Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

African Friends and Money Matters grew out of frustrations that Westerners experience when they travel and work in Africa. Africans have just as many frustrations relating to the Westerners in their midst. Each uses and manages money and other resources in very different ways, and these differences create many misunderstandings and frictions.

The author deals with everyday life in Africa. He first introduces the very different goals of African and Western economic systems and then presents ninety observations of African behaviors related to money matters. Explanatory comments are given that show how each one works out in real life. He illustrates his and others' experiences with anecdotes from across the continent. Drawings by two African artists add further clarity to the text as they capture Africans and Westerners in authentic situations. The result is that the reader is able to make sense of customs that at first seem incomprehensible.

This book will be of interest to Westerners living, working, or traveling in sub-Saharan Africa: business, government, diplomatic, and NGO personnel, religious workers, journalists, development sociologists, and tourists. The audience also includes professors and students in African studies. Africans will also be interested for what it reveals about Western culture and many of the significant ways Westerners react to Africa.

Average Customer Rating:

Valuable insight for those of us who want to be more than tourists

Customer Rating:

This book was referred to me by the American Ambassador's wife in Malawi and I found it most helpful in trying to understand what was happening around me and to navigate in a culturally competent manner during my two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Although I had taken courses on intercultural communication and training design, and had learned the theories such as individualism vs collectivism, this book explained what I was experiencing and made it understandable on a very personal level. I never thought there could be such different perspectives on so many daily interactions. The book goes into detail explaining things such as; Africans prefer to apologize symbolically rather than verbally when they have made a mistake or feel personal shame. Understanding this fact can alter one's expectations of a friendship relationship. Among the other important things the book explains are the huge role jealousy plays in many African cultures and the reasoning behind what I perceived to be the unnecessary withholding of information. If you are headed to Africa to do more than be a tourist, then this book is invaluable. You will find yourself turning to it over and over again for answers.

Must read for expatriates living or working in Africa

Customer Rating:

The differences between western financial systems and African financial systems is well described here. While there are no easy "fixes" listed in the book, it does help put the issues in context. With context the differences do not seem so deceptive, but rather understandable. Easy to read, and without a lot of "intellectual" language used. I think anyone who has traveled or worked in Africa will immediately connect with the author.

The Un-PC

Customer Rating:

Although being Politically Correct can mean that reality is ignored for the greater good, this book would not be deemed PC. However, it is cringingly full of generalities and embarrassingly full of platitudes about Africans. While trying to show that societal organization in Africa is so very different from that of the West, it actually just shows that poor people and rich people act the same there as they do here. And the book shows it over and over again.

Outstanding Book	Customer Rating:
As a missionary in Africa, I have found this book to be one of the most detailed, insightful and practical books on interactions between Westerners and Africans on many levels- not just financial ones. It gives very specific examples on a variety of areas of tension between the cultures, from both a Western and African perspective.

African Friends and Money Matters	Customer Rating:
Informative, but very redundant. Author repeats himself over and over. Everything in the book could have been written in two chapters.