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A round-up of impressions of Africa
Geof Brown
Friday, November 09, 2007
READERS who have been following this column over the past five weeks have been treated to a steady diet of matters African. This column is not normally given to serial topics. But an opportune coincidence of having been in Africa for six weeks - in both the East and the South, plus having been in the West earlier in the year - provided a good chance to raise some public awareness of the wealthiest continent on the planet. The unforgivable ignorance about a land which gave us the majority of our forebears is another open motive for the series of mere glimpses of a significant land of the ancient past, which is once again a significant land of the near future. One thing is abundantly clear: Africa is on the move in its own right. It is sheer folly to ignore this fact.
No continent is subject to more myths and misconceptions than Africa, even in this Information Age. This column can do little more than share some gleanings in such areas as race relations, language, culture and politics. Take race relations:
Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, looks and feels just like Kingston, except of course that it is a much larger city of some four million people. The size is only to be expected in a country 10 times our population. But as you move around the city or watch people moving on the sidewalks, you see the same kind of mix of various races - Caucasian, Chinese, Indian and all the hybrids of Black. The same high brown, near white, and hard-to-tell cross-breeds left us as Jamaican visitors exclaiming repeatedly, "Look at so and so from Jamaica." We also found ourselves spontaneously saying, "I could live here."
Naturally, first impressions may mislead, but having been in and out of Nairobi four or five times, I feel fairly comfortable making a judgement. An immediately noticeable difference is that of language. Just about everyone speaks English of course, a legacy of colonialism. But in all the African countries visited, there are several other languages, long predating the late-comer English. Some are dominant languages, like Twi in Ghana, or Swahili in much of East Africa or Sinhalese in Botswana. As a West Indian visitor looking much like a majority of local Africans, one is at a disadvantage since the locals may speak two or more languages in addition to our sole language of English.
The emerging and evolving Jamaican language variously labelled "dialect", "patois" or "fi wi language", is fascinating to many Africans. And despite centuries of African home-grown culture, it is rather interesting to observe the great influence of Reggae music and lyrics in all the seven African countries visited.
In Ghana, I heard radio announcers and disc jockeys trying to speak "Jamaican". The name Bob Marley is, it seems, universally recognised and is synonymous with Jamaica. The recent overwhelmingly distraught response to the death of popular South African Reggae/Rastafarian singer, Lucky Dube, is testament to the invasion on popular African musical culture by popular Jamaican culture. This fact may not only surprise but shock some Jamaicans who hardly accept some aspects of the native Jamaican musical culture.
Speaking of culture, it is an error to believe there is such a thing as a homogenous culture typical of all Africa. Bear in mind that there are over 50 countries on the continent with different histories obscured by the arbitrary divisions into nationalities by the previous European colonial masters.
Now that they are out from under mastership (but certainly not from influence, yet), Africa is finding its feet as a world power in a very conscious way. Currently, the fire for African political unity ignited by Nkrumah at the dawn of Ghanian Independence, but which smouldered for some 50 years, is once more aflame.
From Ghaddafi of Syria in the North to Mbeki of South Africa in the South and chaired by Khouffor of Ghana in the West, African leaders of most African countries are now in dialogue about the setting up of a United States of Africa (a rather different USA). East Africa is already ahead with a union of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (including Zanzibar).
This dawning geo-political development is not lost on Europe and is apparently being appreciated by the United States. Both these entities are pushing foreign aid on African states, as the latter smarten up to the reality of the enormous economic power of their continent with more natural resources for trading relations than any other continent in the world. The recent find of oil in Ghana emphasises the emerging African economic dominance. China is now courting African leaders, guess why.
Local politics of several African countries are now beginning to reflect the African leaders' sense of the sleeping economic giant which is a united Africa. As reported in earlier articles of the series now ending, African leaders seeking office are stating the benefits of controlling their own raw materials rather than purchasing the value-added products fashioned from the same materials in First World developed countries.
Hence the assertion in the opening paragraph that Africa, significant ancient land of the past, is once again a significant land of the near future.
E-mail: geofbrown07@gmail.com or browngeof@hotmail.com
Footnote: Please note the new gmail e-mail address given in last week's column was in error.
Geof Brown
Friday, November 09, 2007
READERS who have been following this column over the past five weeks have been treated to a steady diet of matters African. This column is not normally given to serial topics. But an opportune coincidence of having been in Africa for six weeks - in both the East and the South, plus having been in the West earlier in the year - provided a good chance to raise some public awareness of the wealthiest continent on the planet. The unforgivable ignorance about a land which gave us the majority of our forebears is another open motive for the series of mere glimpses of a significant land of the ancient past, which is once again a significant land of the near future. One thing is abundantly clear: Africa is on the move in its own right. It is sheer folly to ignore this fact.
No continent is subject to more myths and misconceptions than Africa, even in this Information Age. This column can do little more than share some gleanings in such areas as race relations, language, culture and politics. Take race relations:
Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, looks and feels just like Kingston, except of course that it is a much larger city of some four million people. The size is only to be expected in a country 10 times our population. But as you move around the city or watch people moving on the sidewalks, you see the same kind of mix of various races - Caucasian, Chinese, Indian and all the hybrids of Black. The same high brown, near white, and hard-to-tell cross-breeds left us as Jamaican visitors exclaiming repeatedly, "Look at so and so from Jamaica." We also found ourselves spontaneously saying, "I could live here."
Naturally, first impressions may mislead, but having been in and out of Nairobi four or five times, I feel fairly comfortable making a judgement. An immediately noticeable difference is that of language. Just about everyone speaks English of course, a legacy of colonialism. But in all the African countries visited, there are several other languages, long predating the late-comer English. Some are dominant languages, like Twi in Ghana, or Swahili in much of East Africa or Sinhalese in Botswana. As a West Indian visitor looking much like a majority of local Africans, one is at a disadvantage since the locals may speak two or more languages in addition to our sole language of English.
The emerging and evolving Jamaican language variously labelled "dialect", "patois" or "fi wi language", is fascinating to many Africans. And despite centuries of African home-grown culture, it is rather interesting to observe the great influence of Reggae music and lyrics in all the seven African countries visited.
In Ghana, I heard radio announcers and disc jockeys trying to speak "Jamaican". The name Bob Marley is, it seems, universally recognised and is synonymous with Jamaica. The recent overwhelmingly distraught response to the death of popular South African Reggae/Rastafarian singer, Lucky Dube, is testament to the invasion on popular African musical culture by popular Jamaican culture. This fact may not only surprise but shock some Jamaicans who hardly accept some aspects of the native Jamaican musical culture.
Speaking of culture, it is an error to believe there is such a thing as a homogenous culture typical of all Africa. Bear in mind that there are over 50 countries on the continent with different histories obscured by the arbitrary divisions into nationalities by the previous European colonial masters.
Now that they are out from under mastership (but certainly not from influence, yet), Africa is finding its feet as a world power in a very conscious way. Currently, the fire for African political unity ignited by Nkrumah at the dawn of Ghanian Independence, but which smouldered for some 50 years, is once more aflame.
From Ghaddafi of Syria in the North to Mbeki of South Africa in the South and chaired by Khouffor of Ghana in the West, African leaders of most African countries are now in dialogue about the setting up of a United States of Africa (a rather different USA). East Africa is already ahead with a union of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (including Zanzibar).
This dawning geo-political development is not lost on Europe and is apparently being appreciated by the United States. Both these entities are pushing foreign aid on African states, as the latter smarten up to the reality of the enormous economic power of their continent with more natural resources for trading relations than any other continent in the world. The recent find of oil in Ghana emphasises the emerging African economic dominance. China is now courting African leaders, guess why.
Local politics of several African countries are now beginning to reflect the African leaders' sense of the sleeping economic giant which is a united Africa. As reported in earlier articles of the series now ending, African leaders seeking office are stating the benefits of controlling their own raw materials rather than purchasing the value-added products fashioned from the same materials in First World developed countries.
Hence the assertion in the opening paragraph that Africa, significant ancient land of the past, is once again a significant land of the near future.
E-mail: geofbrown07@gmail.com or browngeof@hotmail.com
Footnote: Please note the new gmail e-mail address given in last week's column was in error.