Lagging economic development in Africa has been attributed to many causes, but the prevailing work ethic is never mentioned as a possible constraint to development in the formal literature. Obviously this is a politically and culturally sensitive issue. A discussion of the work ethic can easily degenerate into paternalistic and racist reflections. The author manages to discus it in a social-scientific manner without lapsing into platitudes. In this book development is seen as a process of long-term evolution in which people are central. Development is about changes in individual and...