Theodore Trefon
Theodore Trefon (PhD Boston University) is a Congo expert specializing in the politics of state-society relations. He has devoted the past 25 years to Congo as a researcher, lecturer, author, project manager and consultant. Trefon’s expertise derives from a career of analysis, participatory observation and extensive fieldwork. He is contributing editor to the Review of African Political Economy. Founding director of the Belgian Reference Centre for Expertise on Central Africa, he now heads the Contemporary History Section of the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa.
Books by Theodore Trefon
Congo Masquerade
The Political Culture of Aid Inefficiency and Reform Failure
Theodore Trefon
Congo Masquerade is about mismanagement, hypocrisy and powerlessness in what has proved to be one of Africa’s most troublesome and volatile states. In this scathing study of catastrophic aid inefficiency, Trefon argues that whilst others have examined war and plunder in the Great Lakes region, none have yet evaluated the imported ‘template format’ reform package pieced together to introduce democracy and improve the well-being of ordinary Congolese. It has, the book demonstrates… (more information)