Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Kamal Boullata: Qu'est-ce qu'on peut dire? [De voir] une thèse comme ca, en trois minutes.

by Kamal Boullata

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Kigge Hvid: I think you really, really have to think about your question is or includes that the African state should be less developed than Western States? Please think with me once again, are they? They might be concerning economics, concerning stuff, concerning goods, concerning laundry machines, but this is purely a question about values. What if you look into family structures? What if you look into ways of being together? What if you look into being connected to tradition? What if you look into being connected to nature? What if you look into being connected to your family? Is Africa then still that less developed? It’s not my thinking. My thinking is that what you think about here is only economics and that’s a part of the world; it’s also a crucial part of the world, but it’s only a part of the world. What do you see in other countries that should be more developed than Africa is more isolation, less family connection, less sharing of tradition, less understanding of nature. So, you could just as well say that the countries you find more developed are in fact less developed. So, please look into the qualities, the strengths of Africa; I mean Africa, the land every child would know. Look into the qualities and do not believe if other people tell you that you are less developed.

by Kigge Hvid

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Kurt Weidemann: Only the fittest are going to survive. There are huge differences concerning dependence on nature, for example climate, conditions for possibilities to harvest, conditions of the soil and possibilities for working and so on. All of these factors are in Africa worse than in countries in temperate zones in which climate, wind, weather and everything else is arranged in a way, which is more convenient for human beings. That things are better in one place and worse in another is due to the nature of things. For example the camera industry was residing in Germany in the 20ies and 30ies of last century, they had the best products. Today it is in Japan where the best cameras are made and so forth. This means that the competition between national economies leads to developments, which are better in some countries and worse in others. That's a totally natural process and the insight of Darwin is slightly historic and dated.

by Kurt Weidemann

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Lesego Rampolokeng: Expansionism, colonialism, every single rottenism that has placed itself at the center of human life has made it thus. I find it incredibly offensive in the first place that the African continent should forever be seen as a place of violence, pestilence, disease, a place out of which only the darkness of negativity, only the darkness of destruction, only the darkness of human lack can come. Even then, we do go back down to human beginnings; we can say perhaps the human being is at an utterly, absolutely, repulsively, genocidally negative state of denial. Europe set out to place its old filthy sense of importance upon entire humans on this planet, and the African continent from its very first contact with Europe has in itself suffered more than any other part of the continent from greed, the greed of outsiders, the greed of those that saw Africa as a place where they could chop off hens, chop off heads, where they could castrate, rape, pillage and that continues up to this point. Africa has been sucked dry in order to probe either centers of commerce, or the entire world economy, West, South, East and North has been built on the blood of slaves who were African, on the blood of …

by Lesego Rampolokeng

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Leung Ping-Kwan: Well, about Africa, that includes a [gap] and that there’s a long history of colonization, war and disease in Africa, which is also linked to [inaudible] colonization and other things. So if these in Africa is, Africa state is less developed and we should look back at the history, this long issue of colonization and all the things. The fact, an influence in the development in Africa and I think is not just an isolated case in Africa, but rather the relationship in Africa to other European countries.

by Leung Ping-Kwan

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Lijun Fang: If Darwin's theory is right, what would a monkey think? The important thing is what "developed" means. In fact, the developed countries can bind the African states, or Indonesia, or other less developed countries onto a fast chariot and force them to involuntarily develop. That is crucial.

by Lijun Fang

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Lillian Holt: Well it depends on what you mean by developed. I guess you mean economically developed. You know is Darwin's theory right? I'm not too sure. This idea of the hierarchical survival and development in terms of humanity and I have some qualms and questions about that. And you know, if Darwin's theory is right, as I said I'm not too sure about it. In some ways I'd think that the so-called under developed countries and states and societies are probably very well developed in other ways in community and dare I say spirituality? I mean economically they may not be developed but spiritually and community-wise they are. I heard a woman from Nigeria talk the other day and she said, you know, people just see the surface. They're not part of the community but people do take care of one another in a way that we don't do in the West. Of course in Africa too there was a lot of exploitation of the resources by the Colonial invaders. So, yeah this is a very profound and serious question. I think that we need to be careful of the words that we use when we talk about who's developed and who's not developed or who's underdeveloped. In some ways I think that people who use nuclear weapons or have access to nuclear weapons are very, very underdeveloped and that includes the West.

by Lillian Holt

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Livingstone Maluleke: Well, this statement by Darwin is that life began in Africa may be true, may be wrong. But, in my theory – in my understanding of this statement, Darwin has got a lot of interest in Africa and therefore, I agree with him. What he actually means here is that a lot of resources, knowledge, experience, wealth has started from Africa. People in Africa has got one history, one strong point that they are very rich in history, they’ve got valuable wealth, they have got a lot of resources and all these resources were taken away when colonized by the Western countries. Colonized and then came back after for implementation and then it was modernized. In other words, these ideas were taken from Africa to the Western countries and they were then [incorporated] and brought back to Africa in style. Therefore, the African power was pirated to the Western countries. That is what it means. And indeed, one – it goes without saying that most of the African activities were pirated to Western countries and this compromised the position of the African world and as such, really life have begun in Africa and came back to Africa for Africa.

by Livingstone Maluleke

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Mae-Wan Ho: We have to distinguish Darwin’s theory from the theory of evolution. Darwin’s theory is an explanation of the theory of evolution. If the evolution theory is correct that life, that human life has originated in Africa. Now, then we have to ask well, what does developed mean? In the present day, developed means being like the developed nations, like Europe and the United States, which have a very distorted value system based on money and wealth and material wealth, but in terms of real values, Africa is not underdeveloped at all. It is highly developed with respect to human values, love, friendship, value for community and in fact, according to the happiness and contentment index, Africa scores much better than the average individual in Europe and the United States, who have much more material wealth and consume forty times as much energy as the average African.

by Mae-Wan Ho

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Mahsa Shekarloo: Well, I suppose we first have to ask ourselves, what is the definition of development here? What do you mean by development? Development as it is defined today? Based on economics, based on technology, based on infrastructure? Or are we talking about a different kind of development? -- In many ways, I suppose that African states, African peoples, African cultures are more developed than Western ones. It’s quite possible. I think we need to question these terms like development, and maybe reprioritize certain values, maybe values that highlight family, just redistribution of resources, bringing the marginalized into the center, having them speak out. I think maybe then our definitions of what constitutes development may change.

by Mahsa Shekarloo

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Martin Almada: There was no development in Africa, because of the First World countries´ exploitation. The colonization didn´t allow any development. At present, recolonization takes place in Africa once again,an exploitation bringing dependence and no development. Africa is a marvelous country, which I got to know personally when I was working in the UNESCO. The question of Africa is a shame to mankind. We talk about a continent full of natural resources,a continent which was home to extraordinary cultures and civilizations, like Egyptian, Muslims and others. Africa was inicially chosen as a place to be exploited by the Europeans, the economic powers of the XVI century. During almost three hundred years they have robbed this continent of its biggest treasure, its man and women, in order to turn them into slaves. This was the beginning of the African tragedy, a systematic loss of millions of people, loss of culture and languages during centuries. Such was the situation when in the XIX. and XX. centuries the colonies were shared among global powers. The international help couldn´t change the situation, nor could it fight against new forms of colonial exploitation. The results are obvious now. Poverty in Africa is not a result of great magic, but of decisions, actions and crimes committed by human beings at a certain point in time. Africa is a still outstanding bill, the same like the South American natives.

by Martin Almada

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Masami Saionji: I think of this, but a question of this person is surely so if I put value in material civilization. Africa is behind with development in comparison with the other West countries. But what I put value on to the word development; if we put the value on the material civilization, surely the material becomes really rich, and civilization becomes richer. And prosper by greed without evil and production, by the competition of economy, it develop richer and richer, thus a heart becomes poor. They feel loneliness and not satisfied, their minds are invaded, and forget what we live for, what is one's existence. However, though may certainly the material civilization is behind, but when we watch African countries, the richness of a heart is still there; living with the nature, eating the giving things from the earth with appreciation, and surviving with helping each other and united with grand father, grand mother, parents and children. In addition, their education does not only grow their knowledge, but derives their home place from the ancestor to their grand children and teaches things such as the richness of the splendid heart, love, thanks, modesty and resonance of nature; therefore though the civilization is certainly behind, their hearts are continues yet having the thing which is splendid from other developed nations, and think that save it. Therefore the heart of people of a developed nation, such as loneliness, mental disease...

by Masami Saionji

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Masuma Bibi Russel: It’s a theory Mr. Darwins wrote ‘life begins in Africa’, it’s wonderful. But, I think the people there -- because Africa is so rich in art, culture everything, music everything. I think that people there have to start thinking about it. They have to use their resources, they have to know their heritage, their culture and they have to – people have to work for their development. I think it’s very important. It’s very easy to write a theory and it says, of course Africa is wonderful. I mean, life begin in Africa. But, I think it’s the people who will the make the Africa what is everyone dream of Africa. And they have to – they have to show the world with their dignity, with their heritage, with their culture that they are so rich in everything. And of course, to compete with the Western states, it’s nothing to be scared off or nothing. They have so much wealth in there, I mean they could be -- they can compete with anything. I think it’s the people who will make this work very hard and who will make the country very, very strong. And I believe strongly because I am -- I am really, really, really admire and really a great supporter of Africa and they have so much, so much. So, wake up Africans and show the world that you are not behind anything.

by Masuma Bibi Russel

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Mayank Mehta: I think the current state of painful poverty and unhappiness in Africa has nothing to do with Darwin’s theory of when life began. As we know, the time scale of human civilizations is far shorter than the time scale of which human evolution began. So let’s leave that issue for the moment, if you will, and not really going into whether life did or did not begin in Africa. Let us take it for granted all the purpose of this question that life did begin in Africa. But of course, human beings move around quite a bit; civilization spread elsewhere they ran to the different parts of the world, they flourished, came into independence, made them discoveries, rule the other people, and came to power. So the real issue is not really the conflict between human life or is it homosapiens originating in Africa. But issues, why is Africa in the current stage of mess? Very hard question, of course, simple answer one can give is the rest of the worlds, which has exploited Africa for the longest time, use the resources, colonize them, and enslaved them, sucked their economic wealth, material wealth, and left them with broken down systems of development. Lacks of any system to rule themselves, or govern themselves; broken down traditions which did allow them to govern. And then, there are more difficult answers, why they’re in this current state? The more difficult is, in my opinion, and I know very little about it, so probably I’m wrong about this. Is that the current, the way the world is functioning now is in terms of large state, not smaller state, not small tribes but large states. And the largest of the states in the world are invariably the most powerful. So the only way that Africa, perhaps, not only, that even more preposterous to say, the way that Africa may come forward is to have ways in which they first have the prosperity in the tools to govern themselves well and then the enough tools to have that they will move forward using their own independent start.

by Mayank Mehta

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Michael E. Tigar: Elliot Chikoma, what a question. Could you reflect with me on the fact that Namibia, even ahead of South Africa, and has the most advanced Constitution and Bill of Rights in the entire world? That your neighboring country of South Africa gave us the insights of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo and all of the people who swept into power in the wake of Mandela's release from prison. And then who put into place a constitutional court and a set of rights that could actually be vindicated in a tribunal. No, I think that we have to ask ourselves what develop means. Africa gave us Patrice Lumumba, who was of course brutally struck down. Africa gave us Jomo Kenyatta. Africa gave us Kwame Nkrumah. So in terms of development in some rational sense of the world, Africa has not been lacking. The insights of Africa have been in the advance. But of course perhaps you mean economic development. Well I think there are two sets of answers to that, maybe only one. The word is colonialism in the old form and imperialism in the modern form. The domination and distortion of African economies and political realities documented by Basil Davidson in his book “The Black Man's Burden”, which I encourage you to read, paint a sorry picture and lay the blame for much of what's contained in the question you ask, at the foot of the European adventurers who colonized your continent. And in terms of today, the continued dependence on monoculture and now the burgeoning discoveries of petroleum in Africa and the issues that are now presented, raise the risk that the vicious cycle of imperial control of African destiny will continue. But at the same time give you, in particular in your own country, an enormous opportunity to change the dynamic of power in the interest of all people in sub-Saharan Africa. Good luck.

by Michael E. Tigar

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Michael Laitman: It is possible that life was conceived in Africa, but our civilization began developing only with the emergence of egoism, the force of our progress, in man. This happened in Mesopotamia, Ancient Babylon, approximately 4500 years ago. Historical sources narrate about the outburst of egoism in humanity—this is the meaning of the Tower of Babel about which the Torah narrates. In their pride, people wanted “to achieve the heavens”—expressed allegorically, to build "a tower up to the sky." As the result of the ego that developed in them, they began hating each other and therefore stopped understanding each other. This is called "the intermixing of the languages." Then they wandered away from each other, because they did not want and could no longer be together as one person, in the civilization of those times. They stopped understanding each other, and then all of humanity began developing by means of its ego. This is how we develop throughout all of history by means of the ego that is inherent to us, from one generation to the next. It is only in man, in this special creature of nature, that the ego develops even over the course of his life. A one-day old calf is like a grown bull, it is already an animal that is prepared for everything and understands what it needs to do. Whereas in a person, the ego grows over the course of his entire life, and therefore he does not know what to do and needs education, support from society. Therefore, we are very far away from Africa and even from Babylon. Today we are immersed in the developing egoism, which demands to be quickly tamed. If we will do this, then we will come to the corrected society, and if not, then we are really approaching the end of our civilization.

by Michael Laitman

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Michael P. Totten: It’s not Darwin’s theory that life began out of Africa, with all due respect to the question. Life was created worldwide. The human species, I suppose, could be said has emerged out of Africa. But there is also nothing in Darwinian theory that says, how -- what the future holds, whether the humans populate and geographically disperse. Certainly, there has been analyses, a recent book “Collapse” and "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond, the biologist, has laid out some arguments for why technology arose in some parts of the world more rapidly than others. This is still open discussion, and quite bit of argument within the cultural anthropology academic discipline. It really, I suppose, goes to again the way that many of these questions, how the humans interact with each other so as to provide for equitable opportunities. Humans, historically, seem to have been competitive to the point of genocidal activity of one human group against another, and this continues into, today. And it is one of the biggest questions that we face as society is how do we, again being the supposed Homo sapiens, take advantage of our insight, our ability to be consciously reflective, to prevent conflicts and certainly genocidal activities from emerging. We need to use our knowledge for preventing the early warning system, and ultimately it means bringing sufficient economic conditions and opportunities, so that most of these conflicts would never arise in the first place.

by Michael P. Totten

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Mohammed Arkoun: The history of Africa is not written yet in the perspective of an anthropogical analyses of the circomstances in which the habitants of the african continent lived during centuries in a situations which reduced them to slavery and the slave commerce and which left a mark which is even today hard to overcome. I'ts a period in human history which brings up questions even today which are not brougt up in the right way and which can't therefore be answered in the right way. Furthermore the question of slavery and the question of colonisation which aggravated the african situation in the 19th and even in the 20th century has completely weakend the conditions of the construction of modern states on this continent and conditions of the developpement of modern cultures which permitted to the Africans to live in the same rythm as the other socities which delopped in the right way. But I have to add that Africa in comparaison to other continents had much more to suffer because of the phenomenon of slavery. Concerning the under-developpement, we know that in [Alcie]and even in North africa, the so called white africa, for example, there are so spectacular political failures that we have to notice an impossibility to obtain the level of the modern world and to adopt modern conceptions of law, of political practice and criticism of society.

by Mohammed Arkoun