The rhetorical question whether Africa can afford anything in global affairs is preposterous because the continent of Africa does have very limited options with very scarce resources to affect anything beyond dictates from the West. I shudder when neo-panafricanists brandish a romanticized perspective of African History and relapse to atavistic paradigms of leadership from renown past politicians. Nkrumah, Lumumba and Mandela belong to different categories of leadership in time and space. Mandela is a freedom fighter, Lumumba although enlightened but compromised with communist dogma; and Nkrumah was by all means a platonic tyrant and a dictator despite his sincere efforts to de-colonize Africa. I do respect Professor Franklin and absolutely agree with his observations on slavery that it essentially robbed Africa. However, the challenge for us Africans is not only analysis but to think synecdochically about slavery in general and the Trans-African slave trade in particular- Africans where actively involved in that inhuman institution also. A large number of local chiefs sold their brothers and sisters to the white man. In fact former colleague of mine in the Gambian Army used to brag about how is great great grand father sold Banjul to the British for a bottle of rum! I will never deny that there is a corrosive influence from Europe and Arabia perhaps but the solution to the imminent African problem is within the Africans themselves…This was the same little secret that Kemal Ataturk realized about Turkey and set the agenda for a total cultural transformation to get out of the DARKNESS. Ebou __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~