IntroductionWest Africa is becoming the symbol of worldwide
demographic, environmental, and societal stress, in which criminal anarchy
emerges as the real "strategic" danger. Disease, overpopulation, unprovoked
crime, scarcity of resources, refugee migrations, the increasing of
erosion of nation-states and international borders, and the empowerment
of private armies, security firms and international drug cartels are
now most tellingly demonstrated throughout a West African prism. West
Africa provides an appropriate introduction to the issues, often extremely
unpleasant to discuss, that will soon confront our civilization.
As residents of North America, we are bombarded daily with images of famine, disease and bloody conflicts in Africa. Therefore, pessimistic analyses of African politics, such as that offered by Robert Kaplan, are hardly surprising. While Kaplan's view of Africa is neither unique nor completely without foundation, it is, nevertheless, both an oversimplification and superficial generalization. The Afro-pessimism that is currently in vogue in the West not only fails to reflect the diversity that exists on this vast continent, but also fails to provide us with an understanding of the origins of the political and economic challenges faced by post-colonial Africa. Furthermore, amid the "criminal anarchy" described by Kaplan, there is evidence of political, economic and social advancements that serve as the basis for a new-found optimism toward Africa. The end of Apartheid, the resolution of Eritrea's 30-year war for independence, and the economic and political recovery of Uganda from its nadir under the genocidal regime of Idi Amin are just a few of the causes for celebrating the initial signs of recovery in the region. Over the course of the semester, we will examine both the international and domestic causes for Africa's post-colonial crises in political authority and economic development that gave rise to Afro-pessimism. In the last section of the course, we will consider recent developments that would recommend a more balanced view of the continent if not a measure of Afro-optimism. |