Under this formula (with perhaps some slight fudging of the numbers), Rwanda has maintained impressive 7% growth for the past decade.
The big question surrounding Rwanda is if the growth coalition can hold together. Nowhere else in Africa is the tragic legacy of ethnic division more apparent; the present Kagame regime took power by overthrowing the perpetrators of the infamous 1994 genocide. Rwanda’s military involvement in the Eastern Congo, which represents both a source of raw materials and a lucrative market of 30 million, adds a further dark cast to its developmental success.
Ethiopia
It is Ethiopia that comes the closest to achieving all parts of Studwell’s formula. As a country of 135 million people, it has the scale to set a major example to the world and to take a serious bite out of Africa’s poverty all on its own.
Meles Zenawi, prime minister from 1995 to 2012, was an avid student of East Asia. (His thesis outline is available online; for any economist with a wavering faith in the power of ideas, read the bibliography.) Under his leadership, the Ethiopian state invested heavily in agricultural extension and irrigation, improving the yields of smallholder farmers. It began (with Chinese support) building industrial parks to support an export manufacturing base. Most ambitious of all, it began work on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, one of the largest hydropower projects in the world, to find a permanent solution to Ethiopia’s energy woes.
No student of How Asia Works could have done better. Had How Africa Works been published before November 2020, it’s easy to see how a celebration of Ethiopia might have occupied most of the book.
But the outbreak of civil war derailed Ethiopia’s progress, and demonstrated the continuing risk of ethnic conflict to the prospects of economic growth.
Read the rest of my review on my blog, Global-Developments.org
February 17, 2026
Some time ago, I read “Africa is not a country” and, although this book is based on different premises and, above all, explains in deep only 4 African countries using different indicators, I find that both books have been fundamental in allowing me to understand a little better a continent so vast that it encompasses all the possibilities of the world.
Ho letto qualche tempo fa "Africa is not a country" e per quanto questo libro si basi su premesse diverse e soprattutto spieghi solo alcuni paesi africani (4 per la precisione) usando indicatori diversi, trovo che entrambi siano stati fondamentali per permettermi di capire un po' meglio un continente talmente grande, che al suo interno racchiude tutte le possibilitá del mondo.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
Ho letto qualche tempo fa "Africa is not a country" e per quanto questo libro si basi su premesse diverse e soprattutto spieghi solo alcuni paesi africani (4 per la precisione) usando indicatori diversi, trovo che entrambi siano stati fondamentali per permettermi di capire un po' meglio un continente talmente grande, che al suo interno racchiude tutte le possibilitá del mondo.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
June 15, 2026
Studwell argues that Africa’s development failures are largely the result of policy and institutional weaknesses rather than geography, colonial history, or a lack of aid. Drawing heavily on the East Asian experience, he emphasises three drivers of development: raising agricultural productivity, promoting export-oriented manufacturing, and maintaining a state capable of disciplining both public and private actors.
The book’s strength is its focus on the practical mechanics of economic transformation rather than abstract development theory. Studwell is particularly effective in highlighting the importance of agriculture, incentives, and state capacity. However, he arguably overstates the extent to which the East Asian model can be replicated in Africa, giving insufficient weight to differences in political institutions, demographics, state capability, and historical context.
Overall, How Africa Works is a clear, provocative, and highly readable contribution to the development literature. Even where one disagrees with its conclusions, it raises important questions about why some countries achieve sustained structural transformation while others remain trapped in low-productivity equilibria.
The book’s strength is its focus on the practical mechanics of economic transformation rather than abstract development theory. Studwell is particularly effective in highlighting the importance of agriculture, incentives, and state capacity. However, he arguably overstates the extent to which the East Asian model can be replicated in Africa, giving insufficient weight to differences in political institutions, demographics, state capability, and historical context.
Overall, How Africa Works is a clear, provocative, and highly readable contribution to the development literature. Even where one disagrees with its conclusions, it raises important questions about why some countries achieve sustained structural transformation while others remain trapped in low-productivity equilibria.
May 6, 2026
A very ambitious book that seeks to explain how Africa can develop further. I think that its ambition is also its downfall to an extent. Many of the 'lessons' for development in Africa are drawn from four case studies: Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. I am sceptical that these few case studies are sufficiently representative to be able to offer development lessons for the whole continent. Particularly, three of these countries are extremely small, relatively speaking. Meanwhile, the largest and most influential economies of Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa are mostly neglected.
The book also has a strong sectoral focus, prioritizing discussions of agriculture and manufacturing to the near complete neglect of the services sector, which is only increasing in importance. The author identified uniquely low levels of education as one of the binding constraints to development in Africa. However, this theme is totally neglected after the first few chapters. The agricultural and manufacturing sectors, which he identifies as the main source of development, doesn't place such a strong premium on education as some other sectors. In addition, there is no discussion of how increasing education levels will push wage levels up, reducing Africa's cost-competitiveness compared with other developing regions.
Nevertheless, I think the book makes a valuable contribution to the discourse on African development. I found his arguments on the benefits of population density for developing markets quite convincing and refreshing. I agree with his overall point that Africa will continue its development and play a larger role in the world, though the book gives an incomplete picture of how the continent will get there.
The book also has a strong sectoral focus, prioritizing discussions of agriculture and manufacturing to the near complete neglect of the services sector, which is only increasing in importance. The author identified uniquely low levels of education as one of the binding constraints to development in Africa. However, this theme is totally neglected after the first few chapters. The agricultural and manufacturing sectors, which he identifies as the main source of development, doesn't place such a strong premium on education as some other sectors. In addition, there is no discussion of how increasing education levels will push wage levels up, reducing Africa's cost-competitiveness compared with other developing regions.
Nevertheless, I think the book makes a valuable contribution to the discourse on African development. I found his arguments on the benefits of population density for developing markets quite convincing and refreshing. I agree with his overall point that Africa will continue its development and play a larger role in the world, though the book gives an incomplete picture of how the continent will get there.
March 12, 2026
A little dry and unfocused, but good overview. I found his more journalistic/anthropological sections towards the end most compelling, where he's discussing smallholder agriculture. Wish the whole book could have been like this, but the history was obviously necessary. Could it have been woven in better? Probably.
A great jumping off point for further reading.
A great jumping off point for further reading.
February 28, 2026
a bit undercooked
February 6, 2026
How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Developmental Frontier is the sequel to Joe Studwell’s influential examination of East Asian economic development that offers an ambitious intellectual framework for Africa’s future growth. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in a dozen African countries, Studwell argues that the continent’s persistent poverty can be addressed through the adoption of a coherent and largely uniform set of policies that proved successful in East Asia. These include the subdivision of large landholdings into small-scale household farms, active support for domestic manufacturing, and state-led, comprehensive strategies for development and industrialization. By highlighting several African success stories, Studwell challenges claims of African exceptionalism and contends that the core maxims of economic development that succeeded elsewhere can also bear fruit on the continent.
Studwell clearly and persuasively attributes Africa’s current predicament to a constellation of historical and structural factors, including ethnic fragmentation, chronically low population density, political immaturity, land inequality, and deficits in education. Prior to the twentieth century, many African societies were organized into relatively loose political groupings, and the often-violent process of state formation—experienced in Europe during the medieval and early modern periods—was interrupted by colonial rule. Colonial powers, exploitative in both design and practice, failed either to distribute settler land equitably to subsistence farmers, thereby fostering social stability, or to nurture domestic manufacturing. This “unhelpful economic inheritance,” as Studwell terms it, deprived postcolonial states of egalitarian land ownership, local entrepreneurship, and the political cohesion necessary to pursue shared development strategies. Combined with the lowest average levels of educational attainment in the world, postcolonial Africa emerged as an economic basket case.
Despite these deep-rooted constraints, Studwell insists that Africa’s endowments need not determine its destiny. Through a series of carefully chosen case studies, he examines countries that have implemented effective development strategies and achieved growth rates comparable to, or exceeding, those of East Asia. These include Botswana, a resource-dependent state that forged a broad political consensus around inclusive national development; Mauritius, a small island nation governed by a pluralistic coalition of urban professionals committed to export-oriented industrialization, support for small landholders, and robust welfare and education systems; Ethiopia, where concentrated state intervention has promoted infrastructure investment, vocational agricultural training, the commercialization of smallholder farming, and industrial policy modeled on Asian precedents; and Rwanda, which Studwell portrays as a case of strong governance and state capacity inspired by Singapore. Across these examples, Studwell identifies common themes: agricultural policies that empower smallholders, deliberate efforts to cultivate domestic manufacturing, and political leadership committed to public service, often through cross-ethnic coalitions organized around a developmental agenda.
While Studwell’s concise and compelling development blueprint is grounded in notable successes, it is not without limitations. His argument tends to understate the heterogeneity of historical trajectories, demographic realities, and geographic constraints that complicate direct comparisons between Africa and Asia. Small-plot farming flourished in Asia in part because of high population density, which enabled labor-intensive cultivation, alongside favorable soil quality and rainfall patterns. Much of Africa, by contrast, faces lower population density, more variable rainfall, weaker transport networks, and limited irrigation, all of which constrain the productivity of smallholder agriculture. African manufacturing likewise confronts formidable obstacles, including competition from inexpensive Asian imports, external tariff barriers in Europe and North America, poor infrastructure, and the disadvantages faced by landlocked countries. Moreover, several of Studwell’s success stories are shaped by distinctive colonial legacies. Mauritius, his most celebrated example, was historically uninhabited, lacked the ethnic fragmentation characteristic of many mainland African states, and inherited relatively effective governance institutions from British rule. Rwanda’s impressive gains in governance and service delivery are offset by its small scale and heavy dependence on foreign aid, while Botswana remains highly reliant on a narrow and unique set of commodity exports. The combined legacies of what Studwell calls “low-budget colonialism,” enduring political and ethnic fragmentation, aid dynamics, and geography all complicate his proposed algorithm for success.
Taken as a whole, How Africa Works presents a lucid case for the broad applicability of developmental policies capable of advancing Africa’s economic frontier. Matching the analytical rigor of his earlier work on Asia, Studwell contends that Africa’s multidimensional challenges can be mitigated through political and economic practices that empower small landholders and local entrepreneurs in pursuit of broad-based growth. Central to this vision is a strong, capable state—one able to spearhead development through inclusive political coalitions that remain firmly oriented toward a long-term developmental agenda.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this work.
Studwell clearly and persuasively attributes Africa’s current predicament to a constellation of historical and structural factors, including ethnic fragmentation, chronically low population density, political immaturity, land inequality, and deficits in education. Prior to the twentieth century, many African societies were organized into relatively loose political groupings, and the often-violent process of state formation—experienced in Europe during the medieval and early modern periods—was interrupted by colonial rule. Colonial powers, exploitative in both design and practice, failed either to distribute settler land equitably to subsistence farmers, thereby fostering social stability, or to nurture domestic manufacturing. This “unhelpful economic inheritance,” as Studwell terms it, deprived postcolonial states of egalitarian land ownership, local entrepreneurship, and the political cohesion necessary to pursue shared development strategies. Combined with the lowest average levels of educational attainment in the world, postcolonial Africa emerged as an economic basket case.
Despite these deep-rooted constraints, Studwell insists that Africa’s endowments need not determine its destiny. Through a series of carefully chosen case studies, he examines countries that have implemented effective development strategies and achieved growth rates comparable to, or exceeding, those of East Asia. These include Botswana, a resource-dependent state that forged a broad political consensus around inclusive national development; Mauritius, a small island nation governed by a pluralistic coalition of urban professionals committed to export-oriented industrialization, support for small landholders, and robust welfare and education systems; Ethiopia, where concentrated state intervention has promoted infrastructure investment, vocational agricultural training, the commercialization of smallholder farming, and industrial policy modeled on Asian precedents; and Rwanda, which Studwell portrays as a case of strong governance and state capacity inspired by Singapore. Across these examples, Studwell identifies common themes: agricultural policies that empower smallholders, deliberate efforts to cultivate domestic manufacturing, and political leadership committed to public service, often through cross-ethnic coalitions organized around a developmental agenda.
While Studwell’s concise and compelling development blueprint is grounded in notable successes, it is not without limitations. His argument tends to understate the heterogeneity of historical trajectories, demographic realities, and geographic constraints that complicate direct comparisons between Africa and Asia. Small-plot farming flourished in Asia in part because of high population density, which enabled labor-intensive cultivation, alongside favorable soil quality and rainfall patterns. Much of Africa, by contrast, faces lower population density, more variable rainfall, weaker transport networks, and limited irrigation, all of which constrain the productivity of smallholder agriculture. African manufacturing likewise confronts formidable obstacles, including competition from inexpensive Asian imports, external tariff barriers in Europe and North America, poor infrastructure, and the disadvantages faced by landlocked countries. Moreover, several of Studwell’s success stories are shaped by distinctive colonial legacies. Mauritius, his most celebrated example, was historically uninhabited, lacked the ethnic fragmentation characteristic of many mainland African states, and inherited relatively effective governance institutions from British rule. Rwanda’s impressive gains in governance and service delivery are offset by its small scale and heavy dependence on foreign aid, while Botswana remains highly reliant on a narrow and unique set of commodity exports. The combined legacies of what Studwell calls “low-budget colonialism,” enduring political and ethnic fragmentation, aid dynamics, and geography all complicate his proposed algorithm for success.
Taken as a whole, How Africa Works presents a lucid case for the broad applicability of developmental policies capable of advancing Africa’s economic frontier. Matching the analytical rigor of his earlier work on Asia, Studwell contends that Africa’s multidimensional challenges can be mitigated through political and economic practices that empower small landholders and local entrepreneurs in pursuit of broad-based growth. Central to this vision is a strong, capable state—one able to spearhead development through inclusive political coalitions that remain firmly oriented toward a long-term developmental agenda.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this work.
May 12, 2026
Several years ago I read and enjoyed How Asia Works, Joe Studwell’s previous book. It’s deeply informed but easy to read, and offers a plausible account of how Asia got rich.
Apparently Bill Gates enjoyed Studwell’s book too, and asked him whether he might take a similar approach to Africa. The obvious difference, of course, is that Africa still hasn’t gotten rich. There is no African equivalent yet to the economic miracles of South Korea or China.
In Studwell’s view - a view I largely agree with - this is mostly a matter of timing. Africa is not fundamentally different from Asia or Europe; it is simply at an earlier stage of economic development. In fact, much of the continent today resembles Asia roughly fifty years ago, just before the beginning of the fastest sustained economic climb in human history.
Studwell argues that there are three key elements for a country seeking to move from poverty to lower-middle-income status.
The first is increasing the productivity of smallholder agriculture. This remains the dominant form of production in most developing countries, and an even more dominant source of employment. Because smallholder agriculture is relatively unproductive, it may account for only 20 percent of GDP or exports while employing 60–70 percent of the labor force.
Smallholder agriculture is less productive than modern industrial farming because it lacks capital-intensive irrigation, fertilizer, machinery, and the technical knowledge needed to use them effectively. Some countries have tried to leap directly from small-scale premodern farming to industrial agriculture through collectivization, but the historical record here is poor. Large-scale industrial agriculture in advanced economies depends on enormous capital inputs, which poorer agrarian societies generally lack.
A better approach, Studwell argues, is to preserve small-scale farming while ensuring that farmers have secure legal title to their land and access to financing, equipment, and technical assistance. Such programs can often operate at relatively low cost to the state because farmers themselves provide much of the investment capital. The state, meanwhile, can focus on infrastructure such as roads and ports.
State agricultural marketing monopolies are often, in effect, a mechanism for extracting taxes from the poorest people in the country. Farmers are typically required to sell their output at fixed prices below world-market rates, with the state capturing the difference.
For some governments this may seem like a practical necessity, since they have few alternative sources of capital for industrial development. But these monopolies can also become sources of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, their failures masked by the large profits that monopsony buying power can generate.
The second key ingredient to growth is export-oriented manufacturing. Most countries begin industrialization with import-substitution industries - often protected by tariffs and focused on basic goods such as soap, processed foods, or beverages. These industries can provide an important foundation for later development, but subsidies and trade protections can also shelter inefficient producers.
Export-oriented firms, by contrast, must compete globally on both price and quality. Once they prove capable of doing so, they can often scale rapidly and profitably. Inefficient tariff-protected industries, meanwhile, frequently collapse once their protections are removed.
The final factor Studwell identifies in Asia’s rise is disciplined state finance. Successful states pursued policies that encouraged savings and investment, discouraged capital flight, and attracted foreign capital while gradually reducing long-term dependence on it.
Much of Studwell’s survey of Africa consists of detailed case studies of individual countries and the extent to which they have followed, or failed to follow, this developmental path.
I was particularly impressed by his description of Ethiopia, whose leadership, he argues, brought unusual academic rigor to economic development. Policy decisions were supported by meticulously researched position papers that ministers were expected to write and defend themselves. Unfortunately, the country also suffered from recurring conflict with Eritrea, as well as poor vendor selection - at one point choosing a North Korean firm for a major engineering project that was never completed.
Studwell also disputes the oft-repeated claim that Africa is uniquely resource-rich. The continent’s resource density is not especially high; Africa is simply very large, so the aggregate quantity of resources is enormous. Moreover, resource extraction can function in economies with weak manufacturing and service sectors, meaning it often represents a disproportionate share of economic activity in underdeveloped countries.
The best-known resource success story - perhaps aside from South Africa - is Botswana, which experienced one of the fastest growth rates in the world for decades after independence and is now a middle-income country. Much of this success stemmed from the country’s diamond industry, which proved extraordinarily lucrative. Botswana was also able to pressure its partner De Beers to develop cutting and polishing facilities locally, allowing the country to move further up the value chain. In recent decades, however, development has tilted more toward consumption than production - shopping malls rather than factories - which may prove problematic once the diamond wealth declines.
Leo Tolstoy’s dictum that “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” may be reversible when it comes to economies. Dysfunctional economies tend to resemble one another, while every successful growth story is distinctive. The cases in this book illustrate that point well. As Studwell notes, there are recurring patterns in successful development, but there is no universal formula.
Apparently Bill Gates enjoyed Studwell’s book too, and asked him whether he might take a similar approach to Africa. The obvious difference, of course, is that Africa still hasn’t gotten rich. There is no African equivalent yet to the economic miracles of South Korea or China.
In Studwell’s view - a view I largely agree with - this is mostly a matter of timing. Africa is not fundamentally different from Asia or Europe; it is simply at an earlier stage of economic development. In fact, much of the continent today resembles Asia roughly fifty years ago, just before the beginning of the fastest sustained economic climb in human history.
Studwell argues that there are three key elements for a country seeking to move from poverty to lower-middle-income status.
The first is increasing the productivity of smallholder agriculture. This remains the dominant form of production in most developing countries, and an even more dominant source of employment. Because smallholder agriculture is relatively unproductive, it may account for only 20 percent of GDP or exports while employing 60–70 percent of the labor force.
Smallholder agriculture is less productive than modern industrial farming because it lacks capital-intensive irrigation, fertilizer, machinery, and the technical knowledge needed to use them effectively. Some countries have tried to leap directly from small-scale premodern farming to industrial agriculture through collectivization, but the historical record here is poor. Large-scale industrial agriculture in advanced economies depends on enormous capital inputs, which poorer agrarian societies generally lack.
A better approach, Studwell argues, is to preserve small-scale farming while ensuring that farmers have secure legal title to their land and access to financing, equipment, and technical assistance. Such programs can often operate at relatively low cost to the state because farmers themselves provide much of the investment capital. The state, meanwhile, can focus on infrastructure such as roads and ports.
State agricultural marketing monopolies are often, in effect, a mechanism for extracting taxes from the poorest people in the country. Farmers are typically required to sell their output at fixed prices below world-market rates, with the state capturing the difference.
For some governments this may seem like a practical necessity, since they have few alternative sources of capital for industrial development. But these monopolies can also become sources of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, their failures masked by the large profits that monopsony buying power can generate.
The second key ingredient to growth is export-oriented manufacturing. Most countries begin industrialization with import-substitution industries - often protected by tariffs and focused on basic goods such as soap, processed foods, or beverages. These industries can provide an important foundation for later development, but subsidies and trade protections can also shelter inefficient producers.
Export-oriented firms, by contrast, must compete globally on both price and quality. Once they prove capable of doing so, they can often scale rapidly and profitably. Inefficient tariff-protected industries, meanwhile, frequently collapse once their protections are removed.
The final factor Studwell identifies in Asia’s rise is disciplined state finance. Successful states pursued policies that encouraged savings and investment, discouraged capital flight, and attracted foreign capital while gradually reducing long-term dependence on it.
Much of Studwell’s survey of Africa consists of detailed case studies of individual countries and the extent to which they have followed, or failed to follow, this developmental path.
I was particularly impressed by his description of Ethiopia, whose leadership, he argues, brought unusual academic rigor to economic development. Policy decisions were supported by meticulously researched position papers that ministers were expected to write and defend themselves. Unfortunately, the country also suffered from recurring conflict with Eritrea, as well as poor vendor selection - at one point choosing a North Korean firm for a major engineering project that was never completed.
Studwell also disputes the oft-repeated claim that Africa is uniquely resource-rich. The continent’s resource density is not especially high; Africa is simply very large, so the aggregate quantity of resources is enormous. Moreover, resource extraction can function in economies with weak manufacturing and service sectors, meaning it often represents a disproportionate share of economic activity in underdeveloped countries.
The best-known resource success story - perhaps aside from South Africa - is Botswana, which experienced one of the fastest growth rates in the world for decades after independence and is now a middle-income country. Much of this success stemmed from the country’s diamond industry, which proved extraordinarily lucrative. Botswana was also able to pressure its partner De Beers to develop cutting and polishing facilities locally, allowing the country to move further up the value chain. In recent decades, however, development has tilted more toward consumption than production - shopping malls rather than factories - which may prove problematic once the diamond wealth declines.
Leo Tolstoy’s dictum that “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” may be reversible when it comes to economies. Dysfunctional economies tend to resemble one another, while every successful growth story is distinctive. The cases in this book illustrate that point well. As Studwell notes, there are recurring patterns in successful development, but there is no universal formula.
May 21, 2026
How Africa Works is, in many ways, an inevitably difficult follow-up to How Asia Works. The earlier work possessed something rare in economic writing: sharp contrasts, tightly structured case studies, and dramatic developmental divergence across countries that were often geographically close yet institutionally worlds apart. Asia, in that sense, offered the author almost laboratory-like conditions for comparative analysis. And, the author was on the familiar territories of his deep expertise.
Africa, by contrast, is a continent whose economic and political history is shaped by forces that are broader, deeper, and in many cases tragically more uniform. That difference matters, and it shapes this book profoundly.
Some of the book’s central arguments — low population density, the devastating legacy of slavery, colonial extraction structures, and the continent’s difficult institutional “exit point” from colonialism — are compelling and often persuasive. Yet they are also, by their very nature, more generalized explanations. They do not lend themselves to the same degree of granular analytical contrast that made the Asian work feel so relentlessly precise and intellectually surgical. As a result, while the research is robust, the book does not possess the policy autopsy that gave his earlier work its towering analytical stature.
The chosen success stories of Botswana, Mauritius, Rwanda, and Ethiopia are undeniably important and impressive by African standards. Sadly, they do not quite provide the same scale of transformative rise witnessed in North Asia. In each, there is a pervasive gloom of not only what came before but a march towards a stage with more negatives than positives. One senses throughout that the author is working with a far more constrained historical canvas.
And yet, despite those differences, this remains an outstanding book.
For readers who are not deeply familiar with African economic history, this is an immensely rewarding and often eye-opening work. The book is rich with facts, historical detail, political context, and carefully constructed arguments. More importantly, it repeatedly reminds the reader that Africa’s developmental history cannot simply be interpreted through the same frameworks used for Europe or Asia. The continent’s economic trajectory was shaped by structural conditions that were genuinely unusual in global history. The author compellingly argues that the traditional, heavily cited bogeymen of underdevelopment—endemic corruption and ethnic strife—are actually secondary to deeper structural deficits. He meticulously details the other crippling historical burdens: the legacy of slavery, the exceptionally brutal and chaotic exit points from the colonial era, and, crucially, a historically low population density exacerbated by a uniquely virulent disease burden.
The author is remarkably hopeful about the continent's current trajectory precisely because this core demographic deficit is reversing. With population density rising, literacy expanding rapidly, and urbanization creating new economic gravity, the prerequisites for sustained growth are finally falling into place.
Despite this optimism, a structural comparison of the author's two books reveals a sobering subtext. In his Asian analysis, the narrative moved swiftly from foundational land reforms to rigorous, state-directed industrial policies and careful financial liberalization. In stark contrast, How Africa Works positions its detailed discussions on land policy much closer to the end of the narrative, while the critical subsequent steps of industrialization strategies and financialization are barely mentioned in passing.
In that sense, the book unintentionally leaves the reader with a sobering conclusion: if the lessons of Asia are indeed valid, then Africa’s path forward may still prove considerably more difficult and uneven than the book’s hopeful tone occasionally suggests.
Still, that complexity is precisely what makes this such a worthwhile read. The book does not offer simplistic optimism, nor does it collapse into fashionable pessimism. Instead, it grapples honestly with a continent whose history resists easy comparison and whose future remains one of the most important economic questions of our time.
Africa, by contrast, is a continent whose economic and political history is shaped by forces that are broader, deeper, and in many cases tragically more uniform. That difference matters, and it shapes this book profoundly.
Some of the book’s central arguments — low population density, the devastating legacy of slavery, colonial extraction structures, and the continent’s difficult institutional “exit point” from colonialism — are compelling and often persuasive. Yet they are also, by their very nature, more generalized explanations. They do not lend themselves to the same degree of granular analytical contrast that made the Asian work feel so relentlessly precise and intellectually surgical. As a result, while the research is robust, the book does not possess the policy autopsy that gave his earlier work its towering analytical stature.
The chosen success stories of Botswana, Mauritius, Rwanda, and Ethiopia are undeniably important and impressive by African standards. Sadly, they do not quite provide the same scale of transformative rise witnessed in North Asia. In each, there is a pervasive gloom of not only what came before but a march towards a stage with more negatives than positives. One senses throughout that the author is working with a far more constrained historical canvas.
And yet, despite those differences, this remains an outstanding book.
For readers who are not deeply familiar with African economic history, this is an immensely rewarding and often eye-opening work. The book is rich with facts, historical detail, political context, and carefully constructed arguments. More importantly, it repeatedly reminds the reader that Africa’s developmental history cannot simply be interpreted through the same frameworks used for Europe or Asia. The continent’s economic trajectory was shaped by structural conditions that were genuinely unusual in global history. The author compellingly argues that the traditional, heavily cited bogeymen of underdevelopment—endemic corruption and ethnic strife—are actually secondary to deeper structural deficits. He meticulously details the other crippling historical burdens: the legacy of slavery, the exceptionally brutal and chaotic exit points from the colonial era, and, crucially, a historically low population density exacerbated by a uniquely virulent disease burden.
The author is remarkably hopeful about the continent's current trajectory precisely because this core demographic deficit is reversing. With population density rising, literacy expanding rapidly, and urbanization creating new economic gravity, the prerequisites for sustained growth are finally falling into place.
Despite this optimism, a structural comparison of the author's two books reveals a sobering subtext. In his Asian analysis, the narrative moved swiftly from foundational land reforms to rigorous, state-directed industrial policies and careful financial liberalization. In stark contrast, How Africa Works positions its detailed discussions on land policy much closer to the end of the narrative, while the critical subsequent steps of industrialization strategies and financialization are barely mentioned in passing.
In that sense, the book unintentionally leaves the reader with a sobering conclusion: if the lessons of Asia are indeed valid, then Africa’s path forward may still prove considerably more difficult and uneven than the book’s hopeful tone occasionally suggests.
Still, that complexity is precisely what makes this such a worthwhile read. The book does not offer simplistic optimism, nor does it collapse into fashionable pessimism. Instead, it grapples honestly with a continent whose history resists easy comparison and whose future remains one of the most important economic questions of our time.
June 14, 2026
Studwell applies his usual recipe to the African context and the takeaway is surprisingly positive. To rehash, the 1-2-3 development plan that Studwell established in his most popular book, How Asia Works, is as follows:
1. Land reform to drive agricultural productivity. Provide support to farmers and drive yield.
2. As agriculture becomes more productive and the labour pool expands, pivot to an industrial policy focus that supports firms with "export discipline" to drive global competitiveness.
3. Implement financial controls and provide incentives to manufacturers through low-interest loans. Provide easy access to financing for export-oriented firms.
In the African context, the first step is where most countries are at, with the primary challenge that is unique to the content being the high degree of ethnic fragmentation. The effect is that there is a "culture of government..obsessed by the struggle for power", largely to sustain patron-client relationships.
The book focuses on four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which have experienced some degree of success in fulfilling their developmental objectives: Mauritius, Botswana, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. Studwell uses these case studies as an anchor point to frame policy recommendations for the wider continent. My main gripe with the examples is one that couldn't be avoided really: that barring Mauritius none of the countries listed is really far on the road to development. In addition, the most successful of the 4 (Mauritius and Botswana) both have populations less than 3 million people.
Gripes aside, I found the treatment of each country to be fairly detailed and well-researched. In some cases, I even had a good laugh or two especially with the "eccentric" figure of Mauritius' former Deputy Prime Minister, Gaëtan Duval who "even allowed his home to be used as a location for a 1978 German soft pornographic film called Melody in Love" in his promotion of Mauritius as a tourism destination.
Why Hopeful?
The primary reason for my optimism leaving this book stems from the systemic refutation of commonly cited critiques of Africa, especially with respect to the capacity of governments to build inclusive states and for there to be long-lasting sustained progress and growth.
Studwell begins by laying the unique context and challenges of African development: low population density, "low-budget" colonialism, highly heterogeneous states, particularly nasty endemic diseases and pestilence, and the list goes on. One of the most notable statistics cited at the beginning of the book was:
African colonial governments systemically and uniquely underinvested in building state capacity and educational institutions.
However, the progress has been remarkable: by 1995 alone, female literacy reached 48 per cent.
Joe Studwell also points out that with increasing urbanization and higher population densities, there is finally a sufficiently large enough consumption and labor pool to spur domestic industry and agriculture. Further, with the comparatively low wages on the continent foreign direct investment in manufacturing becomes more and more attractive.
It's pointed out in the book that development is multi-dimensional with no "magic bullet". The author is also a pragmatist in recognizing that not all African states will develop at the same pace. However, there will be breakouts like in the case of Mauritius which provide an example for other states to follow. While the 21st century might not be the "African Century" as proclaimed by over-exuberant journalists, the African continent is a far ways from the "Growth Tragedy" as lamented by World Bank economists in 1997.
1. Land reform to drive agricultural productivity. Provide support to farmers and drive yield.
2. As agriculture becomes more productive and the labour pool expands, pivot to an industrial policy focus that supports firms with "export discipline" to drive global competitiveness.
3. Implement financial controls and provide incentives to manufacturers through low-interest loans. Provide easy access to financing for export-oriented firms.
In the African context, the first step is where most countries are at, with the primary challenge that is unique to the content being the high degree of ethnic fragmentation. The effect is that there is a "culture of government..obsessed by the struggle for power", largely to sustain patron-client relationships.
The book focuses on four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which have experienced some degree of success in fulfilling their developmental objectives: Mauritius, Botswana, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. Studwell uses these case studies as an anchor point to frame policy recommendations for the wider continent. My main gripe with the examples is one that couldn't be avoided really: that barring Mauritius none of the countries listed is really far on the road to development. In addition, the most successful of the 4 (Mauritius and Botswana) both have populations less than 3 million people.
Gripes aside, I found the treatment of each country to be fairly detailed and well-researched. In some cases, I even had a good laugh or two especially with the "eccentric" figure of Mauritius' former Deputy Prime Minister, Gaëtan Duval who "even allowed his home to be used as a location for a 1978 German soft pornographic film called Melody in Love" in his promotion of Mauritius as a tourism destination.
Why Hopeful?
The primary reason for my optimism leaving this book stems from the systemic refutation of commonly cited critiques of Africa, especially with respect to the capacity of governments to build inclusive states and for there to be long-lasting sustained progress and growth.
Studwell begins by laying the unique context and challenges of African development: low population density, "low-budget" colonialism, highly heterogeneous states, particularly nasty endemic diseases and pestilence, and the list goes on. One of the most notable statistics cited at the beginning of the book was:
Formal educational attainment in Africa was the lowest on the planet...In 1960...There were perhaps 8,000 secondary school graduates per year in a population of 200 million
African colonial governments systemically and uniquely underinvested in building state capacity and educational institutions.
However, the progress has been remarkable: by 1995 alone, female literacy reached 48 per cent.
Joe Studwell also points out that with increasing urbanization and higher population densities, there is finally a sufficiently large enough consumption and labor pool to spur domestic industry and agriculture. Further, with the comparatively low wages on the continent foreign direct investment in manufacturing becomes more and more attractive.
It's pointed out in the book that development is multi-dimensional with no "magic bullet". The author is also a pragmatist in recognizing that not all African states will develop at the same pace. However, there will be breakouts like in the case of Mauritius which provide an example for other states to follow. While the 21st century might not be the "African Century" as proclaimed by over-exuberant journalists, the African continent is a far ways from the "Growth Tragedy" as lamented by World Bank economists in 1997.
June 25, 2026
In [[How Asia Works]], Joe Studwell lays out his “heterodox” account of what went right in the fast-growing East Asian economies: agricultural reform that broke the power of landed elites; industrial policy that promoted competitive exports and domestic investment; and other factors. His account is heterodox with respect to the left-right economic dimension (markets are neither simply good or bad) but also with respect to the democracy-autocracy dimension (autocrats *can* generate economic growth, and may in fact be capable of doing so). Studwell turns to Africa here, and remains mostly convinced that the same recipe should work in Africa and already has.
What makes Africa unique, that it has so lagged behind other parts of the world in economic development? He points to three related factors: 1) low population density, which hurts market agglomeration and hinders governance; 2) “low-budget” or extractive colonialism; 3) dispersed, ethnically fragmented populations. These explanations are a mixed bag; they are not new and are not always so convincing. One foil to ethnic fragmentation producing economic malaise, for instance, is China, which Studwell mostly waves away.
Contra the bulk of prior writing on Africa, Studwell is, in fact, fairly optimistic about the continent’s potential, especially as population density increases. The most interesting portion of the book is Part II, where he looks at four successful countries and what made them successful: Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.
In these chapters, Studwell is convincing, perhaps too much so; he is simply very good at writing, and especially at taking complex histories and boiling them down to clear narratives. Writing in broad strokes is an art that has its place, but sometimes his claims are too broad, too confident. This was the same beef I had with [[How Asia Works]].
The case I know best here — Ethiopia — captures this tension in Studwell’s writing. On the one hand, I have a clearer sense now of the transition from EPRDF rule to Abiy than I did before reading the book, and even learned new things about the country’s politics. On the other, Studwell paints an uncomfortably rosy picture of Meles Zenawi, whom he sees as a kind of enlightened despot that was dead set on improving his country (and not just his ethnic group). Ditto with Abiy Ahmed: praising not just his economic agenda but even the controversial formation of the Prosperity Party and effective dissolution of the EPRDF.
This is one of the more striking, admirable, but also uncomfortable elements of Studwell’s work: he is very willing to separate the political and the economic. During the period Studwell writes about, Abiy Ahmed (in Ethiopia) colluded with Eritrea to wage a reprehensible war against the people of Tigray and their leadership. In Rwanda, Paul Kagame tightened his control over the country, became deeply authoritarian, and persecuted his enemies. For many observers, these facts lead them to reinterpret problematic’s leaders “success” in the economic realm, perhaps reading something into the intentions of these leaders. Not Studwell: he clearly sees democracy and development as different tracts, and is either agnostic or (IMO: more likely) willing to tradeoff democracy for growth. This is not inherently unreasonable, but a through-line in Studwell’s writing that connects to his fascination with the East Asian economies that flourished under, at best, “undemocratic” settings (such as Korea).
What makes Africa unique, that it has so lagged behind other parts of the world in economic development? He points to three related factors: 1) low population density, which hurts market agglomeration and hinders governance; 2) “low-budget” or extractive colonialism; 3) dispersed, ethnically fragmented populations. These explanations are a mixed bag; they are not new and are not always so convincing. One foil to ethnic fragmentation producing economic malaise, for instance, is China, which Studwell mostly waves away.
Contra the bulk of prior writing on Africa, Studwell is, in fact, fairly optimistic about the continent’s potential, especially as population density increases. The most interesting portion of the book is Part II, where he looks at four successful countries and what made them successful: Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.
In these chapters, Studwell is convincing, perhaps too much so; he is simply very good at writing, and especially at taking complex histories and boiling them down to clear narratives. Writing in broad strokes is an art that has its place, but sometimes his claims are too broad, too confident. This was the same beef I had with [[How Asia Works]].
The case I know best here — Ethiopia — captures this tension in Studwell’s writing. On the one hand, I have a clearer sense now of the transition from EPRDF rule to Abiy than I did before reading the book, and even learned new things about the country’s politics. On the other, Studwell paints an uncomfortably rosy picture of Meles Zenawi, whom he sees as a kind of enlightened despot that was dead set on improving his country (and not just his ethnic group). Ditto with Abiy Ahmed: praising not just his economic agenda but even the controversial formation of the Prosperity Party and effective dissolution of the EPRDF.
This is one of the more striking, admirable, but also uncomfortable elements of Studwell’s work: he is very willing to separate the political and the economic. During the period Studwell writes about, Abiy Ahmed (in Ethiopia) colluded with Eritrea to wage a reprehensible war against the people of Tigray and their leadership. In Rwanda, Paul Kagame tightened his control over the country, became deeply authoritarian, and persecuted his enemies. For many observers, these facts lead them to reinterpret problematic’s leaders “success” in the economic realm, perhaps reading something into the intentions of these leaders. Not Studwell: he clearly sees democracy and development as different tracts, and is either agnostic or (IMO: more likely) willing to tradeoff democracy for growth. This is not inherently unreasonable, but a through-line in Studwell’s writing that connects to his fascination with the East Asian economies that flourished under, at best, “undemocratic” settings (such as Korea).
March 22, 2026
I’ve read a lot of books about Africa and economic development and this is the only one I’ve ever found that is about both economic development and Africa, so if this is a topic you’re interested in, you’ll be interested in this book.
Studwell is well known for his books about economic development in Asia and his thesis that the 3 universal pillars to grow are 1) create agricultural surpluses through improving smallholder productivity 2) get into manufacturing and move up the value chain and 3) financial repression to funnel high domestic savings in to domestic manufacturing domestic champions to help them grow. The thesis of this book is the same general principles, adapted to local circumstances, will work in Africa. Studwell doesn’t believe that there’s anything biological or geographical that will keep Africa permanently down. However, from a historical perspective, he points out that low population density due to historical (slavery) and geographic (diseases) reasons has prevented Africa from having the necessary ingredients for success until about the year 2000.
The book itself isn’t that prescriptive, pointing the reader towards his other books to learn more about the details of the 3 pillars, but instead is about applying that framework to African countries to explain successes and failures. Studwell is at his best when comparing and contrasting (How Asia Works is set up as a comparison between East and Southeast Asia) and that’s still true in this book as well. It’s fascinating to learn how Mauritius in the middle of nowhere was able to run a better export-oriented industrialization playbook and get substantially richer than Morocco which has a literal land border with the European Union. There is another interesting comparison between Botswana’s management of its mineral resources vs. pretty much every other country in Africa which have squandered away their resources, but at the same time the limits of how far Botswana could develop without a competitive manufacturing or agricultural sector.
Another positive of the book is that Studwell clearly loves agriculture and dives deep into farming and farming policy which I’ve never seen another book do. It was great to learn the history of African farming from small area, low productivity to bigger area, low productivity, to finally higher productivity under certain, political circumstances. It also explained a long running question I had of what’s driving African growth post 2014, with Studwell answering agriculture and agriculture-related manufacturing as urbanization and population densities grow.
Finally, one thing I didn’t like about the book - Studwell is clearly biased to showing Africa in a positive light. While it’s great to for once having a positive book about Africa, it’s funny to compare the nice things he has to say about Ethiopia and Rwanda while saying worse things about the richer and better governed Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. He also tip toes around the fact that most African countries are poorly governed from an industrial policy perspective and pins his hopes on the private sector and demographic trends figuring it out while that’s exactly where Southeast Asia failed and he rightly called them out on it.
Studwell is well known for his books about economic development in Asia and his thesis that the 3 universal pillars to grow are 1) create agricultural surpluses through improving smallholder productivity 2) get into manufacturing and move up the value chain and 3) financial repression to funnel high domestic savings in to domestic manufacturing domestic champions to help them grow. The thesis of this book is the same general principles, adapted to local circumstances, will work in Africa. Studwell doesn’t believe that there’s anything biological or geographical that will keep Africa permanently down. However, from a historical perspective, he points out that low population density due to historical (slavery) and geographic (diseases) reasons has prevented Africa from having the necessary ingredients for success until about the year 2000.
The book itself isn’t that prescriptive, pointing the reader towards his other books to learn more about the details of the 3 pillars, but instead is about applying that framework to African countries to explain successes and failures. Studwell is at his best when comparing and contrasting (How Asia Works is set up as a comparison between East and Southeast Asia) and that’s still true in this book as well. It’s fascinating to learn how Mauritius in the middle of nowhere was able to run a better export-oriented industrialization playbook and get substantially richer than Morocco which has a literal land border with the European Union. There is another interesting comparison between Botswana’s management of its mineral resources vs. pretty much every other country in Africa which have squandered away their resources, but at the same time the limits of how far Botswana could develop without a competitive manufacturing or agricultural sector.
Another positive of the book is that Studwell clearly loves agriculture and dives deep into farming and farming policy which I’ve never seen another book do. It was great to learn the history of African farming from small area, low productivity to bigger area, low productivity, to finally higher productivity under certain, political circumstances. It also explained a long running question I had of what’s driving African growth post 2014, with Studwell answering agriculture and agriculture-related manufacturing as urbanization and population densities grow.
Finally, one thing I didn’t like about the book - Studwell is clearly biased to showing Africa in a positive light. While it’s great to for once having a positive book about Africa, it’s funny to compare the nice things he has to say about Ethiopia and Rwanda while saying worse things about the richer and better governed Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. He also tip toes around the fact that most African countries are poorly governed from an industrial policy perspective and pins his hopes on the private sector and demographic trends figuring it out while that’s exactly where Southeast Asia failed and he rightly called them out on it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
How Africa Works is an excellent and highly informative book that captures the diversity of African development experiences while clearly explaining the structural challenges the continent has faced.
Joe Studwell focuses on how development actually happens, showing how countries have experimented with agriculture reform, education, manufacturing, and state coordination to build economies, improve health and security, and drive growth.
One of the book’s strongest insights is that education alone guarantees nothing without effective developmental policy. Studwell shows that education delivers results only when embedded within strategies that create productive employment and export oriented growth.
A second key insight is the central importance of manufacturing; without deliberate efforts to build manufacturing capacity and unlock economies of scale, countries struggle to sustain growth.
The case studies of Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda, demonstrate how the right mix of policy discipline, agricultural reform, manufacturing development, and institution building can drive economic growth, reform and lift populations out of poverty.
From an economic perspective, the book offers a compelling analysis of how African economies have had to adapt and diversify, shaped by population density, fragmented societies, language diversity, and historical constraints. While the impacts of post-colonial politics, corruption, and foreign influence could have been explored more deeply, the book nonetheless provides a rich and grounded understanding of how Africa works.
Clear, well-argued, meticulously researched and cautiously optimistic, How Africa Works makes a persuasive case that Africa, the world’s last great developmental frontier, is poised to play an increasingly important role on the global stage. This is a highly worthwhile read.
Joe Studwell focuses on how development actually happens, showing how countries have experimented with agriculture reform, education, manufacturing, and state coordination to build economies, improve health and security, and drive growth.
One of the book’s strongest insights is that education alone guarantees nothing without effective developmental policy. Studwell shows that education delivers results only when embedded within strategies that create productive employment and export oriented growth.
A second key insight is the central importance of manufacturing; without deliberate efforts to build manufacturing capacity and unlock economies of scale, countries struggle to sustain growth.
The case studies of Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda, demonstrate how the right mix of policy discipline, agricultural reform, manufacturing development, and institution building can drive economic growth, reform and lift populations out of poverty.
From an economic perspective, the book offers a compelling analysis of how African economies have had to adapt and diversify, shaped by population density, fragmented societies, language diversity, and historical constraints. While the impacts of post-colonial politics, corruption, and foreign influence could have been explored more deeply, the book nonetheless provides a rich and grounded understanding of how Africa works.
Clear, well-argued, meticulously researched and cautiously optimistic, How Africa Works makes a persuasive case that Africa, the world’s last great developmental frontier, is poised to play an increasingly important role on the global stage. This is a highly worthwhile read.
April 18, 2026
Fascinating book, and nice to get back to economist roots. The main contribution of this book to my learning was to significantly broaden my understanding of African economies and how they vary. I enjoyed the case study approach, with the four nations of Mauritius, Botswana, Ethiopia, and Rwanda being well chosen for the sake of providing both a geographic, cultural, and economic diversity. While I had heard previous moderating voices on Rwanda, it was interesting to learn more about the autocratic tendencies of Paul Kagame and how they have impacted Rwanda’s developmental mission. I knew essentially nothing about Ethiopia and thus this section was also particularly interesting to me.
The book thoroughly endorses industrial policy as a method for achieving economic development, something that I am yet to be totally convinced by. I am particularly sceptical of the author’s endorsement of capital controls as a method of directing investment. He however makes a thorough and detailed case, relying heavily on his previous work on Asia. Probably most interesting however is his endorsement of land expropriations, a policy for which I’m not sure I’ve previously read a serious argument. I yet to be convinced that this last policy could be undertaken without massive negative consequences for the rule of law and society however I haven’t undertaken much research on the asian case studies he cites to support this. The references to Dani Rodrik made me want to revisit his work on manufacturing and urbanisation, both of which seem highly important.
Most importantly, I became much more optimistic while reading this book, which reminded of the huge strides towards eradicating poverty and other economic & social malaise that have taken place in Africa over the past 50-60 years since the wave of Independences occurred across the continent.
The book thoroughly endorses industrial policy as a method for achieving economic development, something that I am yet to be totally convinced by. I am particularly sceptical of the author’s endorsement of capital controls as a method of directing investment. He however makes a thorough and detailed case, relying heavily on his previous work on Asia. Probably most interesting however is his endorsement of land expropriations, a policy for which I’m not sure I’ve previously read a serious argument. I yet to be convinced that this last policy could be undertaken without massive negative consequences for the rule of law and society however I haven’t undertaken much research on the asian case studies he cites to support this. The references to Dani Rodrik made me want to revisit his work on manufacturing and urbanisation, both of which seem highly important.
Most importantly, I became much more optimistic while reading this book, which reminded of the huge strides towards eradicating poverty and other economic & social malaise that have taken place in Africa over the past 50-60 years since the wave of Independences occurred across the continent.
April 22, 2026
Spectacular analysis of development in Africa
How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier is one of the most clear-eyed, data-driven, and refreshingly honest analyses of economic development I’ve read in years. Joe Studwell brings the same sharp analytical framework he used in How Asia Works and applies it to Africa—with results that are both sobering and deeply insightful.
What sets this book apart is its refusal to rely on vague narratives about “potential” or overly simplistic explanations for underdevelopment. Instead, Studwell methodically examines what has actually worked elsewhere—particularly in East Asia—and contrasts that with policy choices across African nations. His emphasis on agriculture, manufacturing, and disciplined economic policy provides a concrete roadmap rather than abstract theory.
The chapters on agricultural productivity are especially compelling. Studwell convincingly argues that broad-based rural development is not just helpful but foundational, and he explains how its absence has hindered sustained growth across much of the continent. Likewise, his critique of premature industrialization and dependence on extractive industries is both nuanced and backed by strong evidence.
Importantly, this is not a pessimistic book. While it doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges, it makes a powerful case that success is possible—and has already occurred in certain contexts—when governments align policy with proven development principles.
For anyone interested in international development, economics, or foreign policy—especially those working in or preparing for roles related to Africa—this book is essential reading. It challenges assumptions, sharpens thinking, and provides a framework that stays with you long after you’ve finished.
How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier is one of the most clear-eyed, data-driven, and refreshingly honest analyses of economic development I’ve read in years. Joe Studwell brings the same sharp analytical framework he used in How Asia Works and applies it to Africa—with results that are both sobering and deeply insightful.
What sets this book apart is its refusal to rely on vague narratives about “potential” or overly simplistic explanations for underdevelopment. Instead, Studwell methodically examines what has actually worked elsewhere—particularly in East Asia—and contrasts that with policy choices across African nations. His emphasis on agriculture, manufacturing, and disciplined economic policy provides a concrete roadmap rather than abstract theory.
The chapters on agricultural productivity are especially compelling. Studwell convincingly argues that broad-based rural development is not just helpful but foundational, and he explains how its absence has hindered sustained growth across much of the continent. Likewise, his critique of premature industrialization and dependence on extractive industries is both nuanced and backed by strong evidence.
Importantly, this is not a pessimistic book. While it doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges, it makes a powerful case that success is possible—and has already occurred in certain contexts—when governments align policy with proven development principles.
For anyone interested in international development, economics, or foreign policy—especially those working in or preparing for roles related to Africa—this book is essential reading. It challenges assumptions, sharpens thinking, and provides a framework that stays with you long after you’ve finished.
March 31, 2026
I love people who can write about "how X works". It requires conceptual sprawl and fox-style integration of diverse facts.
You can see this in how Studwell performed on Conversations With Tyler. Tyler opens with Nigeria as a counter-example to Studwell's argument that increasing population density was key to Asia's success and Africa's future. Studwell calmly says the Nigeria has under-performed relative to potential, partly because of ethnic conflict due to being split evenly 3 ways. Then Tyler turns to Botswana, rich but no population density. Studwell calmly points out their economy is dependent on 3 diamond mines. This is why Studwell doesn't try to write a book about all of Africa, and instead focuses on case-studies like Mozambique, Ethiopia, Rwanda etc.
The problem with fox-style integration is it's hard to say exactly what the author thinks, at least in a "concise takeaway" fashion. Maybe that's a good thing as "how Africa works" is clearly complex, but it's also frustrating for the reader.
Studwell believes in:
- Population density, a la East Asia, as a driver of economic growth
- Small-scale land holdings as an initial economic engine (see Ethiopia) because it can achieve high yields
- But also recommending a transition to manufacturing as a driver of converging wages (al a Danny Rodrick)
- Strong institutions, as evidenced by Mozambique (or was it Mauritius) faltering as they failed to capitalise on 70/80s growth in manufacturing
- Conflict being the ultimate killer of growth
- Global competition is important at disciplining infant industries (something African states fail with), and yet he's not a neo liberal markets guy
Fox fox fox.
Good book, I'll try and read How Asia Works when I get a chance.
You can see this in how Studwell performed on Conversations With Tyler. Tyler opens with Nigeria as a counter-example to Studwell's argument that increasing population density was key to Asia's success and Africa's future. Studwell calmly says the Nigeria has under-performed relative to potential, partly because of ethnic conflict due to being split evenly 3 ways. Then Tyler turns to Botswana, rich but no population density. Studwell calmly points out their economy is dependent on 3 diamond mines. This is why Studwell doesn't try to write a book about all of Africa, and instead focuses on case-studies like Mozambique, Ethiopia, Rwanda etc.
The problem with fox-style integration is it's hard to say exactly what the author thinks, at least in a "concise takeaway" fashion. Maybe that's a good thing as "how Africa works" is clearly complex, but it's also frustrating for the reader.
Studwell believes in:
- Population density, a la East Asia, as a driver of economic growth
- Small-scale land holdings as an initial economic engine (see Ethiopia) because it can achieve high yields
- But also recommending a transition to manufacturing as a driver of converging wages (al a Danny Rodrick)
- Strong institutions, as evidenced by Mozambique (or was it Mauritius) faltering as they failed to capitalise on 70/80s growth in manufacturing
- Conflict being the ultimate killer of growth
- Global competition is important at disciplining infant industries (something African states fail with), and yet he's not a neo liberal markets guy
Fox fox fox.
Good book, I'll try and read How Asia Works when I get a chance.
July 9, 2026
Good grief, this is a depressing read.
After a determined attempt to carve Africa up by the colonial powers, the continent of Africa was almost set up to fail. The colonists had made no effort to say “well this lot all speak the same language, and have the same God, so that might make a governable nation.” Instead they created countries of multiple languages, and religions, where the people had less in common, and so were harder to govern.
Once there, the countries were of low population density, and so hard to work intensively, so were asset stripped, rather than worked, with the most obvious asset being the people, who were shipped as slaves to the Americas, to work the land there.
The people that were left weren’t viewed positively. Many were illiterate, even at independence, and there probably wasn’t going to be enough indigenous engineers, scientists, doctors, and civil servants to make running the country easy, even if the colonists had created an environment where effective government was going to be easy.
On independence, African countries could have redrawn their borders more logically, but were unwilling to do so. Attempts had been made to improve the lot of Asian countries with loans that invested in agriculture, and industry, with few conditions, but there were more conditions applied to African loans, along with assumptions that what worked in Asia would automatically work in Africa, with the result that loans were less effectively invested, and local ideas weren’t listened to.
This isn’t to say that Africans were entirely “put upon” with no agency of their own. Botswana, Mauritius, Rwandan, and Ethiopia have all proved capable of building varying forms of solidly functioning economies, and these have built strong bases for future generations, but leaders in other countries have been unwilling to make tough political decisions, which hasn’t been helped by the widespread language differences, which allowed those tough decisions to be portrayed as favouring one group over another. Former colonial powers haven’t helped, insisting on things that they want, rather than what they know will work in less developed nations, when they invest.
The good news is that the continent is reaching a critical mass of people that may allow local innovation and investment possible, and effective. The book starts and finishes by explaining what Africa needs to grow into the future.
After a determined attempt to carve Africa up by the colonial powers, the continent of Africa was almost set up to fail. The colonists had made no effort to say “well this lot all speak the same language, and have the same God, so that might make a governable nation.” Instead they created countries of multiple languages, and religions, where the people had less in common, and so were harder to govern.
Once there, the countries were of low population density, and so hard to work intensively, so were asset stripped, rather than worked, with the most obvious asset being the people, who were shipped as slaves to the Americas, to work the land there.
The people that were left weren’t viewed positively. Many were illiterate, even at independence, and there probably wasn’t going to be enough indigenous engineers, scientists, doctors, and civil servants to make running the country easy, even if the colonists had created an environment where effective government was going to be easy.
On independence, African countries could have redrawn their borders more logically, but were unwilling to do so. Attempts had been made to improve the lot of Asian countries with loans that invested in agriculture, and industry, with few conditions, but there were more conditions applied to African loans, along with assumptions that what worked in Asia would automatically work in Africa, with the result that loans were less effectively invested, and local ideas weren’t listened to.
This isn’t to say that Africans were entirely “put upon” with no agency of their own. Botswana, Mauritius, Rwandan, and Ethiopia have all proved capable of building varying forms of solidly functioning economies, and these have built strong bases for future generations, but leaders in other countries have been unwilling to make tough political decisions, which hasn’t been helped by the widespread language differences, which allowed those tough decisions to be portrayed as favouring one group over another. Former colonial powers haven’t helped, insisting on things that they want, rather than what they know will work in less developed nations, when they invest.
The good news is that the continent is reaching a critical mass of people that may allow local innovation and investment possible, and effective. The book starts and finishes by explaining what Africa needs to grow into the future.
March 25, 2026
I had read good reviews of this book based largely on Studwell’s previous books on Asia. For someone who claims not to be an Africa expert and supposedly with very little prior knowledge, this is a remarkable tour de force. Some of the ‘pocket summaries’ of the regions and country’s histories are a bit simplistic but necessary nevertheless for readers new to the region. He focuses on four countries in detail - so called ‘success stories’ - Rwanda, Botswana, Mauritius and Ethiopia. Studwell concludes that those which invested in small holder agriculture and manufacturing have set the conditions for stability and prosperity.
July 8, 2026
I enjoyed this. Bit of a slow start - definitely feels less focused and persuasive than Studwell’s previous “How Asia Works,” but it grew on me as I realized he was trading persuasion for precision. Africa is complicated, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, but there are principles - support for smallholder farmers, development coalitions - that can help. I leave this read with better understanding and more hope about the developmental future of the world’s poorest continent.
May 14, 2026
Historically informed economics that eschews ideological bias. The '-isms' are presented simply as tools for a government to accomplish goals. Each country must find the right balance of these ingredients for its unique position. So, I recommend this book to capitalists, Marxists, socialists, anarchists, even fascists, who are interested in Africa.
June 22, 2026
Giving this 4 stars only because Goodreads doesn't allow a 3.5 rating. Picked this up looking for an introduction to the African politico-economy, and on that front, the book absolutely did its job. However, author's analysis often felt force-fitted to match a pre-existing thesis, and I disagreed with many of the policy suggestions.
April 15, 2026
"Developmental coalitions to quieten ethnic division, smallholder agriculture, manufacturing, and appropriate financial arrangements, including the prudent use of mineral and hydrocarbon rents: this is the to-do list recommended by Africa's progress to date."
May 16, 2026
Afrique
Comprehensive and insightful overview of the wide economic landscape that is the continent of Africa - this changed many prior assumptions I had regarding it. The deeper focus on four different countries was helpful - highs and lows but never patronizing.
Comprehensive and insightful overview of the wide economic landscape that is the continent of Africa - this changed many prior assumptions I had regarding it. The deeper focus on four different countries was helpful - highs and lows but never patronizing.
May 23, 2026
Really enjoyed this one, for a book on economic development, it was arresting. The later chapters on specfic countries were good but some parts I found less interesting but the initial chapters were very thought provoking.
July 7, 2026
A few good ideas but the book juuust touches on the destruction of communism but fails to name it, and falls very quickly into all the clichés around African economy. A very sad biased take on Africa.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
AS the rest of the world grows economically Africa struggles because of corruption and violence.THE author seems to think they are headed in the right direction.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
How Africa Works (2026) by Joe Studwell is another excellent, interesting book by the author of How Asia Works. Studwell was a business journalist who now has a doctorate from Cambridge. The book addresses one of the most important questions the world faces, how to speed Africa’s development.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the ARC.
For anyone interested in this book and the subject matter I'd highly recommend reading The Time Travelling Economist by Charlie Robertson as well.
Studwell’s thesis on Asia is that land reforms were performed that enabled small farmers to farm intensively and then industrial policy was used to increase technological sophistication with export discipline and there were financial institutions created to enable this to happen. Studwell’s thesis on Africa is that Africa has been slow to develop for three reasons. These are that it was too sparsely populated to enable successful agriculture to happen, that ‘low budget colonialism’ only developed small enclaves for resource extraction and that development was slower because the first two factors combined to create dispersed, fragmented, uneducated societies.
The book itself is divided into three parts. In the first Studwell describes his paradigm for African development and why it has been slow. In the second part he describes various African countries that have succeeded with development. These are Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Finally he describes what policies he believes will really help. This second has chapters on Agriculture and Manufacturing and a chapter that summarises the book.
The case studies on successful development in Africa are really interesting. Botswana’s successful development is fascinating. Botswana at independence had very few high school graduates and a low population. But the government bureaucracy, with substantial numbers of foreigners worked systematically to improve the country. When diamonds were discovered the wealth was used to improve and educate the country and this worked well. In Mauritius a multi-ethnic society was blended together and the country managed to develop agriculture, manufacturing and then tourism. In Ethiopia land reform was carefully done. There Meles Zenawi worked very hard to emulate what had worked in Asia. He also developed roads, irrigation and electricity networks and worked hard to develop manufacturing. In Rwanda Paul Kagame worked to make Rwanda the Singapore of the region.
Studwell’s theses on why Africa hasn’t developed are questionable. He says that low population density in Africa held Africa back. However, South America has a lower population density than Africa and yet this hasn’t held it back. Studwell does write about how disease really impacted Africa’s development and this is related. Between Malaria, Sleeping sickness and other tropical diseases life expectancy in Africa was low and this had a huge impact. Modern medicines and insecticides have grossly reduced the impact but these have only been around since the Second World War and have only come into play as countries became wealthier.
The book also downplays the role of corrupt, awful government in Africa. Despite this it also describes in detail a lot of awful African governance. The excellent book Dictatorland by Paul Kenyon has even more on this. Studwell writes little about aid but does defend it. He mentions Dead Aid by Dambiso Moyo and William Easterly’s work but criticises it.
One thing that Studwell does mention is education and how poorly educated Africa was in 1950. Literacy was very low, perhaps 25%. This has greatly improved today to over 70%. This must make a huge difference.
The book is fairly upbeat about Africa’s prospects. Studwell believes that now that Africa has enough people it will develop more rapidly. He believes that agricultural reform is happening, that infrastructure is being built, Africa is getting better educated and that the demographic dividend will yield considerable results. He makes the case well. Surprisingly he doesn’t add that modern technology help enormously, in particular mobile phones and solar panels. Studwell also writes about how Chinese money for projects is also helping.
How Africa Works is an excellent book. Studwell writes really well, makes his case clearly and provides a plethora of interesting information throughout the book. The book is very much worth reading even for readers who are skeptical about Studwell’s thesis. His optimistic case for Africa in future is well grounded and will hopefully become a reality.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the ARC.
For anyone interested in this book and the subject matter I'd highly recommend reading The Time Travelling Economist by Charlie Robertson as well.
Studwell’s thesis on Asia is that land reforms were performed that enabled small farmers to farm intensively and then industrial policy was used to increase technological sophistication with export discipline and there were financial institutions created to enable this to happen. Studwell’s thesis on Africa is that Africa has been slow to develop for three reasons. These are that it was too sparsely populated to enable successful agriculture to happen, that ‘low budget colonialism’ only developed small enclaves for resource extraction and that development was slower because the first two factors combined to create dispersed, fragmented, uneducated societies.
The book itself is divided into three parts. In the first Studwell describes his paradigm for African development and why it has been slow. In the second part he describes various African countries that have succeeded with development. These are Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Finally he describes what policies he believes will really help. This second has chapters on Agriculture and Manufacturing and a chapter that summarises the book.
The case studies on successful development in Africa are really interesting. Botswana’s successful development is fascinating. Botswana at independence had very few high school graduates and a low population. But the government bureaucracy, with substantial numbers of foreigners worked systematically to improve the country. When diamonds were discovered the wealth was used to improve and educate the country and this worked well. In Mauritius a multi-ethnic society was blended together and the country managed to develop agriculture, manufacturing and then tourism. In Ethiopia land reform was carefully done. There Meles Zenawi worked very hard to emulate what had worked in Asia. He also developed roads, irrigation and electricity networks and worked hard to develop manufacturing. In Rwanda Paul Kagame worked to make Rwanda the Singapore of the region.
Studwell’s theses on why Africa hasn’t developed are questionable. He says that low population density in Africa held Africa back. However, South America has a lower population density than Africa and yet this hasn’t held it back. Studwell does write about how disease really impacted Africa’s development and this is related. Between Malaria, Sleeping sickness and other tropical diseases life expectancy in Africa was low and this had a huge impact. Modern medicines and insecticides have grossly reduced the impact but these have only been around since the Second World War and have only come into play as countries became wealthier.
The book also downplays the role of corrupt, awful government in Africa. Despite this it also describes in detail a lot of awful African governance. The excellent book Dictatorland by Paul Kenyon has even more on this. Studwell writes little about aid but does defend it. He mentions Dead Aid by Dambiso Moyo and William Easterly’s work but criticises it.
One thing that Studwell does mention is education and how poorly educated Africa was in 1950. Literacy was very low, perhaps 25%. This has greatly improved today to over 70%. This must make a huge difference.
The book is fairly upbeat about Africa’s prospects. Studwell believes that now that Africa has enough people it will develop more rapidly. He believes that agricultural reform is happening, that infrastructure is being built, Africa is getting better educated and that the demographic dividend will yield considerable results. He makes the case well. Surprisingly he doesn’t add that modern technology help enormously, in particular mobile phones and solar panels. Studwell also writes about how Chinese money for projects is also helping.
How Africa Works is an excellent book. Studwell writes really well, makes his case clearly and provides a plethora of interesting information throughout the book. The book is very much worth reading even for readers who are skeptical about Studwell’s thesis. His optimistic case for Africa in future is well grounded and will hopefully become a reality.
April 12, 2026
Africa has enough people now, and will be an engine for growth in the coming years, it seems.
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