While agree with Ken and all the other systemists/structuralists, and yes let ibe said, marxists who have contributed to the discourse on this issue, I think we are missing the point.
The point being made about the deterministic character, in the final analysis, of dtructures and systems, is precisely that 'a mere change of leaders will not redress and address the problem. We need leaders who are parts of movements, and movements who set the conscious goal of overturning the structure and transforming the system'.
In plain speak we need revolutionary leaders at the head of transformative revolutionary movements and processes!
We can look to Latin Amerixa in recent times for examples of such movements, imperfect as they may be or seem.
Essential when we discourse african leaders and the failure of governance, what is at stake is in reality the qustion of power, and the question of the class chatacter of that power!
Warm regards,
Jaye Gaskia
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
-----Original Message-----
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:25:19
To: <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?
oa
what enabled the african leaders? what were the conditions that made
possible the scenario you describe?? it wasn't personality; nor was it
simply the barrel of the gun. you are seeing the visible manifestation
of a system whose workings are not so obviously visible. so go ahead
change your leaders. tried it before? why didn't it work?
what are we waiting for? god, or godot?
i wonder how many people read that article in the times about the
production of windmills in china. the chinese placed conditions on the
utilization of manufactured parts so that the spanish manufacturers had
to use chinese parts; the spanish had to show the chinese how to make
the parts, hundreds of them. the chinese then built factories to make
those parts, and now are producing enough windmills themselves to supply
half the world. the spanish manufacturer now has access to the enormous
chinese market, so they aren't complaining, but they got boxed in by the
chinese.
similarly when the s koreans allowed the manufacture of japanese cars in
s korea, with cheaper labor, it was conditioned on the transfer of
technology--something the mexicans have not done with their
maquilladoras, or with the refining of oil. like nigeria, they ship the
crude out, so the profits go to the refiners; transfer of technology is
something the nigerians didn't do with volkswagon production.
i am the first to admit i don't know a thing about economics--we have
specialists on this list in everything. but it seems naive to dream that
all that we need is a good leader to fix things when it is the things
that are "fixing" the leaders.
ken
On 12/17/10 1:47 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:
> At this point in time (so many years after independence) it makes some sense to argue that Africa is in the mess that it is in, by choice. Ethnicity, religion, and worn out cultural hold-ons remain burdens that buffet politics in Africa and undermine development. Africa's leaders exploit ethnicity and religion to cling to power and enrich themselves. They claim that colonialism is the cause of their countries' failures when the leaders of similarly colonized Asian countries have generally moved on and are successfully transforming their countries.
> The Sudan is a case in point. Ethnicity and religion are the reasons for several avoidable wars in that country. The prediction is that the country is likely split into an Arab Muslim North and a Christian/animist South after her 2011 referendum in the South and that the South will leave the Union with most of the Union's crude petroleum deposits. Cote D' Ivoire is another example.
> Why Africa is such a mess is a complex subject but there should be little question that Africa's leaders have not made the difference in he continent that they are well capable of.
>
> oa
>________________________________________
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kwame zulu shabazz [kwameshabazz@gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 8:42 PM
> To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?
>
> Peace All,
>
> Kenneth, that is great sketch of economic domination by remote
> control. I am African American. My African comrades and I go back and
> forth on this frequently. Whereas I tend to favor structural
> explanations, many of my African comrades tend to point to what is, in
> their view, corrupt African leadership. As you rightly note, all
> factors must be placed on the table. That said, brother Moses didn't
> dismiss structure outright. He acknowledges that its a "culprit," but
> a "more distant" culprit.
>
> That brings up a related issue that I wanted to toss out. I think we
> still have a poor grasp as to_how_ structural factors shape or
> influence human action. Which is not exactly the same as understanding
> how a given structure works or functions (your sketch, for example).
> And because we don't fully understand how structure constricts and
> induces action, we tend to conceptualize structure, spatially, as
> "distant." Last, I wanted to note that structural arguments push
> against our commonsensical ideas of self-actualizing autonomous human
> beings--that are actions are fully voluntary and self-actuated. So-
> called "free will" or what liberal academics call "agency." kzs
>
> On Dec 15, 6:10 pm, kenneth harrow<har...@msu.edu> wrote:
>> moses
>> while i agree largely with your careful reasoning, there is one point
>> where i stopped. see it below.
>> ok, you are a farmer: you are growing a crop that was introduced to your
>> region during the colonial period. call it, oh, cotton. why not.
>> the u.s. subsidizes cotton, thus enabling it to undersell mali. even in
>> the poorest and most dispossessed region, cotton is affected since the
>> malians cannot put up protective tariffs thanks to the stupid neoliberal
>> rules that govern the imf. and just in case we forgot, european
>> subsidies exceed, in percentage, u.s. subsidies, and both the eu and usa
>> are excempt from imf rules against erecting tariffs.
>> you live, let us say, in e congo where tin is mined. tin goes out, guns
>> go in, militias, uganda elites, rwandan generals, all get rich
>> you live, where? in senegal where those trawlers have harvested all
>> the damn fish in the ocean, driving thousands to take piroques north,
>> endangering themselves and drowning, only to get to a xenophobic europe
>> ready to lynch them en mass, especially in italy which is ruled by a
>> rightwing maniac.
>> should i go on? where is that corner, moses, where this economic order
>> does not matter??
>> please. i know the leadership works hand in glove with the corporations
>> that buy the diamonds, with the gun runners that sell the armaments. i
>> know the chinese stepped into s sudan oil fields when the westerners
>> moved out. please, where is this remote untouched corner?
>> i know, it is in the sahara. wait, what is africom surveilling? why are
>> they expending millions to expend rule over mauretania, why did the
>> chinese build a superhighway in mauretania. oh, oil. need i go on.
>> the order that is decimating africa reaches from elite to elite, and the
>> rest of us, trawled up by those inhumane monsters, are left to cheer on
>> bono.
>> we have to recognize ALL these forces if we are to establish a coherent
>> policy for change. i would very very willingly start with the bottom up
>> that you evoke, the subalterns that reach in peculiar ways across
>> countries. all countries, integrated now more than ever into mechanisms
>> of exploitation of resources and labor.
>> ken
>>
>> On 12/15/10 11:53 AM, Moses Ebe Ochonu wrote:
>>
>>> it is my view that for most peoples of the South and the North who are
>>> poor and dispossessed, the global neoliberal order is a more distant
>>> culprit in their predicament than are their proximate leaders and
>>> political actors.
>> --
>> kenneth w. harrow
>> distinguished professor of english
>> michigan state university
>> ph. 517 803 8839
>> har...@msu.edu
> --
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--
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
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