Discovering Africa

Germany’s knowledge of Africa appears to be a little underdeveloped. Therefore, the German Federal Agency for Civic Education initiated a large-scale project that will inform on the rich cultural life and potential of that diverse continent.

Judith Hartl reports

photo:AP

​​Up to now, politicians and others have demonstrated only a modest level of interest in Africa. Slowly, however, attitudes do appear to be changing: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder recently travelled to Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana – four countries that may represent Africa’s current best hopes, as the Chancellor himself said. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had already visited Mali, Namibia and South Africa, and in March, Germany’s current Federal President, Johannes Rau, will go to Tanzania and Nigeria.

The German Federal Agency for Civic Education has also set itself a major objective: starting immediately, Africa will form the agency’s main focus for the next three years. Countless events, seminars, concerts and exhibitions will enable Germans to gain a clearer picture of this huge and diverse continent. Judith Hartl attended the opening of the “Africome” project (that will run from 2004 to 2006) in Berlin.

Most Germans know next to nothing about Africa. According to Thomas Krüger, president of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, many schoolchildren believe that Africa is a single country, of which Johannesburg is the capital. Reason enough, he feels, to make Africa the main focus of the Agency’s activities for the next three years:

“By concentrating on Africa, we hope to correct the predominant image of a uniform, monolithic landmass wholly lacking in perspectives. We want to help break down prejudices and to show the positive developments in Africa. At the same time, however, we do not intend to remain silent about the problems facing the continent.”

Speaking in Berlin, former Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker complained that many people who don’t know Africa see it as a synonym for war, crisis and catastrophe. He went on: “Those who have experienced Africa themselves, those who know its art, its literature and its music, are simply astonished by what it has to offer.”

Germany’s increasing interest in Africa

Africa is on the move and changing radically; and German politicians and businesspeople are also becoming increasingly interested in what used to be known as the “Dark Continent”. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has just returned from his first African trip, accompanied by numerous representatives of Germany’s business community, including Matthias Kleinert of Daimler Chrysler.

“We businesspeople are also optimistic about the new beginnings that are discernible in Africa”, says Kleinert. “And we’re doing our best to introduce measures that will help Africans to achieve exactly what they themselves are working towards: education, training and qualification for young people, and for the generations to come. I can’t say this often enough: if Africans succeed in improving the education, training and qualification of the young, then they will have exactly the same productive results as any of the currently developed industrial nations.”

Africa knows best what it needs

In short, independent African initiatives should be supported. This is also the main objective of Germany’s current development policies, says the German government’s Commissioner for Africa, Uschi Eid. When hecklers in the audience accused her of being a “know-all”, Ms. Eid responded as follows:

“I think many people still have certain images of what we are about, and these include some real prejudices that should actually have been eradicated long ago. For example, this idea that we’re ‘know-alls’, that we have a patronising attitude to Africans. In point of fact, we have looked very closely at the suggestions made by Africans themselves – and it’s precisely these suggestions (the Africans’ own proposals for reform) that we’re now supporting. So I really don’t see who’s the ‘know-all’ here!”

Above all, NEPAD – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development – is seen by many as an important and highly promising model. This initiative was started by various African nations in 2001. Their aim: to enable Africa to handle its conflicts and crises by itself; or even better, to prevent them from arising in the first place. In addition, NEPAD is intended to promote the development of democratic structures, and to attract investors. Yet Wole Soyinka, speaking in Berlin, chose to criticise this very body, at least indirectly:

Criticism by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka

“Experience has made it clear that every African nation needs to develop its economy democratically. And by that I mean lots of small and medium-sized businesses, rather than mammoth companies that merely bring even more debts and even more problems to Africa.”

Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1986), gave a very sceptical and very thoughtful speech in Berlin. Yet despite her enormous respect for the man, Germany’s Commissioner for Africa, Uschi Eid, voiced her disagreement:

“I understand his scepticism. But the fact is, if we don’t want NEPAD to come to nothing, then we have to form a world-wide coalition to ensure that it’s a success.”

The African Union (AU) is an organisation broadly comparable to the European Union. Uschi Eid made it clear that the German government is hoping for significant input from the AU, in order to anticipate conflicts and crises before they get out of hand – or, indeed, in order to offer its assistance in dealing with them, whenever necessary.

Europe must to invest much more than in the past

Yet Stefan Mair of the Berlin-based Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Science and Politics Foundation) says that it’s precisely here that Germany, and Europe as a whole, will have to invest a great deal more effort than hitherto:

“We must contribute to finding solutions to violent conflicts in Africa – and we must take part in pacification measures, if necessary. We are already doing a great deal to help prevent conflicts in the longer term, but we cannot forever evade the issue of participating in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa.”

For the next three years, the German Federal Agency for Civic Education will do its best to educate Germans about African politics, history and culture. By then, hopefully, schoolkids and others will realise that Africa is much more than a single country populated by wild animals and black people.

Judith Hartl © DEUTSCHE WELLE / DW-WORLD.DE 2004
Translation from German: Patrick Lanagan