Zambia · Books

Books from Zambia

2 books from and about Zambia: what each is about, the plot, and a note from Professor Kogi.

Dead Aid

Dambisa Moyo

Original language: English · Paperback · ISBN 978-0374532123

Dambisa Moyo, an economist from Zambia, examines the record of international aid to African countries and argues that decades of financial transfers from wealthier nations have not achieved their stated goals. The book presents data showing that poverty in many recipient countries has worsened over time, and that economic growth rates have declined rather than improved during the same period. Moyo challenges the assumption, widespread among policymakers and public figures alike, that large-scale aid is the primary tool for addressing poverty on the continent.

Rather than stopping at criticism, the book outlines alternative approaches to financing economic development. These include encouraging direct foreign investment, expanding access to international capital markets, promoting trade, and reducing dependency on aid flows. Moyo draws on her background in economics and finance to frame these proposals in practical terms, addressing how governments in low-income countries might transition away from aid-based models.

Dead Aid became a national bestseller and generated significant public debate in both the United States and the United Kingdom when it was published. The arguments provoked responses from economists, development workers, and political commentators, making the book a visible reference point in ongoing discussions about how international development is funded.

Plot

A national bestseller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined―and millions continue to suffer. Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world's poorest countries.

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The Old Drift

Namwali Serpell

Original language: English · Hardcover · ISBN 978-1101907146

In 1904, a colonial settlement called The Old Drift sits on the banks of the Zambezi River, close to Victoria Falls in what is now Zambia. At a hotel nearby, a feverish man named Percy M. Clark makes a single error that binds together the lives of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. From that moment, the novel follows three Zambian families across more than a century, tracing how one mistake spirals into a long chain of consequences passed down through generations.

The three families are black, white, and brown, and their stories collide and separate as Zambia itself changes around them. Namwali Serpell moves between historical periods and literary modes, shifting from colonial-era realism to fairytale, romance, and science fiction as the timeline stretches into the present and beyond. The narrative voice belongs to a strange collective chorus that identifies itself as humanity's greatest enemy, giving the storytelling an unusual, nonhuman perspective.

Each generation carries forward the triumphs, errors, losses, and hopes of the one before it. The book is set against the political and social landscape of Zambia from its colonial period through independence and into a speculative near future, connecting personal fate to national history through the recurring theme of borders created and crossed.

Plot

1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond. As the generations pass, their lives—their triumphs, errors, losses and hopes—emerge through a panorama of history, fairytale, romance and science fiction.

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