Old Missionaries and New: The Confusing Role of Outsiders in African Development

The western urge to help sub-Saharan Africa has a storied past. Were Christian missionaries as destructive of local cultures as their reputation suggests? And are today’s foreign aid officials and NGOs any better? Drawing on a lifetime of first-hand experience and more recent, personal research, the lecture will explore the complex effects of outside intervention in Africa.

Robert Calderisi is a former director of the World Bank and author of The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working. Calderisi was Concordia University’s first Rhodes Scholar.