African history in ten *seconds*!

We live in a fast-paced, media-driven society. Information must be simple, clear, and colourful, or it just gets missed. In my quest to bring you ever-closer to the truth about African development, this is a lesson I never cease learning.

For those of you who found my chart summarising African history since independence too complicated, my amazing friend John has (amazingly) produced a simpler version. Rather than tracking country by country, it helps you see how the governmental composition of Africa has shifted over time.

The wider a section the more states were in that situation at the time. So we can clearly see how colonialism gave way to dictatorship and war, then in many cases to one or other level of democracy. But war and tyranny remain with us today.

What crazy fun can you have with the figures? Download the spreadsheet from the original post, or try the powerpoint version. I look forward to recieving your most creative presentations of the figures!

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10 Responses to “ African history in ten *seconds*! ”

Comments:

Pete Huggins says:
July 11th, 2007 at 5:43 am

G’day Rav

Like the spreadsheet. Thought about factoring-in population size so we could see the ratio of people living under each situation as opposed to the ratio of countries, simply because of the wide variance in population size amongst African countries. However looking at your original S/S I’m not sure on how to do it!

Ivo Vegter says:
July 11th, 2007 at 11:29 am

Great chart, thanks. It shows that contrary to popular wisdom, not everything is bad and getting worse down here in Africa.

Now if only Bono would stop the neverending torrents of aid! I blogged about an interesting article here, which counters the conventional wisdom about the impact of aid on Africa. Though it makes people feel good, it actually undermines African development. Given how you describe this blog/project, you may find it interesting.

Rav Casley Gera says:
July 11th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

Many thanks, Ivo. Pablo also has some links to other criticisms of Bono.

I think, to be fair to Bono, it’s important to recognise that many development economists also support the call for more aid, not least Jeffrey Sachs, and we’ll be looking at his precise proposals for aid very soon. The Africa Commission, which of course included several prominent Africans, also called for a doubling of aid.

But there are also many, many voices like yours who feel that aid doesn’t work - and might make matters worse. Pablo lists some useful sources on this front on a previous post.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to start looking in detail at some of the criticisms of aid, and of those who support it. So please stay tuned!

You’re right, though - for all the doom and gloom, things are getting better in Africa - life expectancy, literacy, all these are improving in many countries - and it’s important not to forget it. Thanks!

Ivo Vegter says:
July 11th, 2007 at 12:08 pm

That’ll be the Jeffrey Sachs about whom Prof William Easterly was so scathing in his address to the Asian Development Bank last year? Fascinating examination of foreign aid, this: http://www.adb.org/Economics/speakers_program/easterly.pdf

I’ll keep an eye out here.

Ivo Vegter says:
July 11th, 2007 at 12:16 pm

Ah. Having clicked through some more, I see you’re a few steps ahead of me already in the Easterly versus Sachs debate

Soap says:
July 12th, 2007 at 3:24 am

What’s the one still-occupied country?

Rav Casley Gera says:
July 12th, 2007 at 11:32 am

It’s Western Sahara, which is occupied my Morocco (although it’s not universally considered an independent country). Don’t forget you can download the full spreadsheet with country-by-country progress from this post. Go on, have a look. It took me ages!

African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant