The African Poor by John Iliffe

The African Poor by John Iliffe

This history of the poor of Sub-Saharan Africa begins in the monasteries of thirteenth-century Ethiopia and ends in the South African resettlement sites of the 1980s. Its thesis, derived from histories of poverty in Europe, is that most very poor Africans have been individuals incapacitated for labour, bereft of support, and unable to fend for themselves in a land-rich economy. There has emerged the distinct poverty of those excluded from access to productive resources. Natural disaster brought widespread destitution, but as a cause of mass mortality it was almost eliminated in the colonial era, to return to those areas where drought has been compounded by administrative breakdown. Professor Iliffe investigates what it was like to be poor, how the poor sought to help themselves, how their counterparts in other continents live. The poor live as people, rather than merely parading as statistics. Famines have alerted the world to African poverty, but the problem itself is ancient. Its prevailing forms will not be understood until those of earlier periods are revealed and trends of change are identified. This is a book for all concerned with the future of Africa, as well as for students of poverty elsewhere.

'This is history which is in empathy with Africa which seeks, and finds, the positive elements in the suffering of the poor' The Times Higher Education Supplement
'This pioneering book is both comprehensive and also eminently fair: whether in dealing with pre-colonial, colonial, or contemporary conditions, Iliffe presents a splendidly balanced and unprejudiced view always meticulously supported by the factual evidence.' American Anthropologist

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521348775
ISBN 10	0521348773
Title	The African Poor
Author	John Iliffe
Series	African Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1987-12-25
Number of pages	400
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.