George Ayittey
Encyclopedia
George Ayittey is a Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

ian economist, author and president of the Free Africa Foundation
Free Africa Foundation
The Free Africa Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank headed by economist George Ayittey which criticizes corruption, oppression, and mismanagement in African governments, and advocates for democratic reform. Its board includes Makaziwe Mandela and Larry Diamond...

 in Washington DC. He is a professor at American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute
Foreign Policy Research Institute
The Foreign Policy Research Institute is an American neoconservative think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is "devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S...

. He has championed the argument that "Africa is poor because she is not free", that the primary cause of African poverty is less a result of the oppression and mismanagement by colonial powers, but rather a result of modern oppressive native autocrats. He also goes beyond criticism to advocate for specific ways to address the abuses of the past and present; specifically he calls for democratic government, debt reexamination, modernized infrastructure, free market economics, and free trade to promote development.

Life

Ayittey holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Ghana
University of Ghana
The University of Ghana is the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian universities and tertiary institutions. It is one of the best universities in Africa and by far the most prestigious in West Africa...

, Legon
Legon
Legon, a suburb of the Ghanaian capital city Accra, is situated about twelve kilometres north-east of the city center. Legon is home to the main campus of the University of Ghana. The word "Legon" is derived from the indigenous Ga language of the people of Greater Accra; NI-LEY GON therefore "Hill...

, an M.A. from the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...

 in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

. He has taught at Wayne State College
Wayne State College
Wayne State College is a four-year public college in the Nebraska State College System in Wayne, Nebraska. The current enrollment is 3,571. The college opened as a State Normal School in 1910 after the State purchased the private Nebraska Normal College . The State Normal College became State...

 and Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, commonly referred to as Bloomsburg, BU or Bloom, is a public university in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, United States...

. He held a National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....

 in 1988-89, and then joined The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...

 as a Bradley Resident Scholar. He founded The Free Africa Foundation in 1993, to serve as a catalyst for reform in Africa.
In 2008 Dr. Ayittey was listed by Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...

as one of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" who "are shaping the tenor of our time". He lives in Lorton, Virginia
Lorton, Virginia
Lorton is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population is 27,709 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:...

.

Works

  • Indigenous African Institutions, Transnational Publishers, 1991; 2nd ed., 2004
  • The Blueprint for Ghana's Economic Recovery, Africana Publishers, 1997
  • Africa Betrayed, St. Martin’s Press,, 1992
  • Africa in Chaos, St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
  • Africa Unchained: the blueprint for development, Palgrave/MacMillan, 2004

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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