Africa without Africans

A people-free photo of my research

A household concept in any progressive African Studies circle (and hopefully in regressive ones too), the imagining of or representation of an "Africa without Africans" refers to the Western world's persistent and often subconscious romanticization of Africa as a foil to the West's industrialized society. This Africa is a small step removed from Conrad's dark continent, where the human inhabitants are a footnote, merely bystanders to history, and the savanna grasslands or lush tropical jungles define the place and its worth.

The pop culture paradigm of this phenomenon (tradition?) is Disney's The Lion King - a glorious movie if ever there was one, one of the two dvds I own in this world, and the soundtrack to which I know all the words... in case you were bracing for a diatribe on neo-colonial racism in corporate America. A geopolitical embodiment of the problems embedded in valuing or imagining Africa without Africans is the charged universe of environmental conservation across sub-Saharan Africa. Periodically stories crop up of shoot-to-kill antipoaching policies (usually tacit), wherein African poachers are killed to save the lives of animals. (These stories grab more headlines than the battles between farming communities and nature reserves, over both land and the control of wild animals, that know not where the reserve ends and community property begins. While I adore Kruger Park, wish Sierra Leone still had a robust population of forest elephants, and support the chimpanzee protection organisation here, this post does not feature me weighing in factually nor editorially on the environment-people/conservation-development/etc.-etc. morass.)

Coming to the point. My cynical eye has watched my idealistic self enthusiastically, if sporadically, write about various triumphs and travails here in Sierra Leone with next to no mention of all the people who help, hinder, and otherwise constitute my life in this country. 'Aha,' cynical eye intones knowingly. 'You see your Africa without Africans? Just like all the other misguided, self-styled do-gooders on this continent.'

Now, it's possible that's not what my much more generous friends and family are thinking when you read my periodic postings, but maybe it should have crossed your mind. And I am here to explain the situation, which you may or may not have identified - an admittedly preemptive defense. My research is sensitive. And the people I spend almost all of my time with are intimately connected to my research. The people I travel with, whose homes I stay in, with whom I cook and share meals, and who have taught me much of what I know about Sierra Leonean ways and means are often former political prisoners, former members of armed groups, or former captives. Even those who have no obviously volatile history or infamous identity attached to their person remain out of the sights of this blog. Because, quite frankly, I am afraid of the internet and its completely opaque security machinations.

So, please excuse my Africa without Africans. Hopefully the culture and flavour of life here, the hopes and challenges of this heavily populated (with people) nation come through despite my reticence to introduce the many characters who have welcomed me, with open arms and sometimes with trial by fire. There is so much more I would love to share but don't to firstly, protect people here and the precarious lives they are living, and secondly, to protect myself.


'Oh, cynical eye,' says idealistic self with patience and gratitude, 'Did you forget naivete can crumble? And blind faith in humanity mature? You see, cynical eye, every action has its reason.'