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Contributions from
the Column
Media
Howard W. French: Africa’s troubles and global attention
Mahmood Mamdani: US-caused terrorism
M.C. Behera (Ed.): Rural development misses out
Harald Müller and Niklas Schörnig: Armaments and their limitation
02/2007 |
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Collusion exposed
Howard W. French:
A continent for the taking.
The tragedy and hope of Africa.
Vintage Books, New York 2005, 280 p.,
$15.00, ISBN 1-4000–3027-7
Africa is a dark and dangerous place, plagued by poverty, disease and war – that’s about as much an average US-citizen could say about life in Africa. But ignorance of history and unawareness of cultural, social and political conditions is not even a poor excuse for ignoring the meddling in African affairs by US governments, past and present. In his book “A continent for the taking”, US-journalist Howard French delivers an eye-opener on why “America remains dumb to the suffering, and indeed often makes things worse.”
Since the mid 1970s, French has witnessed and reported political events in Africa. In a critical and well-researched reportage, he accompanies the emerging and unfolding political crises in Liberia, Nigeria and Zaire/Congo of the 1990s and to date. Although the author focuses on local facets of African tragedies, he also succeeds to embed these events into broader international contexts.
In the case of the former Zaire, this analytical approach is most powerfully employed. Diplomatic failures, corporate lust for African natural resources alongside a general indifference in Europe and the USA towards African lives are recognised as central factors of an entire regions’ collapse.
The importance of the book lies in the authors’ skilful ability to demonstrate how external economic and political interests, past and present, have colluded with local criminals and thus debilitated vast parts of an entire continent and the livelihoods of its peoples. By taking sides in African conflicts, western governments have frequently perpetuated and prolonged civil strife. Too often political choices were made not to act when human tragedies are clearly in the making.
Written with compassion, French’s book makes a strong case for standing by Africa when tragedies are looming. Regrettably, the hope for the continent that is mentioned in the book’s subtitle is not really explored or elaborated in any detail. But getting more people to take greater notice of Africa is in itself a sign of encouragement.
Glenn Brigaldino
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