Africa: Is Asia coming to Africa with Western-tainted racial attitudes?
Two recent headlines in Asian publications caught my attention.
One was in India’s Financial Express, “India Inc hunts bright prospects in Dark Continent,” posted on August 12, 2008. The other was “Scramble for Africa: Local entrepreneurs find our colonial heritage helps in doing business on the ‘dark continent’ in the August 19, 2008 edition of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.
Both articles were about the great prospects Africa offers for businesspeople from India and Hong Kong respectively. As such, they could be broadly considered to be ‘positive’ articles, different from the endless tales of woe about Africa we are accustomed to from most of the Western media.
The Western world which has had close (though not necessarily happy) recent ties to Africa continues to see the latter primarily as a problem child needing to be rescued, scolded, bullied or pitied. But an evolving reality of the modern world is that of a confident, ascendent Asia which is beginning to look beyond the patronising stereotypes to search for opportunities for mutually beneficial economic cooperation with Africa. Whether the Africans are now awake enough in relating to Asia to avoid the exploitation and ill-treatment they experienced at the hands of the Western world alongside the benefits of that interaction remains to be seen.
In theory, the recent experiences of colonialism at the hands of Europe that India and Hong Kong share with Africa gives us a lot in common. One would expect a certain degree of empathy and sensitivity towards the regurgitation of colonial-era stereotypes like ‘dark continent.’ In practice that is obviously not necessarily the case.
I wrote to both the Financial Express and the South China Morning Post to protest the use of the racist term ‘dark continent.’ In both cases I explained that the expression was used by Westerners to describe their mystification at and contempt for an Africa that was so different from what they knew, but was widely considered an insult by Africans. I felt silly in doing so because I had no doubt that both publications would have been well aware that the expression would not have been considered complimentary or even merely neutral by Africans.
To the Indian publication, I gave the (imperfect) example of how the word “coolie” as used by Westerners was also considered insulting by Indians. To the Chinese paper I illustrated the offensiveness of the term ‘dark continent’ to Africans by pointing out how the phrase “yellow peril” was once casually used by Westerners to refer to them. Both terms could be explained away as being fairly “innocent,” just as some have attempted to do with the term “dark continent.” But Africans are well acquainted with how hurtful “mere words” can be, in a way that apparently some Asians are beginning to forget as they become ever more like the Westerners.
Africa’s growing relations with Asia are to be welcomed. If Africa learns to manage them well, they offer opportunities that have not been possible with our close but fraught relations with the Western world. Despite the closeness of the relations that have been built up with the West, the relatively recent trauma to Africa of the negative, contemptuos treatment at the hands of the West and the complicated lingering after-effects have made ‘normal’ relations between the two extremely difficult to this day.
By and large, there is no such historical or racial ‘baggage’ with Asia, although that is no guarantee that it cannot develop. Many Africans have talked of the racism they experience in various parts of Asia. And the treatment of Uganda’s Asian-origin population at the hands of Idi Amin is a reminder of how easy it is for demagogues to justify racial resentment and whip up hatred.
All this is precisely why the two publications’ racist references to Africa as the ‘dark continent’ are so unfortunate. The use of the term is a reminder of how Asian (and world) attitudes about us continue to be conditioned by how Western settlers, missionaries, explorers perceived and described us. Its use by two Asian publication indepednent of each other is a warning to us of how deeply entrenched is the Western brain-washing of Africa as the ‘dark continent’ is, applying even to Asians who have suffered and protested at similar indignities in their recent past.
Africa needs to be extra cautious as it welcomes the great new opportunities offered by increased cooperation with Asia. Africa was found weak, divided and naively trusting in its interaction with Europeans bent on conquest. Centuries later, we are still struggling to regain our psychological feet in the world. We have absolutely no excuse to be found naive and wanting in our developing relations with Asia or any other part of the world.
Part of the process of being vigilant is for us to speak up when we are referred to disrespectfully, as the India’s Financial Express and Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post have casually done with their racist ‘dark continent’ headlines.
by Chido Makunike
(AFRICAPATH)