Tuesday, 19 April 2011
The Fall Of Abidjan And An African Intellectual
By Joseph M. Ndifor
"I may never fit comfortably into the world of scholars. Rather than
be calm and objective, I was apt to respond with a scream to
disagreeable views, a disastrous tendency in any scholarly pursuit…."
Nathaniel Nakasa.
Shortly before he took his own life on July 14, 1965 in New York,
Nathaniel Nakasa, a talented South African scribe and a Nieman fellow,
wrote down these words about his predicaments as an African scholar.
Today, almost forty six years later, the stentorian tones from some
Cameroonians and other African intellectuals, following the outbreak
of the Ivorian crisis to the fall of Abidjan, leave one with the
impression that his words would remain indelible for long time.
Even after the colonialists have packed their bags and left our
shores, we've not moved an inch from the rhetoric of defiance that was
rife, and rightfully so, during the colonial period, to that of
competition in this age of globalization.
How does one explain that for a continent, saddled with a range of
problems-nepotism, tribalism, corruption -a quick response from some
of its intellectuals, and often without objectivity, over its
leadership crisis, is often that the West wants Africa's natural
resources? As if in this age of globalization raw material is the only
thing that matters. And men like Dr. Saif Gaddafi and Professor
Laurent Gbagbo-for those that have keenly followed recent events in
their countries and the arguments raised by their supporters-epitomize
this lamentable nature of some African intellectuals.
Virulent supporters of this idea usually do not question if the
emerging markets of India, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia are as
a result of natural resources, or if these countries have acquired a
competitive edge with the West in the provision of goods, services,
and capital flows. There are good reasons why U.S. jobs have been
outsourced to these countries. Not only do they provide cheap labor,
but they've also become- as a consequence of purging themselves of the
ills that have plagued African countries- competitive with the West in
the area of democracy, education, medicine and communication. It's not
unusual now for many around the world to visit these countries for
medical procedures or to invest heavily in their economies, something
that was unthinkable a few years ago, but still unlikely for an
African country like Cameroon.
Using the South Korean economic success story here appears blowing the
argument out of proportion-I do not foresee Cameroon or some other
African countries manufacturing Hyundai to be competitive! - but its
example here is relevant for one thing only and that is: What have
African intellectuals, particularly economists, learned from the West
like their counterparts in these emerging markets?
Preoccupied with this single concept of the West's grabbing of natural
resources, they've become populist economists, constantly whipping up
this frenzy of nationalism, rather than providing real economic
solutions to our myriad problems. Zimbabwe, for example, was forced to
import food after its production collapsed following confiscation of
lands that were given to new owners not ready for land management. The
same logical economic arguments have been raised in some forums about
the Bakweri lands of Cameroon
However, for those Africans who took a trenchant view that professor
Gbagbo should go after his country's presidential election, it's time
we all take a breather and reenergize for what might be looming next
in other African countries. Among supporters of the professor, a lot
have expressed antipathy towards the U.N. and the French following his
surrender. But the recent implementation of the Responsibility to
Protect, a U.N. concept that was developed to save millions during the
1967 Biafran War, had largely not been used before this crisis,
resulting in the loss of lives (the Rwandan genocide of1994 and the
Srebrenica massacre of 1992).
No one relishes when Africans die or abandon their homes for safety,
because a dismal intellectual wants to hang on tenuously to power.
--
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