Mr Jallow, Suffice it to say that the colonialist and their apologists used terms like " The Dark Continent" and "The White Man's burden" merely to justify colonialist, neocolonialist and subsequent enterprises of domination and exploitation in Africa. Initially, the whole idea was to teach us their languages so that we see the world from their cultural perspective. This resulted in the imposition of cultural imperialism, which is still in earnest, and some of us are victims to it. I disagree with your assertion that Africa has meagre resources when Nigeria produces the best brand of crude oil in the world; Ivory Coast is the leading producer of Coffee in the world and Angolan diamonds are among the most sought after in the world. Asides Institutional and infrastructural deprivations, Africa suffers from two ailments, a cure for which would put us on the road towards genuine independence. These ailments are "Bad Governance" and "An imbalanced And Exploitative Trade relationship with the west". Your criticism of the founding fathers of Africa's independence movement may be genuine, but atleast you agree that they played a pivotal role in the context of our overall struggle for socio economic emancipation. Some of the reasons for their shortcomings were far beyond their control. With the exception of Nelson Mandela, the others you made mention of had to carry on the struggle for liberation in a world divided into two antagonistic ideological camps. It is interesting to note that both Nkrumah and Lumumba took political postures which allienated them from their former colonial rulers, and therefore found themselves running against colonial and neocolonialist traditions and institutions in their own backyards. Our armies are notable examples in this connection. You also referred to the contributions of Africans towards the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. I wish to remind you that it was European traders who purposely went to Africa to trade in slaves; they had superior arms and resorted to threats and blackmail to literally force some of the Coastal states into collaboration. At its peak, the inhuman trade in persons had disrupted agriculture so greatly that other states that were not involved in it initially, had to get involved for purposes of survival. Some European powers were known to have provided arms and ammunitions to Africans simply for the purpose of slave raiding: to kidnap unarmed farmers on their farms or in their villages at night. One good example in this regard, is Abdou Njie, who opperated mainly in Guinea Bissau. But the contributions of upstarts like Abdou Njie cannot be used to undermind the fact that European powers and traders initiated, organised and maintained the slave trade up to the point when they identified more profitable economic alternatives to it. Your stance in this connection is reflective of the position of apologists for the slave trade. In conclusion, I wish to reaffirm my position that Africa has never been a dark continent. That, however, is the view of the continent promoted by greedy colonialists and their racist apologists. It provided the premise for regarding Africans as savages and heathens who needed European civilization. This was a mere excuse for instituting regimes of cultural imperialism and economic expolitation. Omar Joof. >From: Koch Barma <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: WAS AFRICA THE DARK CONTINENT? NOT REALLY. >Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 12:46:49 -0800 > >The rhetorical question whether Africa can afford anything in global >affairs is preposterous because the continent of Africa does have >very limited options with very scarce resources to affect anything >beyond dictates from the West. >I shudder when neo-panafricanists brandish a romanticized perspective >of African History and relapse to atavistic paradigms of leadership >from renown past politicians. Nkrumah, Lumumba and Mandela belong >to different categories of leadership in time and space. Mandela is >a freedom fighter, Lumumba although enlightened but compromised with >communist dogma; and Nkrumah was by all means a platonic tyrant and a >dictator despite his sincere efforts to de-colonize Africa. >I do respect Professor Franklin and absolutely agree with his >observations on slavery that it essentially robbed Africa. However, >the challenge for us Africans is not only analysis but to think >synecdochically about slavery in general and the Trans-African slave >trade in particular- Africans where actively involved in that inhuman >institution also. A large number of local chiefs sold their brothers >and sisters to the white man. In fact former colleague of mine in >the Gambian Army used to brag about how is great great grand father >sold Banjul to the British for a bottle of rum! >I will never deny that there is a corrosive influence from Europe and >Arabia perhaps but the solution to the imminent African problem is >within the Africans themselves…This was the same little secret that >Kemal Ataturk realized about Turkey and set the agenda for a total >cultural transformation to get out of the DARKNESS. > > >Ebou > >__________________________________ >Do you Yahoo!? >Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes >http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: >http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l >To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: >[log in to unmask] > >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface >at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~