No doubt you guys have heard of Oprah Winfrey's "philanthropy" - her building and supervision of a £20m school in Cape Town. I'm not quite sure what to make of this news. I should be happy that someone is investing in education on the African continent, which has the lowest literacy rates in the world. But it's also a shame that whenever someone makes what seems like a generous gesture, one has to search for the pinches of salt that inevitably come with it.
I'm very keen on African Americans rediscovering Africa. It is, after all, the only place on the planet where they won't be minorities. A place they can call their own. Home. A country like Nigeria should be the Mecca, the Medina, and the Jerusalem for people who want to dig into their past. If you look at where most of the slaves originated, they came from the western and central coast of Africa - from Senegal down to Angola. A small number were taken from south-east coast of the continent, where modern day Mozambique is.
African Americans who want to bond with the land of their ancestors should go to these areas. But they all seem to gravitate towards South Africa, hence Oprah starting a school just outside Joburg. I seem to remember that Will Smith was house-hunting in South Africa, not too long ago. When Dave Chappelle had his troubles, he ran away to South Africa. Even those leftist militant rappers, Dead Prez, who one might have thought more egalitarian, went to SA first.
What is this obsession with SA, which they have very few ties to? There are two reasons. The civil rights movement in the US has parallels with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. People of African origin were fighting for fair treatment in both places, one was as a minority population, and the other as a majority population. This kinship is understandable, the blood, sweat, and tears of wrestling for freedom is enough to bind these two peoples together. I hope this is where it ends, and it isn't a case of brotherhood in being victms. A "both our lives are crap" mentality.
The second reason is more grating than the first. These people choose SA because it is convenient. This a country that visitors describe as Europe in Africa, another continent, developed country. African Americans who choose South Africa can eat their cake and have it too. They can do they whole "back to the Motherland" thing, but still live in New York city and Hamptons luxury. They don't have to deal with the reality of Africa as it is today - full of war, poverty, starvation, disease, flood, desertification, deforestation, corruption. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse live in Africa, they just visit the other places.
Why would African Americans want to experience all this in foreign climes when they can just go to any number of their neighbourhoods. Many of you will remember a scene in Farenheit 9/11, where Michael Moore goes to his hometown of Flint in Michigan and speaks to some young people. One of them says something along the lines of, "many of these places (in Iraq) look like our neighbourhoods, and there isn't even a war here." SA gives its African American visitors a tolerable sense of what Africa is like.
South Africa has one of the highest levels of literacy in Africa, it isn't the country most desperately in need of Oprah's charity. This year, the South African government spent £6bn on education, and spends a higher percentage of its GDP on education than China and India. £20m for just one school is admirable, but seems to be excessive. It appears even more excessive when one consider's that such a budget would educate huge swathes of the continent. I agree that the price is probably a weak argument, but it still sits uncomfortably with me.
I'm very keen on African Americans rediscovering Africa. It is, after all, the only place on the planet where they won't be minorities. A place they can call their own. Home. A country like Nigeria should be the Mecca, the Medina, and the Jerusalem for people who want to dig into their past. If you look at where most of the slaves originated, they came from the western and central coast of Africa - from Senegal down to Angola. A small number were taken from south-east coast of the continent, where modern day Mozambique is.
African Americans who want to bond with the land of their ancestors should go to these areas. But they all seem to gravitate towards South Africa, hence Oprah starting a school just outside Joburg. I seem to remember that Will Smith was house-hunting in South Africa, not too long ago. When Dave Chappelle had his troubles, he ran away to South Africa. Even those leftist militant rappers, Dead Prez, who one might have thought more egalitarian, went to SA first.
What is this obsession with SA, which they have very few ties to? There are two reasons. The civil rights movement in the US has parallels with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. People of African origin were fighting for fair treatment in both places, one was as a minority population, and the other as a majority population. This kinship is understandable, the blood, sweat, and tears of wrestling for freedom is enough to bind these two peoples together. I hope this is where it ends, and it isn't a case of brotherhood in being victms. A "both our lives are crap" mentality.
The second reason is more grating than the first. These people choose SA because it is convenient. This a country that visitors describe as Europe in Africa, another continent, developed country. African Americans who choose South Africa can eat their cake and have it too. They can do they whole "back to the Motherland" thing, but still live in New York city and Hamptons luxury. They don't have to deal with the reality of Africa as it is today - full of war, poverty, starvation, disease, flood, desertification, deforestation, corruption. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse live in Africa, they just visit the other places.
Why would African Americans want to experience all this in foreign climes when they can just go to any number of their neighbourhoods. Many of you will remember a scene in Farenheit 9/11, where Michael Moore goes to his hometown of Flint in Michigan and speaks to some young people. One of them says something along the lines of, "many of these places (in Iraq) look like our neighbourhoods, and there isn't even a war here." SA gives its African American visitors a tolerable sense of what Africa is like.
South Africa has one of the highest levels of literacy in Africa, it isn't the country most desperately in need of Oprah's charity. This year, the South African government spent £6bn on education, and spends a higher percentage of its GDP on education than China and India. £20m for just one school is admirable, but seems to be excessive. It appears even more excessive when one consider's that such a budget would educate huge swathes of the continent. I agree that the price is probably a weak argument, but it still sits uncomfortably with me.
After all is said and done, Oprah is helping her Africa, but her methods and motives stick in the throat.
Interview with Gavin Esler on Newsnight:
Interview with Gavin Esler on Newsnight:
