Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid

This book tells the story of Ethiopia, the place, the people, and the westerners that tried to help. The first journalist to reach the centre of the famine in 1984, Peter Gill draws on interviews with villagers, politicians, aid workers, and economists and asks whether any of the rich world's big promises on aid and Africa are being fulfilled.

The terrible 1984 famine in Ethiopia focused the world's attention on the country and the issue of aid as never before. Anyone over the age of 30 remembers something of the events - if not the original TV pictures, then Band Aid and Live Aid, Geldof and Bono. Peter Gill was the first journalist to reach the epicentre of the famine and one of the TV reporters who brought the tragedy to light. This book is the story of what happened to Ethiopia in the 25 years following Live Aid: the place, the people, the westerners who have tried to help, and the wider multinational aid business that has come into being. We saved countless lives in the beginning and continue to save them now, but have we done much else to transform the lives of Ethiopia's poor and set them on a 'development' course that will enable the country to thrive?

Introduction: For Richer, for Poorer
PART I: THEN
1. Return to Korem
2. The Famine Trail
3. Hunger as a Weapon
4. Rebels with a Cause
PART II: TRANSITIONS
5. Economic Warfare
6. How to Prevent a Famine
7. Population Matters
PART III: NOW
8. 2005 and All That
9. Down with Democracy?
10. Free Association
11. Pastoral Affairs
PART IV: PROSPECTS
12. Spoiling the Party
13. Enter the Dragon
14. Us and Them