Darkest Europe and Africa's Nightmare

Hard- und Softcoverausgabe

Sachbuch, englisches Original

A Critical Observation of Neighboring Continents

If the United States is based on the principle that all men are created equal, why, the author asks, does the West treat Africa and Africans differently? Just what kind of democracy is being exported, when only the West's interests are served? In an incisive view of the relationship between Africa and the West, a London-educated Kenyan princess suggests that the aid machinery hurts Africa more than it assists. Westerners (and successful Africans alike) perpetuate the negative image of Africa to assuage their consciences as they continue to rip off a rich continent, while deploring the poverty they themselves help to keep in place.

Probing the human causes of Africa's continuing travails, the author examines the result of official policies that were sold to the public as "aid programs," while poking fun at Western hypocrisy and greed, and African vanity and passivity, as well. Western citizenry have been schooled to think that their countries are wealthy because they are smarter or work harder - a belief fostered to support hegemonic delusions. Just as artificial, she argues, is the notion that Africa's alleged poverty and the West's staggering economic and military might could be related to skin color or the scientifically preposterous notion of "race." The truth, the author maintains, is that they are rich because they have robbed and still rob their wealth from the rest of the world, creating "poor countries" precisely where the greatest natural wealth is found. American and European corporations, and now Chinese as well, whisk away Africa's resources to enrich their own economies and peoples.

The author looks at contemporary political, humanitarian and economic trends, assessing the World Bank, WTO, G8 and the IMF to be the long arms of the world oligarchies, primarily the USA. She considers NGOs a menace to Africa while serving as a job-creation blessing to the rich nations. She suggests the aid industry does more harm than good, dissuading Africans from defending their turf while foreign corporations scoop up all the resources. At the same time, the author equally reprimands not only the predator politicians and elite of the African continent but all Africans for their passive resignation to a fate they can change through affirmative actions.

Algora Publishing