Meet the fast disappearing community of Indians and Pakistanis of African origin

Written by Mridula Chari, Scroll

June 30, 2015 Quartz India 

When people think of Africans in Indian history, Malik Ambar tends to be the first name to come to mind. Brought to Ahmadnagar as a warrior-slave in the 16th century, he rose to be the general of the Deccan sultanate’s army—and eventually its regent.  Yet, Ambar was only the most successful of thousands of Africans brought to India by Arab and Portuguese slavers across the Arabian Sea. Thousands of others came as mercenaries and merchants. Today, the Sidis—as people of African origin living in India for centuries call themselves—are a fast disappearing community. Separated by appearance, if not by culture, they are largely misunderstood.

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Turkiye'de Afrika Calismalari - African Studies in Turkey

Kararan Kapitalizm Yeni Güney Afrika 
Tolga Tören
2014 - SAV (Sosyal Araştırmalar Vakfı) 
"Irk olgusu ile hesaplaşmadan bugünkü Güney Afrika anlaşılabilir mi?", "Irk olgusu, ülkenin kapitalist gelişme sürecinden bağımsız bir biçimde ele alınabilir mi?", "Irkçılık ya da apartheid, hangi toplumsal dinamiklerin, yapısal ya da öznel faktörlerin sonucunda ortaya çıktı, ülkenin bir gerçekliği haline geldi ve ortadan kalktı" gibi sorular bu çalışmanın ilk adımlarını oluşturuyor.

Afrika Rüyası (Günlük)  
Che Guevara 
2006 - Everest Yayınları
'Yürüdüğüm yol boyunca kendimi hiç bu kadar yalnız hissetmemiştim.' Che, Kongo'dan ayrılmak üzere Tanganika Gölü'nü son defa geçerken bunları yazıyordu günlüğüne. Che'nin Kongo'dan savaşarak geçirdiği yedi ayda tuttuğu bu savaş günlüğü, bir rüyanın, emperyalizme karşı mücadeleyi, dünyanın başka köşelerindeki ve Latin Amerika'daki devrimci dalgayı Afrika'ya yayma rüyasının öyküsüdü. Fakat Che'nin kendi sözleriyle, bir başarısızlığın öyküsü haline de dönüşen bir rüyadır bu. Yine de Che bu deneyime çok büyük bir önem atfediyor; Kongo'da karşılaşılan zorlukları, gelişme düzeyİ düşük ülkelerin devrimci hareketleri açısından paha biçilmez örnek olduğunu, gelecekteki hareketlerin bu derslerden yararlanmaları gerektiğini düşünüyordu. Hatta buradaki İlkel durumu, Küba'da devrim yürüyüşü İlk başladığında Sierre Maestra'ya çıktıkları zamanki duruma benzettiğini söylüyordu. En çarpıcı olanı da Küba Devrimini zafere taşıyan, Yanki Emperyalizmine tavizsizce kafa tutan, bütün dünyanın efsanevi gerilla lideri sıfatıyla selam durduğu Che'nin, bu kadar geri bİr ülkedeki deneyiminin sonrasında, kendine yönelik eleştirel tutumundaki samimilik ve kendisiyle hesaplaşırken kelimelerinden yansıyan çocuksu acemilik...


Emperyalizmin Afrika Sömürüsü 
Türkkaya Ataöv 
2000 - İleri Yayınları 
Prof. Dr. Türkkaya Ataöv, Afrika üzerindeki uzmanlığı uluslararası düzlemde kabul görmüş bir yetkilidir. Birleşmiş Milletler Genel Sekreterlik merkezinde Afrika ve ırk ayrımı konusunda seçkin uzmanlarda oluşan dizelgede yıllarca yer alan Ataöv, BM eski Genel Sekreteri Kurt Waldheim (sonradan Avusturya Cumhurbaşkanı) gibi önemli adlarla birlikte çalıştı. Nitekim, Afrika'nın önde gelen üniversitelerinden Bophuthatswana Üniversitesince 1993'te verilen akademik ödülde Prof. Ataöv hakkında şöyle denir: "Afrika bilimine ve araştırmalarına son otuz yıldır yaptığı olağanüstü katkısı ve Afrika'nın oluşumuna hizmetlerinden ötürü..." Ayrıca, Ataöv bağımsızlık sonrası Güney Afrika'daki resmi törenlere bizzat Nelson Mandela tarafından eşiyle birlikte davet edilen ilk ve tek Türk bilimadamıdır. 

Dönüşüm Sürecindeki Sahra Altı Afrika Kalkınma, Güvenlik ve Ortaklık 
Ufuk Tepebaş 
2014 - Tasam
Üç ana bölümden oluşan çalışmada Sahra altı Afrika'daki bölgesel bütünleşme ve ekonomik dönüşüm süreci, yatırımlarda üst sıralarda bulunan ülkeler ve sektörler, Nijerya, Kongo Demokratik Cumhuriyeti, Somali, Sudan ve Güney Sudan gibi konumları ve yapıları itibariyle kıtadaki model ülkelerde yaşanmakta olan güvenlik sorunları ve Sahra altı Afrika ile Türkiye arasındaki çok boyutlu ilişkiler incelenmektedir. 

Afrika Zengin Ama Yoksul 
İbrahim Okur
2009 - Okursoy
Afrika Yoksul, çünkü dünyanın en yoksul 20 ülkesinden 19'u bu kıtadadır. Koleradan sarıhummaya, eboladan AIDS'e kadar her türlü hastalık kol geziyor. Açlık başlıbaşına büyük bir felaket. Her gün farklı bir bölgesinde katliam oluyor. Dünya ise izlemekle yetiniyor. Gorillerin, gergedanların davasını güden sayısız Batılı örgüt bölgede mevcut. Ne var ki kıta insanının davasını gözeten, karşı karşıya kaldığı felaketin gerçek nedenleri üzerine eğilen ve kamuoyunu doğru bilgilendiren güçlü bir örgüt yok. Var olan örgütler, sömürgeci güçlerin veto hakkı kullandığı örgütler. Afrika Zengin, çünkü elmastan altına, platinden tantala, bakırdan kroma, uranyumdan petrole kadar bütün madenler bu kıtada çıkarılıyor. Ne var ki bütün maden ocakları ve bereketli tarım alanları Beyazların elinde. Siyahlar faturayı ödüyor, Beyazlar hasılatı götürüyor. Bu kitap, Afrika'nın birbirine zıt söz konusu iki gerçeğini bir arada incelemektedir.

Afrika'yı Anlamak ve Afrika - Türkiye İlişkileri 
Mustafa Efe 
2015 - Murat Kitabevi
Afrika - Türkiye İlişkileri bölümünde Osmanlı Dönemi Afrika - Türkiye İlişkileri, Cumhuriyet Dönemi Afrika - Türkiye İlişkileri ve bu çerçevede Medya analizi, Türkiye'nin Afrika'ya Yönelik Eğitim Çalışmalarının analizlerini ve II. Afrika - Türkiye Zirvesi niçin görmezden gelindi makalelerini bulacaksınız. Bu bölümde son olarak da bu kitabın ve bundan sonrakilerin çıkış amacı olan Afrika Açılımı Yapan Türkiye için Nasıl Bir Afrika Perspektifi başlıklı makaleyi bulacaksınız. Bir seri halinde gelecek olan bu çalışmanın ilkinin ve başlığının Afrika'yı Anlamak ve Afrika - Türkiye İlişkileri olmasının da gerekçesi budur. Bizlerin öncelikle çalışma yapacağımız alanı tanımaya başlamamız, anlamamız, anlamlandırmamız, gerekli fizibilite çalışmalarını yapmamız gerekmektedir. Bu satırların yazarı Afrika çalışmalarına başlamadan önce daha önce Afrika'yı çalışmış olanları çalışarak bu işe başlamıştır. Yazar, on beş yıla yakın gözlemlerinin, arazide gerçekleştirdiği çalışmalarının ve arazi tecrübesinin, Afrikalılarla teşriki mesaisinin, onların konulara yaklaşımlarının ve beklentilerinin farkında olan bir gözle kaleme almıştır. Elbetteki ifade edilenler mutlak değildir ve dile getirilen düşünceler ve bilgiler tartışılmaya açıktır ve katkılar beklenmektedir. Yazarın, Afrika'nın yoksulluk, savaş, çatışmalarla anılmasına bir isyanı vardır. Dil, kültür, tarih, yeraltı ve yerüstü kaynaklarıyla inanılmaz derecede zengin bir kıtanın bu şekilde Batı tarafından inşa edilen imajla tanınmasından rahatsızlık duyduğu için Afrika'nın anlaşılmasına katkı sunacağını umarak bu çalışmaları ortaya koymuştur. Bu mazlum kıta Afrika'nın yaşadığı sömürgecilik, kölelik, iç savaşlar, dış müdahaleler, açlık, varlık, yoksulluk, zenginlik her ne varsa bunlar ancak ve ancak derinlemesine çalışılarak bugünkü yaşananlar anlamlandırılabilir. Bu kitabın amacı Ülkemizin önce Afrika'yı Anlaması ondan sonra da buraya yönelik çalışmalar yapılması konusunda bir bilinç oluşturmaktır. Afrika'nın anlaşılması konusuna eğer küçük de olsa bir katkı sunarsa yazar kendisini bahtiyar hissedecektir.

Dünya Siyasetinde Afrika 
Kollektif 
2014 - NOBEL YAYIN
Neden “Dünya Siyasetinde Afrika?”Örneğin The Economist dergisi 2000'de “The hopeless continent” (ümitsiz kıta) olarak attığı başlığını, 2011'de “Africarising” (Afrika yükseliyor) olarak güncelliyor; kıtanın nüfusu bir milyarı geçiyor ve artık dünyada gelişen ilk 10 ekonomiden yedisi Afrikalı bir devlete ait oluyor.
Dünyada Afrika çalışmalarının sayıları artmakta ve çok ciddi bir literatür oluşmaktadır. Sadece Fransız, İngiliz veya diğer Avrupalı (geçmişte sömürge sahibi devletlerden değil), Çinli, Hindistanlı, ABD'li, Brezilyalı vb., Afrika konusuna ehemmiyet veren bilim insan ve kurumları çoğalmaktadır. Başlangıç noktasında olan Türkiye'de Afrika Çalışmaları'na ilişkin Dünya Siyasetinde Afrika adlı seri, 2014 yılından başlayarak literatüre Türkçe dilinde katkılar sunmayı hedeflemektedir. Elinizdeki eserde kıtaya ait farklı konular alanında yetkin isimler tarafından ele alındı. Fark edilebilir ki, kimi çalışmalar, kulvarında ilk olmaya namzetler.
Bu yapıtın yazarları şunlardır:
Prof. Dr. Ramazan ÖZEY , Yrd. Doç. Dr. İsmail ERMAĞAN, Doç. Dr. Giray FİDAN, Dr. Elem EyriceTEPECİKLİOĞLU, Doç. Dr. Murat AKTAŞ, Dr. Phil. Mustafa ACAR, Volkan İPEK, Mürsel BAYRAM, Öğ. Tğm. İzzettin ARTOKÇA, Dr. Phil. Atanur KARA, Burçin AYDOĞDU, Yrd. Doç. Dr. Gonca Oğuz GÖK, Doç. Dr. Oktay Salih AKBAY, E. Büyükelçi Numan HAZAR, Yrd. Doç. Dr. Bülent EŞİYOK
Bu çalışma için seçilen temel başlık ve temalar ise şu şekilde ifade edilebilir:
Afrika'nın Panoraması: Başlıca Siyasal-Ekonomik-Sosyal ve Kültürel Özellikler
Afrika'nın Küresel Aktörler İle İlişkileri: Çin ve ABD
Kıta Ülkelerinin Analizi: Cezayir ve Angola
Kıta'da Temel Sorunlar: Mali'de Tuareg İsyanı, Darfur Sorunu, Eş Şebab ve Boko Haram Terör Örgütleri ve Orta Afrika Cumhuriyeti'ndeki Çatışmalar
Afrika'da Eğitim ve Kalkınma: Güney Afrika, Nijerya ve Gana Örneği
Kıta'ya İlişkin Çeşitli Konular: Kenya Siyasal Sistemi ve Afrika'da İnsan Güvenliği
Afrika'da Ekonomi: Dünya Ticaretinde Afrika ve Afrika'da Bir Başarı Hikâyesi: Botsvana
Afrika-Türkiye Arasında İlişkiler: Siyaset ve Ekonomi 

AFRICAN SOCIETY AND POLITICS: FINAL EXAM - MONDAY 15:00-16:00 PM

AFRICAN SOCIETY AND POLITICS
POLS 485 . 01
Işık University http://www.isikun.edu.tr/en
Fall 2015 Monday 9:00 - 12:00 

Dear all,

You will take the final exam online (YOU WILL RECEIVE THE ONLINE EXAM LINK ON MONDAY ONE HOUR BEFORE THE EXAM) on Monday between 15:00-16:00 PM and you will responsible from the following chapters:

Chapter 8. Africa in World Affairs (The African Experience)
Chapter-8 Colonialism in Crises (Modern Africa)
Chapter-9 The Conditions of Decolonization (Modern Africa)
Chapter-10 Raising National Flags: North-East Africa (Modern Africa)
 Chapter-11 Libya and Maghrib (Modern Africa)
Chapter-12 South of the Sahara: French Colonies (Modern Africa)
Chapter-13 British West Africa: (Modern Africa)
Chapter-14 East and Central Africa: British Settler Colonies (Modern Africa)
Chapter-15 In Other Empires: Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish (Modern Africa)
Chapter-16 The 1980s: Unfinished Business (Modern Africa)
Chapter-17 History Begins A New (Modern Africa)
Chapter-18 Questions About National Stability (Modern Africa)
Chapter-19 Questions About Development (Modern Africa)
Chapter-20 Questions About Unity

You will find the chapters at: https://course.isikun.edu.tr/

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Tugrul
http://sociologyofafrica.blogspot.com.tr/
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO REACH ME AT MY CELL.

FM: China ready to help Africa's industrialisation

CCTV.com  12-06-2015

Foreign Minister Wang Yi says, as a good friend of Africa, China understands and supports its desire to speed up industrialisation. He says China has the will and capability to help with this process.   Wang Yi made the statement at a press conference Saturday with his South African counterpart Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, marking the end of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg.   Wang said after achieving political independence, African countries now need economic independence and to develop their own industrial systems as soon as possible. He added that China will strengthen cooperation with Africa on the basis of non-interference in African countries' internal affairs and equal consultations. China has many ties in production capacity with African countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa. Industry has also been prioritized in the newly announced ten cooperation programs.

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Xi's African Tour Highlights China's Expanding Security Role

Michael Cohen Ting Shi

BLOOMBERG NEWS - DEC. 1, 2015

To see China’s evolving foreign policy, look to Africa, where a desire to protect economic investment is leading to a revision of the country’s hands-off approach to the internal affairs of other nations.  Chinese President Xi Jinping begins a five-day African visit on Tuesday that he’ll use to showcase China’s expanding role as a protector of regional security, as well as a provider of infrastructure and consumer of resources. China has pledged $100 million of military aid for the African Union, sent an infantry battalion to support peacekeeping efforts in South Sudan and deployed frigates to fight piracy off the Somali coast, leading the country to consider building its first overseas naval resupply station in Djibouti.

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China has helped Africa: Mugabe

Peter Fabricius

#Focac: Johannesburg - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he had done for Africa “what we expected from colonisers in history” by giving Africa a $60 billion aid package.  Mugabe waxed lyrical in thanking Xi for the large aid package, which the Chinese president unveiled here today at the opening of the summit of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation.  Mugabe, speaking as chairperson of the African Union (AU) said Xi's speech had been “so rich in forms of assistance covering practically all our sectors, agriculture, mining, infrastructure, industrialisation ...”  He added China's assistance package also included measures to help Africa's women and children. “It's so much, so many facets of assistance ... Here is the representative of a country once called poor. A country which never was our coloniser. He is doing to us what we expected colonisers in history to do. If they have ears to listen, let them hear.”

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China's Expanding African Relations Implications for U.S. National Security by Lloyd Thrall

RAND CORPORATION

This report explores China's rapidly expanding involvement in Africa in order to better inform U.S. thinking about its relations both with China and with African states. The report pays particular attention to geostrategic competition in Africa, potential security threats, and opportunities on the continent. It examines the economic, political, and security interests driving Chinese engagement with African states and assesses potential medium-term changes in Sino-African relations across these three dimensions. It then assesses how China's interests and behavior on the continent affect the interests of the United States. In this matter, misperceptions often result from faulty assumptions about the potential for conflict over resources, images of Cold War–style geopolitical competition, and the nature of China's economic engagement with the continent. The report concludes by offering policy recommendations for U.S. and Army leaders concerned with U.S. security relationships with African states and with managing Sino-American relations in Africa. In particular, the report recommends that the United States should view China's sometimes-unfavorable activities in Africa in context and continue to seek opportunities to engage Beijing on mutual interests, such as defeating violent extremists, improving African infrastructure to promote trade and development, and encouraging economic and political stability on the continent.

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Xi in South Africa to strengthen bilateral ties, boost China-Africa cooperation

English.news.cn | 2015-12-03

PRETORIA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here Wednesday for his second visit to the "rainbow nation" since becoming China's head of state.  Besides meeting with South African leaders in an effort to strengthen bilateral ties, Xi will also co-chair with his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, a summit on China-Africa cooperation in Johannesburg.  The South African side gave Xi a grand welcoming ceremony on Wednesday, during which a 21-gun salute was sounded and the two presidents inspected the guard of honor in front of the imposing Union Buildings, which houses the offices of the presidency.  In their talks after the ceremony, Xi and Zuma discussed ways to further the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two emerging economies, and agreeing to lift bilateral ties to a new height by fully implementing the 5-10 Years Strategic Plan on Cooperation between the two nations.

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China to deepen infrastructure cooperation with Namibia

English.news.cn | 2015-12-05 

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed willingness to deepen practical cooperation with Namibia in infrastructure improvement during a meeting with Namibian President Hage Geingob here on Friday.  The Chinese government encourages enterprises to actively take part in the construction and operation of transport facilities, ports and other infrastructure in the African country to promote its economic and social development, Xi told Geingob on the sidelines of a China-Africa summit.  Namibia is an important partner of China in the African continent, Xi said, stressing China stands ready to work with Namibia to translate their traditional friendship into new impetus of cooperation and development.  He called on the two sides to further political mutual trust and deepen all-round exchanges.

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Black People Genocide Preparation Conference in Paris

Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN

SILICON AFRICA - Saturday, June 13th, 2015

A panel of all white people in Paris talking about how to reduce black population in Africa.
One of the conference organizer, Bernard Lugan, said “Population growth in Africa is a threat to European civilization…
“I’m not recommending to drop a nuclear bomb on Africa but we can’t wait to see that population growth next to Europe. It’s a danger we have to take seriously” (video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sARwDCt8cWM <– in French)
They plan to send money to various organizations to help fight against African population growth.
Read my counter post on the topic: http://www.siliconafrica.com/world-overpopulation/
If you are African and you work with those white people who want to destroy us, you are like those who assisted the european slave traders. No Excuses acceptable.
No single day now passes without the white elite talking about the danger of black population growth.
They are serious about their intention. They don’t hide. We have to be active in countering them.
Regarding their numerous past genocides, Europeans are still attracted to ideas which reminds as the fate of Native people in America and Aborigines in Australia.

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AU Chairperson lauds Chinese President's speech at FOCAC summit

English.news.cn | 2015-12-06

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chairperson of African Union Commission (AUC) Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on Saturday commended the speech delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg on Friday.  "President Xi Jinping's speech was great in the sense that it identified areas where Africa is interested in and which are in our agenda 2063. Those are areas we are going to cooperate on and take this relationship to new heights," Dlamini Zuma told Xinhua.  In his keynote address at the first FOCAC summit held in Africa, President Xi Jinping outlined a raft of measures to revitalize Sino-Africa ties in key areas like trade, infrastructure, finance and investments, health and security.  The AU Chairperson said African states are ready to cooperate with China in order to promote economic growth and social transformation.  "We are going to cooperate with China whether in modernizing agriculture, infrastructure, energy, training of the young people and culture," Dlamini Zuma said.

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Xi, Mugabe eye practical cooperation

CCTV.com  12-02-2015 

Chinese President Xi Jinping is on his first state visit to Zimbabwe where he has held talks in the State House with his counterpart Robert Mugabe. The two sides agreed to translate their time-honored friendship into stronger impetus for bilateral practical cooperation, so as to achieve common development and prosperity.

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Zambia launches construction of China-funded hydro-power station

English.news.cn | 2015-12-02

CHIKANKATA, Zambia, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese company will build a 750 megawatts hydro-power station in Zambia, which will be the third largest power plant in the country when completed.  A launch ceremony was held last Saturday following the signing of a memorandum of understanding by the two countries last month.  The Kafue Gorge Lower Hydro-power project, to be situated in southern Zambia's Chikankata district, about 90 kilometers from the capiyal Lusaka, is the largest investment in the country's energy infrastructure in 40 years.  Eighty-five percent of the two billion U.S. dollar project will be funded by Chinese financial institutions while the other 15 percent by the Zambian government.  The work will be carried out by China's Sino Hydro Corporation Limited.  "This project also assures us of sustainable energy security as a nation because it will add a significant amount of power to the grid," Zambian President Edgar Lungu said during the ceremony.

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Chinese envoy says Xi's visit to raise China-Zimbabwe relations to new high

Xinhua  11-29-2015

HARARE, Nov. 27 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping attached importance to the relations with Zimbabwe, hence he made it one of the two African countries he is visiting this year, and the visit is expected to raise the China-Zimbabwe all-weather friendship to a new high, China's ambassador to Zimbabwe Huang Ping said Friday.  President Xi will pay a state visit to Zimbabwe Dec. 1 - 2 on his way to South Africa for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, making it the fourth African country he has visited since assuming office.  "This demonstrates the importance he attaches to this country," Huang told local reporters in a group interview.  "Actually, when our two Heads of State met in Beijing in August last year and in Jakarta in April this year, President Xi spoke very highly of the traditional friendship between China and Zimbabwe and our current bilateral relations," he said.  Xi will hold bilateral talks with Mugabe and exchange views on international and regional issues to strengthen the unity and coordination among developing countries.

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China-Africa ties testify to new type of international relations

English.news.cn | 2015-12-01

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit respectively to Zimbabwe and South Africa on Dec. 1-5, and will also chair the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg. During his visits, the Chinese president is expected to discuss with his African counterparts the "new type of international relations" featuring practical win-win cooperation and construction of common destiny of mankind, and announce new measures to help Africa with its development.  The expected announcement is in line with his proposal made at the UN General Assembly in September on increasing aid to African countries to help them promote their peacekeeping ability so as to achieve common peace and prosperity.  In retrospect, the relationship between China and Africa is an inspiring practice and paradigm of the "new type of international relations".  NEW TYPE OF INT'L RELATIONS  The Chinese president called for a new type of international relationship featuring win-win cooperation when speaking for the first time at the annual UN General Assembly high-level debate on Sept. 28.

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Chinese president leaves Paris for Zimbabwe, South Africa visits

Editor: Zhang Jianfeng

Xinhua  12-01-2015

PARIS, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping left Paris on Monday evening after attending the opening ceremony of the UN climate change conference.
Following his Paris stop, Xi is scheduled to pay his state visits to Zimbabwe and South Africa before chairing a summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg.
Xi arrived in the French capital on Sunday and delivered a speech at the climate change summit on Monday, expressing resolve in fulfilling Beijing's commitments in combating global warming and showing willingness to advance international cooperation.
Xi also met separately with French President Francois Hollande, U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on the sidelines of the conference.

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Between Rwanda and Mandela

AFRICA IS A COUNTRY -  November 26, 2015

I recently reread “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,”  the famous lecture given by the late Chinua Achebe in 1975 and later published in the Massachusetts Review in 1977 (now published by Penguin as one of its Penguin Great Ideas series). It is an excoriating critique of Conrad’s autobiographical novel. Achebe treats Conrad like an overt racist who rendered his African characters as unspeaking brutes, and the African landscape as possessing a virgin innocence as well as an unspeakable darkness. In this way Conrad is shown to be a conventional Victorian racist, and relatedly of deploying some fairly crude gendered tropes to the supposedly African “character.”
Achebe goes on to reflect on the broader European imagination of Africa which Conrad represented. Two excerpts are particularly resonant:

Th[ere is a] desire – one might indeed say the need – in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest…

 And:

The West seems to suffer deep anxieties about the precariousness of its civilization and to have a need for constant reassurance by comparison with Africa. If Europe, advancing in civilization, could cast a backward glance periodically at Africa trapped in primordial barbarity, it could say with faith and feeling: There go I but for the grace of God. Africa is to Europe as the picture is to Dorian Gray – a carrier on to whom the master unloads his physical and moral deformities so that he may go forward, erect and immaculate.

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Mahmood Mamdani remembers his friend and comrade Sam Moyo

AFRICA IS A COUNTRY - November 25, 2015

I no longer recall when exactly I met Sam. Maybe it was in the late 1970s at CODESRIA, or in the early 1980s at the Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies. The late 1990s, though, was the time we truly got to work together, closely and intensely. The two of us were at the helm of CODESRIA’s leadership, as President and Vice President. The next two years were a time of deep and sharp differences in policy, and it often seemed as if there was no end in sight.  I remember a particularly difficult episode a year down the line. We had an emergency meeting in Dakar but Sam said he could not be there because he was to have a delicate operation in a few days. I explained what was at stake and asked if he could postpone the operation by a week. He warned me that he would not be able to sit for long in his current state. But the next day, he was in Dakar. During the meeting, he kept on shifting the weight of his body from one side to the other, now leaning on one buttock, then on another. He was obviously in great pain, but it never showed on his smiling face.  That was Sam, selfless, committed to a fault, totally reliable. He was the person you would want by your side if you expected hard times ahead. But no matter how difficult the times, as during those years, I never saw him turn vindictive against anyone. Later, we would look back on that period as something of a crossroads in the history of CODESRIA. Then, however, it was hard and painful. It was the kind of ordeal that can forge enduring friendships. Sam was that kind of a friend.

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Xi Jinping’s 10 Key Remarks on Developing China-Africa Relations

Editor: zhenglimin 丨People's Daily Online  11-28-2015

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend and chair the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in early December in Johannesburg, South Africa. The remarks on developing China-Africa relations Xi delivered in recent years point the way for people to better understand China- Africa relations.
1. China-Africa cooperation is comprehensive
Regardless of changes in the international landscape, China will, as always, continue to support and promote Africa's efforts to achieve peace, stability, prosperity and development, and strength through unity and participate in international affairs on an equal basis. China and Africa are enjoying wide-ranging cooperation. China attaches great importance to developing friendly relations with all African countries, whether they be big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor. China treats them equally and actively carries out mutually beneficial and win-win pragmatic cooperation.
——Xi’s joint interview to media with the four other BRICS countries in Beijing on March 19, 2013.
2. Pioneering spirit is vital to improved China-Africa cooperation
The defining characteristics of China-Africa relations are sincerity, friendship, mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and common development. To maintain the vigorous development of China-Africa relations, the two sides must keep pace with the times and forge ahead in a pioneering and innovative spirit. During more than half a century, the two sides have always adopted a long-term perspective to find new areas of common growth, promoting China-Africa relations to achieve development. This kind of pioneering spirit to seeking solutions to different kinds of problems is vital to enhancing China-Africa cooperation.

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Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on 3-day visit to S. Africa

Reporter: Yolisa Njamela 丨 CCTV.com  10-11-2015

South Africa is playing host to China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi this weekend. Top of the agenda are preparations for the upcoming summit on Chinese and African Co-operation. Yang is also expected to meet President Jacob Zuma.  On a three day official visit, State Councillor Yang Jiechi met International Relations' Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. And they have a lot to discuss. Leaders from across the African continent will meet with their Chinese counterparts for the Africa co-operation summit here in Johannesburg in early December.    "We are continuing with our consultations which are part of the tradition that before a FOCAC; forum for Africa-China cooperation; such consultations will happen between host countries, this time it's Sounth Africa and China co-hosted in China. Now we will be co-hosting African countries in South Africa," Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said.

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Destination Planet Negro Official Trailer

Killing Kenya

People & Power investigates allegations that Kenya’s police are involved in extra judicial killings.

AL-JAZEERA - 23 Sep 2015

Last December, an Al Jazeera network investigation examined shocking claims that the government of Kenya has been running secret police death squads, tasked with assassinating suspected terrorists and criminals. At the time the Kenyan government strongly refuted the allegations but reports and rumours in Kenya about extra-judicial killings have continued to proliferate.
Ten months on, People and Power asked Mohammed Ali, one of Kenya’s top independent investigative journalists, to find out why.  
In this deeply worrying film, Ali discovers that mysterious killings are indeed continuing amid a culture of apparent impunity, leaving Kenyan security forces open to suspicions that they are unaccountable and seemingly out of control.
He discovers that over 1,500 Kenyan citizens have been killed by the police since 2009, and that statistically, Kenyans are currently five times more likely to be shot by a policeman than a criminal.

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Funke Opeke: Nigeria's cyber revolutionary

How one woman set about connecting her country. 

Femke van Zeijl

AL-JAZEERA | 21 Sep 2015

The only major road through Lekki is clogged, even on a Saturday afternoon. The expressway through the swampy peninsula that expands the city of Lagos in an easterly direction is riddled with street hawkers peddling red grapes, shoe racks and phone chargers to the cars caught in the hold up.
"Selling imported fruit and Chinese rubbish. Such a waste of initiative," mutters Funke Opeke from the backseat of the SUV. The driver steers past a junction where a swarm of okada drivers on motorbikes are waiting by the roadside for anyone looking for a ride. "Look, there's 50 young men right there. Imagine you'd give all of them a six-month course in building affordable housing," she says.
Everywhere she looks in Nigeria, Opeke notices missed opportunities. But the founder and CEO of Main One Cable Company also sees ways to address them.

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Being Black in Turkey- You should have warned us!

By Mosa Nkoko 

The Land Beyond My Home - August 3, 2015

I am sitting here thinking of how I should introduce this topic to you because I have a lot to say.  First of all let me start by saying, hi! My name is Mosa and I am a black African; you already knew that didn’t you? I find it very hard to believe that in this era black people continue to cause a great stare amongst other races. Look! I am not about to pull a race card on you, No! I am not about that life. In my recent posts I have talked about my personal experiences abroad but this time on behalf of all black people in Turkey, I don’t care whether you are an African American or a black African; as long as you are black this is probably your everyday life story and these are just higlights.
While back at home, I never really thought much about my race until I came to Turkey. I mean, I know I am black but it was never an issue for me. Many people have asked me what’s it like being black in Turkey and I have often responded by telling them that had they asked me that question two years ago I would have said it’s a nightmare that I wish upon no enemy of mine. I would have told you that Turkish people are Racists but that’s not the case. I actually think the word “Racist” it’s a very strong word to use especially when one is talking about the Turkish society, in fact take that word and throw it in the garbage bin; burn it if you can. Let’s just say some of the Turkish people have racial prejudice while others turn to be way over curious; it’s in their nature. When they see something foreign to them they want to look, touch and feel it. Turks not only stare at black people but everyone who looks different from them but I suppose when it comes to us it is on another different level.

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326 billion reasons Africa is on the move

By Thomas Page

CNN - AUGUST 21, 2015

When the new, expanded Suez Canal was inaugurated on August 6, the world marveled at the endeavor and single-mindedness that had born -- and bored -- 72 kilometers of new waterways through the Egyptian earth.

The $8 billion project was initially scheduled to take three years, but was completed in one. Three quarters of the world's dredgers and 41,000 workers, operating around the clock, moved half a trillion cubic meters of earth by June this year -- the equivalent of 200 Great Pyramids -- meaning the canal will raise $13 billion annually by 2023 according to government projections.

But whilst the numbers are mind-boggling, they're a drop in the ocean when it comes to major construction projects across Africa.

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If I come across another book written by a white expat about his or her African childhood …

Africa is a country -  November 19, 2010

If I come across another book written by a white expat about their African childhood, I think I will be ill.  I have had this thought from time to time over the past few years, but it hits me hardest when I pass through Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta international Airport (JKIA) Just try to find a book set in, or about, Africa, written by an African – they are few and far between. Oh, there’s a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie here, and a Ben Okri there. But they fade into insignificance next to the rows and rows of memoirs by ex-African white people. Here’s just a small and quick sampling, of publications old and new:

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(1964) Malcolm X’s Speech at the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity

Malcolm X’s life changed dramatically in the first six months of 1964.  On March 8, he left the Nation of Islam.  In May he toured West Africa and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, returning as El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.  While in Ghana in May, he decided to form the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).  Malcolm returned to New York the following month to create the OAAU and on June 28 gave his first public address on behalf of the new organization at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.  That address appears below.   Salaam Alaikum, Mr. Moderator, our distinguished guests, brothers and sisters, our friends and our enemies, everybody who's here.  As many of you know, last March when it was announced that I was no longer in the Black Muslim movement, it was pointed out that it was my intention to work among the 22 million non-Muslim Afro-Americans and to try and form some type of organization, or create a situation where the young people – our young people, the students and others – could study the problems of our people for a period of time and then come up with a new analysis and give us some new ideas and some new suggestions as to how to approach a problem that too many other people have been playing around with for too long. And that we would have some kind of meeting and determine at a later date whether to form a black nationalist party or a black nationalist army.  There have been many of our people across the country from all walks of life who have taken it upon themselves to try and pool their ideas and to come up with some kind of solution to the problem that confronts all of our people. And tonight we are here to try and get an understanding of what it is they've come up with.  Also, recently when I was blessed to make a religious pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca where I met many people from all over the world, plus spent many weeks in Africa trying to broaden my own scope and get more of an open mind to look at the problem as it actually is, one of the things that I realized, and I realized this even before going over there, was that our African brothers have gained their independence faster than you and I here in America have. They've also gained recognition and respect as human beings much faster than you and I. Just ten years ago on the African continent, our people were colonized. They were suffering all forms of colonization, oppression, exploitation, degradation, humiliation, discrimination, and every other kind of -ation. And in a short time, they have gained more independence, more recognition, more respect as human beings than you and I have. And you and I live in a country which is supposed to be the citadel of education, freedom, justice, democracy, and all of those other pretty-sounding words.  So it was our intention to try and find out what it was our African brothers were doing to get results, so that you and I could study what they had done and perhaps gain from that study or benefit from their experiences. And my traveling over there was designed to help to find out how.  One of the first things that the independent African nations did was to form an organization called the Organization of African Unity. This organization consists of all independent African states who have reached the agreement to submerge all differences and combine their efforts toward eliminating from the continent of Africa colonialism and all vestiges of oppression and exploitation being suffered by African people. Those who formed the organization of African states have differences. They represent probably every segment, every type of thinking. You have some leaders that are considered Uncle Toms, some leaders who are considered very militant. But even the militant African leaders were able to sit down at the same table with African leaders whom they considered to be Toms, or Tshombes, or that type of character. They forgot their differences for the sole purpose of bringing benefits to the whole. And whenever you find people who can't forget their differences, then they're more interested in their personal aims and objectives than they are in the conditions of the whole. Well, the African leaders showed their maturity by doing what the American white man said couldn't be done. Because if you recall when it was mentioned that these African states were going to meet in Addis Ababa, all of the Western press began to spread the propaganda that they didn't have enough in common to come together and to sit down together. Why, they had Nkrumah there, one of the most militant of the African leaders, and they had Adoula from the Congo. They had Nyerere there, they had Ben Bella there, they had Nasser there, they had Sekou Toure, they had Obote; they had Kenyatta  I guess Kenyatta was there, I can't remember whether Kenya was independent at that time, but I think he was there. Everyone was there and despite their differences, they were able to sit down and form what was known as the Organization of African Unity, which has formed a coalition and is working in conjunction with each other to fight a common enemy. Once we saw what they were able to do, we determined to try and do the same thing here in America among Afro Americans who have been divided by our enemies. So we have formed an organization known as the Organization of Afro American Unity which has the same aim and objective – to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, and first here in the United States, and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary.  That's our motto. We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary. We don't feel that in 1964, living in a country that is supposedly based upon freedom, and supposedly the leader of the free world, we don't think that we should have to sit around and wait for some segregationist congressmen and senators and a President from Texas in Washington, D. C., to make up their minds that our people are due now some degree of civil rights. No, we want it now or we don't think anybody should have it.  The purpose of our organization is to start right here in Harlem, which has the largest concentration of people of African descent that exists anywhere on this earth. There are more Africans in Harlem than exist in any city on the African continent. Because that's what you and I are Africans. You catch any white man off guard in here right now, you catch him off guard and ask him what he is, he doesn't say he's an American. He either tells you he's Irish, or he's Italian, or he's German, if you catch him off guard and he doesn't know what you're up to. And even though he was born here, he'll tell you he's Italian. Well, if he's Italian, you and I are African even though we were born here. So we start in New York City first. We start in Harlem– and by Harlem we mean Bedford – Stuyvesant, any place in this area where you and I live, that's Harlem with the intention of spreading throughout the state, and from the state throughout the country, and from the country throughout the Western Hemisphere. Because when we say Afro American, we include everyone in the Western Hemisphere of African descent. South America is America. Central America is America. South America has many people in it of African descent. And everyone in South America of African descent is an Afro-American. Everyone in the Caribbean, whether it's the West Indies or Cuba or Mexico, if they have African blood, they are Afro Americans. If they're in Canada and they have African blood, they're Afro Americans. If they're in Alaska, though they might call themselves Eskimos, if they have African blood, they're Afro Americans.  So the purpose of the Organization of Afro American Unity is to unite everyone in the Western Hemisphere of African descent into one united force. And then, once we are united among ourselves in the Western Hemisphere, we will unite with our brothers on the motherland, on the continent of Africa. So to get right with it, I would like to read you the "Basic Aims and Objectives of the Organization of Afro American Unity;" started here in New York, June, 1964.  "The Organization of Afro American Unity, organized and structured by a cross section of the Afro American people living in the United States of America, has been patterned after the letter and spirit of the Organization of African Unity which was established at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in May of 1963.

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A snapshot of Africa’s top 30 universities

By Samantha Spooner   

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM - Aug 4 2015

AS the Times Higher Education (THE) Africa universities summit kicked off July 30 at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, the main buzz of the event was the landmark unveiling of a new African university ranking.
And it’s here, just released Friday, though only ranking the top 30 of Africa’s approximately 2,600 higher education institutions.
These results are essentially based on the amount of citations there are for the university’s work. They are derived from the methodology for the current world university ranking, using the 13 factors (below), combining THE’s own enormous database of statistics along with the Elsevier’s Scopus database – a system that highlights some of the continent’s top performers in terms of how often research papers are referred to and cited by other academics globally. This methodology is designed for the research-led globally facing university. Times Higher Education emphasised that not everyone in Africa will find the metrics appropriate to their mission or their strategic priorities making this ranking a starting point of a longer, inclusive conversation involving African institutions.

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Thabo Mbeki on the future of African universities

The full text of the former president of South Africa’s speech at the THE Africa Universities Summit

Inside Higher Ed - August 15 2015

In a speech at the inaugural Times Higher Education Africa Universities Summit, Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, offered his assessment of how higher education might play a central role in the next 50 years of development in the continent.
Here is the full text of Mr Mbeki’s speech, which was delivered at the University of Johannesburg, which hosted the THE summit, on 30 July:
We have gathered here at the University of Johannesburg to consider an important matter – “Moving Africa’s Universities Forward”.
I am certain that it is a matter of common cause among us and particularly the distinguished leaders of our universities that there has been extensive discussion over the years relating to the matter of the role and place of the African university in the 21st century.
We also have the advantage that only four months ago we had the first African Higher Education Summit on Revitalising Higher Education for Africa’s Future, which was held in Dakar, Senegal.
Even before that, in 2009, the Association of African Universities issued its “Abuja Declaration on Sustainable Development in Africa: The Role of Higher Education”, adopted at its 12th general conference of that year.

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China's Hisense aims for bigger bite of African market

English.news.cn | 2015-08-01

CAPE TOWN, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 dealers and agents from around the world joined China's electronics manufacturer Hisense in a meeting here aimed at bigger share of African market.  Statistics show that Hisense televisions and refrigerators have a 20 percent market share in South Africa, ranking second in the industry.  The two-day meeting was also attended by officials from the South African Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).  Hisense, supported by the China-Africa Development Fund, in 2013 invested more than 27.4 million U.S. dollars to set up its plant in South Africa, with a daily output of 1,200 refrigerators and 1,700 TV sets.  Located in Atlantis, Western Cape Province, the plant employs over 600 local workers and creates 2,600 jobs in related industries.  Li Youbo, General Manager of Hisense South Africa, said the South African plant aims to produce 270,000 TV sets and 210,000 fridges in 2015.  The company's made-in-South-Africa productions are exported to 14 African countries, and its market is expanding fast.

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Nollywood: The story behind Nigeria's domestic movie industry, the second biggest producer of films in the world.

Al Jazeera World | 28 Jul 2015

Despite having only 14 cinemas in a country of 170 million people, Nigeria's film industry, dubbed "Nollywood", churns out as many as 50 films a week, sometimes for as little as $10,000 a piece. Many are released straight to DVD and sold cheaply on the streets.
When it comes to sheer volume, the $5bn film industry makes more films than the US and is only rivalled by India, the world's biggest movie industry.
Nollywood  tries to answer that question and more with those who know the industry best - Nigeria's filmmakers, actors and actresses, directors, producers and film critics.
All of them come up with different reasons for the secret behind the popularity of Nigeria's low-budget, self-styled movie industry: originality; "stories that people can relate to"; plots that satisfiy a cultural fascination with African "magic"; and films that draw from "that African thing about us - which is that we love to tell stories."
Nollywood also tries to pin down the origins of the industry - including the contributions of the founders of Nigerian film, Hubert Ogunde and Adeyemi Afolayan (also known as Ade Love) and their 1970s travelling cinema; to the collapse of the film industry and its rebirth as Nollywood in the mid-1990s, based on cheap VHS technology; and the part played by the 1992 film Living in Bondage, which established this new Nigerian way of making films.

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Africa on the Move

Portraits of four individuals who are fighting against the odds to succeed and give back to their African communities. 

Al-jazeera - 08 Jul 2015

The Power of Song

We join Tiken Jah Fakoly, a celebrated reggae singer from the Ivory Coast, who sings about the poverty and corruption that has plagued his continent.

"There is something wrong. Africa is one of the richest continents, yet the people who live on this continent are the world’s poorest. That’s a problem," says Fakoly.

We travel with him from the stage to the two village schools that he funds, all part of his pledge to fight for the poor and marginalised.

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100 African Cities Destroyed By Europeans:

WHY there are seldom historical buildings and monuments in sub-Saharian Africa!

By: Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN

Silicon Africa- Saturday, November 1st, 2014

The reason is simple. Europeans have destroyed most of them. We have only left drawings and descriptions by travelers who have visited the places before the destructions. In some places, ruins are still visible. Many cities have been abandoned into ruin when Europeans brought exotic diseases (smallpox and influenza) which started spreading and killing people. The ruins of those cities are still hidden. In fact the biggest part of Africa history is still under the ground.
In this post, I’ll share pieces of informations about Africa before the arrival of Europeans, the destroyed cities and lessons we could learn as africans for the future.
The collection of facts regarding the state of african cities before their destruction is done by Robin Walker, a distinguished panafricanist and historian who has written the book ‘When We Ruled’, and by PD Lawton, another great panafricanist, who has an upcoming book titled “African Agenda”.
All quotes and excerpts below are from the books of Robin Walker and PD Lawton. I highly recommend you to buy Walker’s book ‘When We Ruled’ to get a full account of the beauty of the continent before its destruction. You can get more info about PD Lawton work by visiting her blog: AfricanAgenda.net
Robin Walter and PD Lawton have quoted quite heavily another great panafricanist Walter Rodney who wrote the book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa‘. Additional information came from YouTube channel ‘dogons2k12 : African Historical Ruins’, and Ta Neter Foundation work.

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Sociology of Africa: A non-Orientalist Approach to African, Africana and Black Studies

Tugrul Keskin, PhD

Critical Sociology - July 18, 2012       

Whichever nomenclature is used to describe the study of black peoples and the African Diaspora – whether Africana, Black or African Studies – the approach that is taken is critically important to academia in terms of its potential to provide a direct response and challenge to the intrinsic Eurocentric and Orientalist bias of the US educational system. Unlike other area and ethnic studies disciplines, this field was established as a link between the community and academia. However, in recent history, approaches have become polarized and the field has lost momentum as a consequence of arbitrary boundaries and politicized knowledge. In this article, the Orientalist perspective and Afro-centric knowledge in Black Studies are examined in their historical and political context. This analysis culminates in a proposed approach to use the Sociology of Africa as a new model for Afro-centric knowledge and teaching in this field.

Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa

By Uzodinma Iweala

The Washington Post - Sunday, July 15, 2007 

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.
It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.
This is the West's new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Never mind that the stars sent to bring succor to the natives often are, willingly, as emaciated as those they want to help.
Perhaps most interesting is the language used to describe the Africa being saved. For example, the Keep a Child Alive/" I am African" ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted "tribal markings" on their faces above "I AM AFRICAN" in bold letters. Below, smaller print says, "help us stop the dying."
Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent's corrupt leaders, warlords, "tribal" conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like "Can Bono Save Africa?" or "Will Brangelina Save Africa?" The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and "civilization."
There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head -- because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West's prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.
Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been "granted independence from their colonial masters," as opposed to having fought and shed blood for their freedom? Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned? How is it that a former mid-level U.S. diplomat receives more attention for his cowboy antics in Sudan than do the numerous African Union countries that have sent food and troops and spent countless hours trying to negotiate a settlement among all parties in that crisis?
Two years ago I worked in a camp for internally displaced people in Nigeria, survivors of an uprising that killed about 1,000 people and displaced 200,000. True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments -- without much international help -- did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.
Last month the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn't want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.
Uzodinma Iweala is the author of "Beasts of No Nation," a novel about child soldiers.

Now We Can Finally Say Goodbye to the White Savior Myth of Atticus

Osamudia R. James 

The New York Times - July 15, 2015

Like many Americans, I read Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” as a high school student. In a curriculum devoid of explicit discussion about the impact of implicit and structural racism on both blacks and whites, the book stood out from the whitewashed reading list as one that directly engaged with the topic of race. It did so, however, in a matter quite conventional: Atticus Finch was the white savior, a good white liberal whose ethics and values compelled him to defend a black man who had been falsely accused of rape – and all this during a time when many whites would just as soon have lynched the accused without trial. Harper Lee won a Pulitzer Prize for tackling racial inequality, no surprise given how America likes its stories about race: centered on innocent white protagonists benevolently exercising power, with black characters relegated to the margins even in stories about their own oppression.
Atticus Finch presented an enduring model to which many white liberals still cling. But besides being a fictional character, Atticus Finch is a myth. And a dangerous myth because he keeps good white liberals from reconsidering the fact that they live in white neighborhoods; from challenging administrators about the racial segregation of their children’s schools or white supremacy advanced in the curriculum; or from acknowledging how they benefit from a system that keeps people of color laboring in their homes but excluded from their social and professional spaces. Like Finch, it is sufficient that they simply “do their best to love everybody.”

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Ghana's women farmers resist the G7 plan to grab Africa's seeds

Heidi Chow

Ecologist - 22nd May 2015

Sharing and saving seed is a crucial part of traditional farming all over Africa, writes Heidi Chow. Maybe that's why governments, backed by multinational seed companies, are imposing oppressive seed laws that attack the continent's main food producers and open the way to industrial agribusiness. But Ghana's women farmers are having none of it.

My mother gave me some seeds to plant. And I'm also giving those seeds to my children to plant.
"So that is ongoing, every time we transfer to our children. And that is how all the women are doing it. We don't buy, we produce it ourselves."
Sitting together in the heat of the Ghanaian sun, Esther Boakye Yiadom explained to me the importance of seeds in her family and the transfer of knowledge between the different generations of women.
Esther continues to explain the role of the community in sharing and preserving seeds: "I am having tomatoes and I don't have okro. And another woman has okro. I'll go to her and then beg for some of her okro seeds to plant.
"And then if another person also needs tomatoes from me and I have it, I'll have to give to the person. Because you know every season changes, because maybe mine will not do well. But that person's will do well. So next season we can get to plant. That's why we exchange them."
An oppressive new law is putting all this under threat
The ability to save and exchange seeds after each growing season is an age-old practice that ensures that small scale farmers have seeds to sow the following year.

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Deep Racism: The Forgotten History Of Human Zoos

POPULAR RESISTANCE - February 18th, 2014

Racism is deeply embedded in our culture.  Slavery of African people, ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and colonialist imperialism are seeds that intertwine to create racism that still has impacts today.  One example of the sad human history of racism — of colonizers seeing themselves as superior to others — is the long history of human zoos that featured Africans and conquered indigenous peoples, putting them on display in much the same way as animals. People would be kidnapped and brought to be exhibited in human zoos.  It was not uncommon for these people to die quickly, even within a year of their captivity. This history is long and deep and continued into the 1950s.  Several articles below with lots of photos so we can see the reality of this terrible legacy. KZ

Through the 1950s, Africans and Native Americans Were Kept In Zoos As Exhibit
By M.B. David
Political Blindspot, February 13, 2013

Throughout the early 20th century, Germany held what was termed a, “Peoples Show,” or Völkerschau. Africans were brought in as carnival or zoo exhibits for passers-by to gawk at.

Brussels, Belgium in 1958
Only decades before, in the late 1800′s, Europe had been filled with, “human zoos,” in cities like Paris, Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Milan, and Warsaw. New York too saw these popular exhibits continue into the 20th century. There was an average of 200,000 to 300,000 visitors who attended each exhibition in each city.
Carl Hagenbeck of Germany ran exhibits of what he called, “purely natural,” populations, usually East Asian Islanders, but in 1876, he also sent a collaborator to the Sudan to bring back, “wild beasts and Nubians.” The traveling Nubian exhibit was a huge success in cities like Paris, London, and Berlin.

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The Numbing Spectacle of Racism

What the ugly history of a 1906 Bronx Zoo exhibit tells us about ourselves today.

Pamela Newkirk

The Nation - June 1, 2015

At the dawn of the 20th century, a young 103-pound, 4-foot-11-inch tall African named Ota Benga was exhibited in the Bronx Zoo monkey house. The year was 1906, eight years after the consolidation of the five boroughs transformed New York into one of the world’s largest cities, a dazzling hub of finance, publishing, culture, and trade. The New York Zoological Gardens was one of the city’s crown jewels, a sprawling neoclassical wonderland of lush forest, soaring statuary. and gleaming white beaux arts–style pavilions. What became known as the Bronx Zoo had been willed into being by the city’s social elite, who positioned it as the world’s largest and most scientifically advanced facility with an unrivaled array of exotic animals.
On September 8, the unveiling of its latest acquisition, the so-called “pygmy” from the Congo, garnered sensational headlines. “Bushman Shares a Cage with Bronx Park Apes,” screamed the New York Times headline on the following day. According to the article: “The human being happened to be a Bushman, one of a race that scientists do not rate high in the human scale. But to the average non-scientific person in the crowd of sightseers there was something about the display that was unpleasant.”

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US Military Expansion in Africa Is About Domination and Exploitation, Not Humanitarian Concerns

By Mark Karlin

Truthout | Interview - Tuesday, 02 June 2015 

The reach of the US military has expanded into nearly every corner of the world, but it is Africa that US officers describe behind closed doors as "the battlefield of tomorrow, today." In his essential new book, Nick Turse tenaciously details the growth of the Pentagon's secretive mission in Africa and the resulting harmful impact on the continent, its countries and its people. Order your copy of Tomorrow's Battlefield now by making a donation to Truthout!

Since before the heinous ravaging of Africa as a source of human beings denied their humanity, lives and freedom as chattel in the slave trade, the continent has been brutally exploited by European colonial (and later US) powers. Now, the continent is targeted by developing nations as a rich source of natural resources and for its coveted geopolitical military positioning. Researcher and author Nick Turse, managing editor of TomDispatch.com, offers a sobering, thorough account of the extension of the US military mission in Africa, known as Africom.
Mark Karlin: What is Africom and how does it fit in with the structure of the US military presence around the world?
Nick Turse: In 2008, US Africa Command or Africom became the newest of the Department of Defense's six geographic combatant commands with a responsibility for all military missions in Africa (aside from those in Egypt, which fall under the purview of Central Command or Centcom). After 9/11, the US military began to focus increased attention on Africa, ramping up counterterrorism operations, proxy interventions and the training of local allies while constructing an increasing number of outposts from which to launch missions.

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Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah Compare Racism in America Versus Africa

Trevor Noah: You Laugh But It's True - The UNICEF Fly

The US Militarization of Africa Is Well Underway and Nothing Good Will Come of It

By Nick Turse, Haymarket Books | Book Excerpt 

TRUTHOUT - Friday, 29 May 2015

The following is an excerpt, "Finding Barack Obama in South Sudan," from the book Tomorrow's Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa:

Juba, South Sudan. The camp is a mess of orange muck and open earthen sewers. A single wood plank provides passage over a roughhewn trench. Children peek out from tarp-tents. Older men and women sit in homes of mud-speckled plastic sheeting that become saunas in the midday heat. Young women pick their way through refuse, some with large yellow jerry cans of water balanced atop their heads, others carry their homes in similar fashion - a mess of wooden poles and a folded tarp - as they set out for another camp hoping for better to come.
As I walk down the main thoroughfare of this camp for internal exiles, I suddenly see his smiling face, the one I'd know anywhere. Here, in Juba, the capital of South Sudan amid tens of thousands of people crammed into a fetid encampment visibly thrown together in haste, out of fear and necessity; here, as huge water tanker trucks rumble past and men in camouflage fatigues, toting automatic weapons, stride by; here, in the unlikeliest of places in the heat and swirling dust and charcoal smoke, the air heavy with the scent of squalor, is a face I've seen a thousand, or ten thousand, or a million times before. Here in a camp where hopelessness is endemic and despair reigns, is a face that, for so many, was once synonymous with hope itself. It's a sight that stops me in my tracks. Here, 7,000 miles from my home, Barack Obama is smiling his familiar smile amid the results of a decades-long American project in Africa.

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South Africa's second-biggest grocer talks about their strategy

The Africa Report - Friday, 22 May 2015

Dutch retail partnership Spar sees big opportunities to expand in markets where other Western chains fear to tread, exploiting a model of sharing global best practice among independent businesses trading from Angola to India and Ukraine.    
"The potential in China is still enormous and in Russia it is too because we've only just started opening hypermarkets," managing director Gordon Campbell told Reuters in an interview at the group's Amsterdam headquarters. 
"We see enormous potential in India. We're only just starting in Indonesia."  In addition to entering Indonesia and India, Spar opened its first stores in Angola, Malawi and Georgia in 2014 and is in active discussions with potential partners in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, Campbell said.  Spar International licenses its brand to independently-owned national or regional partners, provides them with a range of 300 Spar own-brand products and offers guidance on issues ranging from store layout to merchandising and logistics.

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Global_Geneva’s annual NGO ranking shows that the “white savior” status quo remains intact

Fairouz El Tom

Africa is a country - May 13, 2015

Teju Cole wrote that a white saviour is someone who, “supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening”. 
Global_Geneva recently released the third annual Top NGO ranking, and unfortunately, it’s more of the same. In 2013, I reviewed the Board profiles of the previous ranking, focusing on their gender balance and diversity, and links to the tobacco, weapons and finance industries. The findings were troubling. Many of the listed NGOs were not adequately diverse or representative, and over half had links to the above industries. 
This year’s ranking reveals similarly disturbing trends. Though 78% of the activities of the NGOs listed take place in the majority world, the ranking remains skewed towards NGOs headquartered in the West (64%). This once again sends signals about who has value and expertise, and reinforces the fallacy that citizens of Western countries are best equipped to change the world.

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Are African Americans really Americans?

By Nnamdi F. Akwada

THIS IS AFRICA - December 18, 2014

Whereas regular folks on the continent have demonstrated in solidarity against the extrajudicial killings in America, the thugs in power have remained mute. One could only imagine what the outcry from Africa would be if we still had leaders like Kwame Nkrumah.

There are the evocative feelings that come with claiming the American citizenship. These emotions are prominent during the swearing in ceremonies of immigrants (with other national origins and tongues) as new citizens. However, those emotive reactions are clouded in the hype rather than the realities of what the European interpretations and applications of American nationality is truly about. For American citizenship, contrary to the popularly held assumption, is not rooted in the jargon of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Rather it is centred on the notions of white patriarchy and privileges. This accounts for the duality of meaning in the invocation of American citizenship between European Americans and African Americans. For the former it is about segregating themselves from others while coveting their resources and for the latter about drawing closer to the privileged white folks evocative of colonialism.

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Ghana, a place for African-Americans to resettle

By Efam Dovi

The Africa Report - 11 May 2015

In Prampram, a town just an hour's drive east of Ghana's capital Accra, many holiday houses line the shores of the South Atlantic Ocean. One of them belongs to Jerome Thompson.
Located only 500 metres from the water, Thompson's house is resilient to the effects of the salt and wind. The floors, windows and doors are made of hard wood. His self-designed furniture is made from quality Ghanaian timber and hand-carved by local artisans.
"The ocean helps me fall asleep and wakes me up in the morning," says Thompson, an African-American retiree taking a stroll on the beach where palm trees shade hand-carved canoes.
"Where else can I live this close to the ocean? It would cost me millions of dollars!"
Thompson, a native of Maryland in the United States, retired to Ghana 11 years ago. He first visited the West African country on a tour in 2000.

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‘West still treats Africa as former vassals’ – South Africa’s Zuma to RT

Russia Today - May 10, 2015

Western “colonial” states are not interested in S. Africa’s development, but rather want to take its natural resources and never give anything back, Jacob Zuma, S. African president, told RT. It’s China’s investment that Zuma sees as a way to prosperity.
“The Western world or the European countries, in particular, came to Africa [in the 19th century] to colonize and they had been taking the resources of Africa,” Zuma said.
But even after the continent decolonized itself in the mid-20th century, its relationship with the US, UK, France and other Western countries “remained the same,” he stressed.
“They still regard us as the Third World, as a kind of people, who must be related to as the former subject [state], etc. That talks also to the economics… Their intention has never been to make the former colonial countries develop,” the president explained.

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Cheap imports threaten Ghana's textile industry

To revive the fragile sector, the government is encouraging people to buy local fabrics. 

Al-Jazeera - 10 May 2015

West African prints have made it to the fashion catwalks of the Western world, yet at home the fabric industry is suffering because of cheap fake imports.
In response, the government is encouraging people to support the industry and promote their culture by wearing local fabrics.
Al Jazeera's Ama Boateng reports from Ghana’s capital Accra.

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Telling “the African story”

Africa is a country - July 31, 2014

We often hear political and business leaders and Africanists talk about the need to “tell the African story.” For us, “tell the African story” means nothing. In other words, it is a cliché of no value. We don’t know what it is supposed to mean. It may be that the idea of a definitive “African story” gains traction as a response to bigoted representations of the continent that have been influential in Western journalism and thinking. But like the idea of the need for “positive stories about Africa”, it’s facile and unhelpful. Our suspicion is that political and business leaders say that when they feel uncomfortable with airing real problems that ordinary Africans experience. The phrase also assumes–as our blog title mockingly suggests–that Africa is a Country.  African journalists rarely think or talk about their vocation in these terms. In most cases, they lack the continental consciousness to think or write in this way. The national trumps any continental solidarity or focus. So does the local. Their focus is very different from their counterparts in the West who report on “Africa.”

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