“Their” Africa

Burgeoning China and India are very much in the political and economic limelight lately. This once again means that Africa and its tragic conditions are put to shade, being considered little more than a source of natural riches ready for the pickings. This interview with the anthropologist Marco Aime, who spends long periods in Africa for his studies, gives his views on some of the problems that plague the continent, as yet unresolved out of incompetence or sheer lack of any serious commitment.

Would you say that from a macroeconomic point of view Africa is considered little more than a mere source of raw materials?
Africa may be said to be still in the throes of postcolonialism. There’s no longer any direct territorial control or military occupation as such, but Africa is tightly held in the crushing grip of economic agreements with Western countries that curtail its development.

Many multinationals and even Western governments compel African nations to sell their raw materials, thus hindering the growth of a domestic manufacturing sector.

Is there an African character type or are there tribal factors that weigh on the Africans, preventing them from becoming economically advanced?
Actually, there are some regions in Africa that can claim a wealthy past thanks to a flourishing merchant economy. Throughout the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Timbuktu traded regularly with Europe in commodities and gold through Arab merchants in contact with the ports of Venice and Genoa. At the time, Timbuktu could boast two universities, established at the same time or indeed even before many European ones and with scholars flowing in from Persia, India, and Andalusia.

Africa’s failed economic development cannot be ascribed to the character of the peoples of Africa. Old and new colonial powers are exerting an enormous pressure on Africa to keep it just where it is. The native ruling class, though, bears no small part of the responsibility for this state of affairs. It tows the line of these colonial powers, adopting Western ways of doing things and even copying models of Western government that are more often than not utterly foreign to local culture.

Do you thing there’s a real awareness and perception in the West of what’s going on in Africa?
The image of Africa is utterly false, especially in Italy. There’s coverage only when some catastrophe strikes the place or in case of war. Wars, incidentally, that simply get labelled as “ethnic”. But the fact is that African wars are no different from those anywhere else in the world. That is, they get fought for the same reasons – power and prestige, resources and commodities, money.

There’s also a “third-worldey” rhetoric that’s muddled a lot of issues. Cancelling the debt may be wonderful but is it to be done with governments responsible for running it up in the first place thus risking further indebtedness. There are some African countries that spend aid money on weapons to go to war against neighbouring countries. And then these same war-mongering countries turn around and ask for more humanitarian aid for vaccination campaigns.

What sort of political and economic future do you envisage for the continent?
Lack of proper representation and poor awareness of what’s at stake are great drawbacks. There’s no shortage of associations in Latin America, for instance, engaged in upholding the human rights and civil liberties of native peoples, and there’s a general awareness on such an issue.

But in Africa, trade-unions are few and far between and badly organised. What’s more, the capacity for finding representation is quite beyond the pale of the locals. Election-based democracies often spring up only in response to the need for international aid, which is conditional for the international community on being able to exhibit having a democracy.

What’s the possible role of Western corporate business in such a setting?
What’s currently completely lacking in Africa is a fully-fledged entrepreneurial system at an intermediate level between the individual and the State capable of giving rise to a new economy. To multinationals, Africa is merely a raw materials provider. It’s never looked on as a base for setting up some manufacturing activity for the production of semi-processed items or even for manufacturing start-up. Technological and professional growth is what’s chiefly and urgently called for. Overadvanced and –complex technologies are, of course, to be avoided, otherwise there’s a risk of erecting cathedrals that are wholly unserviceable.

True enough, political turmoil is not conducive to the foregoing, but there are countries in Africa that have gained greater stability in recent years and can start hoping in some durable growth.

What about cultural and economic globalisation?
Well, the globalisation of human rights and civil liberties come first. Indeed, they may even provide a positive solution to the current drawbacks of economic globalisation.

As regards the globalisation of culture, I’m not all that concerned. After all, I don’t think local communities with their own cultural identities will sit back and allow themselves to be run over by “macdonalisation”.
Elements of outside culture get re-worked at a local level, giving rise to new and different ways of looking at things. In south Benin, for instance, I’ve seen the soft-drink Fanta being poured over a fetish as part of Voodoo ritual. Such a soft-drink has a wholly different meaning in our society.

Of course, there are instances of local cultures being overwhelmed, but in general non-Western cultures have a resilience that puts them out of harms way. They have a capacity for continually reworking signifiers and meanings, giving concepts born for other purposes wholly different forms and substances.

How important is the global medium, internet, on the African scene?
Internet is a low-cost medium that permits linking up to the rest of the world, so that it’s very important.

New internet points are springing up all the time because standard mail and the telephone are far less easy to use or access. At Timbuktu I witnessed the arrival of a Bedouin camel train. After unloading the animals, Bedouins entered an internet point to download their e-mail. International events are accessed by the local population via the wireless and web, and this knowledge of the world helps to build up a new self-awareness.

I remember a nomad in the savannah telling me in 1992 that a judge had been killed in Italy. That’s how I appraised of the assassination of Borsellino by the Mafia. And the nomad had heard the news from BBC international, which broadcasts in all the chief languages to be found in Africa.

It should be borne in mind that the majority of Africans have never even written or received a letter!

Marco Aime recommends

Ebano
Kapuscinski Ryszard, Paperback, 2000
Africa, as seen and told by a reporter who shuns stale stereotypes and worn clichés.

The Money-Order
Sembene Ousmane, Heinemann, 1972
A clear and sharp snapshot of modern-day Africa by a Senegalese film maker and writer.

Waiting for the vote of the wild animals
Ahmadou Kouroma, University Press of Virginia, 2001
A picture of Africa after independence that reveals the relationship between the cynical game of Western power-politics and tribal traditions.