Africa observers oftentimes weigh in on a fruitless argument that tends to break down along rudimentary, and thus almost always wrong, lines that go something oike this: “Africa is in the midst of a catastrophe, and it’s only getting worse!” “No, Africa is doing better than you think!”
The discussion is fruitless in part because discussing Africa as if it is simply one huge place that is all the same is foolish. But it is also fruitless because almost inevitably, the pessimists (usually conservatives) have a particular worldview that makes it necessary for them to see an Africa gone awry while on the other (usually liberal) side there is an effort to counter the Afro-pessimism with what sometimes can amount to boosterism. The best question to ask advocates of either view is to narrow their discussion to specifics — specific themes and specific countries being the best.
My own proclivities are to hope for the best while being cognizant of the worst. While wary of the boosterish nature of the most optimistic reports, I still prefer to see pieces like this one, by Charles Kenny at Foreign Policy, simply because I believe that the pessimists are often driven by less than noble motives. One does not have to be a racist to see bad things in Africa, but all racists of necessity see bad things in Africa. The bashers and the boosters have their own agendas, but that does not mean I have to trust each agenda equally even if I wish there were greater sophistication coming from all sides.
