Africa Emerges

Sub-Saharan Africa is no longer a troubled ‘dark continent.’ Most of its constituent countries are now enjoying significant economic growth and political progress. The new Africa has begun to banish the miseries of the past, and appears ready to play an important role in world affairs. Thanks to shifts in leadership and governance, an African renaissance could be at hand.

Yet the road ahead is not without obstacles. As world renowned expert on African affairs, Robert Rotberg, expertly shows, Africa today maybe poised to deliver real rewards to its long suffering citizens but it faces critical new crises as well as abundant new opportunities. Africa Emerges draws on a wealth of empirical data to explore the key challenges Africa must overcome in the coming decades. From peacekeeping to health and disease, from energy needs to education, this illuminating analysis diagnoses the remaining impediments Africa will need to surmount if it is to emerge in 2050 as a prosperous, peaceful, dynamic collection of robust large and small nations.

Africa Emerges offers an unparalleled guide for all those interested in the dynamics of modern Africa’s political, economic, and social development.

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction: A Continent on the Move 1

1 Myriad Challenges and Opportunities 5

2 A Demographic Dividend or Just More People? 21

3 Tropical Dilemmas: Disease, Water, and More 35

4 Educating Future Generations 55

5 To War Rather than to Prosper 69

6 Accountability and the Wages of Corrupt Behavior 91

7 The Infrastructural Imperative 116

8 Harnessing Mobile Telephone Capabilities 134

9 China Drives Growth 151

10 Strengthening Governance 173

11 Creating Responsible Leadership 189

Notes 216

Select Bibliography 244

Index 252

"Rotberg's contribution is timely and reflects the decades of work he has done on the continent."
LSE Review of Books

"As world renowned expert on African affairs Robert Rotberg expertly shows, Africa may be poised to deliver real rewards to its long suffering citizens but it faces critical new crises."
Africa Confidential

"Rotberg's work is an elegant tour de force, sweeping all contemporary Africa into its view and establishing not just the continent's well-known faults but the real hopes for its future. Honest and provocative, Rotberg has combined deep knowledge with real common sense."
Stephen Chan, School of Oriental and African Studies

"Robert Rotberg has been one of the leading chroniclers of sub-Saharan Africa for decades. Africa Emerges is a comprehensive book that manages to survey a continent while being sensistive to nuance. Rotberg in an optimistic but unromantic manner paints a possible future for African countries that would, if adopted, transform the lives of tens of millions of people."
Jeffrey Herbst, Colgate University

"The book provides a useful and informative insight into many developments that have had a positive effect upon millions of African people."
Political Studies Review Robert I. Rotberg is the Founding Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Intrastate Conflict and President Emeritus of the World Peace Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was a member of the US Secretary of State’s advisory panel on Africa, and in 2012-2013 was the Inaugural Fulbright Research Chair in Political Development at both the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University (Ottawa) and the Balsillie School of International Affairs of the University of Waterloo (Canada).