In 1984, singer Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats was so outraged by the news videos of Ethiopian famine that he organized a fundraising organization, Band Aid. He convinced a group of English and Irish musicians to record a song, the proceeds of which would be spent to bring food to Ethiopia. “Feed the World”… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Emerging Markets
Guinea-Bissau: Warriors at Work
The Africa blogging project has been delayed by reading! I just finished another long book about a small country, Warriors at Work: How Guinea Was Really Set Free, by Mustafah Dhada. It’s the story of the country’s revolution against Portugal. Guinea, now known as Guinea-Bissau, attracted Portuguese slave traders in 1446. Portugal didn’t achieve control… [Read More]
The Gambia: The World and a Very Small Place in Africa
The African-Nation-A-Week project was delayed by a long book: The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, The Gambia. But what a fascinating book! Donald Wright takes a district in The Gambia, Niumi, and uses it as a starting point to explore the effects of globalization on the… [Read More]
Eritrea: I Didn’t Do It For You
Eritrea is a tiny, poor country, ranked 222 out of 229 on GDP per capita. History has not served it well. It was an Italian colony, a British colony, and the site of a U.S. military communications station; it was a UN administered region, annexed by Ethiopia, and winner of a civil war to establish… [Read More]
