Washington and Lee University
Africa is a continent of unparalleled natural beauty, of vast mineral wealth and natural wonders, a land of fascinating cultural contrasts and rich ethnic traditions, and it possesses tracts of untamed wilderness so immense that they seem primordial. It owns the last of the wild herds of elephants, zebra, and wildebeests, the romping fields for the gazelle, the stalking lands of the lion. It is the birth land of humankind, and as a species we are most elemental and most vividly drawn here.
And yet the second-largest of the Earth’s continents, the third-largest in population, remains for most Americans a place of disquieting mystery. Even in the age of global communication and easy access, Africa remains off the beaten track, a truly foreign land. Its customs and dress are largely unfamiliar to most of us. None of its 800 languages bear any resemblance to our ancestral tongues. We hear of devastating famines, ravaging diseases, and a level of poverty that is unthinkable in America. And even with vivid news reports describing periodic eruptions of violent political turmoil, our understanding of Africa’s 51 nations remains oblique and all too often cynical. It is a place that most Americans would rather ignore.
In Africa: The Promise and the Peril we will clarify its human story as we ponder its many wonders. Our objective will be first to learn something of its colonial history—an analog, perhaps, to our own effort this week to come to grips with such an immense wonder. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa thereafter, we’ll concentrate on political, social, and economic issues. Does the legacy of colonialism, for example, still dominate national destinies? Is communism a force in Africa, or are we witnessing a resurgence of tribalism? Now that South Africa is fully democratic, are its prospects for domestic and political order any better? And how is population threatening Africa’s precious store of wildlife?