Africabeat

Artists in Uniform

I've just been reading an essay by Mary McCarthy, "Artists in Uniform," written in 1953.  She tries to show a much less educated man, a colonel of Irish extraction, the error of his anti-Semitic ways.  He thinks with a name like McCarthy, they should be kindred spirits ("Think back; when you were a kid, didn't the word, Jew, just make you feel sick?").  She never tells him that for all her Irish looks, she is also a quarter Jewish. 

Why Will Saletan's Calling for the Miscegenation of the Races

I've been meaning to respond to Will Saletan's piece in Slate last month on race, genetics and intelligence.  In it, he summarizes a number of genetic theories, which all point to the disturbing conclusion that:

"Tests do show an IQ deficit, not just for Africans relative to Europeans, but for Europeans relative to Asians. Economic and cultural theories have failed to explain most of the pattern, and there's strong preliminary evidence that part of it is genetic. It's time to prepare for the possibility that equality of intelligence, in the sense of racial averages on tests, will turn out not to be true."

I cannot deny the possibility that there are racial differences in average intelligence (or rather differences in average intelligence between previously isolated populations, since race is a social, not a biological concept), even though my gut reaction is disgust.  I know this is something about which I ought to remain agnostic absent credible, compelling evidence not just because that's the position from which a social scientist, whatever his or her unspoken agendas, ought to begin, but because my emotions on the subject run so damn deep, it's hard to be "objective" (as if anyone can be about a topic as dangerous as it is seductive).  Without a certain intellectual coolness, I'm liable to burst out in expletives.

On Solidarity (I): Sorority Girls, an Archetype

A letter to my people
(Whoever you are)

Part I of V: Sorority Girls, an Archetype

*  *  *

An editorial in the Washington Post by Nigerian American writer Uzodinma Iweala begins with a funny anecdote about “perky” college girls manning a Save Darfur booth:

Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the "African" beads around her wrists.

"Save Darfur!" she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!

My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.

"Don't you want to help us save Africa?" she yelled.

My university had a similar brand of girls.  They would spirit off to exotic places over winter break and return with slightly slimmer noses—but the injustice of such privilege was not lost on them. 

Their sororities organized fashion shows, in which they starred, to raise money so that African children with cleft palettes could be afforded at least one of the many luxuries they enjoyed: access to a good plastic surgeon.

One day these girls would return to their native Manhattan, Philadelphia, or Birmingham, Alabama and chair benefit balls.  They’d Save the World in Dior couture from their castles in the sky, where no ever has to be poor or ugly or black (same diff).

Sometimes I have evil thoughts.  I used to wish I had a little brown child with a cleft palette in my closet just for this:  I’d whisper in his ear, “See that nice blond lady at the table over there?  She has candy.”  He’d go running up to one of these sorority girls to shake hands.  What if she didn’t see him coming, and was startled?  (Black people??  In Princeton?!!)  How fast would she recoil?  Fast enough to fall out of her chair?

There are some right now who are reading this and will want to say, "But a cleft palette is a serious health problem!  And these girls, at least they're doing something, even if they are preternaturally beautiful and not particularly self-aware!  Even if they've never once bothered to make friends with a brown person!"

Something.  Yes, it is always good to do something.  But if you really wanted to help, wouldn't you do everything in your power to make sure you that that something you were doing was the right thing, the right way?

And if you wanted to do that thing, legitimately, credibly, would you have to be African?

Would it at least help to be Black?

Notes on Rwanda, Democracy & Authoritarianism

A few weeks ago, I wrote a very optimistic post about Rwanda for the Guardian's Comment is Free.  A very many people accused me of being a propagandist mouthpiece for Kagame, although I wasn’t sure how much weight to give certain comments once the conversation descended into a debate about whether there was ever a genocide in Rwanda.

But then I received an email I could not ignore.  It was written by an aid worker who has been living in Rwanda for 3 years and who undoubtedly has a much deeper understanding of the country than I possibly can.  She found my depiction of the situation there "appalling."

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

Africa as "the Other" and a Chinese take on the film, Blood Diamonds

Here, I've attempted to translate the reactions of a Chinese blogger to the film Blood Diamond. She runs the gamut of feeling: shock, sadness, horror, pain, grief, guilt and finally relief (of a sort) that whatever her problems, they pale in comparison to the misery and suffering of Africans.  Sounds like White Guilt to me.

But what of the Chinese living in the countryside?

I've been thinking a lot (and writing a bit) about the role of Africa in the popular imagination of Western Europeans (similar, I would argue, to the role of the Black man in the popular imagination of Americans).  Europe could never have considered itself "civilized" if there were not also people to call "savage."  Whites could never have considered themselves "superior" if there were not also races that were intrinsically "inferior."  Enter the African.

As more and more, China and Chinese people come into contact with Africa and Africans, I predict a similar dynamic will develop.  You already see it in the contributions of the Chinese media, businessmen and some officials to the emerging discourse.  Africa is "backwards"  (落后）. Africa is "poor" (贫穷).  Africans ascribe to quaint tribal traditions that we, the forward-looking Chinese, have long abandoned.

These characterizations come with an implicit pat on the back. China - still light years away from being "developed" if we apply Western standards - can consider itself "modern" because others are "backwards."  Enter the African.

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

China in Africa: China is Not the (Only) Devil

The comment below I drafted in response to: U.S.-China Relations: An Apology of Sorts  I've decided to post the comment here instead as Bill's original thread has nothing to do with the Sudan and I was going completely off-topic.  I don't offer a solution to any of the previous discussions on Jewels in the Jungle and Chippla's Weblog - Thoughts and Issues, just some ideas that I hope will spur more discussion.

First, I apologize for my absurdly slow repsonse. 

I'm not sure how to defend the Chinese government's actions in the Sudan, but nor do I think that just because I have a more neutral view on the issue of Chinese involvement in Africa (i.e., that there are aspects that are both promising and troubling) that I have to.  And if I did, it would get me started on a long tangent about the history of immorality in the pursuit of oil and other natural resources that would lead me to the conclusion that again, China is not the devil, it's Europe circa the mid-19th century, Japan circa 1940 or the United States circa right about now.