The motivation to pick up this book was to learn more about Africa - a continent that the media usually refers only to highlight the negatives and stereotypes - famine, hunger and child poverty.
The Berlin Conference was where 14 European countries and the U.S met to decide upon the regulation of Africa. The borders and boundaries drawn then still exist today. Historically, it is looked at as a necessary evil with no resulting conflicts among European Powers.
14 European countries = Britain, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Sweden-Norway, Ottoman Empire and Germany.
King Leopold of Belgium ruled Democratic Republic of Congo, a country 5x the size of Belgium. And remarkably he never visited DRC. His reign is known as the most ruthless rule.
The book has some common figures as mentioned in the book Cobalt Red like Henry Stanley, Cecil Rhodes.
I learned through this that Nigeria and Cameroon have a border conflict (in Bakassi peninsula) whose roots can be traced back to how arbitrarily the Europeans divided the countries.
60% of all territorial disputes that make it to the International Court of Justice come from the continent. But only 30% of all borders in the world are in Africa. Another stat that highlights how badly the boundaries of the countries were configured. The colonizers set the boundaries without any regard of natural features like rivers, mountains, race, language and ethnicity. Considering Africa is 4x the size of the U.S.
A big problem newly independent African countries faced was that after their borders and boundaries were drawn recklessly - their population was not bound in any common thread or trust or understanding. There was no strong bond that instilled patriotism.
There is a chapter dedicated to the song Kony 2012 and the movement surrounding it and the whole irony about the “white saviour imagery.”
I also learned about Consequentialism (end justify the means) v/s Deontology (means justify the ends). It can be viewed as the basis of all debates. In the context of Kony 2012 - the author is on the side of deontology i.e it is not okay to raise money by any means necessary. He makes a good point that the current model of charity does not involve understanding the problem but instead just impulsive donations. And that’s because proper due-diligence takes time and it doesn’t have the same emotional pull as photos.
Another bad thing is that Africa has become a mecca of 1000s of young people who treat the continent as the official volunteering leg of their gap year.
Beautiful sentence -
When we are at our hungriest, we are left with no other option than to fully reveal our true selves and bare for all to see the madness we normally do so well at hiding.
Many African countries have the same problem as many mature democracies i.e of gerontocracy. The average age of the population is way lower than the average age of the ruler. And often the ruler wants to hold on to power at all costs.
Botswana is doing the best among all countries economically.
OXFAM: Amount of CO2 a citizen in U.K emits in 2 weeks = Amount of CO2 a citizen emits in 1 year in Africa(Burkina Faso) - touches upon the debate where some people in the developed countries want others to sacrifice more to reduce carbon emissions. Seems unfair?
Museums and Artifacts from Africa
The author presents a strong case about how the Western museums are holding on to the symbols and artifacts looted by the British army and brought to the UK. On top of that, they use empty platitudes about how by holding it in London - people of the world can see them. When in fact, many people find it hard to secure a visa to travel to the UK. Many museums like the Louvre, Guggenheim and MOMA are guilty of that.
Surprisingly, the British PM Gladstone wanted to return all the artifacts from Maqdala, Ethiopia back but couldn’t.
Belgium in 2020 announced that they would be returning artifacts to African countries like D.R of Congo. U.K’s museums released what were perfunctory statements supporting the cause of racial equality without addressing the issue of stolen artifacts.
In 2017, French President Macron acknowledged that France had in its possession artifacts that should be returned to Africa. He pledged to return them and appointed a French art historian and a Senegalese economist. The museums in France were thrilled initially until the report came out and said at least half of the artifacts in the museums’ possession were acquired through plunder and theft. And the report also rejected any idea of any long term loans in favor of restitution.
I also learned that French Presidents like to build museums (cultural museums) as remembrance of their time in office. In contrast, the U.S Presidents like to build Presidential libraries.
Also, the British TV show - The British Tribe Next Door was in a very poor taste. Not sure how it got the green light.
https://www.bu.edu/africa/files/2013/10/How-to-Write-about-Africa.pdf
