Business
Africa to the world: “Your Pity is No Longer Required” – The narrative changes
A Chinese, Latin American, and North American student are sitting in a classroom. The teacher pulls out a map of Africa, and asks ‘tell me what you see”. The Chinese student speaks of opportunity and business; South African steel, Congolese minerals, and Angolan oil to power his country’s growth, and an endless list of future contracts for Chinese-built roads, bridges, and infrastructure to link the continent. The American reflects on Darfur, the Rwandan Genocide, thatched-roof villages, famine, Bono, Madonna, nonprofit work, and starving children. The Latin American student draws parallels in a tragic reflection of the worst parts of his own country; nefarious warlords, corruption, and poverty.
Who is right, and who is wrong? No one. And everyone. The complexity of this mighty and expansive continent can hardly be confined to a single narrative. Over one billion people. 54 independent states (as recognized by the United Nations). Nearly 3,000 languages. And as remarkably diverse as the continent is, so too should be the stories that emerge from it.
The theme here is that much of Africa is more than what is so commonly seen. It’s a rapidly changing continent full with hope, enterprise, entrepreneurship, a growing middle class and everyday life. Congo may be an extreme example, as it is a barely functioning state that hardly serves its people, but it is an example nonetheless.
This isn’t to say all is hunky-dory in Africa. The list of problems, conflicts, killings, corruption, famines, crop failures, rape, and abhorrent abuses of power seems to grow by the day. And they are absolutely worth covering — the world needs to know, and more importantly the world needs to act. But the point is, there is more to the story.
