The pre-colonial Africa, slavery, colonialism, the Ethio-Eritrean conflict, pan-Africanism and the western media coverage of black people were some of the subjects that I took up during my lecture in the faculty of social science at the university of Bahia on saturday.
We had about 60 wouldbe journalists who were curious about the African continent. I held the lecture in English and a friend of mine translated into portugese which of course is not the easiest thing to do.
Some words and messages were lost in transition and translation........ it is not the same momentum as communicating directly to the audience.
I tried to emphasize that Africa has never been a Tabula rosa (clean slate or utopian blank) and terra nullius (no one´s land) before the arrival of the Europeans. I wanted the students to be critical and see things in historical and holistic perspective.
The word Africa is said to have its origin in northern or eastern Africa.Afri meaning cave and ca meaning birthplace. In greece, Africa means a land - free of cold and horror. Africa has almost a billion people with 2000-3000 languages and 8000 dialects. The diversity in this continent is enormous.
The suppresive structures and institutions of the colonial state have not made governance more effective and democratic in the aftermath of colonialism. It is not that Africa has failed after "independence". Genuine democracy and development has actually never been on the agenda, as the Nigerian scholar Claude ake claimed.
Nation-state was an European invention and its power concentration in the center made it pretty difficult to many African societies to participate in the nation-building process as it does not encapsulate multiculturalism in its oppresive form.
The cold war, structural adjustment programme and many other international interferences have worsened the situation for poor people across the continent. Bad leadership is also one of the reasons for the "failure".
It was a great experience for me and the students appreciated the things that I had to say. I am now in my final days of my south American journey. I shall be in Sweden on the 4 th of april.
1 kommentar:
Hola, hola!!!
Then your lecture was a success! I'm eager to know what did the students/journalist ask you? hehe.
To me it's very clear how rich is your continent, I was reading about the African Symbols, it's interesting how they represent a kind of spiritual force. So there's a lot to learn, now I 'm more interested about the African traditions, if you know a website it would be nice, or even much better if you write about that ....hehe
Un abrazo!
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