Poverty and the Right to Development in Africa: Reflections on Emergence of African States Preface by Professor Eugène Désiré ELOUNDOU

The causes, types, and manifestations of poverty; the prospects for the emergence or effective implementation of the right to development in Africa... This is the central issue addressed in this magnificent work. Generally speaking, current slogans reveal that Africans aspire to "emergence"-or even to political, economic, and social development... This is a legitimate aspiration. However, according to the author's analyses-based primarily on empirical and statistical data-translating this concept into reality would require significant mental, structural, political, economic, and social reforms. Otherwise, there is a risk of remaining stuck in a pipe dream for a very long time to come. In this vein, he asserts that the right to development must not remain an illusion for this rich continent, which has an ancestral tradition of solidarity and organized, productive labor-the very foundation of all social success. A tradition that has now been corrupted by the torments of a cold and blind modernity, which gives free rein to immorality, individualism, and selfishness-sometimes with utter disregard for the poverty or misery of the people.