Africa should accept that its present malaise is largely due to its own mistakes: greed, poor policies and a lack of leadership. Blaming colonialism for Africa's failings belongs to the past. This fresh look at Africa and its prospects provides original, thought-provoking answers to some old questions.

Study of economic development, politics and steady state economy in Africa - discusses the disappointments of independence, democracy and the economic recession; explains the failure of capitalism and the post- colonialism economic implications; looks at political systems and the negative impact of personal rule (political leadership) in institutional framework, the economy (incl. Black market) and defence dependence; presents prospects and recommendations. Bibliography, map, statistical tables.

Recent seismic shifts in Congo and Rwanda have exposed the continued volatility of the state of affairs in central Africa. As African states have shaken off their postcolonial despots, new leaders with sweeping ideas about a pan-African alliance have emerged -- and yet the internecine struggles go on. What is Africa's problem? As one of the leaders expressing a broad and forceful vision for Africa's future, Uganda's Yoweri K. Museveni is perhaps better placed than anyone in the world to address the very question his book poses. In 1986, after more than a decade of armed struggle, a rebellion led by Museveni toppled the dictatorship of Idi Amin, and Museveni, at 42, became president of Uganda, a country at that time in near total disarray. Since then, Uganda has made remarkable strides in political, civic, and economic arenas, and Museveni has assumed the role of "the eminence grise of the new leadership in central Africa" (Philip Gourevitch, The New Yorker). As such, he has proven a powerful force for change, not just in Uganda but across the turbulent span of African states. This collection of Museveni's writings and speeches lays out the possibilities for social change in Africa. Working with a broad historical understanding and an intimate knowledge of the problems at hand, Museveni describes how movements can be formed to foster democracy, how class consciousness can transcend tribal differences in the development of democratic institutions, and how the politics of identity operate in postcolonial Africa. Museveni's own contributions to the overthrow of Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and to the political transformation of Uganda suggest the kind of change that may sweep Africa indecades to come. What Is Africa's Problem? gives a firsthand look at what those changes might be, how they might come about, and what they might mean.

Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world's poorest countries.

Why has land reform been such a failure in South Africa? Will expropriation without compensation solve the problem? What can be done to get the land programme back on track? In Land Matters, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi tackles the past, present and future of the land question in South Africa. Going back in history, he shows how Africans’ communal systems of landownership were used by colonial rulers to deny that Africans owned the land at all. He explores the effects of the Land Acts, Bantustans and forced removals. And he evaluates the ANC’s policies on land throughout the struggle years, during the negotiations of the 1990s, and in government. Land Matters unpacks the government’s achievements and failures in land redistribution, restitution and tenure reform, and makes suggestions for what needs to be done in future. The book also explores the power of chiefs, the tension between communal landownership and the desire for private title, the failure of the willing-seller, willing-buyer approach, women and land reform, the role of banks, and the debates around amending the Constitution. Steering clear of the simplistic and polarising terms of the land debate, Ngcukaitobi argues for a return to the nuanced constitutional requirements of justice and equity in South Africa’s land policy. Thoughtful and provocative, Land Matters sheds light on one of the most topical, complex and urgent issues in South Africa today.

Economic growth does not demand a secret formula. Good development examples now abound in East Asia and further afield in others parts of Asia, and in Central America. But why then has Africa failed to realise its potential in half a century of independence? Why Africa is Poor demonstrates that Africa is poor not because the world has denied the continent the market and financial means to compete: far from it. It has not been because of aid per se. Nor is African poverty solely a consequence of poor infrastructure or trade access, or because the necessary development and technical expertise is unavailable internationally. Why then has the continent lagged behind other developing areas when its people work hard and the continent is blessed with abundant natural resources? Stomping across the continent and the developing world in search of the answer, Greg Mills controversially shows that the main reason why Africa's people are poor is because their leaders have made this choice.

State collapse is one of the major threats to peace, stability, and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa today. In a collapsed state the regime finally wears out its ability to satisfy the demands of the various groups in society; it fails to govern or to keep the state together. The collapse is marked by the loss of control over political and economic space. A collapsed state can no longer perform its basic security and development functions and has no effective control over its territory and borders. Efforts to avoid drawing other nations into a wider conflict created by the collapse of a state—and creating favorable conditions for reconciliation and reconstruction of a failed state after it has collapsed—present major challenges. In April, 2008 the Cornell Institute for African Development called a symposium on ‘Failed and Failing States in Africa: Lessons from Darfur and Beyond’ to address these critical issues. Key contributions to the symposium are brought together in this volume. Taken together these essays represent a significant discussion on the challenges presented by the presence of failing states within Africa.