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African Solutions for African Problems

Their country. Their people. Their culture.

economic impacts of cultural differences. The next natural step is to try to understand the
origins of cultural differences, which this study does by looking back into history.

We have shown that within Africa low levels of trust can be traced back to the legacy of the
slave trade. Individuals' trust in their relatives, neighbors, coethnics, and local government is
lower if their ancestors were heavily affected by the slave trade.”

"The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa." 432
American Economic Review 101 (7) (December): 3221–3252.
Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon. 2011

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Failure of m'zungu Interventions

“...western non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and multinational companies are in many
cases fulfilling many of the state's legitimate functions, thereby weakening these states'

accountability to their citizens.......
western development initiatives for Africa fail to recognise the level of control wielded by

international NGOs and multinationals in comparison with often weak political regimes.
As a result, ... offers such as debt relief, investment and aid in return for political reform were
simplistic and unrealistic "

"Unbinding Africa: Making Globalisation Work for Good Governance" 433
Foreign Policy Centre (FPC)

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“ Whatever the merits of French reasoning, their major military interventions have generally had
negative long-term impacts. [Lessons from French Military Interventions in Africa, Fondation

Pierre du Bois, November 2014

First, French interventions on behalf of beleaguered regimes have often provided serious
disincentives to reform those aspects of governance which often helped to cause the crises in
the first place. This was the case in Gabon in 1964, Chad in 1969, 1978, 1983 and 1986, Zaire in

1977 and 1978, Mauritania in 1977 and 1978, Rwanda in 1990-1993, Côte d'Ivoire in 2002, and
probably Mali today.

Secondly, such interventions rarely lead to more inclusive governing arrangements. Instead,
they have often helped to stifle whatever "loyal" opposition exists within regimes as hardliners

benefit from the changing balance of power in the regime's favor which French intervention
provided. This was the case in Gabon in 1964, Chad in 1969, 1983, 1986, 2008, and the French