Interesting point on the legacy of slavery and stereotypes about blacks.

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Walter Rodney was a Guyanese historian, political activist and scholar who was assassinated in my native country of Guyana in 1980, the year I was born.

LOL, seeing his words written such as colour with an ou, reminds me of the British educational background.

Powerful words he expressed that show how we are where we are today in society.

When people speak of blacks in the tone of animals and savages over any particular incident they may see in the media it comes from a place of a deep rooted social history that presented blacks as just that.

Its why you can have a white or Asian person who commits a murderous act but they are seen as a horrible individual who perpetrated such a dastardly act, yet switch their place with a black person and often the vitriol is going to be much more venomous from many on the outside looking in.

Its why when some folks say slavery is over that thought merely represents a short sighted view of a legacy that they fail to fully comprehend.

A social conditioning, physically, mentally, that slavery created and passed on for generations that blacks still struggle with to this day.

A simple test, how many white women on this forum could name the country in Europe their ancestors came from on the other hand how many black men could name the country in Africa their ancestors came from. Think about it folks. :smt017

This line says it best, morally monstrous destruction of human possibility involved redefining African humanity to the world, poisoning past, present and future relations with others who only know us through this stereotyping and thus damaging the truly human relations among peoples.

A legacy we live with to this day because of the destruction of culture, language, religion and human possibility in regards to Africans as a people in the New World.

 

I've thought about this myself over the years although in not anywhere near as much detail as this. I do agree with your post though 100%.

It also amazes me that even after all our ancestors went through and suffered, how much they were put down and in some respects we are still under heavy duress even if its far more covert these days, we are still standing at all. However it can't be ignored the problems that are rife and are not just confined to Black America, same problems are present in European Black communities too.

As for Africa itself it may take another 400 years for Africa to reach the socio-economic status that Western nations have today in 2012. I do hope however that I'm extremely wrong on this though. To think that Africa is the most mineral rich continent but is also the poorest saddens me.

 

The best example is O.J.Simpson and some blacks who were loved by Whites but,if they commit a crime against them those men are the most worst human beings on the planet.

 

At its core the slave trade was above and beyond all based on economic profits.

One cannot speak of Africa without speaking of exploitation of its resources including its peoples who African leaders at the time themselves played a role in facilitating as slaves for the European colonies in the New World.

As Walter Rodney himself pointed out about abolition visa vis Capitalism.

For me it is clear that part of the fundamental interchange of Europe's development was the underdevelopment of Africa as its resources were extracted for the betterment of Western societies. A cycle repeated throughout the globe where colonialism took place.

Remember even after the slave trade ended first in 1807 by Britain and subsequently by the rest of Europe and America and finally Brazil, slavery still continued in the New World well after and Europe still held colonies in Africa and the Caribbean. So the systematic exploitation continued well after shaping the world we see today.

Africa will have to ultimately reach a point where internally it possesses the ability to control its own resources at an infrastructure level, being able to extract, process and export on its own terms and not beholden to foreign companies within their nations doing so.

As long as that is not the case then corruption, manipulation and exploitation will continue, whether they are working with French, American, British or Chinese companies, these places can never have the best interest of Africa at heart in the first place, that much should be obvious to Africans one would think.

 

:smt045

Very good point indeed, the reaction can often go to a level that never lets one forget the race of such individuals and their actions often become connected to race rather than the individual's behavior, even rising above the heinous act itself perpetrated.

 

I don't think that the question is "controlling", they could control, or at least most of the african countries, could. The point is the knowledge, the political stability, the politics.
African countries are calling for investors, for money, for workers and for knowledge and many european and american investors don't want to go there because of instability. Who wants to invest and later on, the government changes, the president kicks you out of the country and you've lost everything? Nobody is interested in that.

Angola, i.e. is on a very progressive way, they know what they have and they have some very tough people in government; they control their own stuff nowadays.

 

There are undoubtedly issues that respective African governments themselves have to face up to, that includes wars and corruption. Keep in mind though diamonds from Sierra Leone and Angola were still finding their way on to the world market even during the wars and instability in these places.

My general point though was that we cannot overlook the impact of things like access to markets for trade through global institutions like the WTO and its policies that can affect a country who doesn't wield power on the international stage.

Generally their policies favor those who have crafted them and it is not Africans.

If you look at many of these African countries when it comes to resources like oil in Nigeria, Gold and Diamonds, Platinum, etc, its often a foreign, Western firm that has to come in and bring their expertise and set up shop.

It is increasingly the Chinese now in some parts of Africa.

Which is why I highlighted that African countries will have to be able to possess the capacity to do these things on their own void of those foreign firms.

It is the only way they can remove the dependency on outside interests and the issues that can come with that.

Any firm that comes in from the outside is first and foremost going to look for profits for their corporation. That will always take precedence over the issues in Africa socially.

 

I don't know, why it looks so mixed..

 

Its just to show that even while Africa is having bloodshed taking place, its resources from those conflicts can still find its way to the marketplace, the reality is no one knows the real numbers for conflict diamonds because there was no system to check it. It is anyone's guess once it came to dealers in Antwerp or Manhattan or any other part of the world.

Because I think it will give Africans much more influence and control over their resources if they possess the ability to develop it for themselves from beginning to end. To me that puts them in a much stronger position if they don't have to rely on outside companies to come in. That is the ultimate independence.

I'm aware of the task undertaken in Botswana to create a stable, successful African nation, wish more would follow in their footsteps.

I'm pretty weary of Dee Beers given their history in Africa and their monopoly on the global diamond trade to this day. They have a shady history in regards to their actions of manipulation to maintain control over the supply of diamonds and its presence on the world market.

That is why my view encompasses that African nations, starting with the respective governments must reach the point of accountability and working in the best interest of its people in order to create stability ala what Botswana has done.

No outsider can do that better than someone of their own nation when it comes to these issues. Foreign companies will always be looking out for their stockholders and profit margins at the end of the day when operating in these places as businesses.

 

And therein was the problem, prior to 2003 when the Kimberly Process came into effect.

One can only hope the right things are being done today, step by step.

In my view corrupt African governments that are self serving and African warlords and their assorted rebel groups can be the biggest detriment to African development.

Which is why I am glad to see the task undertaken in Botswana, whose first leader after independence was in an interracial marriage, Seretse Khama to Ruth Williams Khama. Their son is today the current President of Botswana.

 

Loving this thread! Thanks for all the info. A touchy topic, no doubt, but one must peer into these things every so often, if only to serve as a reminder to keep your chin up and be part of the transformation of our collective image.

Africa is my home and pride. But sadly after living, working and travelling a large part of it over the years, I see so much holding Africa back. But I am undeterred in the belief that we are the "Black Survivors" - as Bob Marley put it.

Some problems are touched upon in this thread, but the major problems are one compounding the other in present day Africa.
The most obvious though ( to which I'll limit this post) is that while Africa has so much resources, there is no local expertise to extract and process the resources.

I blame this squarely on the leadership, or rather the lack of leadership, in having no foresight and exercising bad custodianship.
It is embarrassing, overtly criminal, proud and mockingly arrogant, yet devastatingly sad in the impact it has for generations - all so unnecessary.
Talk about "for the want of a nail"......

There is the issue of trade tariffs and barriers. These could be negotiated for more strongly in favour of Africa.
Also, stop with loans and on going debts already!! Again, leaders have the bargaining power to negotiate for training in exchange for contracts or trade in exchange for limited joint exploration!

Too complicated and no personal gain!, so they sell the goose. Why? There is enough resource to bargain terms favourable to the populace at large.
Forgive me if I sound angry and frustrated, I am. It's simply mind boggling.

In almost every African country, China or multinationals have a hand in major extraction or development of raw material plants. Large mines have engineers and workforces, increasingly Chinese - all the while Black people are labouring or doing menial jobs.
The DeBeers diamond company has for decades made a fortune extracting diamonds, gold and platinum in Botswana and South Africa. The hole in Kimberley, South Africa for gold is so massive that it can be seen from space. It was dug by hand!!

Oil has been recently found in Kenya and Uganda, but they should be mindful because foreign companies own the rights and look what at good oil did for Nigeria.
Zimbabwe now has the largest platinum deposits in the world - but with a stubborn senile old man in power, alienated to the west, selling everything for a song to China and Russia.

Russia is negotiating a deal to swap helicopters for full rights to the 2nd largest platimun mine there. Ridiculous! Those helicopters could be negotiated firmly for by someone with the balls to square off with the Russians. Someone needs to grow a backbone.

Israel is also in talks with Zimbabwe for minerals. Add to that, the Marange diamond mine deposit found there in 2006 is the biggest in over a century - bigger than there is in neighbouring Botswana.
For context, Botswana is the only African nation with a negligible world debt... it's that small! That's wat diamonds can do!
Not many nations can claim the same. Zimbabwe has a ticket out of the mess it's in.
This is the same Zimbabwe which stunned the world in recent times in going from "Breadbasket of Africa" to the highest inflation in post WW2 - in less than 20 years.

​

A 100 trillion bank note was not enough to catch a bus. They have since abandoned the currency.

But what is that all about - so much resource? Yet no wide-spread wealth? All stolen by politicians selling off to faceless corporations. The last king of Zimbabwe, Lobengula, signed the Rudd concession in 1888, effectively giving away all mining rights to Cecil John Rhodes by simply signing an 'X' to a document he couldn't read and was decieved into signing - how is now any different? The leaders can read, but the terms are never for fair use, they are for full ownership and their greed and lack of accountability and arrogance leads them to just sign away tracts of land. The people cant get those resources back when the leader goes. It took forever and a war to get rid of Cecil Rhodes after that little 'X' on a piece of paper the signatory could not even read.


No one seems interested in teaching Africa how to fish, or in offering a market to sell those fish. But let's not blame the world, Africa has to endeavour to learn! Ask for help and pay for it! Everyone else does this. Borrowing to learn wouldn't be so bad as borrowing to buy mansions and repairing the results of ineffective policies.

Another issue some may squirm to mention ...African people themselves have got to learn how to hold leaders accountable. The saying you get the government you deserve sounds harsh, but I can relate. Africa has a system of government that never grew organically and that goes counter it's culture of respect for elders. Nothing bad in that, but it extends itself to an unhealthy reverence to authority...to a fault.
I recognise similiar traits in China and Japanese culture.
There seemed to be a belief that 'father knows best, or leader knows best' .. while admirable, but it must have a confined place (family or community for instance) and a limit on a wider context.

African people are still trying to get to speed with the whole 'democracy' thing, let alone economics, technology or are just simply trying to get a job ...there is a pressing need to learn how to work this system and the world in general - which may bring us back to the topic of the slavery mentality working against generations who should be able to simply say NO MORE!! yet fail to.
Elections have often been rigged, I'm sure, and the powers that be have a knack for eluding the masses, but that shouldn't lead to apathy.

To wrap this up, is this rapid change in the world simply too much for Africa to ever scale? Is there a bridge over the ever widening digital divide? When will Africa catch up? and why can't it given all these resources? Maybe some of you know better.

Is there an economic slavery pattern emerging where the resources are pulled from a poorer nation instead of fairly and co-jointly owned? Slave traders used Africans to sell other Africans in the past - is this what leaders are doing to their own? It is, after all, the people who foot the debt bill - not the leader.
Is this tantamount to recolonisation? I don't know... but history does repeat itself and it seems old lessons aren't being learnt.

:smt092:smt092:smt092

That's only problem number one....not even in detail

There are literally dozens more, but then I may as well write a book. Luckily for you all, someone has already done that, so you don't have to endure anymore from me on this.



"The Africans" by David Lamb is from the 80s - but of all the books about Africa to do with political science, economy, culture and racism I have read to date - there is none like it for scope, brutal honesty and range of comparisons and topics.
On the topic of racism, he goes further than any publisher dares, it's repercussions locally and globally and the view the world has of Africa as a result of racism and also how Africans view themselves and treat each other as a consequence.

A must read for historical context and some of his predictions and concerns are still playing out today.

 

I'd rep this post 20 times if I could. Well said.

 

Very insightful post and deeply informative.

SMH at the Zimbabwean Bank Note and the foolishness that Mugabe represents.

Seems like the only people in Africa that benefit from the resources are foreign firms and African leaders (a term to be used lightly for some of them as you mentioned)