Dambisa Moyo Quotes

Nobody can come and develop Africa on behalf of Africans.

It is my firm belief that action on the issues that matter for Africa must emerge from within Africa itself.

Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves. And the nation can be nowhere else but in Africa.

I believe in pan-Africanism. This means that in many things - the judiciary, sports, economics and trade - we want Africanism to be involved, which is basically more freedom for the people.

Africa's salvation doesn't lie in begging and begging for more aid, and as an African, I find it very, very humiliating.

I believe in supporting African solutions to African problems.

Wherever I've been, and I've been to over 20, maybe 25, countries in Africa, I've noticed how their backbone is broken. They don't have any confidence in themselves. They always think a white man will solve their problems from outside for them.

Africa should not just wait to be exploited or influenced. No. We should be part of the conversation. We should raise ourselves to a level where there are certain terms we dictate in the conversation because we have a lot to offer.

I feel like it's not Africans who are afraid of China's rise in Africa. It's the West that's afraid of China's rise in Africa.

My heart burns for the deliverance of Africa.

Aid leads to more aid and more aid and more aid and less independence of the people that are receiving aid.

Foreign Assistance is not an end in itself. The purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it's no longer need.

Giving a poor person money keeps them poorer longer...often forever; give them knowledge instead.

The test for aid to poor nations is therefore whether it makes them capable of being productive. If it fails to do so, it is likely to make them even poorer in the - not so very - long run.

The whole contains nothing which is not or its advantage; and all natures indeed have this common principle, but the nature of the universe has this principle besides, that it cannot be compelled even by any external cause to generate anything harmful to itself.

The Californians are an idle, thriftless people, and can make nothing for themselves. The country abounds in grapes, yet they buy, at a great price, bad wine made in Boston.

Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

Rwanda is not over needing aid, but we can survive with less aid than before.

We have two choices: One is to continue to see a poor, ill, crying Africa, carrying guns, that depends on other people forever, or to promote an Africa which is confident, peaceful, independent, but cognizant of its huge problems and great values at the same time.

The best aid to give is intellectual aid, a gift of useful knowledge. A gift of knowledge is infinitely preferable to a gift of material things.

We have restricted humans from giving 'free' food to bears and dolphins because we know that such feeding would make them dependent and lead to their extinction. But when it comes to our own species, we have difficulty seeing the connection between short-term kindness and long-term cruelty; we give women money to have more children, making them more dependent with each child and discouraging them from developing the tools to fend for themselves. The real discrimination against women, then, is 'free feeding'.

Where do people get off saying the Beatles should give $200,000,000 to South America? You know, America has poured billions into places like that. It doesn't mean a damn thing. After they've eaten that meal, then what? It lasts for only a day. After the $200,000,000 is gone, then what? It goes round and round in circles. You can pour money in forever. After Peru, then Harlem, then Britain. There is no one concert. We would have to dedicate the rest of our lives to one world concert tour, and I'm not ready for it. Not in this lifetime, anyway.

Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated

The most steady, the most self-sufficient nature depends, more than it knows, on its few chosen stimuli.

You cannot import anything from outside your country regarding the future of your country.