Development 1

The tragedy of Africa is that the African has never really entered history. The African peasant has known only the endless renewal of time via the perpetual repetition of the same actions and the same words. Within such a mindset, where everything continually starts again, there is no place for human adventure nor for any idea of progress.

Baffour Ankomah (2007): “Shame On You, Mr. Sarkozy”. In: New African Magazine, 30.10.2007.

Nicolas Sarkozy (born 1955) was French President from 2007 to 2012.

This quote comes from a speech by Sarkozy at a university in Senegal which is named after the Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986). Diop argued that Western history studies the world from a Eurocentric perspective. It also tremendously distorts the history of Africa. France was involved in colonial attacks on Senegal from the 17th century onwards and became a colonial power in 1891. In 1960, the country achieved independence. Senegalese commentators accused Sarkozy of using racist colonial language. Sarkozy's successor, President Emmanuel Macron, has continued to use this colonial discourse. In 2017, he claimed that Africa had “civilizational problems”, including in part "because women have seven children."

*Boniface Mabanza (2019): “The right to say No. Women organizing against extractivism in southern Africa.”