alternative to african paternalism? christianity!

Michael Knox Beran has written an excellent article for City Journal entitled Hearts of Darkness in which he examines the problem of poverty in Africa, and the mainstream response in the West. I wholeheartedly recommend reading it. He puts his finger on why Western paternalism doesn’t resolve Africa’s poverty, but in fact perpetuates and feeds off it. The only real antidote to poverty is in the ingenuity and self-reliance of property-owning free people.

But how do you setup Africa so that property-owning free people can thrive? How did it happen in Europe and North America? The fundamental groundwork laid by Moses, Rutherford, Blackstone, Locke and Jefferson must also be applicable in Africa. The overwhelming trend toward “l’etat c’est moi” dictatorships and collectivist experiments must give way to Lex Rex before Africa’s citizens can put an end to poverty in the only way that poverty can be ended: by leaving it.