Africa is in the throes of a deep crisis; in fact, on the brink of economic and social disintegration. Since independence from colonial rule in the 1960s, the majority of the African countries have slid backward economically. In its 1986 report, the World Bank lamented that "for the first time since World War II, a whole region has suffered retrogression over a generation."
Something has gone fundamentally wrong in Africa. For years after independence, we in Africa blamed everything that went wrong on colonialism, American imperialism, or some "external" factor. It was never the fault of our incompetent leaders and the egregious policies they pursued. Even the so-called backward and illiterate peasants, the disenfranchised majority of Africa's population, no longer buy this line of argument. They are fed up with it.
Back in 1981, some Ghanaian peasant were even calling upon the British to recolonize the country--not that colonialism is ideal. The call represented an unequivocal indictment against their leaders, who so treacherously failed and betrayed them.
A long, hard, and objective look has to be taken at Africa's crisis. Not all of our problems are due to colonialism and Western imperialism. In fact, most of them are due to the defective leadership we have had since independence. The crisis in Africa reflects a crisis in leadership. A new approach that combines level-headed, no-nonsense clear thinking with moral integrity is urgently needed to tackle the continent's problems. If we had used our common sense, instead of our emotions, much of the continent would not now be starving.
This is the current way of thinking among the majority of Africans, even including some of our present government officials. At the United Nations Special Conference on Africa in May 1986, many of the African delegates conceded that most of the policies pursued after independence were misguided.
This is perhaps the most propitious news to come out of Africa for a long, long time. It ushers in a new approach--an approach that skirts the hackneyed "colonial legacy and imperialism" claptrap and focuses attention on oppressive and defective policies being pursued in Africa. To many Africans hoping and searching for this new approach, Ali Mazrui's book, The Africans, would be a sore disappointment.
Much research and effort went into the book; it is designed beautifully. But it turns out to be a vitriolic indictment of Western civilization, a propagation and glorification of Islamic fundamentalism, the usual humdrum staple on the iniquities of slavery and colonialism, and an attribution of Africa's malaise to colonial legacies. In addition, the book is replete with contradictions, logical inconsistencies, trite remarks, and irresponsible rhetoric. Worse yet, the book purposes little of value for solving Africa's crisis.
Mazrui against the West
Despite his own assertion that the term 'civilization' is always relative and somewhat hyperbolic," Mazrui rails against "the materialism of western civilization, the declining moral standards in at least certain areas of westerns culture, and the glitter and temptations of western
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