Ignorance of Africa mixed in with the arrogance of "the smartest guy in the room" makes for a lethal cocktail. I have a friend who served in the USMC and later Rhodesia as an officer who went on to teach college in Virginia and has said that he constantly has to explain and re-explain that Africa is a content of
52 sovereign countries and not one country.
I read recently of a person who introduces himself as coming from Yorubaland but since the British colonization has become a Nigerian (for better or worse). Now considering all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about colonial borders does anyone else find it strange that the AU (and the OAU before) refuses to consider realigning colonial boundaries which cut peoples/tribes/nations in half? If they are not going to do anything about it why spend all the time complaining?
Then there are
2,000 languages in Africa (250 in Nigeria alone). I wonder if all this worries/concerns/matters to some whiz-kid from an Ivy-league university who runs the Africa Desk at the state department? Don't I get a good laugh when asked if I speak African... you bet.
In east Africa the Arabs were the middle men in the slave trade. They bought from the local chiefs and then sold on to the Portuguese or whoever. If the demand rose the local chief brought slaves back from his raids as they were worth more alive than dead. Never heard anything about the role of the local chiefs of the dominant tribes (other than from Sengor) and not much said about the Arab middlemen/wholesalers. Strange isn't it. Especially when it works differently when it comes to the drug supply chain where the users are seen as victims and the middlemen and producers are routinely interdicted. Then again its the old producers argument of "if there was no demand there would be no incentive to produce and supply". You go figure.
It is sheer ignorance of Africa in most cases that makes western/foreign actions such a joke. If there are problems in Africa dig a little and you will find and ethnic/tribal/clan or religious issue at the source. Yet the "smart guys" half a world away make decisions oblivious of the issues and underlying circumstances. Made all the worse when the decisions result in death and suffering often on a massive scale.
I can remember in post apartheid South Africa when the Zulu nation wanted a federal system as opposed to a unitary state system. Guess what, the US and the West said they could not support the Balkanisation of South Africa. When challenged by saying the the federal powers wanted were less than other afforded to the states in the US the US representative just said ... "Oh!"
Yes the various areas of Africa vary greatly from each other. Realising this and accepting it is the first step towards success. Thereafter one can begin to try to understand the specifics of the particular areas of interest. Can there ever be an Africa expert? No, but there are certainly people who have a great understanding of Africa (mostly Africans themselves) and know where to find the specific on a particular area quickly.
It was always all about social Darwinism (survival of the fittest) until the colonisers arrived. Then we saw a switch to the more biblical "the meek shall inherit the earth (in literal translation). If the Brits had not intervened/colonised the south area of Africa and defeated the Zulu, the Ndabele and the Ngoni there would certainly not have been too many of the minor tribes in South Africa around, not the Shona in Zimbabwe nor the Chewa in Malawi.
We can go on and on... but lets leave it there for now.
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