With a hat tip to Texas in Africa, which has fast become one of my favorite Africa-themed blogs (possibly in part because of my own Texas-to-Africa links), comes Development Daily’s “A Comparative Taxonomy of African Cliches.” Because of the generalized nature of the post, most anyone who writes about Africa is occasionally guilty of some of these sins. For example, it is all well and good to speak of “Africans” rather than “Africa,” though at some point or other, most knowledgeable Africa observers (see, there I go!) will nonetheless refer to the continent rather than its people. This is especially the case for those of us looking at politics, history, or larger trends whereby, in fact, Africa is a perfectly cromulent (Simpsons reference!)unit of analysis, or at least the proper shorthand, especially if one provides a proper contextualization for its usage. I do not go to bed feeling like a dilettente for writing the FPA’s Africa Blog, for example.
