The Idea of Development in Africa

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.