The Setbacks and Truths of Dambisa Moyo:

The Setbacks and Truths of Dambisa Moyo:
This article tends to summarize the patriotic initiative of a Zambian lady Dambisa Moyo to her lovely continent through her benevolent work addressing issue of aid dependency in Africa. She is one among of the African writers who criticize the western aid programme to Africa. Dambisa posed out strategic ways on how to find sustainable solutions to African woes. With reference to her economic expertise background, Dambisa tends to disguise her self as helper to African economy problem, as she said to her most person request is to find the economic growth of Africa which has until now remained elusive. In collaboration with Nial Furgson, they come up with a book entitled “Dead Aid” with the quotation why aid is not working in Africa and how there is another way for Africa. Her book is very special for those who truly wish to see African progress (Africans, policy makers and western broader international community). To me her enormous work makes me believing that, we Africans youth composes a huge pool of talent and energy that is not fully exploited, given an opportunity we can be an important driver of changes. It is a very important dedicative patriotic initiative to her beloved continent. But is that true? Does aid work? That is the main conspiracy factors drive me to analyze the setbacks and truth of her work.

Does aid work? The similar question have been asked by the Director of Norad- Tanzania in the introduction to Norad’s final report of 2007 (Quotation has made from the report of Eirik G. Jansen a former programme officer for the Management of Natural Resources Programme (MNRP) in Tanzania, on reflection on natural resources program in Tanzania). The answer to that question is very clear; Yes, aid does work, but not well enough. From that point of view, I don’t hesitate to say that the problem is not aid but how that aid is used?? From that scenario we need to think in depth how Africans we can utilize aid we get from abroad to lift out our continent out of abject poverty. I shared the work of Dambisa with my fellows, we had different arguments to her work but most of them were constructive ones. One of the arguments raised was; Dambisa has never been in Africa she spends much of her time abroad, so she doesn’t know really problems of Africa (she stayed in America for eight years in her childhood before coming back to Zambia and departs again to abroad for further studies and work up to now). To me that is not a problem, my concern is how loyal to Africa she is? Dambisa is selling her book with the price of £14.19 about 33,000Tshs. Is that price affordable to many of Africans who truly wish to see the progress of Africa? Several writers who write in the question of helping African continent like Walter Rodney through his book “How Europe underdeveloped Africa” their books are free of charges and they are easily accessible online for all Africans.

I’m sure more than hundred percent before preparing this book, Dambisa get aid from some where else on reason of helping African Economy to prepare her important work. She is one among of the Africans academicians who tends to use African problems to mount up their income (She is real an economist). She further continues to criticize her own motherland as she said there are fewer and fewer reasons for here to return home and more and more reasons for her to stay abroad because African continent laden with creaking bureaucracy. Is that a patriotic for an expertise to abandon his or her home continent with a reason of having problems within his or own continent? What if expertise in western countries they could abandoned their countries before? Could we have the current developed Europe or America? Though what Dambisa tell us is true it is the time for us Africa to take responsibility for our own future, it is the time we want to see Africans solutions to Africans challenges. But she is an academician who used her economics background to generate money through Africans problems and not helping Africans.


Stephen J Nyagonde
National Representative
Young Earth Scientist Network- Tanzania,
Internship WWF Tanzania Office,
Rubeho Environmental Action Project-REAP,
Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG),
Rubeho, Mpwapwa, Dodoma,
Email: stnya19@yahoo.com, snyagonde@gmail.com
Mobile: +255713058745, +255765111101