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Introduction: Perestroika in Black Africa
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17044 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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8 / 1990 |
593 Words |
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The winds of change are blowing throughout the world today. Institutions and powers once thought unassailable are crumbling before our eyes. Yet, while the world's attention is on events in Moscow and Berlin, enormous changes are occurring in a part of the world many would choose simply to forget: Africa.
Africa is still the continent of unimaginable human suffering: of hollow-eyed children with bellies distended from hunger, of mindless warfare conducted by would-be saviors, and of ignorance and rampant disease (today it is the scourge of AIDS). But that other uniquely African image of the posturing dictator - living lavishly at the expense of his own people while berating the imperialist, neocolonialist West for exploiting his country - is, thankfully, fast becoming a thing of the past.
Perestroika has come to Africa. Dictators are being held accountable for their actions and being shown the door, while across the continent Africans are seeking new solutions for their problems in free market economies and multiparty democracies. But the change one notices most in Africa is one of a new attitude of responsibility. Africans are no longer seeking no blame the West for their predicament.
While Africa today is indeed a legacy of its colonialist heritage, Africans know that their continent as it existed before the white man came is gone and cannot be reclaimed. What can be reclaimed is a sense of pride that comes from taking destiny in one's own hands. Today, Africans are facing their own mistakes and shortcomings and seeking to correct them. In international lending agencies, world forums like the UN, and one-on-one meetings with African
... (1996 of 3641 Characters)
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