The Idea of Development in Africa
A History

An engaging history of how the idea of development has shaped Africa's past and present encounters with the West.

Corrie Decker (Author), Elisabeth McMahon (Author)

9781107503229, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 October 2020

280 pages
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

'… the book is thought provoking as it discusses known material in a new light … Recommended. Graduate students and faculty.' J. E. Weaver, Choice

The Idea of Development in Africa challenges prevailing international development discourses about the continent, by tracing the history of ideas, practices, and 'problems' of development used in Africa. In doing so, it offers an innovative approach to examining the history and culture of development through the lens of the development episteme, which has been foundational to the 'idea of Africa' in western discourses since the early 1800s. The study weaves together an historical narrative of how the idea of development emerged with an account of the policies and practices of development in colonial and postcolonial Africa. The book highlights four enduring themes in African development, including their present-day ramifications: domesticity, education, health, and industrialization. Offering a balance between historical overview and analysis of past and present case studies, Elisabeth McMahon and Corrie Decker demonstrate that Africans have always co-opted, challenged, and reformed the idea of development, even as the western-centric development episteme presumes a one-way flow of ideas and funding from the West to Africa.

Introduction
Part I. Origins of the Development Episteme: 1. From Progress to Development
2. Knowledge and the Development Episteme
3. Eugenics and Racism in the Development Episteme
4. Decolonizing the Idea of Development
Part II. Implementation of the Development Episteme: 5. The Salvation of Science
6. Challenges to Development
7. From Modernization to Structural Adjustment
8. The New Missionaries
Part III. Development 'Problems': 9. Reshaping Huts and Homes
10. Lessons in Separate Development
11. Capitalizing on Dis-Ease
12. Manufacturing Modernization
13. African Critiques of the Development Episteme.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], African history [HBJH], Development studies [GTF]