African Friends And Money Matters Summary

When I began reading Chapter 1 of “Mistaking Africa,” it reminded me of our first class meeting. Professor Crowley asked us to do the same exercise Curtis Keim talks about in the text. Professor Crowley asked us what comes to mind when we think about Africa. It is a great exercise and allow us to express our perceptions of Africa. Even in class, it took me time to think about what comes to mind when I hear the word Africa, because I have not really heard much about it besides the common misconceptions: “Africa is a primitive place, full of trouble and wild animals, and in need of our help” (5). I frequently see the UNICEF commercial with Alyssa Milano, who asks her viewers how it would feel to be able to save a child’s life for fifty cents a day. The commercial precedes to play really depressing music and shows a slideshow of undernourished children, who fend for themselves in

“African Perspectives on Colonialism” is a book written by A. Adu Boahen. This book classifies the African responses to European colonialism in the 19th century. Boahen begins with the status of Africa in the last quarter of the 19th century and follows through the first years of African independence. This book deals with a twenty year time period between 1880 and 1900. Boahen talks about when Africa was seized and occupied by the Imperial Powers of Europe. Eurocentric points of view dominated the study of this era but Boahen gives us the African perspective. There are always two sides of the story and Boehen tells us the side less talked about informing us of what he knows.

This novel enlightens the reader on many of the issues in the South African economy such as their lack of money, different types of business , and the little technology they had. The author explains many stories about having little to no money or food during his life. Sometimes the people in his village were so desperate for food they would rummage through landfills

Modern African states have several problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. The effects of colonialism have been offered as a starting point for much of the analysis on African states, but the question of why African states are particularly dysfunctional needs to be examined, given the extent to which they have lagged behind other former European colonies in many aspects. In the first section, I will consider the problems with African states from the level of the state. That is, the nature of the states' inceptions and the underlying flaws may explain some of the issues that have been associated with African states today. Next I examine the development of, or lack of, civil

Hustling is not stealing: stories of an African bar girl tells the story of Hawa’s life as an the prostitute, also known a bar girl in the 1970s. John Chernoff, introduces himself in the introduction as a scholar who lived in Ghana for several years studying music and Ghanaian culture. This book is an interview between him and a woman who he gave the name Hawa to protect her identity. Though he mentions that he made slight changes to the writing to make it easier for the readers to understand, the took is filled with tales from Hawa’s life, beginning from her childhood living in the village of Kumasi to her life as a prostitute living in Accra, Togo, and Burkina Faso. The book touches on several aspects of a post-colonial West African life. Urban poverty, patriarchy, lawlessness, European expatriates and the differences between traditional and urban mindsets in West Africa. Hawa is a very strong storyteller and I found the book to be very engaging, it was interesting to see the dynamics that were brought up in the tales that she had.

The economy of West Africa was completely dependent on the gold and salt trade. Salt was so valuable to them that it was literally worth its weight in gold. The sub-Sahara was where gold was most abundant and though their salt supply was sufficient the consumption of salt was encouraged for trade purposes.

In my research, to understand how we undertake the study of the African experience you have to start in the beginning of time which dates back hundreds of thousands years ago and go into one of the first civilizations known as ancient Egypt. Understanding where the people come from and where they are at today does not even cover a quarter of understanding the true African experience. To understand truly how to undertake the African experience you must understand the social structure, governance, ways of knowing, science and technology, movement and memory, and cultural meaning (The six conceptual categories). With these concepts you understand that in a cosmograph known

During the age of cross-cultural interactions, regions went through similar changes and continuities. These regions allowed consistent causes and effects to emerge and change their societies. These changes and continuities are evident in the regional societies located within Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. In Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas from 600 to 1450 CE, opportunities for women changed, however religion and labor continued to influence society.

Ohuoba’s “The Perception of Africa” shows how Africa has been stereotyped across America in ways including but not limited to: school textbooks, mass media, and news broadcasts. The essay expresses the continent of Africa as more than just poverty and clay roads seen on news broadcasts. Included in the essay was a short story of African native child that lives in the United States and studies about her continent in class. The child is baffled about all the perceptions of her homeland through her textbook and the children her class. Only the negative is studied and talked about rather than the good aspects of Africa. This demonstrates how one can be influenced to think something is worse than what it is.

A major challenge and cause of serious medical issues in Sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of access to a clean water supply. There are 345 million people that lack access to water in Africa. Unfortunately, when water is available it is high in contamination. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they cannot be maintained properly to due to limited financial resources. Water quality testing is not performed as often as necessary and the people are unaware that the water may not be safe to drink. Oftentimes, when a source of water has been provided, the quantity of water is often given more attention over the quality of. Lack of clean drinking is the leading cause of diarrheal diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa and causes 7.7% of deaths in Africa. Diarrhea is caused by numerous bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms most of which can be spread by contaminated water. The importance of diarrheal diseases has mostly been overlooked. Through UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) there have been some accomplishments during the

Sub-Saharan Africa, being a tropical region, ranks as one of the hottest regions on earth. This area receives more solar insulation than several other tropical regions. Thanks to technological advancements, hot temperatures do not cause a serious problem in the developed world. In these developed areas, heat only causes problems when power supply has been knocked out by storms or other hard-to-avoid occurrences. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, millions of people do not have access to electricity from grid connections. This means that these persons live in one of the earth’s hottest regions, yet have restricted access to the technologies that would have made life bearable.

Now, there are several salient points that can be made about Symoné’s comments. Symoné’s concern with her inability to accurately trace her African roots is reminiscent of the Pan-Africanist point of view. In this interview, Raven is privileging the Pan- African point of view, deciding that her blackness cannot be validated unless she can show a clear connection to Africa. The Pan-Africanist point of view came about during the time of 18th century slave revolts and continued throughout the 19th century abolitionist movements and the rise of new antisystemic movements in the 1960s (Lao-Montes 311).

to conduct new counts, and "added that the exercise had nothing to do with a tax

The Kenyan feminist and environmental activist, Wangari Maathai, explores the legacy of colonialism and oppression in her native country through her moving 2006 memoir, Unbowed. Maathai explains that over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Africa experienced a massive influx of white settlers. In an effort to solidify control over recently acquired colonies, many European powers had encouraged large numbers of their ethnically white citizens to make a new home on the African continent. As a result, thousands of native Africans were displaced. Maathai’s ancestors, the Kikuyu and Maasai peoples were among them. The majority of these forced dislocations took