the Humanist view

Easterly’s “The White Man’s Burden” deserves a sequel

In light of what is happening current in our world, me thinks Easterly’s “The White Man’s Burden” is among those books that deserves a sequel. “We preach a gospel of freedom and individual accountability, yet we intrude on the inner workings of so-called developing countries through bloated aid bureaucracies like the IMF and World Bank…

Norah Owaraga

09/07/2026

1–2 minutes

Books, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2817, William Easterly

In light of what is happening current in our world, me thinks Easterly’s “The White Man’s Burden” is among those books that deserves a sequel.

“We preach a gospel of freedom and individual accountability, yet we intrude on the inner workings of so-called developing countries through bloated aid bureaucracies like the IMF and World Bank that are accountable to no one for the effects of their prescriptions.”

Two decades later, I think it would be good to read the sequel, in light of the happenings in the Sahel Region, particularly so Burkina Faso.

“Could it be that we don’t know as much as we think we do about the magic spells that will open the door to the road to wealth?”

Does the answer to this question, perhaps, explain why the seeming resurgence of a wave of the New York Mayor Mamdani’s brand of democratic socialism?

Does it herald the beginning of the end of the ‘neo-liberal free-markets economic model’ as we have known it in the last two decades?

Civic activism rooted in humanism is the mission of blogger Owaraga Norah

I would be interested in reading such a sequel that interrogates and answers questions such as these herein asked.

Fediverse Reactions

2 responses to “Easterly’s “The White Man’s Burden” deserves a sequel”

thetravelingtaylorsofficial

Jul 10, 2026 at 2:31 am

A really thought-provoking pick — Easterly’s core question about whether outsiders know as much as they think about the ‘magic spells’ for development feels even sharper twenty years on. An updated edition reckoning with the Sahel, and with how much (or how little) the aid architecture has actually changed since 2006, would be a genuinely useful read. I’d especially want the sequel to test his searchers-versus-planners framing against the last two decades of results rather than just restating it. Whatever one ultimately concludes about the wider political shifts you point to, the accountability question he raised clearly hasn’t gone away. Thanks for the nudge to revisit it.

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1. Norah Owaraga
  
  Jul 21, 2026 at 4:08 pm
  
  Thank you for taking the time to read and to share uplifting feedback. Yes, I agree, the accountability question he raised has not gone away. It is also on my to revisit list and to apply to Uganda decades later.
  
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