Making Sense of Post-Colonial Africa, 1960-2007:

1. Making Sense of Post-Colonial Africa, 1960-2007: John Metzler, PhD African Studies Center Michigan State University

2. Helping Students Understand Independent Africa, 1960-2005 Overview: • Introduction: Popular Representations of Contemporary Africa • What We Need to Take into Account When Teaching About Contemporary Africa in the Community College Classroom • Political, Economic, & Social “Realities” of Contemporary/Independent Africa • Understanding Independent Africa: The Colonial Legacy: Economic legacy Social Legacy Political Legacy • The Cold War in Africa: Angola, Congo, Horn of Africa, Southern Africa • Militarization— Small Arms Race– in Africa • Globalization & Africa: Promise or Peril? • The African Renaissance: The Case for Optimism

3. 1. Popular Representations of Africa • What media informs our students’ images of Africa? • Afro-Pessimism • Afro-Optimism • News Media: “Hopeless Continent” • Disney/National Geographic: “Garden of Eden”/Celebration of the Exotic • Movie industry: Despair & Exotica

4. Popular Representations of Africa:“The Hopeless Continent”

5. Popular Representations of Africa:The “Hopeless Continent”

6. Popular Representations of Africa:The “Hopeless Continent”

7. Summary of Representation in News Media Africa assessed Four “Ds” and One “C”: Death • Disease • Disaster • Despair • Corruption Charlayne Hunter-Gault, 2006

8. Popular Representations of Africa:“Garden of Eden”

9. Popular Representations of Africa:“Garden of Eden”

10. Popular Representations of Africa:Celebration of the Exotic

11. Popular Representations of Africa:Messages from the Movies

12. Teaching About Contemporary Africa CRITERIA FOR ADDRESSING AFRICAN CRISES IN THE CLASSROOM • Given the bias and lack of rigor and analysis in the reporting of African crises, how should educators deal with these crises in their classrooms? First, give attention to the following criteria: • Set high standards of objectivity for yourself and for your students. Do not be satisfied with news stories that continue to use the standard explanatory constructs in analyzing a story. Use the same standards of objectivity and demand the same rigor that you expect from an analysis of a current issue in the U.S. • Seek trust-worthy information and documentation on the issue under consideration prior to engaging your students in a serious discussion of the issue. Just as you would do for the study of a current events issue in the U.S., try to find (or have your students seek out) alternative perspectives of the story/crisis. The World Wide Web provides a rich variety of web sources on Africa.

13. Teaching About Contemporary Africa Criteria (continued) • When teaching a unit on Africa do not deal with crises or severe problems unless you also deal with problems/crises when you teach about other regions of the world—particularly when you teach U.S. history, civics, or economics. Analysis of current events should be normal part of your of the social studies classroom, not just when teaching about Africa or “troubled regions” such as the Middle East. • When addressing a crisis in Africa do not do so in isolation from the larger geographic, political, economic, and historical context in which the crisis is taking place. Crises are not “natural” or “systemic” to African societies (or to any other society in the world), and should not be treated as such.

14. 2. Contemporary “Realities” of Africa • Dual “Realities” ** Political Arena: Chaos, Chronic Conflict versus Democratization: Africa’s Second Liberation ** Economic Arena: Endemic poverty/under-development versus African Renaissance ** Social Arena: Irreparable decay of social structure (e.g. impact of HIV-AIDS) versus Re-birth of Civil Society

15. Political “Realities” of Contemporary Africa

16. Political “Realities” of Contemporary Africa Contemporary Conflicts: • Africa’s First World War: Congo/Great Lakes (4 million casualties in last 9 years)-cease-fire and peace accord; elections July and Oct. 2006 • Burundi • Sudan- Darfur • Horn of Africa: Somalia; Ethiopia/Eritrea • Cote D’Ivoire • Western Sahara • (7-8 million refugees/displaced people in Africa) • Refugee Crisis 4.2 million refugees (2000) second only to Asia. Many more Internally displaced persons

17. Political “Realities” of Contemporary Africa Resolution of long-standing conflicts: • Angola • Mozambique • Sierra Leone • Liberia • Sudan: North-South Conflict • Rwanda • Congo?

18. Congo: Civil War 1997-?: Groups: Interhamwe (Hutu militia), Mai Mai, Congolese Rally for Democracy (2 factions supported by Rwanda), Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (supported by Uganda), government of Joseph Kabila (elections, Sept. 2006/ run-off end of Oct. 2006) Jean-Pierre Bemba Approximately 4 million have died as result of this conflict Preceded by 30 years of autocratic rule—Mobutu Sese Seko Nigeria: Seven military governments: 1966-1999 (some very brutal) Biafran civil war 1967-1970 ( cf one million died) Ethnic conflict in Niger Delta-oil region: Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ogoni (Ken Saro-Wiwa) Muslim-Christian conflict (recent phenomenon) Stable “democracy” since 1999 What happens after Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo (2007)? Political Realities of the Congo & Nigeria

19. Political “Realities” of Contemporary Africa:Regime Types 1989

20. Political “Realities” of Contemporary Africa:Regime Types Today: Africa’s Second Revolution/Independence

21. Commitment of the African Union (2002) to human rights, good governance, transparency, democracy, and development. NEPAD: New Partnership for Africa’s Development: By 2006 26 countries (half of the AU’s membership had agreed to undergo the Africa Peer Review Mechanism to assess progress towards good governance goals. Political Realities of Contemporary Africa

22. Economic Realities of Contemporary Africa • The Combined Gross Domestic Product for all of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2000 was US$322.73 Billion—less than the GDP for the Netherlands (and considerably smaller than the GDP for the state of California) • Between 1990 and 2000 GNP per capita declined .7 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa • However, since 2000 a number of African countries have experienced a annual growth rate of around 5% • Nearly 40% of Africa’s GNP is from agriculture, less than 15% from manufacturing: lowest of any region in the world. • Africa counts for less than 2% of global trade • In 1960 average service debt of an African country was 2% of exports; in 2000 239% of exports

23. Economic Realities of Contemporary Africa

24. Economic Realities of Contemporary Africa NOTE: -- T. = ‘Total’; -- Den. = Population Density, in single units; -- P.C. = Per Capita Income, in single units -- GDP = Gross Domestic Production -- Total Population, in Millions; -- T. GNI (Gross National Income) in billions

25. Economic Realities of Contemporary Africa: Poverty(Numbers and Percent of People living on $1 or less a day)

26. Economic Realities of Contemporary Africa: Poverty(Numbers and Percent of People living on $2 or less a day)

29. Economic Realities: Congo Congo: • Mineral Rich: Copper, Cobalt, Coltan, Diamonds, Tin • Agriculture: wide variety of food and cash crops including coffee, tea, rubber and commercial lumber. • Industry: very little manufacturing, mineral processing • Yet: GDP per Capita is $88 compared to an average of $541 in SSAf; Per Capita Income $110 per capita compared to $600 for SSAf

30. But . . . AFRICA’S GROWTH RATES ARE CATCHING UP TO OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

31. African per capita income is now increasing in tandem with other developing countries … Annual Change in Real per capita GDP % Forecast 2008 Source: World Bank

32. … growth has improved since the 1980’s

33. Africa’s growth experience increasingly diverse

34. Social Realities of ContemporaryAfrica Severe Social Dislocation: • Male (productive age) labor migration: short term and long term • Urbanization: unplanned, minimal social services (health, education, housing, sanitation) • Gender/family relations: change in social relations of production and reproduction (male migration, “male cash crops,”) absence of fathers/husbands; rural poverty (women & children most severely impacted); survival strategies (prostitution, beer-making).

35. Social Realities of ContemporaryAfrica Education: Colonial Heritage: • Education for a very few (at independence, no colony had more than 60% of the elementary school age population in school, most less than 30%; even lower for high school and tertiary education • Portuguese had most restrictive educational program. In rural Mozambique less than 20% of school age cohort had full seven years of elementary education at independence in 1975 • At independence in 1960 the D.R. Congo had an extensive primary school system (70% enrollment) but less than 10% went to secondary school and only 50 university graduates! • French followed policy of “assimilation”—targeted 10-20% of population with relatively good education system, but vast majority little or no schooling. • British generally most “progressive” but great differences between “protectorates” (Nigeria, Ghana) where in-direct rule was practiced, and settler colonies (Rhodesias, Kenya) where educational expenditure was very limited. • Curriculum heavily biased to humanities—limited opportunities in science, math, technology

36. Social Realities of ContemporaryAfrica Education and the Imperatives of the Post-Colonial Nation-State: • Nation building and state legitimacy • Economic development and productivity • Social development: health, welfare, education • Cultural development: (re)production of “Traditional culture”

37. Social Realities of ContemporaryAfrica Education: Post-Independence Example of Zimbabwe: • 1980: 60% of primary school age cohort in school, less than 40% finished primary education • 1995 100% of primary school age cohort in school, over 90% finished seven years of primary school • 1980: only 64,000 students in secondary school; 1995 over 800,000 in secondary school • Negative Impact of ESAP conditionalities on education

38. Social Realities of ContemporaryAfrica: Health Diseases of Poverty: • Malaria kills over 1 million people in Africa each year with an estimated cost to African economies of over $2 billion • Sleeping sickness (trypanosomasis) threat to 60 million, infects 300,000 each year • River Blindness (onchocerciasis) 17.5 million in Africa (99%) of world total • Biharziasis impacts estimated 80 million in Africa

39. Malaria has not received adequate attention and is a major cause of death of children

40. Social Realities of ContemporaryAfrica: Health The Scourge of HIV-AIDS • HIV-AIDS: Out of approximately 40 million HIV-AIDS victims in the world 29.4 victims reside in Sub-Saharan African countries. • Nearly three million children under the age of 15 are HIV positive • Four countries in southern Africa have HIV infection rates of 25% or higher of adult population • In the last decade 12 million people died of AIDS in Africa • Life expectancy in southern Africa increased throughout the region to nearly 60 years of age in 1990 (from 44 years in 1950); life expectancy expected to drop to 40-45 years of age by 2005. • Rays of hope: decline in infection rate in a number of countries, stabilization in South Africa; reduction in the price of antiretrovirals.

41. Social Realities of ContemporaryAfrica: Health/HIV-AIDS

42. LIFE Expectancy And Mortality

43. How do we bring understanding to these political, economic and social realities of contemporary Africa? • Contextualize

44. Environmental Determinism: Jared Diamond—Guns, Germs, and Steel Jeffrey Sachs- The End of Poverty Africa only continent in the World solely in the tropics; geologically oldest: endemic & debilitating disease; poor soils; unreliable climate, hostile environment—impedes economic development and creates conditions for political instability. Legacy of Geography, Environment, Climate, Geology

45. Destruction of political, economic, and social infrastructure Loss of population—death and slave trade Immeasurable Human suffering. Other slave trades: Trans-Sahara, East & Central Africa. Legacy of Slavery

46. Understanding Contemporary Africa: The Colonial Legacy

47. Understanding Contemporary Africa: The Colonial Legacy • Political Legacy • Economic Legacy • Social Legacy

48. Understanding Contemporary Africa: The Political Legacy • Human rights legacy • Authoritarian/anti-democratic legacy • Cultural-pluralism/ethnicity • State Capacity

49. Understanding Contemporary Africa: The Political Legacy Types of Colonial Political Regimes in Africa: • Direct Rule: Belgium, France, Germany (until 1918) Portugal (Guinea-Bissau) • Indirect Rule: British (except for settler states) • League of Nations High Commission Mandate Trust Territories (former German colonies—Tanganyika, Togo, South West Africa, Cameroon) • Settler Colonies (Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Rhodesia: South & North; South Africa)

50. Understanding Contemporary Africa: The Political Legacy • Authoritarian/anti-democratic • Hegemony (establishment and maintenance of) was core political agenda of all colonial states/regimes: Development of police and local armed forces staffed by indigenous African personnel • Legitimacy (an imperative of most modern statecraft) was not important to the colonial regime • Representation (outside of traditional leaders/indirect rule) or elections were largely absent in all colonial regimes • Taxation (revenue generation)—without representation—was central to the survival of the colonial state (Metropol opposed to financial support of their colonies) • “Forced Labor”—and at times forced conscription into police force/army