Out of Africa

I spent all of yesterday working as support staff for focus groups. Half of the day was with Africans (sub-Saharan black Africans, primarily from West and Central Africa). One of the main complaints about the US media is how it portrays Africa. Everything is primitive or bad or poor when it comes to Africa. Forget the bustling cities of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. Forget the amount of progress being made all around the world.

Well, I found this image on-line — the “World at Night” — and it kind of reinforced some of those complaints.

     (to see the larget picture, click here)

As you can see from the picture - there are barely any city lights (the white spots) in Africa. Instead it’s pretty much all dark (meaning no lights at all) or there’s that nice long strip that’s all red (signifying “wildfires” as the source of light at night). I’m sorry, but seeing as places like Ghana and Chad actually have electricity pretty much 24/7 … as I’m sure does Ivory Coast and possibly places like Kenya and Cameron … this map just frustrates me.  You also got to love how Lagos, Nigeria is pretty much lit up by “natural gas flares” (the green).  Can Africa get any more primitive?

And it’s all based off of information gathered from NASA (of course).

NOTE: I’m equally enraged by the “fishing fleet lights” off the coast of South America. But at least they get some bright white lights on their continent. And Australia?? … let me just focus on Africa.

Aid.

It’s the number one way the world’s leading countries seek to help Africa.

Get rid of poverty? Send aid to Africa. Millions dying of AIDS? Send aid to Africa. Bad governments? … send aid to Africa?

Kenyan Njoroge Wachai says trade, not aid, is what Africa needs.

For one thing, most of the aid promised to Africa in the last G8 Summit (in 2005) hasn’t been fulfilled and is unlikely to be fulfilled by the 2010 deadline. Pledge after pledge comes in, but most of them are not being fulfilled. So Wachai has one question: “ Why do African countries keep pushing for aid that rich countries are reluctant and unwilling to give? Isn’t there an alternative?”

He makes some really good points.

• Foreign Aid isn’t free: regardless of what Africans think, another country offering you aid isn’t like a scholarship. You’re going to have to pay it back some way, some how.

rich countries are lethargic about passing their money to Africa, because it doesn’t make economic sense to do so. … African leaders, out of their foolishness, believe wrongly that rich countries are philanthropic entities flush with cash to dole out to poor countries. That’s why they, or their representatives, are always in Western capitals with begging bowls.

•  Even if it were free … foreign aid will not move Africa out of poverty: the more we rely on the help of others, the more dependent we become and get further from our hopes to be independent. The countries that are giving the aid are still thinking of themselves first and foremost. Africa should do the same.

I had meant to do this a while ago, but kept on putting it off. But as our class is coming to an end, I wanted to take the time to mention the blogs of some of my classmates who have featured Africa in one form or the other in their blogs.

• James Edwards - The Violence Project: With an entire blog about violence in Chicago, it’s kind of hard to feature news pertaining to Africa. But James did it in this post about Francis Oduro, a Ghanaian international student who was shot to death. Along with the Violence Project, my prayers go out to the Oduro family.
• Holly Fox - Familienpolitik: A new family law in Mali that would give illegitimate children inheritance rights is the subject of this post. Islamic groups are against this change and Holly provides an interesting comparison to the meaning of marriage and a marriage certificate in Mali versus the United States.
• Christa Hillstrom - Human Goods: In an earlier post I had linked to Christa’s blog about slavery in Mauritania. A more recent post looks at a former slave in Niger who is suing the government for not enforcing anti-slavery laws. In a country were human rights groups estimate about 43,000 people are still living in slavery, this is just the kind of accountability African countries need to be held to.
• Erin Halasz - Wikileads: Erin’s blog follows the online conversation about Wikileaks and the myriad ways in which its uncensorable, untraceable documents appear in public discourse. If you don’t know what Wikileaks is, basically it’s a site that leaks a whole lot of info, but is primarily user-generated like Wikipedia and stuff (Erin, or anyone else who knows, correct me if I’m wrong!). Some of the confidential documents received anonymously includes corruption in Kenya and other “shoddy standards of human rights” in sub-Saharan Africa. One of Erin’s particular posts highlights a recent posting on Wikileads of an invoice for Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defense, charging the country for a shipment of Chinese rockets, bombs and rounds of mortar.

I hope you take the time to check out their blogs, and while these are the only posts about Africa, each is very interesting and sophisticated. To see more blogs from my class, check out our class Web site.

Recently I wrote a blog about whether or not Africans in the Diaspora should return home, or stay where they are. Well, if this beginning quote from an article in Zimbabwe’s Sunday News then all Africans have a strong incentive to go home.

DESPITE a general upward trend in economic and social growth in Africa, massive brain drain continues to its take toll on the continent, with analysts claiming that it has the same effects as the slave trade and is worse than colonialism.

For those of you who don’t know, brain drain is defined as the large emigration of people with technical skills or knowledge. Usually the drain happens as a result of conflict, lack of opportunity, political instability or health risks. For most Africans, I think lack of opportunity and political instability are on the top of the list for why they have left their homes.

According to Wikipedia, little has been discussed about the brain drain in regards to Africa. Only, since it’s listed as one of the main biggest issues facing the developing countries in Africa … I think it’s being discussed a lot. Maybe it’s not as researched.

Either way, it’s a big concern for the United Nations right now. One officials estimated that in 25 years, Africa will be void of most of its skill and intellect.

But how do we reverse Africa’s brain drain? And is it really a brain drain? I mean, there are A LOT of very very smart people in Africa. Very innovative and absolutely ingenious. What they lack is a platform and opportunity. Which, again, is why many of them find themselves overseas — getting good educations and making more money than they would be at home.

But if that keeps happening, what happens to Africa?

I won’t say that every African in the Diaspora needs to pack up and return back to their homes. But in some way we must aim to return the expertise we are gaining elsewhere.

A question I get asked often is whether or not I have intention to live and work in Nigeria when I’m done with school and stuff. It’s a valid question, I suppose, but also one that is very difficult to answer.

While I lived in Nigeria as a child, I’ve only been back once since I returned to the U.S. in 1998, and I’m not so sure how I’d fare in any African country as an adult. And not because it’s Africa … just because it’d be a whole new country, a whole new continent. It’s not like moving to a new state.

And while I acknowledge that going back “home” isn’t for everyone, a part of me does hope to do so. My parents did it, and are very happy with their choice. So we’ll see …

I found this blog by Mwangi (The Displaced African) that discussed the pros and cons about returning to Africa versus staying in the Diaspora. The writer seems to be leaning more on the side of returning versus staying since he gives 4 reasons to go, and only 3 to stay.

But see what you think? Valid enough reasons to return home? Or is there more incentive to stay in the Diaspora?

Reasons to Return to Africa

1. Money and Entrepreneurship: It’s easier for a person to leave the West and make their fortunes in Africa than it would be had he not left in the first place.
2. To follow in great footsteps: African greats like Nkrumah and Nyerere left the luxuries of the West to return to a life of servitude in Africa.
3. To be with people like you: As Mwangi put it, “The person who created the expression, “There’s no place like home,” must have been an immigrant.”
4. Retirement: “We want to retire in style and in dignity and so we return to the place where we can: home.”

Reasons to stay in the Diaspora

1. The people are mean: I’m not going to even attempt to explain the blogger’s reasoning with this. You’ll just have to read it yourself.
2. It’s Hard: “Put the Western government-industrial-corporate-military complex which also likes the status-quo on top of all that and you have the road that an African community organizer must take.”
3. You like where you are: Self-explanatory.

Based on this list, I think I’d go back to Nigeria. Or any African country. But while I think Mwangi’s discussion of the issue is a bit trite, I do agree that it’s a hard decision to make. And those who do chose to return home make a noble and often courageous choice, in my opinion.

If you’ve checked out my blogroll, you would have already had the chance to browse some pretty cool, or at least interesting, blogs written by Africans and/or about Africa.

When I decided to begin this blog, I knew that covering every thing Africa would be close to impossible. The most I could do is offer a glimpse, and some perspective, on some of the issues African face — on and off the continent.

The blogs in my blogroll, and some of the ones below, I feel, do the same. While they could never act as the sole source of African news, issues, lifestyle, etc., they can offer a glimpse into the lives of Africans.

Here’s a list of some newer blogs I recently found (some are also on my blogroll):

• Interested in African music? Check out Awesome Tapes from Africa. Updated regularly enough, you can check out actual cassette tapes from various African countries. The blogger offers reviews of sorts, as well as music clippings from each tape.
• Texas? Africa? Baptist? All three describe me more or less. And they describe this blogger, who is from Texas and is working on her dissertation about the Democratic Republic of Congo. Similar to this blog, it aggregates news on Africa and provides some personal insight on issues in the US (and how the connect to Africa) as well.
• Reuters is the place to go for business news. And while they have a really good Africa section, they also have an Africa blog. Get some insight into African business, politics and lifestyle.
• Ravished Hearts: Getting the Word Out About AIDS. The disease is killing Africa’s future. Need I say more?
• I want to be a journalist, so this blog caught my eye. Focused on sub-Saharan Africa, this reporter tells recaps many of the stories he “regrets” happened in Africa. Provides historical context, as well as a view into the future.
• Thoughts on Africa: Blog that aggregates news, info about Africa and refugees.

Christianity and Islam has infiltrated their way into African countries, leaving traditional spirituality by the wayside. A lot of traditional African religious practices are deemed as “primitive” or “evil” and if practiced, it’s done in concealment.

In this essay on the African Path blog, Kofi Akosah-Sarpong explores African spirituality - its history and its present. While it may have lost proud backing on the continent, in the diaspora its a different story.

Despite unkind words used to describe African religion, it has been moving on and accessed by most Africans, even those in the diaspora. While African religion and its deities are worshiped wholly in Africa, diasporan Africans, with their heavy mixtures of all sorts of neo-liberal values, have been mixing African religion with other Western religions perfectly – a feat that demonstrates the resilience of African religion as a global religion without any propaganda or fundamentalism or suicide bombing or the urge to convert anybody to its creed but as one sees it or feels it. African religion do not have problems with American social scientist Samuel P. Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations that argues people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.

In the United States of America and South America, among others, some think Jesus Christ is Black or African. In the Brazilian state of Bahia, where Yoruba’s Obatalahas been syncretized with Catholic’s Our Lord of Bonfim or in Cuba where Santería is the fusion of Yoruba religion with Catholic’s Our Lady of Mercy, African religion has been mixed with Christianity, especially with Roman Catholicism across the Western Hemisphere.

To Akosah-Sarpong, treating traditional African spirituality as “pagan” is part of the on-going problem of labeling everything African as backwards and leaves Africans with a lost identity. He doesn’t seem to think that Christianity or Islam are false religions in comparison to African spirituality, but instead feels outside religions should be translated through African spirituality.

I find his argument interesting just because, like him, I do believe that missionaries not only evangelized but also manipulated Africans in the spread of their religion. Whether bring back African spirituality is one of the keys to progress on the continent (which seemed to be an underlying part of his argument), I’m not sure. But it’s something to think about.

Obatala Santeria

When I lived in Nigeria, we mostly watched and talked about foreign films. Even the last time I visited, family and friends would pull out bootleg copies of recent American releases I hadn’t even seen. The foriegn film consumes the film/movie industry in Nigeria - as far as locals are concerned, local films just don’t meet the same standards.

I also had never been to a movie theatre in any of the 5+ years I lived in Nigeira. I don’t even remember seeing one anywhere in the town my family lived in. And I know none of my friends went “to the movies” for fun. Any films we watched were in the confinement of our homes.

If the film was Nigerian, it was far from big-screen quality and was a generally a poorly-produced straight-to-video movie. (Which I personally find hilarious, if overdramatic and overly drawn out).

A story I found on allafrica.com looks into why there is little room for African films on the continent.

However, African films have been getting some spotlight here in the United States. There’s a film festival in New York highlighting 40 films throughout African and the African Diaspora.

And apparently, there is a budding film industry in Africa that just need the attention and market to keep it thriving. There’s an African Academy Awards and film festivals in countries like Rwanda.

Outside of Africa, others also seem to think it is important for Africa to build its film industry. A group of Canadians started a film school in Burundi last year. The idea was to tell the stories of this country, and let its people do the telling.

I think that is probably the most important element - letting Africans tell their own stories. It’s a good way to to counter a lot of the prevalent images and myths about Africa. And help to build awareness and a better understanding of Africa’s past and present.

However, I do praise and appreciate the recent American films on Africa - Blood Diamond, Hotel Rwanda, The Last King of Scotland - that already do these things.

It’s amazing how disconnected we can be from our roots once we step away from them. In the process of immigration, and joining the African Diaspora, it’s like we hold on to the past but forget about having an African present and/or future. There’s suddenly this disconnect between who I am in this new country and who I was (and would have been) in my home country.

I don’t think Africans in the Diaspora no longer care about Africa. Far from it. I’d say most remain passionate about their home countries and still attempt to stay abreast with what takes place there. But I think it’s a task that becomes rather difficult.

For one, here in America, any media coverage of the continent is usually one of the three D’s - death, destruction and despair. There’s just too much Afro-pessimism outside of the African continent. And some of the pessimism is what Africans carry with them. There’s a loss of hope, a loss of knowledge, a loss of understanding that could one day make Africa a better place. So many come and remember the lives they lived in the 80s, forgetting that things change and we are now in 2008.

Also, you really just need the right tools. The right places to go and the best publications to read.

There’s just this huge disconnect. A gap that needs to be bridged.

You could say I’m a different case than the average African immigrant. Mainly because I’m not an immigrant. I was born in Fort Worth, Texas. And have primarily lived in the United States. However, I am part of the African Diaspora. And I did live in Nigeria for my prime “growing up” years. And without those years, I’m not sure I’d have the passion for the African continent I have now.

I want to bridge the disconnect I feel. The disconnect I see in my fellow Africans in this country. I want to create a reconnection — to the politics, the economy, the social scene, the progression. I’ve asked my friends about this, and the thing we all want to know more about is the good happening in Africa. The good happening with Africans, on the continent or within the Diaspora. Our big questions are: How is the African community doing? And how can I be a part of the change for a better Africa?

As Diasporic Africans, we need to be aware of the good and the bad taking place. Stay abreast with what’s happening and what our fellow continent-men are doing to edify their lives and give Africa new life.

Whether we do this through reading various blogs on Africa like this one, or reading news sites like All Africa or the BBC, we need to stay informed. There are blogs on adoption, business, food (you know how important that is!), music … sites dedicated to technology, countries … you name it, you can find it.

Here’s another blog that I really like and hope to possible “compete” within content and relevancy.  

As I find really good site, I’ll make sure to add them to my blog roll. For now … I guess you can say my mission is try and bridge the gap for Africans in the Diaspora as best as I can.

We’ll see how I do, yeah?

As the daughter of African immigrants,  I grew up in an African community in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas, so I’m always interested in African community news and issues. 

I’ve become really interested in immigration issues world-wide. Here, in the United States, I think most people think of immigrants as an issue important to Hispanics, but immigration is just as important to the 1 million African immigrants. 

There are a lot of African refugees, either from various civil wars or even with crisises like in Sudan. Even without refugee situations, Africans tend to immigrant to other countries to take advantage of better opportunites. However, some of the major issues facing African immigrants inclue changes and restrictions in immigration law and procedures. A lot of Africans are getting deported, and others are dying while trying to enter European countires, like Spain, illegally.

There is also the issue of “the brain drain” — while many Africans send remittances back home, some feel the biggest aid they can give to their countries is by returning and using their education to improve often desolate conditions and situations on the continent. Others think it’s more important to make an impact in  whatever country they live.

 Each immigrant journey is different. Hopefully through this blog I’ll get to explore a few facets of the African immigrant journey.