Respect, Not Aid
Le Monde diplomatique assesses the current state of the continent
In his still unique collection of essays and dispatches from Africa, The Shadow of the Sun, Ryszard Kapuscinski wrote: “This continent is too large for anyone to describe. We speak of ‘Africa’ for the sake of simplicity and convenience, but in reality, there is no such thing as ‘Africa,’ except as a geographical term.” Whoever speaks or writes of “Africa” today should keep those admonitory words in mind. And the editors of the prestigious French monthly Le Monde diplomatique have done just that. The latest semiannual supplement succeeds in clearing away the clutter of preformed judgments on Africa while illuminating often surprising background elements and suggesting new perspectives on current trends. Just a few of their observations:
1. |
In Europe and elsewhere, too many people remain persuaded that ethnic rivalries are at the root of Africa’s violence and civil wars. In reality, it is dictatorship and oligarchy that plunge nations into chaos, as literature Nobel laureate Doris Lessing impressively demonstrates on the example of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. |
2. |
China’s commitment to Africa is increasingly strong. Chinese investment there amounted to over seven billion U.S. dollars in 2006 alone, with the lion’s share going to petroleum exporters like Nigeria, Angola, Sudan, and Ethiopia. China obtains a third of its rapidly growing oil needs from Africa. |
3. |
Africa attracts immigrants from around the world, with a notable influx of Malayans, Indians, and Chinese to southern Africa and Lebanese, Syrians, and Indo-Pakistanis settling across the continent. The resulting diversity of lifestyles – and work styles – is changing and enriching the continent’s historic identity. |
4. |
An increasing number of grassroots movements are demanding fairer trade relations with Europe, Asia, and the U.S. To earn the yearly subsidy paid to a typical American cotton farmer, a cotton farmer in Mali would have to work for a thousand years. Awareness of such contradictions is generating protest, calls for solidarity, and self-organization. |
5. |
As was true in colonial times, the continent’s natural resources and mineral wealth represent little more than a curse for many of its people. Should we dig for uranium or preserve pasturelands for Tuareg nomads? For Niger, the choice is clear – and the World Bank and IMF put their support solidly behind global players, as Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz makes plain in his analysis. |
Readers of the magazine are sure to learn more about Africa’s dark side: war, poverty, underdevelopment, colonialism, hunger, the exploitation of raw materials. But they will also discover positive aspects: how the continent is slowly disengaging from its colonial masters, France in particular; how it is seeking and discovering its own paths to democracy and participation by its citizens; how a rich indigenous culture is becoming increasingly articulate and visible, especially in literature and film; and last but not least, the role played by the game of soccer in fostering pan-African pride.
If we define respect as the good faith effort to allow others legitimacy on their own terms in their own endeavors, then the future challenge for Europeans will be to encourage Africa’s progress toward self-reliance via support for economic, political, and cultural initiatives. Or as the Senegalese economic expert Cheik Tidiane Diop says: “Africa doesn’t need a handout. It needs respect.”
Text: Peter Felixberger
Book tip
Afrika. Stolz & Vorurteile.
Edition Le Monde diplomatique No. 5 (2009),
112 pages, €8.50.
