From Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux while in Malawi: "I sketched out my theory that some governments in Africa depended on underdevelopment to survive - bad schools, poor communications, a feeble press, and ragged people. The leaders needed poverty to obtain foreign aid, needed an uneducated and passive populace to keep themselves in office for decades. A great education system in an open society would produce rivals, competitors, and an effective opposition to people who wanted only to cling to power."

And then in conversation:

Anne: "I have my doubts sometimes. I say to my mother, 'What if we just upped and left? All of us. Every last one.'"
Paul: "What do you think would happen?"
Anne: "Then the people here would have to think for themselves. They'd have to decide what's best for them - what they want. No one would influence them. Maybe they would say they wanted education - and they'd have to do the teaching."

"I wanted to see some African volunteers caring for the place - sweeping the floors, cutting the grass, washing windows, gluing the spines back onto the few remaining books, scrubbing the slime off the classroom walls. Or, if that was not their choice, I wanted to see them torch the place and burn it to the ground and dance around the flames, then plow everything under and plant food crops. Until either of those things happened, I would not be back... I did not feel despair at having been prevented from [teaching], but rather a solemn sense that since only Africans could define their problems, only Africans could fix them."

Interesting perspective.