- Listening: Dr. Grieve Chelwa on decolonizing the economics curriculum and Seen and Unseen podcast about Elite Imitation in Public Policy
- Reading: Célestin Monga describes reaction of a minister of finance when he became a senior economist in the Europe and Central Asia department of the World Bank. “She simply could not accept the idea that an African economist would be assigned to her country”. He goes on to describe the widespread prejudice and racism in the development sector and the “entrenched self-doubt, self-hatred, and various forms of sociopolitical ills from within the [African] continent. Racist attitudes are sometimes internalised by African elites themselves, illustrating a profound deficit of self-esteem (one of Africa’s main deficits) and a lingering social disease, which could be called “postcolonialism stress disorder.”
- Reading: An excellent book that describes prejudice in the development sector is Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas. Anand makes it clear that “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. This is why I recommend that Peace Corps volunteers or anyone else interested in development work join a social enterprise afterwards instead of going back to the US to get a Masters. “Development has to do with people, with human and social complexity, with cultural and traditional realities, and their willingness to struggle with the messy and multifaceted aspects of a problem”. Is it possible to understand this struggle – and have the willingness to struggle – without living/working in a place for an extended period of time? Can this struggle be taught in a classroom?
- Watching: Beyonce’s Black is King. I liked it, but there have been mixed reactions. Amarachi and I enjoyed identifying which region/country/culture the clothes and symbols come from. If you’re new to African music videos, here are a few good ones: azonto, sitya loss, johnny, Balaumba, Kabableke, kedike
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