*Welcome to Africa* invites you to discover the Africa I know and
cherish.  With the help of over 450 original pictures, it introduces
you to all aspects of life in the continent: from history to
economics, cities to agriculture, beautiful wildlife and vanishing
lifestyles to colorful markets and innovative crafts.  

Africa has bad press. Whenever we see images of Africa on the evening
news, they paint the portrait of a continent plagued by poverty,
famine, and violence.

I have lived and traveled in Africa for many years and to me this
image is wrong.  Africa has got problems.  Big ones.  But it is also
a place of utter beauty.  Africa has a rich and ancient culture,
majestic wildlife, breathtaking sceneries, and an inventive and
dynamic people.

I developed this presentation to teach an undergraduate course on
economic development in Africa at Stanford.  Each picture on this
CDROM has a short and often funny caption.  To help you find your way
around, I have organized the pictures by theme.  You may wish to
follow each theme, clicking along at your own pace.  Alternatively,
you may cut across themes and look for a specific topic or place from
a list of 200 keywords.  It's your choice.

Along with pictures, "Welcome to Africa" includes a sophisticated
role game.  You will become Yamoussou Ouedraogo.  Yamoussou is an
African who, like many others, lives on a farm in one of the
thousands of villages scattered on the continent.  He has a family to
take care of.  Every year he must make difficult, life threatening
decisions about what to plant, what to buy, who to help, and more.
The world of Yamoussou is a harsh but generous one.  Success is
judged by your ability to help your children and friends.  With
Yamoussou, life itself becomes an adventure.

That's not all. "Welcome to Africa" also lets you design your own
electronic book.  You may borrow pictures from "Welcome to Africa"
and assemble them in any order you like.  Any clipart, digitized
picture, or graphical object that you are able copy to the Windows
clipboard, you can insert into the book as well.  Tell your own story
about Africa.

"Welcome to Africa" runs under Windows 3.1 on a PC compatible
computer, 386 or above.  You need a CD-ROM drive and a high color or
true color display.  It is easy to use and install. It's fun. It's
beautiful.  Where else can you learn so much about Africa?

Yours truly,

Marcel Fafchamps

Assistant Professor, Stanford University
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