Saturday, July 15, 2006
Comments on "Dark Star Safari"
"Dark Star Safari" is a travel book by Paul Theroux. It describes his travels from Cariro to Cape Town by train, bus, hitchhiking, canoe, etc. I like most of Paul Theroux books and I prefer his non fiction travel books. In his other books he comments on all the people and cultures he encounter in his travels. In this book he does likewise, but he is most critical of the Africa he encountered after being away from Africa for 40 years. Forty years prior to this trip he was a teacher in the Malawi bush, working for the Peace Corp. I believe most of it to be accurate in describing the countries, governments, agencies, and people in Africa.
His first page pretty much sums up his view of present day Africa; "Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it - hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can't tell the politicians from the witch doctors. Africans, less esteemed than ever, seemed to me the most lied to people on earth - manipulated by their governments, burned by foreign experts, befooled by charities, and cheated at every turn. To be an African leader was to be a thief, but evangelists stole people's innocence, and self-serrving aid agencies give them false hope, which seemed worse. In reply, Africans dragged their feet or tried to emigrate, they begged, they pleaded, they demanded money and gifts with a rude, weird sense of entitlement."
If you want to have an overall sense of disdain for Africa and "aid for africa" charity groups than this is a good book, I certainly enjoyed it.
What stood out in mind as I read this book was first, African want to leave Africa and second black Americans who like to refer to themselves as African Americans do very little to help Africa. I have hear many different people in the USA whose heritage is from from England, Mexico, Japan, Costa Rico, Germany Italy France, etc say they would like to vist the county from which their family came from and quite a few have. I have never hear a Black American say "I going to Africa on my next vacation, my family and I have been there a number of times". The most visited place I have hear Black Americans going to is Las Vegas. Africa will never improve until the people who are from Africa improves it. It not up to the US government to continue to pump aid money to corrupt governments. The charity/aids groups in Africa will just continue to keep it enslaved in charity conditions.
A review of some of the on line newspapers from Africa will back up what Theroux said in his book. As easy one to start with is;
All Africa
His first page pretty much sums up his view of present day Africa; "Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it - hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can't tell the politicians from the witch doctors. Africans, less esteemed than ever, seemed to me the most lied to people on earth - manipulated by their governments, burned by foreign experts, befooled by charities, and cheated at every turn. To be an African leader was to be a thief, but evangelists stole people's innocence, and self-serrving aid agencies give them false hope, which seemed worse. In reply, Africans dragged their feet or tried to emigrate, they begged, they pleaded, they demanded money and gifts with a rude, weird sense of entitlement."
If you want to have an overall sense of disdain for Africa and "aid for africa" charity groups than this is a good book, I certainly enjoyed it.
What stood out in mind as I read this book was first, African want to leave Africa and second black Americans who like to refer to themselves as African Americans do very little to help Africa. I have hear many different people in the USA whose heritage is from from England, Mexico, Japan, Costa Rico, Germany Italy France, etc say they would like to vist the county from which their family came from and quite a few have. I have never hear a Black American say "I going to Africa on my next vacation, my family and I have been there a number of times". The most visited place I have hear Black Americans going to is Las Vegas. Africa will never improve until the people who are from Africa improves it. It not up to the US government to continue to pump aid money to corrupt governments. The charity/aids groups in Africa will just continue to keep it enslaved in charity conditions.
A review of some of the on line newspapers from Africa will back up what Theroux said in his book. As easy one to start with is;
All Africa
# posted by Howard @ 8:43 PM 
