Africa and Global Developments in the Twenty-First Century
| Author | Timothym. Shaw,Clement E. Adibe |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209605100101 |
| Date | 01 March 1996 |
| Published date | 01 March 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Africa's Prospects |
TIMOTHY
M.
SHAW
&
CLEMENT
E.
ADIBE
Africa
and
global
developments
in
the
twenty-first
century
From
now
on,
the
danger
in
several
parts
of
the
[African]
continent
is
of
pure
destruction or
generalized
desta-
bilization.
The destabilization
is
already
evident
in
Somalia,
Liberia,
and
Angola.
The pure destruction
began
to
be
realized
in
Rwanda
on
the
sixth
of
April
1994,
annihilating
every
contemporary
African
stan-
dard
of
reference.
Genocide
there
accomplished
the
unimaginable
and the
unlimited.'
INTRODUCTION
For
much
of
Africa
and
most
of
its
people,
the
twentieth
century
is
ending
almost
as
it
began,
in a
state
of
utter
despair
and
anomie.
Some
Africanists
have
started
to
draw
parallels
between
the
current
malaise
and
the
Africa
of
the
mid-1
9
th
century
'after
the
end
of
the
slave
trade
and
before the
imposition
of
direct
colonial
domination'
when,
paradoxically,
the
continent
was
marginalized
from
the world economy
and
yet
'highly
dependent
on
it.'2
By
the
end
of
that
century,
however, African
TIMOTHY
SHAW
is
Director
and
CLEMENT
ADIBE
is
Killam
Post-Doctoral
Fellow,
Centre
for
Foreign
Policy
Studies,
Dalhousie
University,
Halifax,
Nova
Scotia.
We
would
like
to acknowledge
the
institutional
support
received from the
Centre
for
Foreign
Policy
Studies
and the
financial
support
provided
to
one
of
us
by
the
Killam
Trust
Fund.
I
Ange
S~verin
Malanda,
as
quoted
in
William
Pfaff,
'A
new
colonialism?
Europe
must
go
back
into
Africa,'
Foreign
Affairs
74(January/February
1995),
2.
2
Thomas
M.
Callaghy,
'Africa:
falling
off
the
map?'
Current
History
93(January
1994),
31.
International
Journal
LI
WINTER
1995-96
2
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
societies
found
themselves
at
the receiving
end
of
socio-
economic
forces
of
contraction
and
expansion
which
resulted
in
the
establishment
of
colonial
rule
by
European
powers.
Who
would
have
anticipated
that,
barely
halfway
into
the
twentieth
century,
the
enfeebled,
conquered, and
colonized
peoples
of
Africa
would
orchestrate
one
of
the
most
spectacular
victories
of
our
time:
the
largely
peaceful
overthrow
of
European rule.
And
who
would
have
guessed
that
by
the end
of
the
twentieth
century
some
Africanists
and
Africans
would
be
advocating
a
return
to
colonial
domination.3
In
this
article,
we
examine
the
opportunities
for
and
limitations
to
Africa's
social
progress
at
the
onset
of
the
21st
century
by
reviewing
the
major
internal
and external
forces,
particularly
those
of
the
last
two
decades,
that
have
shaped
the
continent's
standing
in
the
world
political
economy
-
the
end
of
the Cold
War
and
of
the
postwar
Bretton
Woods
economy.
In
the
first
of
three
parts,
we
focus
on
African
images,
voices,
and
discourses
as
they
appear
in
contemporary
scholarly
writ-
ings
and
commentaries.
In
the
second
part
the
issues
and
prob-
lems
confronting
Africa
are
presented
in
a
global
context.
The
concluding
section
discusses
Canadian
foreign
policy
choices
in
relation
to
Africa.
CURRENT
DISCOURSES,
CHARACTERIZATIONS,
AND
IMAGES
OF
AFRICA
As
we
approach
the
turn
of
the
century, three
competing
per-
spectives
and
prevalent
images
dominate
the
theoretical
and
disciplinary
discourses
on
Africa.
The
first
-
which
we
shall
call
neo-Malthusian
Afro-pessimism
-
is
characteristically
hyper-sensa-
tional
but
also
simple
and
sufficiently
objective
in
its
description
of
the
facts
to
command
the
widespread
attention
of
diplomats,
policy-makers,
and
scholars.
Aside
from
its
descriptive
ease,
the
popularity
of
this
school,
according
to
Jane
Guyer,
derives
from
3
See,
among others,
Ali
A.
Mazrui,
'Decaying
parts
of
Africa
need benign
colonization,'
International
Herald
Tribune,
4
August
1994;
William
Pfaff
'A
new
colonialism?'
2-6.
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