An Open Letter to Paul Theroux, Columnist for the New York Times

An Open Letter to Paul Theroux,
Columnist for the New York Times
by Dileep Rao

In response to Paul Theroux's New York Times column titled "The Rock Star's Burden," about the redevelopment of Africa:

Mr. Theroux writes that it is Africa’s “fate to be a theater of empty talk and public gestures.” Mr. Theroux, of all people, should know that ‘fate’ is hardly the word for what ails Africa. That fate was the action of Europeans who carved Africa up in Berlin for their use, leaving a continent whose borders are on parallels and do not follow contiguous natural boundaries that a free continent may have developed. This cursory look at a map is a metaphor for Africa itself.

Money alone is not the answer, but I grow frustrated by the many people in the world for whom the slow pace of Africa’s recovery from the colonial hangover is inconvenient with their demands of its ‘proper’ evolution. Africa stands where it does today because of the resource exploitation it endured for hundreds of years at the hands of white Europeans and their descendents. It’s ugly to say it so plainly but there it is.

Mr. Theroux, himself an experienced traveler and well acquainted with these issues, should note that a simple phrase such as ‘fate’ embodies the very problem Africa confronts today. Its inhumane exploitation having now become incompatible with our sudden (relative to history) moral qualms with such action, the west abandoned the continent, leaving it in a vacuum that has not been filled. Political and economic development have failed largely because the nations of Africa are not a priority for the developed world. In many cases, it is to the advantage of western economic interests that these nations remain in disarray.

What is required in Africa is not just more money (though God knows this is necessary at some level). Africa needs committed, restitutive attention. We, the West, must take responsibility, not out of charity but out of culpability. Africa has two or three full generations of development to catch up on. There is success there. But dumping money into failed governments and accepting their kleptomania as the tax of doing business is wrong, as Theroux rightly points out.

The greater failure is how the United States and Europe have not enfranchised Africans to take these responsibilities on with us. That would be true leadership. Dumping money into Africa is easy; looking into our past and making its success our duty is much harder, but our responsibility whether we acknowledge it or not.

Dileep can be reached at dileep@babblog.com.