I received an email from a reader this morning. The emailer (it was basically anonymous, and so I do not know the writer’s gender) asserted that they like this blog, but believe that I am too negative about Africa, and suggested a website (theirs, I assume) for me to visit that takes a sunny view of Africa.
First, I do not see myself as being unremittingly negative. I reject Afro-pessimism, and if anything I think I err on the side of optimism where optimism is possible. I try not simply to follow the mainstream news cycle coming from the continent, and I have been an ardent advocate for a whole host of issues (think of my views on the World Cup or my criticism of those who see crime everywhere or my embrace of African pop culture and sports).
At the same time, I feel that I have a responsibility to call it as I see it. It is hard to look at, say, Zimbabwe, to talk to my Zimbabwean friends, to follow events there closely, and then to come up with a truly optimistic view of what Mugabe hath wrought. It is difficult to see political violence in Kenya or Guinea and not comment on it. It can be challenging to find the bright side of the Democratic Republic of Congo or Sudan.
My job is not to be positive or negative. My job is to pull together as many stories as I can, to comment on them as I see fit, and to try to make sense, for myself and for you, of the complex, sometimes heartbreaking, and yes, sometimes heartwarming stories that coming from Africa.