[jalisco555]

A long and sad piece about an apparently hopeless situation.

[Tax-chick]

Later

[DB]

Why is Africa declining?

No rule of law, Tribalism, Racism and Socialism.

And the writer of this article can't bring himself to the obvious answer in way too many words...

Next question.

[Cacique]

In 1995, he obtained a Soros Foundation Research Award (US$25,000)

I see he has a socialist paymaster.

[cooldog]

It seems to me that he quit the field when he noticed that reality failed to live up to his own expectations and ideas.

Yep, that is depressing!

[Rummyfan]

Bump for later...

[TheGeezer]

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.

Substitute "white" for "European" and "black" for "African", and one gains insight into the phenomenon of racial racketeering a la "Rev" Al Sharpton and "Rev" Jesse Jackson in the U.S.

Imperialism f----d 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.

The fashionable use of profanity heavily discounts the author's credibility, unfortunately.

[RaceBannon]

Bump for later reading

[centurion316]

This reflection only leads me - and rather flatly - to the conclusion that it must be the concatination of these domestic elite characteristics with the particularly weak global economic situation of sub-Saharan Africa which was the fatal two-sided recipe for developmental failure. And that may be true, but, as I say, I still have no certainty that it is or about how precisely to weight the relative importance of the list of usual suspects above.

Translation: Dysfunctional culture

[pabianice]

Within the next 40 years pandemics, war, and general incompetence will depopulate Africa. By 2040 Africa will be a Muslim continent, repopulated from the Middle East.

[gaspar]

In the United States traditional African studies long ago gave way to the study of indigenous Afro-America. For the usual undergraduate, Africa is about as little-known as the Middle East.

[ClearCase_guy]

like many young intellectual radicals of that period I was eager to see Nyerere's experiment in a 'Third Way' African socialism at first hand

I'm waiting for someone to write about 'Third Way' free-market capitalism. Why don't they? Perhaps because capitalism is capitalism and it is the First Way. And socialism is socialism, and it is the Second Way.

This whole Third Way socialism is like "new and improved Nazi genocide -- we've made it more palatable!!" It's not good, and fiddling with the name won't help.

[Old Professer]

I once worked in a laundry; every day we would wash over 3,000 pounds of dirty pajamas, gowns, diapers and slippers - the next morning the truck would roll in and offload another 400 bags.

[Tacis]

If only the Arab traders and European ship captains, so many years ago, had been able to rescue more deserving Africans and bring them to the new world where their descendents would be free and grow wealthy.

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.

[oldvike]

African politics

I can sum this up in 3 words: "kill and enslave".

[King Prout]

In a word, I gave up African studies because I found it depressing.

I swear on my soul, my immediate thought when I read the headline was "Oh? Too depressing?"

[razorback-bert]

failure of African elites

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.

[moodyskeptic]

Sheesh, this guy writes like a professor. Like he gets paid by the word.

Brings back memories of sitting at college lectures, bored out of my mind by a blowhard that can't get to the point.

Notice how replies here move the discussion along quickly, that's Freeper Power for 'ya.

[MainFrame65]

Typical rant from a recently mugged socialist liberal. His mugging was social and intellectual instead of physical, and it took place over a longer period of time than a back alley encounter, but he finally realized that the leadership selected by the mechanisms he has favored, operating in the circumstances extant in the region, put absolute power in the hands of the worst possible individuals.

He has chosen to leave the field instead of seeking to understand his involuntary lesson. That choice is intellectual and moral cowardice, but too frequently, all you can expect from liberals like himself. The real lessons of capitalism and self-reliance will never enter his mind.

[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.

[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