Imperialism and Development: The East African Groundnut Scheme and Its Legacy: 50 (Eastern Africa Series) Hardcover – Illustrated, 1 Sept. 2020

I had expected a dry and dusty academic tome.Whilst it is academic in the sense of being well-researched in depth, with plenty of references to follow up if so inclined, it is also eminently readable: a real page turner.Ultimately a tale of disaster, it's both fascinating (and frequently amusing). It casts a spotlight on political thought, the checks and balances provided by Parliament and the Civil Service in the British system (which in this case were only effective far too late), and the contradictions between politicians and enthusiasts on the one hand, and civil servants and experts on the other, and between the metropolitan and the colonies.Having worked more recently on oversight of major Government projects, it's interesting to see the continuities, particularly the political desire to announce a project before the options have been tested, without a smaller scale trial or spending perhaps a considerable sum (but a fraction of the cost of the final project) on developing options and trials to better evaluate costs and risks. Politicians particularly like to propose a tangible 'thing' - building, IT system, new organisation - as evidence of progress, rather than focusing on the benefits 9or lack of them) that that 'thing' will deliver: outputs over outcomes.

A fascinating account of a major government scheme that went pear shaped after WW2. Insightful into the politics of the time, the book is sensitive to the constraints the government had to operate under, without pulling punches on the errors that were made. More importantly the author, drawing on a career inside the civil service, draws out lessons that governments today would do well to learn. My background is in the digital industry, including high profile government schemes, and bells were ringing from the unlikely source of the African bush. The author mentions the Swahili term for Europeans being 'Wazungu' (literally 'those who make your head spin'), and the book validates it in forensic, readable and, at times, witty detail.