The Bayou Renaissance Man is asked what he would suggest we do to “fix” the problem that is Africa, and responds in typically eloquent fashion (unlike my own earlier essay, from which he quotes).
His response is similar to mine — nothing can be done — but as Peter is a far more decent human being than I, he resists using my solution (Cliff Notes: high walls around the entire continent, guns, bombs and the last one alive to shoot himself).
All we can do is try to contain the situation and prevent all that African bullshit from being exported from the blasted continent, because to do otherwise is to commit slow national suicide (as Europe is discovering, and as Minnesota soon will too).
All that said, Peter gives a cogent reason why the African institutions of tribalism and superstition still exists. Please read his whole post, because it’s absolutely, 100% true. (And his observations about current Chinese colonialism involvement in Africa are likewise correct.)
Has anyone ever wondered why, when the Eeeevil White Colonialists arrived in sub-Saharan Africa, they found a continent without any written histories, and a civilization that had yet to invent the wheel?
No wheel for the same reason as the Americas: no horse to pull the cart. No carts, no need for roads.
Most of the rest is from being too far down the food chain. From everything I’ve read humans are just another prey animal in SSA.
To me the more interesting question is this:
If we assume that all human beings are essentially the same, then one has to ask “what is it about Africa that is different?”
Corruption, tribalism, and self-interest are not unique to Africa. I think it’s probably safe to assume that whatever demons have plagued Africa have plagued all human communities. IOW there was a time when humans in Europe, Asia, and the Americas were every bit as corrupt, venal, savage and tribal as human beings in Africa.
Yet, somehow, through some organizing principle, the humans in most other areas were able to move away from those habits that were anathema to the creation of a functioning complex society.
So the question is not so much “how do we fix Africa?” as it is “what is it about Africa that prevents it from fixing itself – as virtually every other human society did?”
BRM mentioned “Christianity” but that can’t be it – Asian societies never heard of Christ until a couple of millennia after they had organized themselves fairly well. Ditto for some of the more advanced societies in the New World who had advanced themselves far beyond the tribal levels of most sub-Saharan African societies long before the white devils came over from Europe.
For that matter, Europeans had largely shed themselves of their tribalism by the time the Greeks were inventing modern democracy, centuries before Christ.
There was something that made them shed that toxic tribalism that prevented their societies from progressing beyond a certain point. What was it?
I honestly don’t know but I think that’s the real question here.
I’mna thinking comfort, and safety. No where else are large (and small) carnivores and disease vectors as prevalent. Life there has been more of a crapshoot than anywhere else over the long haul. Likely why after the first hominids started getting smart they didimau’d out of there. The smart ones left.
The subcontinent had a habit of going after each other. Took olde Blighty several centuries to bring them along kicking and screaming to the 19th century. And sometimes it seems the issue is still in doubt.
It could probably be done but you’re talking centuries of steady effort and expense. Dunno that anyone’s up to it at this point. Maybe periodically send in teams to identify the ones that can be saved and spirit them out. There’s a good novel or two in there but I’m not the one to write them.
Still think there just might be a Boer War novel in you, btw. Breaker Morant can’t be the only bit from then. I know, I’ve seen numerous lesser known films about the Boer War on YouTube, some quite interesting but you’d have a unique take. I know, Romeo and Juliet on the veldt! 😉
Aside from the IQ argument, lack of rivers and decent ports. The great civilizations all grew where there was good water transportation. There are no rivers suitable for navigation in sub-Saharan Africa, nor much in the way of ports. Which means no shipping, no commerce. And, of course, no need to develop ways to interact with other cultures.
Isn’t the Congo River navigable for quite a distance? And yet whatever they’re calling the Congo these days (when I was a kid it was Zaire so that’s how I think of it) is the biggest train wreck in a continent full of them.
The ChiComs may have more success in their efforts to colonize Africa.
First, they’re putting their own people in positions of authority.
And second, the ChiComs are ruthless bastards and will quickly make an example of any African trying to pull some shit.
I’m not sure the ChiComs could be more ruthless than the Belgians or French were in their colonial heyday. And unlike the Belgies and the Frogs, the ChiComs would have to operate in a world where their nasty deeds can be told around the world in a matter of minutes with full video and sound – something the old world colonizers never had to worry about.