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November 1, 2013 12:09 pm
frica? Why theres no such placeBy Simon Kuper
The word Africa has lost what meaning it ever had and should be
binned
ometimes a politicians accidental phrase can reveal a world
view. The other night in
Johannesburg, South Africas president Jacob Zuma was arguing for
toll roads. They were
a global standard, he said, and then added: We cant think like
Africans in Africa generally.
[Laughter from the audience.] We are in Johannesburg. This is
Johannesburg. It is not some
national road in Malawi. [Laughter.] Zumas party calls itself
the African National Congress
but his implicit contempt for the rest of the continent
signalled a truth: the word Africa has
lost what meaning it ever had and should be binned.
When I was born in Uganda in 1969, it still just about made
sense to talk of Africa. True, the continent was impossibly
diverse, but
most African countries above the white-run southern tip shared
some basic experiences: recently decolonised, largely agrarian,
poor
and heading for dictatorship. For that generation, the fall of
colonialism provided a real continent-wide bond. However, since
about
2000 the experiences of African countries have diverged so
starkly that it makes almost no sense to speak of Africa any
more.
The very idea of Africa came from outside Africa, starting with
Herodotus. The most influential African pan-Africanist, Kwame
Nkrumah, was inspired by black American and Caribbean thinkers
such as W E B Du Bois and Marcus Garv ey.
Africa stuck as a tag, because the continent rarely gets enough
global attention to be discussed in more subtle terms. T ypically
the
whole continent is labelled with a single phrase, supplied by
Anglophone outsiders: Harold MacMillans wind of change in 1960,
Bob
Geldofs Do they know its Christmas? in 1984, and The Economists
Hopeless Continent in 2000. The global ruling class
increasinglyderives its conversation from The Economist and,
inDecember2011, the magazines cover proclaimed: Africa Rising.
But for many actual Africans the notion of a shared continent
has little reality. T ravelling to the next v illage is often hard
enough, letalone to the next country. To fly between two African
countries, the easiest way is often through London, Paris or Dubai.
Im told the
Rwanda-Burundi border can now be crossed in 10 minutes, but
thats rare in Africa. No wonder almost all African countries do
most of
their foreign trade outside the continent.
Europe exists: its countries are crammed relatively close
together, and you often dont need a passport to travel between
them. There
is a European central government of sorts, and because of all
this interlinking, the experiences of Poles and Spaniards, say,
are
becoming increasingly alike.
Africa, by contrast, is full of cavernous divides like the one
spotted by Zuma. Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian economist, told me:
Francophone Africa versus Anglophone Africa versus Lusophone
Africa these are v ery different places. Moyo says she uses the
phrase Africa less and less: Ive moved away from that. I think
its folly to put these countries in the same basket. Nigerias
economy, she notes, resembles other big oil exporters like
Mexico and Indonesia more than it does Ghana or Zambia.
Indeed, African countries have been going off in different
directions since about 2000, says Ricardo Soares de Oliveira,
political scientist
of Africa at Oxford university. Despite certain shared drivers
Chinese investment, cheap mobile phones, the end of the cold
war
these countries have diverged sharply. Africa now has
fast-growing democracies like Ghana and Botswana; repressive
mini-Chinas like
Rwanda and Ethiopia; corrupt oil states like Angola and Gabon;
failed states like Chad and Somalia; and north Africa post-Arab
spring.
Not much connects these experiences.
. . .
One-liners about Africa shroud this diverse reality. Morten
Jerven, economist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, told a
recent
Oxford Analytica conference that instead of asking, Is Africa
rising? we should be asking things like, Is Lusaka rising? Some
capital
cities are booming, but anybody who goes around saying Africa is
rising should be forced to read Michael Deiberts new book, The
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THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2013 FT and Financial Times are
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True, the word Africa still expresses an emotional reality.
Since the 1940s, many Africans have come to feel African. Its one
of the
identities they have, beside a local and national and perhaps
global identity. African can be a positive identity. Often, though,
it is
simply used to mean a victim, a member of the lowest economic
category. If thats the identity, then nobody wants to be
African.
Some African countries may soon leave that category behind. The
continents share of the global economy has risen in recent years
to
perhaps 3 per cent. Next the $40 smartphone may come along to
boost this share further. If the continent remains a rare place
where
investors can find yield, then Africa will eventually get
slightly more nuanced attention. That will allow us to ditch
weak-minded
generalisations such as constantly using a single Ethiopian shoe
company, SoleRebels, to stand for Africas supposed manufacturing
rise.
Some geopolitical phrases obscure reality rather than rev eal
it. Like the Islamic world or the international community,
Africa
doesnt exist.
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