The New African Spring?: From The North to the South

The outcry of people in Burkina Faso against a dictator who wished to extend his reign infinitely has been quite a phenomenon. Not since the Arab Spring has such massive crowds converged to demand the ouster of a dictator who has overstayed his welcome. It is quite a sight to behold! The New York Times takes the story from here. What began in North Africa has reached sub-Saharan Africa. The fact that a general has assumed power is however a cause for concern. It is interesting that Blaise Compaore was unable to do in Burkina Faso what Paul Biya easily did in Cameroon - change the constitution and extend his dictatorship.

 

Image of Burkinabe Protesters from The New York Times 

The American Red Cross Debacle is What Africans Already Knew

Recent reports that the American Red Cross has been spending more resources on public relations than on actually helping victims of disasters is what many Africans have known for a long time. That is, Africans have known for a long time that aid organizations are often interested in appealing to their donors than to actually helping those who suffer disaster. As Marianne Gullestad has shown in Picturing Pity, an important part of aid organizations' public relations is the showing of pictures that appeal to their donors rather than to those who are the supposed beneficiaries of the aid. Which is why those who rely on aid agencies in order to get a better understanding of what is going on in disaster zones around the world often do not get a good picture.  The case of the American Red Cross is therefore not new.

 

Ebola, Fear, and Republican Politics in America

So far, only one person has died in America since the Ebola outbreak - and the person who died was not an American. Since all Americans who have contracted the virus have survived, one may wonder whether any American would die from the virus. The countries that have borne the brunt of the virus are Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia - these countries have lost over 5,000 people in all.

However, if one hears the way the Republicans are playing the story in America, one may be forgiven for thinking that many Americans have already lost their lives in this Ebola epidemic. That no American life has been lost in the process and that one sees much fear around speaks to the kind of politics that the Republicans thrive on in America. Republican politics thrive on fear. Since many Americans have been taught to live in fear, this politics of fear has become very potent in recent American history. Never mind that many of these republicans are supposed to be Christians who are taught not to live in fear! Since fear pays in politics, it is wise to help people live in fear. It is interesting that it is President Barack Obama, whom some Republicans believe is not a Christian, who is calling on Americans not to live in fear. (Obama is of course a Christian).

A recent manifestation of this politics of fear was the war in Iraq. It came to pass that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction - the main reason that was given for the war. Yet we lost thousands of lives there and billions of dollars. George W. Bush won the 2004 elections because of this politics of fear. All over, the specter of a terrorist attacks on America was raised during the 2004 election, never mind that 9/11 happened under the watch of George W. Bush. The fear led Americans to mute the voices of those who held that there was no good reason to go to war in Iraq.

Now, Republicans are saying that the most viable way to fight the Ebola virus is to ban people from the Ebola affected parts of West Africa from coming to the United States. Never mind that good science suggests that it is better to fight the disease at its source rather than trying to shut down borders. No; republicans who talked about mushroom clouds before the war in Iraq, suggesting that it would be better for the war to be fought in Iraq than for it to be brought here, have suddenly forgotten their own advise. This is quite convenient given that when one thrives on fear, science becomes an inconvenience.

In all this, those who are actually doing the dying in Africa, are left out of the discussion. If you shut the borders and ban flights, you would not have to worry about deaths that happen far away. America had tried before to shut itself off from the rest of the world. It did not go well.

Mayhem in Burkina Faso

The French killed Thomas Sankara and forced Blaise Compaore on the people. Like most of his counterparts in Francophone Africa, he has lorded it over the people for 27 years. Now the people want him out. I suppose there is frantic effort in Paris to make sure this does not happen. It is happening in Burkina Faso but it is teleguided from France. Perhaps there are already French soldiers standing by to intervene. Follow the mayhem on BBC and AllAfrica News.

Announcing the Death of Prof. Ali Mazrui

Renown Kenyan scholar and one of the foremost scholars of African history, Prof. Ali Mazrui, passed away Monday, October 13, 2014, in the United States at the age of 81. Even though the question of African identity defined much of this historical reflections, his contribution to African thought in general has been quite immense. He is one of those African scholars whose thought was also an advocacy for Africa.  He has now joined the great ancestors of Africa and his light will always shine for others to emulate.

Prof. Ali Mazrui

In Texas Ebola Death, Standard Protocol Was Followed

The general narrative that has accompanied the ill-treatment of Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan who recently died of Ebola in Texas has been that the mistreatment he received went against standard protocol for such a patient. This narrative, which most in the media are perpetrating, is actually a false narrative. Claiming that the handling of Mr. Duncan's case went against standard protocol gives the impression that when one goes to the emergency room without insurance, they should expect to get good care. However, that is not he case. Anyone who has been to the emergency room here in the United States knows that one of the first things that is demanded is the kind of insurance one has. The care one receives in the emergency room is based on the kind of insurance one has. The standard practice (and this is what actually happens in the emergency room rather what may be written in a manual somewhere) is that people who go to emergency room without medical insurance should not expect to get good care. It is this standard practice that was followed in the case of Mr. Duncan. He did not have medical insurance and so he did not get the kind of care he would have had if he had one. Thus, to claim that the handling of the Ebola case of Mr. Duncan was botched is disingenuous at best. In fact, such a claim seems to suggest that what happened to Mr. Duncan is a mistake when that is in fact how the system works. Thus, with respect to Mr. Duncan, the system worked the way it was supposed to work. There was no miscommunication anywhere in the process, as is now claimed by many. The fact that he was a black person from Africa only compounded the situation - his life was already dispensable long before he set foot into that hospital. When it became clear that he was suffering from Ebola, his goose was already cooked - he was only good for the crematorium. The end.

Ebola and the Howling for Aid in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea

With each passing day, the cry for aid to tackle the Ebola epidemic from the three West African countries named above grow louder and louder. Presidents of these countries demand aid as if they have a right to expect such from the international community. Even as they cry for aid, complaints of mismanagement of aid is reported in Sierra Leone and many Liberians think that the government is using this crisis as an opportunity to make filthy lucre for itself, as very little is being seen to be done for the people. Never mind the now accepted argument from economists that such aid never brought economic development to a country. With this howling for aid, the narrative of Africans as people who cannot take care of themselves continue. Tons of foreign aid from Europe and America needs to be sent over, before urgent crisis can be averted. And so the irresponsibility of the postcolony continues.

Ebola Murder in Dallas?

Some Liberians in America are crying foul over the death of Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian and first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in America, who died today. They are saying that he was not given the best care that could have saved his life. While some think that he was not given the best care he deserved because he was black and poor, others are saying that he was not given the best care because the Americans wanted to discourage other Liberians from coming to the United States when they get infected with Ebola. By refusing to give Mr. Duncan the best care he deserved, others were being alerted that no better care awaits them in the United States if they dared go there.

These are only conspiracy theories but who can blame them for weaving such theories, especially given the fact that two white Americans have been carted off from West Africa and treated for Ebola in the United States? Even more, the treatment that was given Mr. Duncan when he complained of his illness left much to be desired. It is incumbent on the American authorities to prove that these conspiracy theories have no legs. If not, some Liberians would continue to believe that Mr. Duncan was murdered.

Ebola and the Evolving Presence of Africa

That Africa has been present in the Western imagination mainly in negative terms can hardly be disputed. That is a function of how Africa came into the modern world - slavery, colonialism, neo-colonial, the much touted globalization. Africa came into the modern world through various shades of imperialism. This Africa is that mysterious land far away where "natives" roam in the wild. It is that fanciful land far away which has many valuable natural resources that are only meant to be carted off to enrich "civilizations" far away. This Africa, is a land which helps the West counts its blessings because things could be worse. It is the place where hungry children needs to be fed, the IMF and the World Bank need to make interminable, exploitative loans for infrastructural development, and Medecins Sans Frontieres and other medical charities go to give free medical care. In short, this Africa is far away; its troubles are those of a people far away. It does not concern us here in the West. It is this perception of Africa as a far away land whose well-being does not matter to those outside the continent that has funded the various forms of exploitation visited on the continent from the West and Asia (read: China).

With the advent of Ebola, however, the logic of this far away Africa which is only to be exploited is being put to the test. This is especially so because the ease of moving from place to place, which has been accelerated especially by modern transportation systems, makes it possible for Ebola to spread to many places in a very short time. The only virus in recent memory that was as potentially as devastating as Ebola was the HIV virus. However, HIV could be said to be less virulent than Ebola because it took longer to kill its victims and it could be contained in Africa. In fact, a law was passed that no one with HIV could migrate to the United States. However, Ebola is a stealth virus that is often discovered when it is almost too late. Thus, someone may be looking strong today but tomorrow they may be down. It is a virus that can only be curtailed with carefully structured medical care. Hence the various medical groups that are rushing to the affected African countries to provide some structure to minimal medical infrastructures.

With Ebola, the presence of Africa is however becoming more immediate and intimate. Africa is right here because a deadly virus that begins there may not end there. It may not take long before the virus reaches the neighborhoods of Dallas or a city in Spain. The point of this is not that Africa's presence now is in the form of a virus - reading this post in that way would be to perpetuate an ignorant image of Africa. What is means, however, is that the Africa that is far away and which can only be exploited is no longer tenable. What Martin Luther King, Jr., said about injustice may be applicable here. He said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Translated to our purposes here, we can say that an Africa without sufficient means to care for its own is a threat to people everywhere. The exploitation of Africa by its elites and their international collaborators has led to a situation where many countries in the continent are unable to take care of themselves. Thus, when a situation like Ebola erupts, the danger to the rest of the world is palpable. However, if Liberia had good medical infrastructure to take care of its own, one of its own would not be fleeing to the United States. The presence of the Ebola virus in Dallas can be read as a function of the massive exploitation of Liberia, an exploitation partly funded by the fact that Africa is seen as a far away land whose residents are inconsequential to the life of the rest of the world - they are good only to be exploited.

However, the world is now flat, as Tom Friedman announced a while back. In this flat world, Africa's presence is getting closer and closer and until the well-being of the people of that continent becomes important to African elites and their international collaborators who conspire to emaciate its peoples, the world can be sure that any dangerous virus that begins there will not stay there. Africa is no longer far away. In fact, she has never been far away in the modern world even though she has been spoken of mostly in her absence. The sooner her presence is taken seriously the better for everyone.