Who should I read in order to get a Chomsky-ish analysis of twentieth century and onwards Africa? Specifically Eritrea/Sudan/Ethiopia but anything about the continent would be great.
Also Africa discussion thread
>>1155866
>chomsky-ish analysis of 20th century africa
So you want an answer as to why the current state of Africa is America's fault?
>>1155871
I'm looking to know how exactly it was shaped by global forces.
>>1155884
Colonialism dumped infrastructure, then when the whites up and left or were killed off there wasn't enough expertise to maintain the infrastructure everyone had relied on.
Then the Cold War kicks off and everyone started arming everyone in Africa to either fight/spread communist ideology.
Cold War ends, all the African nations relying on soviet assistance now find themselves with no money and a lot of weapons. Que the spat of small wars and ethnic cleansings we see today.
Now China has moved in under neo-colonialism but they just build enough infrastructure to extract resources. You won't see any Chinese made universities in Africa.
>>1155899
Oversimplification, but surprisingly accurate.
>>1155899
Thanks for the answer.
Can you recommend me anything that goes into detail on this?
>>1155941
Africa's World War
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
>>1155899
Assuming no corruption ( I.e in a perfect world/never going to happen) the state takes the money from the Chinese and builds a university. But in reality...
>>1155941
Empire of Dust. As much as /pol/tards like to throw it around as a reason for blacks being inferior its a very good look at China's neocolonialism. They're there to make money. And when the resources run dry Africa will enter a new age of uncertainty
>>1155899
Great summary
>>1156130
Empire of Dust also mentions the development China is bound to build in the Congo like schools and hospitals.
>>1156174
True, but I feel the biggest challenge facing Africa is lack of expertise. It's all well and good to have the Chinese build hospitals and schools, but if there's a chronic shortage of teachers, doctors, and nurses they may as well just be decorations. It doesn't help that brain drain is a very real problem there, and while organizations like the African Union exist they don't have a clear vision for Africa. Hell the last man with vision for Africa was Gadaffi and we all know how that turned out.
>>1156187
I'll give you that, I just think neocolonialism is a bit of a harsh word.
That said, I'm certain China benefits much more than African states from all of these transactions and deals.
>>1156199
>I just think neocolonialism is a bit of a harsh word.
Why, because only white countries can be colonialists/imperialists?
It's resource-based exploitation, pure and simple. Just because there's more soft power vs. hard power involved doesn't mean it's not the same old power relations.
>>1156276
No, because there's no political or militaristic power relations, Beijing doesn't have any formal power in African internal issues and there are no Chinese policemen patrolling the streets.
>>1156276
Exploitation? The main problem is corrupt governments preventing any of the money from reaching the people than foreigners mining/farming.
>>1156286
>Beijing doesn't have any formal power in African internal issues and there are no Chinese policemen patrolling the streets.
These are both debatable but certainly Chinese mining compounds do have armed Chinese guards patrolling the area.
>>1156290
And who is propping up these corrupt governments? China has no interest in democratic regimes when they benefit from having the corrupt ones in charge. Hence why China supports people like Mugabe. If they cared about corruption they would tie their aid more closely to political and social reforms.
>>1156286
Soft power vs. Hard power
Why would you need police on the streets if you're the one signing people's pay checks? Why would you need police if you're not interested in controlling the country, just in exploiting its resources. And just because Beijing has no formal power doesn't mean it's not vested in it. I guarantee if two African nations who both had Chinese interests in them went to war, Beijing would step in to protect its interests.
Bump for interest
>asking for a particular slant in regards to history
That's now how history works, you don't belong here.
>>1156299
I think they already did a few years ago with Sudan and South Sudan to protect their oil exports from there.
>>1155866
Chomsky-ish? I suppose if you replace the West with both the USSR and West acting in unison then you can get what you want. Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea are in their present condition due to the Cold War and Italy's invasions. You know that meme where one guy points his three cronies towards a another guy and then he rubs hands while they get beat up? It's like that but with the USA and Somalia.
>>1155899
>we conquered them so we could deliver infraestructure and education
>we swear!
>>1157822
But that's exactly how history works. It's all just interpretation.
>>1158216
That's not what he is saying. Whites brought infrastructure so they could more efficiently take resources and rule. It's harder to take when you don't have the system set up.
>>1158216
It sure must be hard to read, huh?
>>1158132
pls
>>1160143
they were really skimpy on that even then.
There's been many case the following has happens
There's records of colonial staff begging for more money or giving out warnings that go unheeded.
>>1155866
I don't know, maybe Chomsky?
Well, I'm a leftist, here's my take.
Colonialism's end was a double edged sword. It's strange that the main force in ending colonialism was other countries telling Africans what they should do; Look at the Cuban influence in Angola, and in Rhodesia the British sort of just left all their own people stuck in limbo to deal with Mugabe. Same thing happened around the world, with the Netherlands just packing up and leaving South Moluccus and West Papua, and Portugal leaving East Timor, which were then overrun by Indonesia and subject to bombing campaigns and overrun with Islamists. I agree, the natives deserve their own independent state, but the process was done far too quickly, and a lot of families were stuck in the crossfire. It should have happened differently.
>Eritrea
Literally not a country. It exists because Italians couldn't conquer Ethiopia, so they bought coastal and until they had the border. They built cities and their language and culture spread. The US helped create it as a state (again, the main force in ending 'colonialism' is an imperialist policy from an outside force) that would help to control the gulf there. Down side: Eritrea executes Protestants, has worse press freedom than North Korea, ships weapons to Somali terror groups just to fuck over Ethiopia, and fucks over Ethiopia by taking up all of their access to the sea. Fuck Eritrea.
>Sudan
Led by a war criminal, again also a colonialist. I want to see Africa Balkanized more than anything. Sudan is Islamist as fuck, they have no laws against domestic abuse or rape if it's for gays. They persecute children and use child soldiers. When South Sudan, primarily Christian, finally became independent, it was a good moment for history, although their dictator looks just as bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvgBvwfW5Dw
An interesting take on Katanga.
>Congo's colonial era ends
>Hooray!
>Katanga province recognizes that the rest of the Congo is siphoning money off its mines
>Get crushed anyway
Africa is still colonialist.
>Western Sahara
>Eritrea (US satellite state desu)
>Congo fucks over Katanga
>The world refuses to recognize Somaliland, which is an actual viable Somali government and stable
>Sudan commits genocide in Darfur and still fights with South Sudan
>Nigeria puts down Biafran protests
>Gambia literally steals the main river from Senegal (but whatever, fuck the Senegalese dictator)
I'm a leftist, but the problem with leftists is that they see Christians in Africa and cry "Colonialism!" They forget that, even though Christianity was brought by the colonists, there are many countries that are primarily Christian that are being royally fucked over by Muslims, or regions of Muslim countries that get killing squads for being Christian. Leftists are bleeding hearts and I like their intentions, but they ignore things like this, or the fact that the Chinese are doing the SAME thing whites did back in the day.
Also, for more lefty perspective, poor mining practices screwed over people by lowering the water table by hundreds of feet in some places. Good luck digging a well, and all the surface water is contaminated from overpopulation in a culture that values procreation.
And the reason regions like the Congo or parts of Uganda can never find peace is because of materialism. Every group thinks, "Wow, we have so many forests and so many mines! If only I could control it!" There's so much violence because everyone fights over the resources, and are egged on by countries who still buy their bloody exports. Look up Coltan, they use child slaves at gunpoint by the Congolese army. That's the reason I went without getting a cell phone for so long.
>>1160502
That documentary about Katanga is interesting, but it still seems like the state was set up by western corporations to maintain their interests in the region.
>>1162485
Agreed, but it's a transition. Before this, Belgian troops were in the Congo and it was a hard colonialism. After Katanga's independence, different regions separated from the Congo based on their means of production, there were no Belgian soldiers there officially, and the political authority was pretty much handed over to the locals; Tshombe was an educated local who studied in Europe, iirc (haven't seen the documentary in a while.)
Compare this to places like Zimbabwe or Uganda, where control of an entire country is handed over to one person because of their racial rhetoric, and not because of resources or tribes.
One of the things colonists had going for them, good or bad, was that they saw two races, white and black. The locals see white, and dozens of tribal groups within their country, so naturally when one more populated tribe takes office, it could really spell bad news for other tribes. Look at Uganda, or Metabele in Zimbabwe, or Sudan. Whites were more shallow, which could almost be a good thing.
