Fanon’s Warning: A civil society reader on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, edited by Patrick Bond.Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc., 2002. 219 pp. $24.95 paperback. ISBN 1592210090 (paperback)

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Kagwanja, Peter Mwangi
Copyright Year	2004
Abstract	The onset of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) seemed to signal the formation of political will within Africa's leadership to adhere to principles of good governance and market economics. Yet, a persistent worry was that 'on the ground', few understood NEPAD and civil society had not been consulted. This edited volume by Patrick Bond addresses this omission through its comprehensive and important collection of civil society's concerns about NEPAD. Most significantly, Fanon's Warning brings the voice of civil society to the fore. It provides a stinging critique of NEPAD ; South Africa, a leader of NEPAD ; and the policies employed to advance Africa's development. According to the civil society organisations cited, NEPAD is neither new nor an indication of changing political will. While NEPAD extols the virtues of honouring human rights, in practice civil society groups charge that the opposite is true. Echoing other civil society groups, Ian Taylor of the University of Botswana notes that Africa's commitment to good governance and democratic principles is betrayed by the lack of response to Mugabe's austere policies in Zimbabwe (p. 81). The main part of the book is a nearly paragraph by paragraph criticism of NEPAD by scholars associated with the Alternative Intellectual and Development Centre. NEPAD is denounced as incomplete and illogical (pp. 101–3) and wrongly focused on globalisation (pp. 115, 137). A primary criticism warns that NEPAD's focus on market policies will cloud efforts to improve respect for human rights in Africa, as decisions will be made based on privilege and market access, rather than on basic rights (p. 145). Although Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, and Nigeria also led the NEPAD proposal, the annotated critique frequently points to South Africa, because of its leadership position in Africa, as a test for NEPAD's viability. Bond and others repeatedly accuse President Thabo Mbeki of ' talking left, acting right ' (p. 22) – meaning that he is seeks to please international financial institutions, while claiming to champion plans that advance basic human rights and development through NEPAD. But, in their view, NEPAD has nothing new or beneficial to offer Africa (p. 126). Bond offers an Afterword to bring the assessment of NEPAD up to date from the book's first printing in 2002. He concedes that governments have increased their consultation with civil society, but contends that NEPAD has still not proved beneficial to Africa, as exemplified by the continuing economic …
Starting Page	493
Ending Page	494
Page Count	2
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.1093/afraf/adh053
Volume Number	103
Alternate Webpage(s)	http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/35504/1/displayFulltext.pdf
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf%2Fadh053
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article