Economics of Afro-Pessimism: The Economics of Perception in African Foreign Direct Investment

Afro-pessimism – briefly, the perception that ‘Africa’ has always been and will continue to be a scary, backward and poverty-ridden place – is a familiar perception to many in the West, most especially for any scholar of modern Africa. Comments that would be considered ignorant, if not outright prejudicial, in other fields of study are commonplace in discussions on sub-Saharan Africa. Misconceptions, stereotypes and negative images of Africa abound. Each semester, Professor Jo Ellen Fair of the University of Wisconsin, a largely liberal university renowned for its African studies, asks students to describe their images and ideas of “Africa” and “Africans”: