Does democracy exist in Africa? Do we care?
Do African issues non-race related interest us as black Americans? While you think on that question, check out these excerpts from an article that appeared in the Washington Post.
Joseph Kony
Leader, Lord’s Resistance Army, Uganda
For nearly 20 years, the 45-year-old Kony has led a guerrilla paramilitary group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army, claiming to cut off the lips and ears of those who refuse to acknowledge him as their divine leader. Kony’s principal targets are civilian villages, where his army hacks to death the adults and abducts the children. Most LRA captives are between the ages of 11 and 16. Young males are trained for combat, and girls are used as sex slaves and beasts of burden. Kony’s rituals include elements of Christianity, Islam and black magic. Some 200,000 people have died.
– Nina Shea, Director, Freedom House’s Center For Religious Freedom
Isaias Afwerki
President, Eritrea
One of Africa’s most repressive leaders, President Isaias tolerates few checks on his hold on power. National elections have not been held since independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The government prohibits the existence of any opposition party, strictly controls the media and forbids independent media from publishing or broadcasting. Torture, including bondage, heat exposure and beatings, has been used on national service evaders, government critics and members of minority religious groups. Numerous detainees have been required to sign statements repudiating their faith.
– Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Chairman, House International Relations subcommittee on Africa, global human rights and international operations.
Meles Zenawi
Prime Minister, Ethiopia
Zenawi was widely criticized for responding to accusations of fraud in May 2005 parliamentary elections by gunning down scores of demonstrators and putting prominent opposition politicians on trial for genocide and treason. But in smaller towns and villages throughout Ethiopia, his systemic repression escapes meaningful scrutiny. In the vast Oromia region, thousands of alleged government critics have been harassed, imprisoned, tortured and killed in the past decade. Millions have been intimidated into silence.
– Kenneth Roth, Director, Human Rights Watch
Teodoro Obiang Nguema
President, Equatorial Guinea
Obiang came to power in 1979 in a violent coup d’état and has since brooked no opposition to his dictatorial rule. Until 1996, when oil was discovered, Equatorial Guinea was desperately poor, subsisting largely on cocoa exports and foreign aid. Since then, Obiang has been stealing most of the oil profits. A 2004 Senate report says that Obiang and his cronies siphoned off tens of millions of dollars. Oil revenues are substantial, so the country’s per capita income is among the highest in Africa–yet most people remain in abject poverty.
– Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
====
Here is comment I made recently on BookerRising concerning the low turnout of black Americans at the recent rallies against the oppression in Sudan:
“Unfortunately I was not surprised at all to see the low turnout of black folks for the rallies against the crimes in the Sudan (I watched part of the DC rally on CSPAN). Something I keep saying and I will say it again: Unless there is a “white-against-black” element, you can forget about seeing any large-scale involvement from the black American community. The only other way to get the “folks” involved is by using the “blame America” option…”
===
So in the meantime, while thousands of African men, women and children are beaten, tortured, starved, sold into slavery, etc. , we as black Americans (sorry, African-Americans) will conveniently step over these crimes against humanity. Why? Because those stories do not align with our eternal belief that the white establishment is the source of all that grieves us. So in other words, Africans have become our brothers and sisters of convenience.
==
Your post is self-serving. I have been to Africa 3 times and so have many of my friends. I enjoy Africa and the culture there, and the different ways of thinking. I make no distinction between Africans born in America and Africans born in Africa.
You are really out of touch with yourself.
Comment by Justin | May 3, 2006
Great, Justin! I have visited North Africa (Morocco) and plan to visit again, but the point of the article is not to highlight the travels of a small group of people, but to expose the relatively low interest that black America has for current events in Africa. I would wager that the average African-American is highly unaware of much that concerns Africa, beginning with basic geography.
Comment by Candace Daly | May 3, 2006
I should have taken my time and explained myself more completely.
The average American, regardless of race, can barely locate many countries on the globe. Black Americans are misinformed about MANY things, not just African issues. We watch white news outlets to get news about our own selves, including Africans, which is quite distressing. We need to develop information streams that exclude white opinion. Then, we’ll be even more informed.
I’d say that it’s human nature to be concerned with what is going on locally before what is going on internationally. Plus, Africa is a HUGE continent. We have to pick and choose our issues.
Comment by Justin | May 3, 2006
So I guess it is also human nature for Africans to not only be connected locally, but nationally as well. While we complain about how impossible it is for a black man to make it here in America, numbers of Africans somehow figure out early how to navigate through the drama and live very sucessful lives here in the US. You can also add Caribbeans in that mix as well. Check out the percentage of black Americans vs. people that are 1st generation African/aribbean decent who have entered graduate school.
We have to pick and choose our issues.
And we constantly pick the issues that only benefit US while ignoring our so-called brothers and sisters.
We raised all kinds of hell about aparthied but almost nothing about the crimes mentioned above.
Kudos to you and Candace for actually going over there. But to gloss over the fact that generally speaking, black Americans just are not that concerned about the going-ons in Africa where there is not a black vs. white conflict is simply nieve.
Comment by Duane | May 3, 2006
Duane,
I think you have an overly negative view of black America. There are plenty of black Americans doing just fine. I’m proud that African can come here and do well, too.
If you personally feel no kinship with African, then that’s your issue. But others of us do. You should go to Africa.
Comment by Justin | May 3, 2006
What kinship do you have? What country was your family stolen from? Blacks because we are not African American have no home of our own. We care of nothing outside the 15 mile radius that we live in. I to have been to Africa on many occasions and while the country is beautiful to look at it is not my home. Yes, black Americans have turned a blind eye to Afica as has most of the world. THe fact is many people have written it off as a waste land. The AIDS rate is so high many of us can not concieve of it. The rate in which children are abused is unimaginable. Take a trip to Africa and leave the beaten path. Go to Dufar. Encounter one of these LRA child soliders and see the fear mixed with anger mixed with his or her fight for survival and then tell me your kinship. In America blacks whine and complian about how the white man did this and the white man does that. Imagine if it wasn’t some abstact slave owner but instead your neighbor that was raping your child. Or better yet a child that was raping you and chopping off your husband head. Sorry Justin and Candance it is you who has the wrong view. From where I sit it is very clear blacks stance on Africa.
Comment by Saudia | May 3, 2006
I agree that most blacks - or whites - could not identify countries in Africa. Then again, it seems that they can’t find Louisiana or Mississippi either.
A new program is afoot to teach them geography. I naively thought schools did that.
Most Americans have heard of Darfur, Rwanda, and some of Duane’s other entries above. Rage about them should be color-blind. African apologists like Candice and Justin act as if everything on the mother continent is fine. It’s not.
Pointing to those who escaped to this country and succeeded is hardly a testimony of how good things are.
AIDS abounds, not because Mr. Charlie is trying to wipe out Africans (here and abroad), but because they won’t wear condoms.
Kids hack off the limbs of elders, not because the white man at Wal-Mart is having a special on machetes, but because there are such incredibly inept central governments.
Comment by Dolphin | May 3, 2006
Dolphin if I wasn’t married I’d find you and kiss you. Most Americans don’t care about democracy at home yet alone abroad. We like to run around in our African garb a couple of times a year and watch Oprah and say oh those poor Africans but when it comes to standing up and doing something then we have that well it ain’t my problem attitude. If we can’t stand up and get New Orleans back in order what makes people think that Blacks in America give a damn about Africa.
Comment by Saudia | May 3, 2006
Africans that I know are usually very disappointed with African Americans. A close friend of mine complains constantly about his Black employees. The general feeling is that American Blacks are crybabies, and do not take advantage of the tremendous opportunities in the USA.
On the other side of the coin, too many African Americans that I know seem to feel no kinship with Africans. The view point is that Africans are simply black foreigners who are out of touch with the Black American experience.
It is too bad that a lesson in cohesion has not been learned from the examples of the great diasporas of overseas Chinese, Jews, or British…
Comment by exe | May 3, 2006
A very astute question, whether issues in Africa that are nonracial matter to black Americans? Pinpoints a self- examination that’s well overdue for black Americans…
The same question can be put in regard to our relationships with each other here. Take crime. I doubt if anyone would’ve heard of the woman in the Duke rape case if her alleged assailants had been black.
When you really think about how race and anything having to do with public issues defined by ethnicity mobilizes passion in the black community, and otherwise outside of it virtues & vices, personhood exist in something of an inchoate state of indifference– you begin to see what accounts for our community’s pervasive demoralization.
vashti
Comment by vvarnado | May 3, 2006
Forgive me if my point was not expressed well. I meant to say that because a few African-Americans have an interest in Africa, there is still no sufficient evidence to support that the majority of black America is aware or even concerned. My own travels to Africa have been very limited–only one country for a brief time period. I know that I am no authority on the conditions and policies that are prevalent on the Continent. In actuality, my observation has been that black americans tend to look down on Africa and want nothing to do with its plight.Very seldom do I hear us making positive comments about Africa. I myself am more ignorant than I should be. Again, I did not write the post to exalt myself, but to say that taking a trip does not equal understanding or even real concern.
Comment by Candace Daly | May 4, 2006
While all of the points are very relevnat, I have to say that after living and traveling in Africa for several years, my impression is that Africans like Black Americans focus on themselves first. It is human nature to be concerned with your own plight before that of any other. That does not mean that you do not have the capacity to sympathize with others, but you are more attuned to what you are facing every day.
Although I am Black American living in Africa, almost 90% (if not more) of the people I meet, assume that I am rich. They have a difficult time imagining that many of us are living in poverty in the US because our country is rich. At the same time, I see many Africans who are very wealthy (no debt, owning homes, world traveled with relatives studying in the US and Europe) who do very little to help Africans beggin right in front of them. As well, many of these people go to the US and associate with white counterparts because their ‘difference’ by being foreign born and often well off (traveled, etc.) allows them to be separate from Americas permanent black sheep-African Americans.
All the same, there are many Africans and African Americans who are sympathetic to each others cause. And “Africa” being the huge heterogenious continent that it is is just too much to digest for some of us-black or white.
Comment by Sokhna | May 4, 2006
But you also have to admit that there are more Africans trying to “immerse” themselves in some part of American culture than the other way around. For example, how many black American communities did you find on all of your trips to Africa?
Comment by Duane | May 4, 2006
I have a good friend who spent a lot of time in Senegal. One of her biggest shocks was exactly what Sokhna stated. Beggars were invisible. Completely ignored.
And the heterogenity of the continent is another good point. Even American Blacks consider Africans just “Africans”. Latinos are considered a homogenious group because of language, and they all differ also.
Tutsis and Hutus have shown us that Africans consider even tribal differences in the same country significant - lethally so.
Americans are the lucky ones, although I wish they had more empathy for the oppressed in Africa.
Comment by Dolphin | May 4, 2006
The damaging effects of slavery over the years and geoncide are terrible. Its like we still live in a tribal system wihtout regard for one another. I know my links to my people because if you look at any job application its say African-first, then American. We seem to be ignorant to that first part but I refuse. No I can’t afford to help out the way I would like but Africa is almost always in my thoughts and future plans.
Comment by Brian | May 5, 2006