Publisher’s comments
“ ’Actor: Of his own development, of democracy. Must play his part well. Must play his part as written by someone else.’ With its 350 entries, this dictionary of development, in the ironic way of the stereotypes from Gustave Flaubert, proposes to go through the words and commonplaces of development policies in Africa. The author, practitioner of development projects, regularly publishes in specialized journals showing the poverty of the practical thinking about development. With this etymological dictionary targeting the general public, he goes further. In a style that is sometimes that of a pamphleteer, the author uses Gustave Flaubert’s formula, ’irony does not remove anything from the pathetic, it amplifies it on the contrary.’ The author demonstrates that the delay in human development that still characterises the African continent – against the blissful afro-optimism – is first of all the consequence of the stupidity of development thinking”
