John Reader compiled a remarkable history of Africa in his book Africa: Biography of a Continent (1996). We will use this volume as a central reference for our consideration of the origins of various Anglo-American images of an incredibly diverse continent and its people. In addition, we will examine recent fictional and non-fictional texts and films to explore the effects of these images on current perceptions of African politics, culture and environment.

Recently, aid effectiveness has become a popular topic in the literature. Generally, it is measured by instrumental measures of well-being, specifically, GDP per capita. This paper uses a substantive approach, pioneered by Amartya Sen, to evaluate aid effectiveness. Substantive measures attempt to measure welfare directly. Specifically, I use infrastructure as measured by telephone lines per 100 people, life expectancy, economic diversification as measured by agriculture as a percentage of GDP, and education as measured by enrollment in primary school, as substantive measures of well-being.