Binyavanga Wainaina: Rewriting Africa
April 17, 2013 § Leave a Comment
Among other things, Binyavanga Wainaina is author of ‘How to write about Africa‘, a biting satire on Western writings on Africa. (See video below the fold.)
It is time to change our image of Africa. Critics say that for too long now, aid organisations, foreign diplomats, politicians and journalists have been stuck looking at this vast continent as a convenient photo-opportunity to illustrate victimhood and desperation. And few men are more forceful in advocating a change in how we perceive Africa than Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina. Talk to Al Jazeera sat down with one of the continent’s most influential young authors to explore why the world is still not understanding Africa, and how to break the lens of media distortion.
How Not to Write about Africa
October 5, 2012 § 1 Comment
Djimon Hounsou performs Binyavanga Wainaina’s ‘How to write about Africa‘. It is ironic that this video is produced by Bono’s (Red) campaign, which indulges in just the kind of White Messiah crap that Wainaina satirizes. Also see this and this.
Racism Report: Africans in Israel
February 1, 2012 § 2 Comments
David Sheen‘s devastating report for the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC) on the mistreatment of asylum seekers in Israel was submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on January 30, 2012.
Should we call it murder?
December 6, 2011 § 3 Comments
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been the international financial armada in the battle against the three diseases. The collapse of the next round of Global Fund grants, known as Round 11, is the most serious, catastrophic setback in the Fund’s decade of existence. Hiding behind the banner of the financial crisis, the donor countries have clearly decided that if budgetary cuts are to be made, the Global Fund can be among the first to go.
It’s terribly important to recognize the moral implications. It’s not just the fact that people will die; it’s the fact that those who have made the decision know that people will die. How does that get rationalized? How does that get dealt with in the inner sanctums of development ministries and cabinet discussions? What in God’s name do they say to each other?
Africa’s Odious Debts
October 26, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Boyce and Ndikumana, authors of ‘Africa’s Odious Debts’, argue that under international law, debts incurred by dictators should not be enforceable.
White King, Red Rubber, Black Death
September 12, 2011 § 1 Comment
The story of King Leopold II of Belgium’s brutal colonisation of central Africa, turning it into a vast rubber-harvesting labour camp in which millions died.
Qaddafi’s Racism
August 26, 2011 § 3 Comments
It really is very amusing to hear faux-leftists pontificate on how Qaddafi and his multi-millionaire playboy sons ran a socialist, anti-imperialist state even as they tortured rendered suspects for America. It’s even more of a scream to hear them describe the dictator as an anti-racist.
The Daily Kos has a good piece examining Qaddafi’s racism. It describes his mischief-making in Africa, where he funded a variety of tyrants, separatists and terrorist militias, quotes from his embarrassing Green Book – demonstrating his view of Africans as lazy, promiscuous and undeveloped – and reminds us of his deals with Berlusconi, whereby Italy would invest In Libyan projects in return for Qaddafi’s control of ‘black migration.’ This last horror was something that preoccupied Qaddafi, as the following quote shows:
Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European, and even black, as there are millions who want to come … We don’t know what will happen, what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans… We don’t know if Europe will remain an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed, as happened with the barbarian invasions.
Text in full after the break.
The significance of taking Tripoli
August 24, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Marwan Bishara talks about the significance of the rebels’s seizing Gaddafi’s compound in the Libyan capital.
Misurata civilians under siege
April 12, 2011 § 3 Comments
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reports on the ongoing battle for Libya.
Continuing Colonialism: World Bank Funds Mining in Africa
March 25, 2011 § 1 Comment
The Ahafo gold mine in Ghana, which displaced over 10,000 people
by Cyril Mychalejko
The private finance sector arm of the World Bank Group announced last month that it would invest $300 million to promote mining in Africa.
“Mining is a critically important yet challenging sector and [the International Finance Corporation] IFC has a role to play in supporting responsible companies that will bring jobs, related infrastructure and government revenues to Africa,” said Andrew Gunther, IFC’s Senior Manager of Infrastructure and Natural Resources in Africa and Latin America.
Dr. Aaron Tesfaye, a professor of International Political Economy and African Politics at William Paterson University, said he is not surprised by the announcement because of the economic and security implications mining and strategic metals have for industrialized nations.
