Africabeat

Obama and America's 'patchwork heritage'

After a some cajoling and loving harassment by friends, I've decided to properly repost an article I recently wrote for CNN.com, "Obama and America's 'patchwork heritage'. 

Thank you to everyone who connected with the piece and reached out via email.  America is a far more diverse and complex place than the stories that usually get told.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When I was a small child, even before I had the right vocabulary, I could tell that my parents were different.

When I was with my mother, strangers would gush over me. When I was with my father, I felt a distance.

For reasons deeper than I could explain, it was safer with Mom; I was more special when, as far as the outside world could see, I belonged to her.

I later learned this was because people were reacting to the fact that my mother was white and my father black. Like a growing number of Americans, like our new president, I grew up straddling this country's racial divisions.

Continuing reading on CNN.com

Two CNN links

I was recently interviewed by John Blake at CNN.com on the new first family:

Black first family 'changes everything' - CNN.com

And also wrote this commentary:

Commentary: Obama and America's 'patchwork heritage' - CNN.com

The coolest part, from my perspective, is the opportunity to be a small part of such amazing history.

Obama makes it fun to be an expatriate American again

A bit belated, but here is a collection of personal anecdotes about being in Kenya when Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee for next President of the United States.  Written for EbonyJet.

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36 Hours in Obamaland

When you're a citizen of the world's only superpower, and you travel abroad, you become a symbol of all kinds of things that probably have nothing to do with you--wealth, power, Hollywood fairy tales, and, most recently, the unmitigated hubris of cowboy-kings. Being American in 2005 was to invite a million questions and reproaches and lectures. It was to have blood on your hands. So for a long time, I'd hold my passport eagle side down while waiting on the customs line, not wanting to invite that conversation.

But now it's 2008.  Goodbye to all that?

(Keep reading)

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Just as a P.S., Africabeat recently got a shout out on Katine Chronicles, a Guardian blog (along with several of my favorite African/Africanist bloggers; I'm tickled to be in such good company).  Katy Taylor says Africabeat is: "Passionate but not too opinionated, this is an energetic and well-informed blog."  Thanks for the kudos, Katy, but I often think I am too opinionated.  Or at least I've put my foot in my mouth on more than a few occasions.

The New World

When I was a little girl growing up in Queens, NY, I played house like any other girl, but my house was almost never in America.   I’d pretend I was a Russian peasant woman burrowing for seedlings during the Polvolzhye famine; a little girl in Sudan, washing clothes at the bank of the Nile; a Qing Dynasty Empress; an Egyptian Queen commanding vast armies.

Read more

Africabeat is not dead, merely on a very long holiday

Africabeat is not dead, merely on a very long holiday.  I've been frantically visiting graduate schools and am trying to finish up field research for a book I am writing on China and Africa.  The conversations on this blog were very much a part of its genesis, so thank you to everyone who participated. 

I've also just started writing a column for EbonyJet called The New World.  The first column is autobiographical, and by consequence, not that interesting!  But I hope that I can use it to explore topics dear to my heart--migration, identity, change, politics, globalization, and global Black culture--using the particular lens through which I see the world. 

Finally, and this is very exciting for me since it means the political scientist part of my tag line is about to become a little less "aspirational," I will be starting doctoral studies in the Department of Government at Harvard University this fall.  In the US, master's degrees and Ph.D's generally form a continuous course of study, which means it should take me anywhere from five to seven years to finish!  I'm aiming for six.

I hope to be back in a real way in September, but I might just send a few dispatches into the ether in the intervening months.  After all, there's like seven African countries I hope to visit in the weeks to come, and the Olympics in Beijing.  These are exciting times!

A new campaign to "Save Africa"...with blackface!

I ended up writing a post titled "Saving Africa in blackface" for the Guardian's group blog, Comment is Free.  Here are some of my thoughts:

"I am waiting for my last day in school; the children in Africa are waiting for their first one," reads the slogan hovering alongside a young German girl who's just cute as a button. It would be just another run-of-the-mill solidarity campaign, were it not for the puzzling fact that her face, stretched into a farcical grin, is covered in mud. Let's save Africa. In blackface.

I was a bit appalled, but laughed in spite of myself. I can appreciate satire. Lord knows after Kate Moss's Nubian makeover and Gwyneth Paltrow gone native - OK, more Cherokee Indian than Chewa, actually, but why get lost in the details? - the debate over celebrity advocacy for Africa could use some.

But an email exchange with UNICEF headquarters in New York revealed that this children's minstrel show was not, as I had hoped, the latest in a long tradition of internet hoaxes trafficking in bad taste. It was an actual ad campaign to promote an actual plan to give African children an education: UNICEF Germany's "Schools for Africa" initiative. All I could do was shake my head.

(Keep reading)

The brouhaha over the Bono article

I'll stand up and shout when I think people are dead wrong or heading in a dangerous direction, but I'm generally the girl who sits back, listens and when she speaks tries to do so with conviction but hopes she won't rock the boat too much.  The flurry of blog posts, digg, newsvine and reddit comments, del.cio.us bookmarks, and personal emails (both laudatory and critical) since the article on aid/Bono/TED was (finally) published a few days ago has taken me by complete surprise. 

I am really glad that so many people are debating these issues.  And if I've been able to spark interest and get people talking about TED, aid, entrepreneurship, and the media's portrayal of Africa in a meaningful way, even if it meant being uncharacteristically polemic, then I am happy for it.

But a few clarifications:

1) Yes I've been to Africa and no I don't think all African children carry AK-47s - A few lazy readers have suggested I go to Africa and see for myself  how wrong I am to take a few exceptional examples of African dysfunction to generalize for the entire continent. 

Putting aside the fact that I had to be in Africa in order to have attended a conference in Arusha, I've been to seven African countries and in none of them have I seen an AK-47-toting child, people dying of famine or war, or any of the other completely ludicrous stereotypes that form the opening paragraph of the article.

Africans to Bono: “For God’s sake please stop!”

This article originally appeared on this blog and has since been published at American.com.  It differs slightly from the original version.

It's time to let Africa imagine its own future.

Arusha, Tanzania–Africa is a continent of despair and desperation. Here, eight year-olds toting AK-47s massacre whole villages and eccentric dictators feast on the organs of the opposition, believing it'll boost their mojo. Tsetse flies nibble on the eyelids of starving children who sport distended bellies like it's their birthright, not to mention the fact that by the time you finish reading this article, another six Africans will die from malaria, five from AIDS, and seventeen from poverty and hunger. Also, the wildlife is beautiful and the people like to dance and sing.

That's Africa, and it's in desperate need of our help. Luckily, a few enlightened megastars from America and Europe have come to save it.

Continue reading "Africans to Bono: 'For God's sake please stop!'"

Image credit: Photo by Flickr user advencap

D.R. of Congo: Should Christian Revivalist Churches Be Encouraging Political Activism?

Continuing an age-old debate–is religion the “opium of the people” or can it be a catalyst for social change?–Congolese blogger Blaise Mantoto at UDPS Liege says the Congo’s Christian revivalist churches, which he cynically refers to as “for-profit spiritual shops,”
encourage political disengagement [Fr]. He calls on revivalist churches to rewrite their missions, arguing they should inspire their followers to improve their social and economic situation through political activism.

UDPS Liege is the Belgium-based branch of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, a major Congolese opposition party and a vocal critic of Joseph Kabila, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Revivalist and charismatic churches have become increasingly popular in the Congo–at the expense of Catholic churches–by offering magical and miraculous solutions to the misery and insecurity Congolese have faced for decades. (These churches have also made news for making money off of the cruel exorcisms of child witches.)

But whether or not these churches encourage apathy, not everyone agrees that religion and politics should mix.

Read the rest at Global Voices

China's New Scramble for Africa

The Chinese are looking at Africa as a business opportunity, not a charity case. America should pay attention.

By Jennifer Brea

In 2004, just three years after a peace accord ended Sierra Leone's decade of nightmares, I was walking along Freetown's Lumley Beach toward the Bintumani Hotel. War and neglect had destroyed everything: Freetown, the capital, had no reliable power grid and only a handful of paved roads. Its already struggling population was swelling with those displaced by the fighting. It was a tropical destination whose only visitors were foreign relief workers. And yet, standing there in front of me was a luxury hotel, glowing with the light of its own generators.

Inside, I found a lobby serviced by a Chinese-only staff, decorated with large red lanterns, and completely rebuilt from floor to ceiling with Chinese materials and technology. The hotel was deserted. They could not have been turning a profit. Were they crazy to be here?

"Chinese believe high risk can bring high benefit," the hotel's manager, Yang Zhao, would say in later interviews.

And Chernor Jalloh, Sierra Leone's Tourism Minister, would say, "The early bird catches the worm."

Continue reading this article at American.com