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Historically, the wildlife, natural resources, and culture have made Africa a highly valuable continent to the western world. Africa has gathered the attention of western tourists, western explorers, and western imperialists from all over. As such, Africa has been heavily influenced over time by western interests.
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Even before the age of exploration, countries have been acting based on their own personal interests. It was during the late 1800s that the western world really started to explore deeper into the heart of Africa with ill intents of colonizing. What the explorers found was an abundance of land, welcoming people, and natural resources. The only thing standing in their way was the people. As such, murders and enslavement was practiced by the Europeans as they had the advantage of guns over the spears. Through this technological advantage, Europe was able to successfully colonize Africa and its people, and loot resources as its own. Seeking only to reap the economic and territorial benefits, settlers created quick local governments instead of industrializing Africa. When countries in Africa began to declare their independence, these newly formed countries were left hundreds of years behind the Western world, with corrupt governments in control.
First published in 1899 in McClure's magazine, "The White Man's Burden" is a poem of obligation by Rudyard Kipling, rallying the Western world to go to Africa in order to save a supposedly condemned culture. [1] "The White Man's Burden" portrays imperialism as a justified duty. Kipling suggests that Africa's purpose was to act as a stepping-stone for the white man's advancement.
The Berlin Conference is an example of the Western world's view on imperialism. The conference essentially constituted the division of the African continent among leaders of Western countries. The participating Western countries represented at the conference included Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and others. Their goal was to address the struggle and competition for colonizing Africa. As if the continent was free property, Africa was divided and shared among the Western world. [2]
From the mid-1900s, Africa slowly gained its independence through a series of coups and uprisings. [3] In 2002, all African countries except Morocco joined together to form the African Union. [4] The mission of this organization is to promote economic and political growth within Africa and provide a form of continental protection. The AU works to combat the historical effects of colonization and apartheid to unify African nations in the mission to address the complex, multifaceted social, economic, and political challenges facing the continent. [5] The AU is very similar to the European Union or NATO. All of these blocks work within the United Nations to push their policies forward. However The AU is a fairly new block compared to the EU and NATO, and therefore is disadvantaged.
Western media often portrays Africa as being very impoverished. Global educational inequalities pose major issues for a number of African countries. For example, Hungary's literacy rate of 99% starkly contrasts with Mali's rate of 26%. [6] High rates of malnutrition and disease are a concern for many African nations.
This topic is significant to the world today because Africa is part of our world. Rich in natural resources such as diamonds and oil, Africa stands as a major contributor to the world economy. If promoting stability and human rights for economic benefits is not enough, think about this issue from an ethical point of view. Poverty prevents villages from installing wells causing people to travel three miles for dirty lake water that no one in the West would even think about drinking. Corrupt governments are too busy accepting bribes to notice or prevent civil war and massacre within their own borders. Fear drives families to migrate to "safer" areas resulting in cramp and unsanitary refugee camps. Little food, clean water, medical supplies and basic safety are being stripped from people who share this world. Yet these basic rights are the ones that the west seems to take for granted.
Non-governmental organisations are the world's only forms of international organisation, and promote educations, political, human rights and economical equality. The international system is anarchic and without NGOs, there is no hope to create international organisation.
The purpose of the United Nations, one of today's only forms of international order, is to promote international peace. Peace is an idea that almost everyone is in support of. However, peace cannot create itself. Without action our world will always be subject to violence and millions of people will be living in constant fear and hunger.
The first perspective believes in the complete opposite of this paper. While there are many who believe that Africa is in need, there are many that think Africa does not need help. Unless you[ who? ] have actually traveled to Africa, your only understanding of the culture and area is primarily based on media, and even more specifically, movies. In October,[ when? ] BBC published an article about the growing corruption and devastation in Africa. In response to this article, Edward Mendy stated, "The BBC article, in my opinion, was a typical distortion and sensationalizing of news out of Africa". [7] He continues on claiming, "Africa is developing. The development may be slow but it is sure".
Lawyer Mendy is not the only one who feels this way. Many others believe that Western Media and especially film has exaggerates. "To date only African cinema has dealt with real African dramas". [8]
Those with this perspective believe that we are neglecting Africa and need to help it. For example, in The Economist, the author[ who? ] wrote, "too often the world has dithered open-mouthed as evil men have slaughtered Daruris or Rwandans". [9]
The last perspective is a mix of the latter two. This perspective acknowledges Africa's current condition, but does not help due to personal potential cost or the belief that aiding Africa is not their responsibility. This is the attitude most people carry. To most people the poverty and corruption in Africa is prevalent, yet the thought of personal sacrifice in order to help is often enough to turn us[ who? ] away. The other reason people are turned away is because with organizations such as Oxfam and the United Nations, it feels like there are already institutions created solely for the purpose of aiding others, so the responsibility is upon these institutions. Leaders such as the United States "had vowed never to return to a conflict it couldn't understand, between clans and tribes it didn't know, in a country where the US had no national interests". [10] Unfortunately it is this perspective that challenges perspective number two. Often people want to help but are faced with many costs if they are to help.
In international relations, intergovernmentalism treats states as the primary actors in the integration process. Intergovernmentalist approaches claim to be able to explain both periods of radical change in the European Union because of converging governmental preferences and periods of inertia because of diverging national interests.
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.
The Organisation of African Unity was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. The inception of its establishment was the Sanniquellie Pledge at the First West African Summit Conference held at Sanniquellie, Central Province, Nimba County, Liberian hinterland on 15-19 July 1959. President Tubman of Liberia hosted President Touré of Guinea, and Prime Minister Nkrumah of Ghana, and the three pledged to work together for the formation of a “Community of Independent African States.” It was later disbanded on 9 July 2002 by its last chairman, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and replaced by the African Union (AU). Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and economic integration among member states, and to eradicate colonialism and neo-colonialism from the African continent.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is an economic development program of the African Union (AU). NEPAD was adopted by the AU at the 37th session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia. NEPAD aims to provide an overarching vision and policy framework for accelerating economic co-operation and integration among African countries.
The African Renaissance is the concept that the African people shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal. This concept was first articulated by Cheikh Anta Diop in a series of essays between 1946 and 1960, later collected in a book titled Towards the African Renaissance. Diop's ideas were further popularized by former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki during his tenure as Deputy President, where the African Renaissance continues to play a key role in the post-apartheid intellectual agenda.
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"The White Man's Burden" (1899), by Rudyard Kipling, is a poem about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) that exhorts the United States to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country. Originally written to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the jingoistic poem was replaced with the sombre "Recessional" (1897), also a Kipling poem about empire.
A continental union is a regional organization which facilitates pan-continental integration. Continental unions vary from collaborative intergovernmental organizations, to supranational politico-economic unions. Continental unions are a relatively new type of political entity in the history of human government. Throughout most of human history, political organization has been at the local level and in more recent centuries, the sub-regional ("regional")/sub-continental level ; however, starting with the advent of better transportation, weapons and communication there was for the first time the ability for a union of member states to organize at the continental level. After the devastation of the First and Second World Wars in the middle of the twentieth century, Europe began to slowly integrate with the founding of the "European Community", which became a political union covering much of the European continent.
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Humanitarianism in Africa refers to the intentions and actions of people, nations, and organizations to alleviate human suffering in Africa. Humanitarian policies have focused on improving problems in Africa such as poverty, poor-health, corruption, and ethnic/inter-state conflict. Prominent entities which engage in humanitarian action in Africa include but are not limited to: foreign nations like the United States (US), domestic nations like South Africa, international organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the United Nations (UN), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, and even personal celebrities like Bono. Prominent methods of promoting humanitarianism in Africa have been foreign aid, humanitarian intervention, and UN sanctioned peacekeeping.
Countries of the East African Community (EAC) include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan. These nations fall below par in different measures of economic activities such as GDP per capita, population below the poverty line, unemployment, and trade. The East African Community has made an effort to bolster trade through enhancing co-operation economically, socially, and politically within the member nations. "The aim of EAC is to gradually establish among themselves a Customs Union, a Common Market, a Monetary Union, and ultimately a Political Federation of the East African States." East African Community countries also have active trade to other parts of the world, like the European Union. Each country is a part of the World Trade Organization except for South Sudan who remains out of this conglomeration. As of 2014, these six countries have a combined GDP of $159.5 billion, GDP per capita of $918, total population of 168.5 million, total import $40.2 billion, and total export $13.6 billion. These countries become much stronger as a part of the community as they become a larger market for trade outside of the bloc. Also, the bloc allows for free trade between the member countries helping not only producers who have more options to sell their product but also consumers who have more cheap goods. It is always important for fish to be in fresh water lakes
