Africa

"We’ve just heard from the Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many point a finger of blame at the DRC and other poor countries for their poverty. Yet we don’t seem to remember, or want to remember, that starting around 1870, King Leopold of Belgium created a slave colony in the Congo that lasted for around 40 years; and then the government of Belgium ran the colony for another 50 years. In 1961, after independence of the DRC, the CIA then assassinated the DRC’s first popular leader, Patrice Lumumba, and installed a US-backed dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, for roughly the next 30 years."

"The regeneration of Africa means that a new and unique civilization is soon to be added to the world. The African is not a proletarian in the world of science and art. He has precious creations of his own, of ivory, of copper and of gold, fine, plated willow-ware and weapons of superior workmanship. Civilization resembles an organic being in its development – it is born, it perishes, and it can propagate itself. More particularly, it resembles a plant, it takes root in the teeming earth, and when the seeds fall in other soils new varieties sprout up. The most essential departure of this new civilization is that it shall be thoroughly spiritual and humanistic – indeed a regeneration moral and eternal!"

"When you fall, get up, oh oh And if you fall, get up, eh eh Tsamina mina zangalewa Cause this is Africa Tsamina mina eh eh Waka waka eh eh Tsamina mina zangalewa This time for Africa."

"Lord, bless Africa. May her horn rise high up. Hear Thou our prayers. And bless us. Descend, O Spirit. Descend, O Holy Spirit."

"Should anti-cult ideology become entrenched within African regulatory frameworks, it is likely to undermine the broader ecosystem of religious diversity. Independent churches, indigenous spiritual movements, and minority faiths would face increased scrutiny, bureaucratic barriers, and the risk of closure. The distinction between safeguarding citizens and controlling belief would become increasingly ambiguous, thereby weakening the constitutional guarantee of religious [liberty]."

"Slavery existed all over the world. The Egyptians had slaves. The Chinese had slaves. The Africans did..."

"Africans express particularly positive views about America."

"China's investment in Africa of various kinds exceeds forty billion dollars."

"[T]he result of a collaboration, most likely unthought-out and maybe even unconscious, between outsiders and insiders; almost a conspiracy of Africans and their European apologists, who would very much like to see Africa succeed, even at the expense of a pogrom, a thorough purge of these immigrant peoples."

"Africa's intellectual class are totally bereft of solutions to their problems, and they lack creativity. I am coming to the belief that conservatism merged with philosophy breeds bigotry... We have realized that the sloganeering of the 60s was nothing but ego drive for the lust of power. One's thirst cannot be quenched by hunger, we shall never find a statesman, though we are blessed with politicians. And in any society the weaknesses of a politician are the strengths of a statesman. That is why you have so many people fighting for peace, but once they are in power only force makes them can relinquish power. Thus we are good fighters but lousy builders. Our last piece of original architecture was during ancient Egypt. What are we known for now? A continent plagued with inadequate health facilities but rich Ministers of Health."

"The African lions rush to attack bulls; they do not attack butterflies."

"The United States, having been the first to abolish within the extent of their authority the transportation of the natives of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves and by punishing their citizens participating in the traffic, cannot but be gratified at the progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations toward a general suppression of so great an evil."

"Still licking the scars of past wrongs perpetrated on her, could she [i.e. Africa] not be magnanimous and practice no revenge? Her hand of friendship scornfully rejected, her pleas for justice and fair play spurned, should she not nonetheless seek to turn enmity into amity? Though robbed of her lands, her independence, and opportunities – this, oddly enough, often in the name of civilization and even Christianity – should she not see her destiny as being that of making a distinctive contribution to human progress and human relationships with a peculiar new Africa flavour enriched by the diversity of cultures she enjoys, thus building on the summits of present human achievement an edifice that would be one of the finest tributes to the genius of man."

"The islands above the falls are covered with foliage as beautiful as can be seen anywhere. Viewed from the mass of rock which overhangs the fall, the scenery was the loveliest I had seen."

"No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."

"Creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi, and saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet [30 m] and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen to twenty yards."

"We will embrace partnerships based on mutual respect and win-win scenarios. We will not accept partnerships that do not recognise we also have the intellectual capacity to engage on equal terms. Africa has a voice. Fifty years after independence, Africa demands that its voice must be heard."

""Africa is a tough place and they were on top for a long time. It’s their turn to be dominated now," a friend I'd previously regarded as a liberal told me."

"The price that Africa is paying could cover the cost of solving the HIV and AIDS crisis in Africa, or provide education, water and prevention and treatment for tuberculosis and malaria."

"The Kremlin, unable to compete with China in Africa through infrastructure or investment, discovered that it could compete through religion."

"As Europeans with experience in the field of promoting freedom of religion or belief, we cannot tell Africans what is needed in their beautiful and special context. They will find solutions and practices based on their own culture and traditions. But we can express our appreciation for [the African Forum for Religious and Spirituality Liberty (AFRSL)] and for its young and energetic African Coordinator and his team, and our warning that the same forms of intolerance and discrimination we combat in Europe may raise their ugly head in Africa too. Now, however, they will find AFRSL to oppose and resist them."

"Forget the idea of controlling Africa through military coups, as Russia is doing in Niger, or economic neo-colonialism only. [The Communist Party of] China is one step ahead. It perfectly understands that economic and military control are not enough without political and ideological hegemony. Hence the idea of training Africa’s ruling classes to reject democracy, embrace authoritarianism, crack down on civil society (including religion), and feel good about it."

"Between 1990 and 2005, 23 African nations were involved in conflicts, and the total cost was about US$300 billion."

"Is the proxy war in Ukraine turning out to be only a lead-up to something larger, involving world famine and a foreign-exchange crisis for food- and oil-deficit countries? U.S. Cold War strategy is not alone in thinking how to benefit from provoking a famine, oil and balance-of-payments crisis. Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum worries that the world is overpopulated – at least with the “wrong kind” of people. As Microsoft philanthropist... Bill Gates has explained: “Population growth in Africa is a challenge.” His lobbying foundation’s 2018 “Goalkeepers” report warned: “According to U.N. data, Africa is expected to account for more than half of the world’s population growth between 2015 and 2050. Its population is projected to double by 2050,” with “more than 40 percent of world’s extremely poor people … in just two countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.” Gates advocates cutting this projected population increase by 30 percent by improving access to birth control and expanding education to “enable more girls and women to stay in school longer, have children later.” But how can that be afforded with this summer’s looming food and oil squeeze on government budgets?"

"To understand who we are as a species, and why we vary as we do, we must examine our genetic diversity in the context of a common African origin, followed by intra- and intercontinental diasporas that transpired over a period of tens of thousands of years, culminating in an era of major migrations that reshuffled the worldwide human genetic construction over the past several thousand years and is still underway. Last, we must recognize that today’s human population is far larger, more diverse, and more complex than it ever has been. We are all related, more than seven billion of us, recent cousins to one another, and, ultimately, everyone is African."

"It should not be a surprise then that poverty continues to breed conflict. Of the 13 million deaths due to armed conflict in the last ten years, 9 million occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where the poorest of the poor live."

"Uri Friedman: Why did the South African government, in the mid-1970s, decide to embark on a nuclear-weapons program?"

"We want to rewrite the history from our perspective, and not the perspective of what we read, which is often negatively biased towards Africa."

"The destiny of the great African continent, to be added at length — and in a future not now far beyond us — to the realms of the highest civilization, has become apparent within a very few decades. But for the strange and long inscrutable purpose which in the ordering of human affairs subjected a part of the black race to the ordeal of slavery, that race might have been assigned to the tragic fate which has befallen many aboriginal peoples when brought into conflict with more advanced communities. Instead, we are able now to be confident that this race is to be preserved for a great and useful work."

"African citizens are certainly better off in countries that support their aspirations and communities rather than becoming 3rd or 4th class citizens in Europe... When did Europe ever operate on behalf of African people except when Africa or its people were used to benefit the goals and priorities of Europe?"

"African peoples are now writing your own story of liberty. Africans have overcome the arrogance of colonial powers, overcome the cruelty of apartheid, and made it clear that dictatorship is not the future of any nation on this continent. In the process, Africa has produced heroes of liberation, leaders like Mandela, Senghor, Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Selassie and Sadat. And many visionary African leaders, such as my friend, have grasped the power of economic and political freedom to lift whole nations and put forth bold plans for Africa's development... Because Africans and Americans share a belief in the values of liberty and dignity, we must share in the labor of advancing those values. In a time of growing commerce across the globe, we will ensure that the nations of Africa are full partners in the trade and prosperity of the world. Against the waste and violence of civil war, we will stand together for peace. Against the merciless terrorists who threaten every nation, we will wage an unrelenting campaign of justice. Confronted with desperate hunger, we will answer with human compassion and the tools of human technology. In the face of spreading disease, we will join with you in turning the tides against AIDS in Africa."

"There has been a consistent effort to rationalize Negro slavery by omitting Africa from world history, so that today it is almost universally assumed that history can be truly written without reference to Negroid peoples... Therefore I am seeking in this book to remind readers. of how critical a part Africa has played in human history, past and present."

"On behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support. America will never forget the sounds of our National Anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris, and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa..."

"Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s smallest number of motorized vehicles but the highest rate of road traffic fatalities, with Nigeria and South Africa leading the pack. Trauma has become a silent epidemic in Africa, an epidemic that will only spread as the economy grows. More and more Africans are buying cars and working in heavy and dangerous industries. At the same time, infrastructure is poor, safety laws lax, and cars badly maintained."

"There is a dismal record of failure in Africa on the part of the developed world that shocks and shames our civilization."

"If the continent of Africa had drifted relatively as much as the boundaries of Poland have drifted in the last two hundred years, then Africa would at one time have touched the north pole and at another the south pole."

"Notwithstanding the interruptions of war, the plantations made a very substantial contribution for many decades, indeed for the greater part of the century after 1720. Between 1761 and 1808, British traders hauled across the Atlantic 1,428,000 African captives and pocketed £60 million - perhaps £8 billion in today's money - from slave sales."

"Africa will rid herself of the maniacs. Africa will live to show that "Black is beautiful"."

"The sheer number of slaves taken was unprecedented. The large scale of trading destabilised the social and economic order. By the end of the 18th century one historian estimates 70,000 people a year were captured and taken against their will to the Americas. What is now Angola was reduced in parts to a wasteland. In total, at least 12 million Africans were forcibly removed from the continent."

"Before the sixteenth century, slavery was not regarded by anyone (outside or inside Africa) as a particularly African institution. The association between Africa and slavery emerged in the fifteenth century. It was then that ship design made it possible for sailors from the Mediterranean to make long journeys down the coast of Africa and ultimately across the Atlantic to the Americas."

"Business tourism is rising in Africa. Demand from international civil servants and businessman is growing strongly."

"None of us has yet begun to grasp the full impact of this horror—on the quality of life in Africa, its economic potential and its social and political stability."

"Africans, African presidents in particular, are cordial people. [T]hey value their relationship."

"One of the many economic differences between developed and developing countries is that developed countries subsidize farmers while developing countries tax farmers. . . . World Bank studies suggest that US subsidies alone reduce West Africa’s annual revenue from cotton exports by $250 [million] a year."

"If you can’t have electricity you can’t drive any industrial development. Electricity drives everything, so until we fix that problem Africa faces huge challenges."

"Africa was the part of the world with the institutions least able to take advantage of the opportunities made available by the Industrial Revolution. For at least the last one thousand years, outside of small pockets and during limited periods of time, Africa has lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of technology, political development, and prosperity. It is the part of the world where centralized states formed very late and very tenuously. Where they did form, they were likely as highly absolutist as the Kongo and often short lived, usually collapsing. Africa shares this trajectory of lack of state centralization with countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, and Nepal, which have also failed to impose order over their territories and create anything resembling stability to achieve even a modicum of economic progress. Though located in very different parts of the world, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Nepal have much in common institutionally with most nations in sub-Saharan Africa, and are thus some of the poorest countries in the world today."

"For us Europeans, Africa as a neighboring continent is of prime importance. The development of African countries is in our very own vested interest. We, as Germans, but also we, as members of the European Union, will have to deal with this."

"Africa is deeply dichotomous, and this dualism is not likely to disappear in the short term. This makes her challenging to grasp. But Africa will grow irrespective of limited perceptions that prevent so many from seeing the opportunities. In celebrating Africa Day on May 25, those who wish to engage with the continent are, therefore, well-advised to take an appreciative view of the place, its people and its future."

"I shall not be deterred by people who don't see where the future of Africa lies. It is the short-sighted people who put their opinions in writing. They don't understand that the future of all countries lies in processing."

"Africa is wealthy in natural resources; the problem is they are not optimally utilized."