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Get to know Africa better
We are not going to even try to sum up Africa's history in a few words.
What we want to do here, is to point you to some interesting videos and reading materials that will help you understand Africa and what makes it so unique.
*we don't get anything for the links to buy books on this page, we suggest them because we think they are good.
History and Colonialism
Colonialism has a great effect on many countries in Africa to this day, even though a lot of them have been independent for several decades. The colonialism by European empires started in the 19th century with European empires basically dividing the continent between them.
This video does a good job of summarizing African History in a fun way, in addition to withdrawing many misconceptions along the way:
Click here for another good and short (8:21) video sum of this period in time. *skip the first minute, it is an ad.
Dead Aid
"Dead aid" is a book by Dr. Dambisa Moyo, published in 2009 that confronts the major issues with the great amounts of money sent to Africa from other countries overseas. Understanding Aid helps us understand Africa and look at the situation from a much wider perspective.
In her book, Dr. Moyo presents an opinion that was very unpopular at the time of publishing when many celebrities were fundraising for Africa's benefit. The gist of it is that the billions of dollars flowing into Africa have actually crippled the healthy development of the countries economies. The book does not show an irreversible process but the contrary, a recipe is given of how to return things to the right path with a sort of "withdrawal" plan from aid for African countries.
We recommend buying the book for the full experience, Click Here to purchase it as an Ebook
If purchasing is not an option for you, you watch a lecture that Dr. Moyo gave to university students in Waterloo Canada.
It's long but very interesting!
The Fastest Billion
"The Fastest Billion" book was published in 2012, by Charles Robertson. Just a few years after "Dead Aid" was published, Robertson shows in his book that change is already happening and how people are willing to invest in Africa, and not just donate money to rescue it. This change shows of a continent on the rise, with the Chinese having a very positive effect on business in Africa, which is something the Dr. Moto mentioned in her book as well.
The Fastest Billion shows a much more optimistic situation than we are used to hearing about Africa, and although there are still many issues and problems that need to be addressed, it is nice to see that things are going in the right direction.
You can purchase this book Here
Good TED talks on Africa:
"The leaders who ruined Africa, and the generation who can fix it" by Fred Swaniker.
Fred talks about the importance of the African leadership, and some good reasons to be optimistic about it.
"Africa is poor and 5 other myths" by Simon Moss
Simon does a great job in showing a better perspective on some "myths" regarding Africa.
There are a couple more great talks on the Volunteering page