International

^{Posted on Thursday, 18th October, 2007}

Sarkozy’s ‘Eurafrique’ – whose history, exactly?

^{By Jenni O’Connor}

^{I thought I must have been reading a document from 1907; I had to pinch myself and check the date on the newspaper to realise that French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech in Dakar was dated July of this year. “The African man has not yet entered history,” he lamented; well, one might ask whose version of history, precisely, he has not been allowed to enter. Just as feminist historians have often made the point that ‘history’ could do with being renamed ‘herstory’, to focus on the unsung role of women throughout time, Sarkozy should ask himself what led him to define history in solely European terms.}

^{Sarkozy: “The African man has not yet entered history”}

^{He continued to add that, “the African peasant, who for centuries has lived according to the seasons, whose ideal is to be in harmony with nature, has known only the eternal renewal of time via the endless repetition of the same actions and the same words.”}

^{How bucolic. And how patronising. The same could, of course, be asserted of farmers around the world; whether in Austria, Australia or Angola, farmers will rise early, milk the cows, sow seeds at seeding time and harvest at harvest time. In this context, they do lead a life of eternal renewal.}

^{But this is not to say that nobody – farmers included – in Africa is capable of thinking beyond the demands of the season. To quote Professor Mwangi from the University of Toronto, since independence, Africans have experimented with “socialism, communism, capitalism, commoditisation, commercialisation, bureaucratisation [continuing on from where the Europeans left off], enshrined tyrants and dethroned them, built economies, watched them collapse and then re-invented them, rearranged and reconfigured their multiple identities, languages and ambitions, changed the names of their countries, in some cases more than once, moved capital cities from one [place] to the next, constructed roads, schools and hospitals, ruined them and begun to rebuild them, and confronted and engaged globalisation and used it to forge emerging markets, political stances, new products and new identities.”}

^{“Africans have experimented with socialism, communism, capitalism, commoditisation, commercialisation, bureaucratisation…”}

^{This is not just entering history – it is taking it by the horns! And what of the countless artists, writers, and musicians constantly pushing forwards the boundaries of time and space? The doctors, medical researchers and teachers, constantly striving to improve conditions for the next generation? The lawyers documenting constitutional amendments; the accountants balancing the books?}

^{These are the architects of modern Africa, but we must also not forget the ancient civilisation of Timbuktu; the dynasties of the Ashanti. African art, history and political systems go back millennia, many of which were plundered and broken apart by the advancing Europeans, who then took it upon themselves to redraw the maps. So active African engagement with history has been made all the more complex by the fact that so much of the continent’s recent past has been forged by others, for their own gain.}

^{Sarkozy seems to want Africa and Europe to work together in genuine partnership – and he accepts the wrongs of colonialism, whilst also being correct in saying that colonialism is not responsible for all of Africa’s current woes. He reframes the colonial period as “the embryo of a common destiny”, but for that to be the case, he and his advisers must stop infantilising Africa and viewing her diverse peoples as the victims of “celluloid suffering incapable of surviving without Western generosity,” as described by French writer Pascal Bruckner.}

^{For a genuine consensus to be met; for ‘Eurafrique’ to work, Africa needs to be free to express herself in her own terms, and to define her own sense of history – whether through art, politics, business or science. Only this way can a level playing field be achieved; and one where false bucolic dreams have no place.}

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