Sir, - I am writing to express my outrage at the article on Africa by Paul Cullen in the Irish Times World Review of December 29th. Mr Cullen shows himself to be a poorly informed and biased commentator on a continent he clearly does not understand or respect.
His depiction of Africa is delivered in a grossly stereotyped, narrow-minded and unfair manner. The opening sentence is among the most troubling: to state that Africa is the "world capital of misery, corruption and the extinguishment of hope" is not only highly subjective but also wildly inaccurate. As any traveller to Africa knows, and as Mr Cullen should be aware, one of the strongest and most enduring traits of African people is their sense of continuing hope and optimism despite the most difficult and demanding circumstances. While corruption is sadly serious and widespread in many African countries, most commentators would agree that it is rivalled, and at times even surpassed, by corruption in countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Colombia.
As a young Irish person working and travelling extensively in Africa as an employee of the World Bank, I was truly appalled to read disconnected and redundant paragraphs on the slave trade, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and the Boer war. This backward-looking and colonialist approach to analysing Africa belongs in another era and should not feature in an article supposedly depicting Africa's global position on the eve of the 21st century. It was very disappointing to see that so much of the article was concerned with the distant past and that Mr Cullen chose to overlook some of the most dynamic and positive changes which serve as beacons of hope for continued progress in the future.
Where was the reference to Mali's and Mozambique's vigorous democratic processes which have been so highly commended internationally? Why did the steadfast and pioneering entrepreneurial classes in countries such as DR Congo, Cameroon and Ethiopia not deserve mention? What about Uganda's admirable efforts to curtail the spread of HIV/AIDS? Why was there no treatment of the increasing importance and strength of farmers' co-operatives, women's groups and local non-governmental organisations across the continent?
Furthermore, I feel compelled to take issue with some of his most blatant inaccuracies. A statement such as "today Africa is of no great strategic interest to the great powers" belies the obvious truth that French-speaking Africa is of huge importance to France - arguably still one of the great powers - and that many African countries are of increasing significance to China, which has large aid programmes and a significant proportion of foreign direct investment. As I live in Washington, I can also assure Mr Cullen that there are many senators, State Department and White House staff, lobbyists and international players within the American political system who strongly believe that it does matter who governs a country as important as DR Congo ("It seems to make a little difference to the West just who runs a country like DR Congo".)
To be fair to the author, blame for this article must also be apportioned to The Irish Times. I would hazard that this article is one of just a few on Africa which your readers will have read during 1999. This makes the onus all the heavier on a newspaper of your quality to avoid this sort of misinformation and to dispel the long-held myth that Africa is a no-hope case. The Irish Times could also be criticised for its choice of photograph which again perpetuates the over-used and stereotypical African image of a black child surrounded by death and misery.
Mr Cullen closes the article by saying: "Come the New Year, the colonial legacy will have been consigned to a previous century". It may be worth his while considering that his colonialist and biased attitude to Africa also be consigned to another century and not unashamedly used to propagate such unfair articles about a continent which deserves to be treated as an equal on the world stage. - Yours, etc., Eavan O'Halloran,
19th Street NW, Washington DC, USA.
Paul Cullen writes: Ms O`Halloran misses the point on so many scores it is hard to know where to begin. African states occupy the bottom 22 places in the most widely accepted ranking of civilisation, the human development index of the United Nations Development Programme. Four of the bottom 10 countries in Transparency International's corruption index are in Africa. War rages in at least seven African states, including a few that Ms O'Halloran puts forwards as models, such as DR Congo and Ethiopia. Anyone who has visited Sierra Leone or Rwanda will know what I mean by "the extinguishment of hope". Conrad's Heart of Darkness is many things, but not a "colonialist" manifesto. I have written many times before about the positive changes in Africa; this article, written at the end of an evil century for the continent, concentrated on the West's dubious legacy. Finally, if Africa is of strategic interest to the West, why was there the feeblest of interventions in Rwanda, and none at all in DR Congo or Burundi?