Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Bill Joy: There’s many historical factors why African states are less developed, I think. The first is where are the roots of the economic system that we have today came from, the industrialization which occurred in Europe, didn’t spread as much to other areas of the world such as Africa, the kind of trade that was going on in Africa was limited, the continent’s very large, the resources were exploited but the people were not brought up and brought in to the industrial manufacturing system because of things like the distance involved and moving the goods from Africa. I think colonialism also put an overhang and prevented the kind of natural development. And when the colonial powers pulled out they left a vacuum which when mixed with the tribal issues in Africa where tribes are often spread between across borders that were artificially put in by the colonial powers. All these factors combined, and many others which I’m sure others are much more qualified to speak to than I am, combined to limit the development of Africa. What we need now I think is better education in Africa. We need to include Africa in free trading systems. We need to invest in development and addressing the dire issues in Africa like debt and AIDS and by doing these things I think we can help Africa do much better in the 21st century.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Bora Cosic: Darwin’s theory has certainly its fundaments in the knowledge Darwin obtained but for me its poetic metaphor. The development of the African continent, which unfortunately was very difficult and still shows the suffering of its people until today, has no direct ties with the scientific fundaments Darwin created. This is similar with a child born in a family without heritage. So the Africa of today and the Africa during human history have nothing to do with the idea that human live began on that continent. Things like this happen, just as they happen in many of smaller environments, for example small families.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Brian J. Weller: Well, this is a – this is a very tricky question. If we – if what we mean by development is economic development in the general Western sense of that word, then maybe yes, Africa maybe is less developed. But in so many more ways Africa is much more developed than many, many other continents around the world. You think about Africa and its development. What development by the way means, to unwrap, to de-velop. In much the same way as a bud is unwrapped to release the flower. So what is the true flower of Africa? When I think of that, when I feel that, I think of living in balance with the natural world. Living in true community. Living in tribes. I think of the music of Africa, the rhythm of Africa, the art of Africa. You could say many ways Africa is the heart of the world, and in that respect maybe it is the birthplace of civilization. I feel that Africa is who’s showing us the way. It’s the most beautiful continent and it’s been suffering so much pain for so long. It’s been in a sense raped and pillaged by Western imperialism and I hope to God that in the next few years that will fall away. If it does, then we’ll see the full true flowering of Africa as the rhythmic heart of the world. A beautiful, beautiful continent, Africa.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Catherine David: We have to keep on being nice as I think this question has been asked by a 16 year old boy or a 16 year old girl otherwise it seems racist. Furthermore the question is very generalising because what does that mean, Africa? South Africa is not developed but it's even more developed than the rest of Africa, there are states that function.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Constantin von Barloewen: Human life has begun indeed in Africa, if it is based on the theory of diffusion, but according to the research of primates, human beings appeared 5 to 6 million years ago in Chad. One can not forget that Africa slowly developd backwards in old traditions, archaic traditions, so that the industrial revolution never took place there, and the nature and resources were absolutely possessed by the states of the industrial world in the 19th Century. One can not forget that social trust in colonial times was not created. The colonial times were surely imprinted for the African states. When one considers that the Islam has settled in African states, for centuries in Morocco, and also in others part of the world, i.e., there was foreign settlement, there was always the suppression of native cultures, which excluded an early democratization in Africa and the colonial times have played another role, just not allowing this social trust or democratic structures to be established, which did not make any civilian society possible, as it could be developed in the western states over centuries. Only in the past few years, now, Africa has taken a certain upswing, which is very limited, in comparison with the worldwide standard, about 6 per cent of the gross national product in the years 2004, 2005. When one considers that Tokyo has more telephone connections than the entire Subsahara Africa, it is clear nowadays in the year 2006 that “The digital device”, thus the digital gap, is very large, because the digital revolution did not take place in Africa. In addition, the colonial inheritance, the inexistent social trust, the not established democratic structures were surely the factors for the situation of Africa as well.

by Constantin von Barloewen

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Cornel West: There is no doubt that human life and homo sapiens emerged in the great continent of Africa. In that sense, we are all Africans. But, of course, I am an African in the modern sense of being part and parcel of a system profoundly rooted in white supremacy, the vicious notion that black people, brown people, red people, yellow people are less, moreorless intelligent, less beautiful. This is very much a modern construct linked to the emergence of the capitalist mode of production in the 15th century tied to the European invasion of the world in which those nations between the Euro mount us in the Atlantic Ocean beginning in late 15th century, 1492 let’s say, with Columbus encountering the New World, begin to reshape the world and the image of powerful European elite. The white supremacy served as an ideological justification of the stealing of lands of indigenous peoples in New World. The enslavement of Africans in both Africa and the New World, and it made it very difficult for African peoples and African nations to assert their self respect and their self determination, ending up more economically underdeveloped than those European nations who themselves were developed dependent in part on a very ugly exploitation of African people’s labor and the degradation of African people’s cultures. And, yet we hope things will be changing in the future as Africa emerges like a phoenix from the ashes with its resources and we hope plays a role in the democratic globalization on this planet.

by Cornel West

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: I am not sure if Darwin is right, but this is one thing sure here. African people did not invent arms and weapons. They didn’t also develop the culture and the attitudes of superiority, which for me meant African states less developed than western states. Western states for me did not only develop in their own, they had been taking lots directly and indirectly of the resources from the third world countries to their own countries. And this is, I think, the reason why the African states as compared to western states did not -- is less developed than western states, is because, as I said, they didn’t develop the value and culture of colonization, compared to the western people; they colonized the third world and get some, most of the resources to their own interest. And for me, those are the things that it has to be considered.

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Dritëro Kasapi: Hello, Elliot Chikoma. It’s a great mystery, isn't it? I think it’s wonderful for you living in Africa to know that you come from a place, you live in a place where the human race is actually been born, developed. Where people actually started for the first time using their brain and doing things and I think it’s great to just step on that earth where the humanity has started, and I hope that gives you strength and self confidence and you are proud of that fact. But why are African states less developed? I suppose it’s a very complicated historical circumstances and basically, I think the greed of the western part of the world that exploited it. I don’t have a better answer than that, but what I really think, you as living in Namibia in Africa should be proud of the fact that you, which you named here, that life begins in Africa and that human beings have actually started living as intelligent human beings in Africa. That should give you strength and self belief. It’s something that we living in other continents cannot, don’t have.

by Dritëro Kasapi

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Eliane Potiguara: I think the reason is that the colonists recognized that the indigenous people had – be it Americans, be it Africans – something they themselves did not have. This is the most decent principles of human ethics, which comprises appreciating peace, appreciating family and human relationships. The capitalistic world, the colonists, recognized be it in America, in Africa or in the Middle East, that they didn’t have the same principles like the people they met, so what the colonists fear most is ethics. What they fear most is to look somebody in the eyes. The colonists found ways to opress the people that had no weapons. But indeed they do have weapons, the biggest weapon of those peoples was and is the decency of humanity, the soul, the essence, life. Mankind has become very hard. But even if African people have to go hungry they still have their happiness, still have their joy of life, still have a smile to give to their children. This fear the colonists and the capitalistic world and even after centuries and centuries the colonists did not change their attitude, all because of power, money and luxuries... They fear ethical people, pure people, people who have a soul: in short, people who do have the highest essence of humanity. The world is losing this essence but still doesn’t want to learn from the traditional people, the tradition of our indigenous ancestors. The world should revise its values and listen to the people of the so called “Third World”.

by Eliane Potiguara

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Eliot Weinberger: Well, first of all, it wasn’t Darwin’s theory about life beginning in Africa, but [Leakian] later and it’s not a theory, it seems to be scientific proof. Obviously, progress is not a straight arrow. Progress or a change is really a kind of a loop de loop, and if you look 1,000 years ago, Baghdad was the most civilized city in the West. 3,000 years ago, Egypt was a major civilization. And other countries that have been at certain moments in history, which have been the greatest or the most powerful states on Earth; Italy, Turkey, the Incas of Peru, the Aztecs in Mexico are no longer the empires or powerful nations that they once were. So, that history really moves – neither moves in a straight line nor does it move in a circle, but it moves in a kind of a loop. So, the history is not a marathon race, so the fact that if hominids began first in Africa, it doesn’t mean that Africans would necessarily be ahead of anybody else in the race. And obviously, you’ve had moments of great empires in Africa, the Benin, taking the most obvious example. And the fact that we are living in a moment in history when Africa is recovering from this long period of colonization doesn’t mean that 200 years from now they won’t be – certain African states won’t be among the most powerful on Earth.

by Eliot Weinberger

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Elisabet Sahtouris: Thanks Elliot for your question. I don’t know this is part of Darwin’s Theory, but of course, the prevailing scientific theory is that human life began in Africa and that people migrated from Africa all over the world. And so, you are asking why if humans originated in Africa, is Africa is less developed than the Western states, and I assume you also know the answer, which has to do with the fact that some of the people who left Africa came back to Africa as colonialists. And, there was tremendous plunder of Africa not only through the slaves that were exported to other lands but also in the settlers taking over much of the land. There was interference between trading tribes, and this has often have been done by conquerors that people who were cooperating were separated, so that friends in some meat hunting tribe and the plant growing tribe who were trading products would no longer have that kind of contact with each other. And then, colonialists came in and developed mines and large plantations and eventually production facilities and urban centers. And taking the men out of their cultures, the men and boys especially, to go to work for foreigners for money, broke up the cultures of Africa, made it much more difficult for the older men and the women and children who were left behind in the villages to continue the culture. It’s the story of colonialization in other parts of the world as well. And, we know now that there are some countries who have become very wealthy at the expense of other countries which have become very poor. The conditions in Africa today I believe will be the conditions of many parts of the world as the coming hot age advances as climate change moves into producing greater deserts in other parts of the world, and disease epidemics, poverty, migrating populations. We will face these problems in many places. And so, Africa perhaps should be the place that the whole world concentrates now on helping rather than hindering in their development, so that we will know how to function in other places in the future. Good luck Africa.

by Elisabet Sahtouris

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Ervin Laszlo: The answer to that is very simple. Economic development is not a genetic evolutionary process, it’s a cultural process. We all have equal chances of developing economically in terms of our culture. However, some cultures are more eager are more able to exploit the western idea of development than others. They are equally good. However, African cultures traditionally are interested in more sustainable, more self-reliant ways of developing rather than in a globalizing economic profit oriented mode of development.

by Ervin Laszlo

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Esther Mwaura-Muiru: Development can be described in many, many, many ways. Access is what is important, but access to what? The world today defines access to materials, to material things, as development. But for communities, access to materials and the way they define worth, it's not development. But we are rating Africa as underdeveloped because we already do have a world agreed by the dominant powers of what development is. Africa is very rich, has a very rich people, but Africa is exploited and we must interrogate the deeds that were done to Africa by the colonization, how the world was harvested out of the African continent. If you do have someone come to your house and pick half of what you have, of course you are going to be disadvantaged, and that's a position the African is at. But it's not poor because it's not developed; it's not poor because people have used Africa to gain wealth, wealth that they call development. If Africa, if there was a level playing ground to be able to exploit the resources we do have, today Africa would be the richest Africa in the ideas, in the ideology of the developed one. But I feel African people are rich people. They have a rich culture. African people, we do have our own people, who are the richest. I think the world that we do have, I think its very, very important. But, because somebody comes, uses our culture, comes, uses our natural resources, and amasses this as worth, material worth, and calls that development, yeah then we are less developed. I think we need to be able to discuss who took away our wealth. Who is actually taking away today our wealth and saying they are developing it?

by Esther Mwaura-Muiru

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Fernando Solanas:

by Fernando Solanas

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Fred Matser: Honestly, I don’t know. I can only say I have been several times in Africa. I have seen people struggle with life, much more than I have seen ever in the West. In the meantime, I have seen people being happy. I have seen people being able to carry a lot of pain. I have seen people being able to suffer and not complain about it. So, in a way, if the question is why is Africa less developed, I really wouldn't know. What I see on the other hand is, yes, there is a climatological circumstance and that is not as we have it for example in the West, where perhaps through the climate, it was more easy to come to be together and create systems of government, create laws, and create organizations of inventions through, which we really could develop ourselves. In Africa, perhaps, through climatological circumstance, but also the trade lines in Africa are different. There are less coastal lines, there are less waterways and the infrastructure is completely different from the infrastructure we, for example, have created in the West. But, anyway, that's what I can say about it and I don’t know -- I wouldn't know more to answer.

by Fred Matser

Sep 9, 2006 10:25:00 AM cite

Galsan Tschinag: Possibly the primeval men stayed children, eternal children and so they can't stop their game up to today. I speak of the playful spirituality which seems to run in the veins of Africans. I think this way because I feel a childlike admiration when I look at African people who move whether they play, pray or fight. I realize that African people have an agitation inside which was already there in primeval men and every being has this agitation inside.

by Galsan Tschinag