ABSTRACT
Several chapters in this book are concerned not just with African characteristics but with African problems, or problems which are especially severe in Africa: but none more so than this chapter. The people of eastern and southern Africa may, of course, experience as much happiness and joy as people anywhere else: such things are unmeasurable. However, this chapter is concerned with the least happy aspects of their lives, many of which are encapsulated by the word ‘poverty’. This region is often considered to be part of ‘the developing world’, but by what criteria most of it can really be regarded as ‘developing’ over the past 20 years is far from clear. We are dealing mainly with materially poor people in materially poor countries, whose circumstances have not improved over the past two decades, and indeed whose lives have in many cases become more difficult.
