Squandering Eden: Africa at the Edge

by Mort Rosenblum, Doug Williamson

A foreign correspondent and a distinguished scientist discuss the history, politics, environment, economy, and social conditions of Africa

Genres: Africa

326 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1987

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old, but no less accurate; If you've ever had an interest in what works and doesn't work in Africa, this book is a good summation. I would have liked to have read this before moving to Africa! The author is a journalist with more than 30 years living and traveling between the continent and Washington D.C.--detailing what you do and don't see as a vacationer. From malaria, malnutrition, deforestation, affluence among government officials and expats, the AIDS epidemic, bribes, coup d'etats, and the beauty of the land and people-Rosenblum seems to touch on everything. I even laughed out loud at the mention of an evening spent with some Hash Harriers-"Part-time runners, full-time drinkers." Most of the book, however, addresses more serious matters, but always with the almost laughable or truly tragic ironies that seem to hold up progress for the poor. I appreciated how Rosenblum took time to describe the hard lives and hidden gifts of individual Africans who are often lost among the hundreds of thousands appearing to the rest of the world only in charts and graphs. He seems to be searching for the way to help Africans. For every logistical step forward there seems to two steps back as greedy governments and officials tend to circumvent the best of efforts. At one point he quotes an American diplomat as saying, "There are more people in Peoria concerned about saving Sudanese than in Khartoum." Ultimately Rosenblum suggests that helping Africa is best done by small groups, especially NGO's and missionaries who put needed resources directly in the hands of the peasants and working class and wherever possible bypassing government red tape and corruption. He shows how some tragedies are never helped as some regions are not "lucky" enough to have been captured on film and snatched up by networks. Rosenblum makes reading about the difficulties of Africa possible because he seems to do it with an ernest desire to see change.