Why I gave up African studies

Mots Pluriel ^ | December 2003 | Gavin Kitching

[Bullish]

In reading some of these editorials and lead articles or listening to radio and TV discussions however, one cannot fail to notice the low level of factual and historical knowledge of the continent and its problems which they so often display. And this is true even when the press or media journalists in question are obviously trying, at least, to grapple in some serious and thoughtful way with the issues.

This has been swept under the rug far too long.

[wizardoz]

I see he has a socialist paymaster.

It's weird. From what I know of Soros (admittedly not much) he was once on the Popper side of the Popper-Wittgeinstein ends of the philosophic spectrum. He made his millions as a cold-eyed capitalist... now look at him.

Oh well. Maybe it's Alzheimer's.

[JSteff]

"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."

Okay, so explain India.
/excuses

[JSteff]

"repopulated from the Middle East."

So? Same old, same old. The ME suffers from it's own screwed up tribalism/cultism. Replace lice with fleas, same agravating situation. Uncomfortable, and no one wants either.

[JSteff]

Different day, different measurement, same old $hirt anyway?

[TLI]

That and he probably got bored with reading both books.

[Southack]

"the most damaging legacy of colonialism and imperialism in the world has not been the global economic structures and relations it has left behind nor the patterns of modern 'neo-imperialist' economic and cultural relations of which it was the undoubted historical forerunner. 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."

Pure rubbish. If the author was correct and if I was wrong on this point, then *other* colonial states would likewise be f'd up to this day just like Africa. Yet the former colonial states of the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan (if it counts in this line of thought) are hardly seeing their annual GDP decline as is most all of Africa (with a few exceptions even there, however). So clearly the author's line of reasoning doesn't hold water.

And the author goes on to claim that Africa can only be saved by African leaders. Again, the author misfires. Africa does need better leadership, but until its own people take Continental control of their own destinies, they will remain mere pawns for self-centered tyrants to exploit.

If you look at the former colonies that have thrived, rather than at Africa, you will see that those that thrived tended to have very democratic societies or republics that gave/give their people the overriding eventual voice in governance. These nations tend to have a Rule of Law rather than a tribal-based Rule of Man, such that the human, civil, and property rights of the lowest of the low were and are protected from outright aggression by even the most powerful in those societies, a far cry from the land confiscations that we see today in places like Zimbabwe.

No, the author has failed to grasp or accept that tyranny, socialism, and tribalism are all about taking what has already been produced, rather than about establishing a stable civilization that can produce more than can be taken.

Call me when the richest man in most African nations is *NOT* their current or previous leader. Such winner-takes-all kleptocracies are simply *NOT* going to prosper. Who wants to work so that only the *other* guy gets rich, after all?!

Call me when the Zulu's have taken up arms and decided that the experiments of the ZANU and ANC must be crushed for their people to prosper.

Call me when the fighting in Sierra Leone is *NOT* about who gets control of the diamond mines, but about establishing a Constitutional government for the people, by the people.

Until then, external influences into Africa are going to be short-lived feel-good projects, or at best such foreign interventions might rise to the level of temporary aid programs for the worst of their inevitable future medical and food crises.

In short, the African *people*, not their leaders, not outsiders like us, must solve their own systemic problems.

And until they do so, it is racist to presume that they are living in anything besides that which they want for themselves already. If they truly want tribalism and kleptocracy, then they honestly have a right to live that way.

It's their continent after all, not ours.

[JSteff]

"Not if the chinese have any say in the matter. 100 years from now I see large areas of Africa speaking mandarin."

By then I think they will have mutated into a totally, or mostly capitalistic society. Consumerism has grabbed hold of China. I see them becoming a more militaristic Japan. Less driven by militarism and conquest than by the need to fed the fires of economics and consumerism.

We can do business with businessmen which even their generals are becoming. Profit will be their goal then, killing people reduces customers.

[AmericanVictory]

One thing that didn't help was that all these characters insisted on studying African studies and political science when they would have been better off to study agriculture, engineering, applied chemistry, industrial arts and the like. All elites and no merchants but the Indians.

[little jeremiah]

Great quote:

“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."

[little jeremiah]

India had a long history as a great culture and power for many long years before the Muslims started their invasion and rapine around 700-800AD, what to speak of the British. India was an empire, with great influence, trade, literature, astronomical and mathematical knowledge, social structure and so on. India and Africa cannot be compared.

[wardaddy]

Bump .


As they say "it's the culture, stupid"

[razorback-bert]

All chiefs and no indians.

[lainde]

bttt

[The Westerner]

As opposed to the author, that was concise and coherent.

[The Westerner]

Well, if you believe in such a thing as universal truth, what the Africans need is a healthy dose of it, whether from a white, black, male, female, alive or dead person. We can ring our hands and worry self-consciously about "imperialism"--a habit borne of a (socialist, anti-rationality) university education. Or we could send our best Western scholars there to teach them John Locke, the Constitution, Aristotle, Ludwig Von Mises, Ayn Rand, Henry Hazlitt, etc. No one would think of that though. We live in an irrational time.

[mhking]

Africa's problems are legion.

Many do not understand them and dismiss them as pedantic patronage. But once these problems are addressed, the dark continent will begin to see a renaissance that would be welcomed by the rest of the globe.

First is Feudalism. This problem could be grouped with tribalism, but I hold out hope for the various tribes of africa to move forward once they get away from feudalism.

The feudal period of history is earmarked by tribal wars and skirmishes that consumed many and left distrust and old ways of thought deeply ingrained.

Despotism is not only an issue faced by the citizens of the continent, but by the remainder of the planet. Zealots, despots and would-be tyrannical warlords rule many of the nation-states across Africa, hiding behind their race and their percieved oppression as European colonies.

Thugs like Amin and Mugabe have risen in the past 50 years, backed up by gangs (who are tribes in and of themselves) to help impose their tyrannical rule. The West has ignored this, primarily due to the lack of a threat from these petty thugs (though many have a mistaken perception of this as a racial problem, the problem is purely nationalistic and defense-related).

Due to the influx of Islam into these nation-states, we can ill-afford to ignore these thugs for much longer. The despots and tyrants will gladly give aid and comfort to AQ and other terror elements of the new World War.

Xenophobia, believe it or not, is another problem. The so-called elite of Africa believe that Westerners are 'tainted' by Anglos, and that they are not able to see how to move Africa forward - ignoring the other major problems that I've mentioned, and a myriad of minor issues that are caused by these major ones.

The major problems can be combatted with time; because of the despotism, and their acquiesence to radical Islam, we will eventually be forced to address them, lest the terrorists gain a foothold that will be hard to pry loose.

---

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[Proud Legions]

I agree. Actually, I would like to see more of many of those you mention taught in our own universities as well!