Caring about Africa

[Primula Baggins]

A lot of written history is distorted from the start, being written by people with viewpoints. And also by educated people, and therefore for most of history the upper classes.

[axordil]

oral traditions that have remained intact.

Is there any way of confirming that they've remained intact? Not all conquests are external, and not everyone with an agenda is from a different culture.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

oral traditions that have remained intact.

Is there any way of confirming that they've remained intact? Not all conquests are external, and not everyone with an agenda is from a different culture.

I've been there and seen it for myself. Yes the griot tradition in West Africa has definitely remained intact.

[solicitr]

Prim:

And who paid the bards?

A huge proportion of surviving late British/early Welsh poetry is encomiums (not usually included in collections because they're so dull): "Maelgwyn is great, he's really, really great, he's so great it'll take me all evening to tell you how great he is" kind of stuff.

In England (and France) the upper class of the early medieval period were generally illiterate; or if they weren't they weren't much disposed to clerkly pursuits when there were neighbors to fight (Alfred the Great was very peculiar). The historians were monks, and although the Church institutionally was a Hegemonic Power Structure, monks on the whole tended to come from very humble beginnings, the Church being about the only avenue for upward mobility. I'm not aware of any significant English author in any field (not counting Alfred) until the very end of the period and Sir Thomas Malory: and even he, if we have his biography right, was a down-at-the-heels hedge knight.

[Holbytla]

I think it is safe to say that all history, written and oral is subjected to the people involved in passing the information along. I just personally think written history travels better. Right or wrong.

[Jnyusa]

What I'm addressing is this notion that oral history is somehow any better, less biased or garbled somehow.

Oh, I wouldn't argue that it is less garbled. But I would argue that it is not always more garbled, because I think the tendency in modern, Western culture is to give more credence to the accuracy of the written word than it might warrant in all cases.

Regarding whose agenda is reflected in any particular history, this is always an issue and only made transparent by additional research.

Ax, for sure traditions can change from within, and even expunge what came before them. But I was responding more specifically to sol's earlier post by making the point that we should expect an oral history to be muddled if the knowledge base of the people has been decimated by a conquest. We should expect it to be muddled if there has been a internal change of power structure as well. One of the best examples of this ... of a place where this question gets raised, that is ... is the fact that the name and number of 'god(s)' changes halfway through Genesis.

[solicitr]

However, the odds of corruption are higher with an oral tradition (especially compared to a written tradition where an actual document survives that is nearly as old as the original). Both are subject to intentional alteration, but the oral tradition is more susceptible to transmission errors (not that written traditions are immune).

An example: my great-grandmother wrote up an account of her husband's, my great-grandfather's, Civil War service: as close to first-hand and contemporary as one is likely to get short of autobiography or a diary. And yet she had him serving in Pickett's Division, which is entirely nonsense (neither the 6th SCVI nor any other South Carolina regiment was ever under Pickett). The pull of a prominent name had already distorted the oral record within a scant few years

[axordil]

V-man--Intact wasn't the word I was really thinking of, even though it was the word I quoted. Uncorrupted would be closer, not in the moral sense but in the information theory sense.

All--

It strikes me that written records and oral records have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to resistance to corruption. Sometimes it's easier to shut down a printing press than to track down a person who knows something. But it's harder to track down a thousand books than one person, generally. Neither system is immune from conscious, or more insidiously, unconscious editing.

Jny--

Do you think Genesis in particular has oral forebearers?

[Jnyusa]

Jny--

Do you think Genesis in particular has oral forebearers?

Yes, I do.

[eborr]

Amidst all the fuss in Zim, you may be interested to note that on April 1st, the fourth Ian Khama becames president of Boswana, and alothugh ther has been some healthy debate about the changes he may bring to the compnay, his acession took place without rancour or crisis apart from the fact the PA systems weren't working.

Present at the inaugaratuion weew two of the previous presdints Ketumile Masire ans Festus Mogae, both of hom are in honoured and happy retirement.

Botswana prosperity, and flourishing as a democratic state is a consequence of the following,

Wealth through the carefull management of the country's natural resources.

That concencus nad goodwill are part of the Batswana tribal culture - in other words democracy is a natural state for them.

THe adoption and adaption of the principles of British Governance, through the development of institutions, the separation of the legislature from the judciary.

A single dominant indigenous culture, which means that the political map, closely follows an ethnic and cultural map.

[Túrin Turambar]

I'd also add that the rule of law and the Government's focus on health and education have helped out Bostwana a lot, although I think you're right that the country's wealth flows mostly from the focused development of its diamond mines and tourism parks. Still, it's a great case of a Subsaharan African country moving on up in the world. Shame about the AIDS epidemic, though.

[eborr]

Tourism is a very small earner compared with the diamonds, interestingly given the energiy crisis in SA they are now going to build there own power station and increse the coal mining capability.

Aids is a major problem, in many of the rural communities it was common practice for young girls to have children out of wedlock to dmonstratee their fertility, you combine that with AIDS and you have a massive problem, still they have the resource to manage the situation better than most African countries and they are not trying to hid it under the carpet, or claim it can be cured by Pomegranates or water melons.

It would seem that the out going president Festus is going to make aids campaigning a prominent retirement activity, Festus was always a doer rather than a speechmaker, another feature unusual in African leaders.

[axordil]

Wealth through the careful management of the country's natural resources.

That consensus and goodwill are part of the Botswana tribal culture - in other words democracy is a natural state for them.

The adoption and adaption of the principles of British Governance, through the development of institutions, the separation of the legislature from the judiciary.

A single dominant indigenous culture, which means that the political map, closely follows an ethnic and cultural map.

They might have been able to skate on only three of the above, so long as the first was one of them. But all four--Botswana was very fortunate and seems to be doing its best to remain so.

I understand that Botswana has renegotiated its deal with DeBeers for where its diamonds get cut, ergo, where the value gets added. Most if not all will be done in-country, which means even if competition heats up from Russia et al, control of the prices will be a decision for Botswana AND DeBeers to make in response. Good for them.

It's been noted that income disparity as a measure of a country's health falls apart in Africa, where there is so little wealth that the extremes aren't all that far apart. In subsaharan Africa (other than Botswana), that's because the bulk of the potential wealth is extracted and shipped overseas, so instead of a small indigenous upper class that has some interest in their local milieu, you have an awful lot of poor people and a infinitesimal group of rich holding down the fort for the foreign owners of that wealth. The top 10% and the bottom 10% aren't that far apart, but the top 1/2 of 1% and everyone else are.

Did I mention that Botswana is fortunate?

[eborr]

De Beers have always had the sense to play fairly with the Batswana, the truth of the matter is that should Debswana (thats the name of the joint company) ever decide to go full tilt in terms of production they could probalby force the rest of the Diamond market out of business, especially wrt Gemstones.

Not only do they have Jwaneng which is the world richest gem mines, but there are strong rumours they have found another pipe of Jwaneng size which they are not exploiting yet.

[axordil]

but there are strong rumours they have found another pipe of Jwaneng size which they are not exploiting yet.

That might well keep the Russians in check.

[solicitr]

Of the four criteria, perhaps maintaining British governmental ideas is the most important. While a monoethnic society is helpful, there are many other such in Africa which are completely dysfunctional; and mineral wealth is common among African nations which are nonetheless economic basket-cases.

The tragedy of much of sub-Saharan Africa has been the formation of post-colonial governments which were either straight-up thuggish kleptocracies, Lumumba-inspired quasi-Marxist messes, or simply predicated on the principle of rejecting everything that smacked of the colonialists. Botswana has managed to avoid those rocks and shoals.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

I would add to that list Western companies that strip the countries of resources with the help of the aforesaid kleptomaniacs and give nothing in return or if the government isn't sufficiently kleptomaniac fomenting bloody separatist uprisings or coup d'etats. As in the mess that Margaret Thatcher's son has got himself into just to give the most recent example.

[Túrin Turambar]

Did I mention that Botswana is fortunate?

It is, but I think it also deserves a lot of credit for its own success. It was lucky, but it wouldn't have gotten anywhere near where it is now without good governance and hard work. Comparisons with Zimbabwe are fairly telling.

I'd like to see the Botswanan economy diversify a bit, though. It's still too dependant on one diamond mining company - if it could draw in some foriegn direct investment for manafacturing as Malaysia and Taiwan did then I think it would well on its way to first-world living conditions.

As to the rest of the countries in Africa, I'd say that the lack of the rule of law and/or a competent government are the buggest hurdles to development. The examples of countries rising out of poverty that we do have all follow a similiar pattern - stability, good government, infrastructure and education, direct foriegn investment, then economic growth.

[axordil]

I'd like to see the Botswanan economy diversify a bit, though. It's still too dependant on one diamond mining company - if it could draw in some foriegn direct investment for manafacturing as Malaysia and Taiwan did then I think it would well on its way to first-world living conditions.

True, it would be nice if they could move from Saudi Arabia to Taiwan as a model with time. But I see the introduction of diamond cutting in-country as the thin, thin end of a wedge. Start a value-adding business that requires even a handful of well-paid skilled workers, and you have to start supporting it too, if you want it to work. Once you have enough supporting businesses in place, the country becomes much, much more attractive to other sorts of businesses that need support, since it then has infrastructure they need.

[eborr]

There have been a number of efforts to diversify the economy ranging from food processing through to car manufacture. Lately things have been focused in trying SA for their weekly shopping.

The Govt is very generous to foriegn investors coming into the country, the trouble is that it has often attracted unscropulous folk like the guy behind the Hyudai venture ( I think Breytenbach was his name).

I think the Govt. would really like to see the country as a financial services haven, but there have always been a number of challenges to that. The first being that the financial services operations in Jo burg are actually pretty dam good, certainly the financial infrastructure is way ahead of any other element in the South African economy, the secord thing that has held financial services back is the dreadful performance of Botswana telecom, when we lived their in the late 90's the telephone service had got little further than when it was introduced by the Brits in 1900.

The third problem was the lack of experience amongst the local population although this is changing.

So f any of you has a great idea with regard to building a manufacturing capability somewhere in the world I am sure the Govt in Bots would be only to delighted to help.

Unfortuantely most of the land is only poor grazing quality at best, so it doesn't have the capacity in the way that Zim does for agriculture. Water is rare and expensive, the land is large and in the north Elephants do demolish infrastructure, crime is low and largely confined to illeagal immigrants for SA and Zim, perhaps best of all is that the Batswana are the nicest people in the world.