Posted on 12/26/2003 5:38:09 AM PST by jalisco555
But that can only to be construed as "blaming African people" or, more broadly as "blaming the victim", if a guilt-ridden confusion is made between context and agency.
I find funny the concept of victim. No one is a victim when one's evil affects the welfare of oneself. It's not because someone is hurt that someone is a victim. Sadly our own US justice system is following that instance. Self defense with a gun with or without a license, or slapping back an assaulting spouse, will lend many in jail.
Rather its most damaging legacy has been the psychological Siamese twins of endemic guilt on the European side and endemic psychological dependence on the African side, legacies which make truth telling hard and the adult taking of responsibility even harder. Imperialism fucked up the heads of so many people whom it touched - both colonialists and colonized (Frantz Fanon was absolutely and deeply right about that) and until that - ultimately depressing - legacy of its existence is finally killed, neither Africa nor African studies will be able to make real progress. It was that conclusion which led me - very sadly - to leave both behind.
Strange choice of words for the seeking of literacy about a subject. I am not against profanities, but in research subjects, I am.
Imperialism has nothing to do with it, but, rather, communist socialist lead Decolonisation and "deimperialism".
Euro guilt is due to a softening of the irresponsible Euros who still seek alibis for everything, perceptively done or not ... to note, the murder of the Jews still to this day in the criticism of Israel's actions against the Palestinians. As for the Africans, well, it is quite easy to become a leader there on a plank of blaming the very colonialism which educated enough that said leader so that he can spew guilt on his teachers he seeks to embody. Oh, and the said leaders are 99% of the time antisemitic too and supporting the Palestinian disaster.
Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa by Keith B. Richburg
The New York Times Book Review, William Finnegan
To his credit, Mr. Richburg lays out his own confusion and guilt about saying some of the things he does . . . he is candid about his gratitude that his ancestors made it to America. Mr. Richburg lambastes whites in the West who, for fear of appearing racist, hesitate to place responsibility for Africa's woes on African shoulders, and then he extends this criticism to white Americans who are allegedly afraid to hold black Americans responsible for their own woes. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Not if the chinese have any say in the matter. 100 years from now I see large areas of Africa speaking mandarin.
A comparison of blacks in American and blacks in Africa proves that the lot of American blacks is infnitely better. They are safer, healthier, wealthier, and more prepared for the future. The unfortunate Africans, doomed to live and die too soon in Africa must curse the Europeans for marooning them on a continent where they have no hope.
I can sum this up in 3 words: "kill and enslave".
I swear on my soul, my immediate thought when I read the headline was "Oh? Too depressing?"
I don't see that as the root of the problem but the result of the way independence was granted. In a matter of a century, these peoples were moved from basically tribal, agrarian societies into a framework of the modern nation-state of which they had no say on the mechanics of organization. From the 1950s through the 70s, they were rapidly cut loose from the outside organization principles and then given the worst curse Western society could have left them with --- the Socialist economic model as imposed by the “enlightened” bureaucratic and academic elites of London and Paris. Socialism, even in a Western culture where there is a basic respect for individual rights, the rule of law, and a concern for the welfare and property of others beyond immediate kin, breeds corruption and establishment of an anointed and self-perpetuating elite which will eventually bring even the most well established national cultures to their knees. (See France)
In African cultures, where family and tribal rights take precedence over any concept of national kinship --- where there is no history of private property or cultural acceptance of competing "tribes" that were cobbled together by European colonists into the artificial nation-states, socialism became more than just economically retarding and socially destructive as in old Europe, but totally disastrous to the future of non-Western cultural and economic institutions.
The Socialism imposed by the European colonial powers, by combining economic and political power in the zero-sum game, which was inevitable considering African culture, guaranteed disaster. It could have been different.
I agree. Just for your own amusement (if you haven't already encountered this) there are are people who will argue the following (with a straight face!):
Up until 1500, Africa was perhaps the most advanced place in the world. Great trading empires, marvelous art, rich culture. But then the slave traders came. The African continent was nearly depopulated when between 100 million and 200 million Africans were carried away. Those left behind could not sustain their great civilizations, and there was a cultural collapse, which we still see today. So (you see) everything wrong in Modern day Africa has been caused by the population loss caused by slave traders hundreds of years ago.
Denial: not just a river in Africa. My opinion is that Africans can never hope to amount to anything until they take responsibility for their current state and determine that they will do something about it.
I take your point, and agree that this was a significant factor. Human cultures have selected various ways to organize their social interactions, their governance, and their economic structure. Some have been unsuccessful in their own right, but the really monumental failures have come from hybirds. Africa is perhaps the premier example.
Not as bad as sub-Saharan Africa, maybe more like Egypt. But I agree that it appears incapable of changing for the better.
And well-stated thoughts they are. We ignore the plight of Africa at our peril
I notice that he keeps using the word elites over and over, without a clue that might be the problem. Those that consider themselves and their friends as elite are rarely that in reality. The "elite" can't bring themselves to ask the question, if my solutions to problems don't work, is it because my solutions are flawed? The "elites" believe if their solutions had been applied more, maybe a little differently and better, all would be right. So,the vicious circle continues to go round and round.
No rule of law, Tribalism, Racism and Socialism."
Succinctly stated.
I would say that tribalism which is a form of socialism tops the list for me. Every cultural society that has not moved beyond it's tribal traditions based on the ultimate wisdom of it's ancestors experiences the inability to progress in the world.
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