Christopher Ondaatje
Developing the Dark Continent
The Shackled Continent: Africa's Past, Present and Future
By Robert Guest
Macmillan 280pp £20
ANYONE WHO WANTS to be reminded of the horrors of Africa, economic or otherwise, will be interested to read this intelligent but light treatise by Robert Guest, the Africa editor of The Economist. In The Shackled Continent he sets out to explain, as the jacket blurb neatly states, why 'Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer over the last three decades'. In order to do so, he must answer a number of subsidiary questions: 'Why are so many African nations at war? Why has Aids affected Africa so much more than any other region? . . . Why are so many African governments corrupt, inept and despotic? Why has foreign aid proved such a failure?'
How poor is Africa? 'The numbers are staggering: half of sub-Saharan Mica's 600 million people live on just 65 cents a day. . .. The median African country has a gross domestic product of only $2 billion - roughly the output of a small town in Europe; . . .
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm