ABSTRACT
Dead Aid One of the latest “stars” to appear on the development scene is Dambisa Moyo,
recently anointed by Time as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. The
New York Times ran an interview, dubbing her “the anti-Bono” (Solomon 2009).
Amidst the anticipation and then release of her book, Dead Aid, Moyo has been
garnering considerable media attention. She argues vigorously that it is aid from
the West that has held back and disenfranchised Africans. Aid, she argues, is the
“silent killer of growth” (Moyo 2009: 49). By contrast, she celebrates the achieve-
