wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Glenn from Manhattan April 09, 2009 - 12:13PM

  Colonial living is like being a child, it is e-a-s-i-e-r, so growing up and governing oneself by a bottom up style of governance is h-a-r-d-e-r. Most would rather stay children and petition their parents (the gov't) for a higher allowance instead of going out and getting a job and becoming an adult. And of course, I'm not just referring to Africa or developing nations. The U.S. is not heading toward bottom up governance, government is becoming more centralized.

  
  
• [2] Ash in Manhattan from Manhattan April 09, 2009 - 12:26PM

  My goodness. What a wonderfully articulate guest! As an African American, her insights are piercing, powerful and persuasive.

  
  
• [3] Ash in Manhattan from Manhattan April 09, 2009 - 12:29PM

  I have just read my comments of a few minutes ago. I want to be clear: I am an African American; I know that she is not (which my sloppy English might have suggested).

  
  
• [4] Rebecca Popenoe from Stockholm, Sweden April 09, 2009 - 12:31PM

  A propos language and Africa: Ingmar Bergman made movies in a language that only 9 million people now speak. The majority of people in Senegal, a country with around 9 million people also, speak Wolof, so it seems hypocritical to suggest that it is a problem when African filmmakers make films in local languages! Over 20 million West Africans speak Hausa, and even more East Africans speak Swahili. As to linguistic and ethnic diversity in Africa, Switzerland gets along just fine with four offical languages. There is an unfairness, even a subtle racism,in the West's way of discussing diversity in Africa.

  Many adjacent African ethnic groups may not have mutually intelligible languages but they share very similar cultures and often religions -- more than one can say about the United States. So I agree with Wangara Maathai. Different standards are applied to Africa in a way that may even hinder Africans themselves from realizing the potential of this vibrant continent.