A F R I C A

[shakahislop]

I'm in kinshasa for my work doing psyops and I'm going to write about it here, and we can have the thread to talk about Africa as well.

europe and america (ie us) have at this point a mostly imaginary relationship with africa I think. almost no one ever goes there unless you've got roots there or you're going for work or you're a more adventurous traveller. there's almost no lived experience. what happens instead is that africans come to the west. you can see the small cultural threads that emerge from that, in england a bit and in France too I think. a little nudge to the culture. something like care work for example has an african influence because of how many africans are involved.

ive been around a bit mostly to cities and never for very long. don't know if it's just illegible to me but cities in africa remind me of north america in that they're pretty similar to one another. I don't see big differences between eg Dakar, here and Addis. but perhaps I just can't see it coz I know so little and maybe the differences aren't so visual. europe and asia feel more different from country to country.

people talk about neo-colonialism in africa in particular. it's a vague piece of vocabulary but I can't see what they're talking about mostly. CAR is the exception coz there were french and canadian troops all over the place and I had the impression they were calling the shots. but generally i can't see much that looks like a colonial structure. i see foreign influences. but i don't think that's the same thing.

 

[sufi]

I'm in kinshasa for my work doing psyops and I'm going to write about it here, and we can have the thread to talk about Africa as well.

europe and america (ie us) have at this point a mostly imaginary relationship with africa I think. almost no one ever goes there unless you've got roots there or you're going for work or you're a more adventurous traveller. there's almost no lived experience. what happens instead is that africans come to the west. you can see the small cultural threads that emerge from that, in england a bit and in France too I think. a little nudge to the culture. something like care work for example has an african influence because of how many africans are involved.

ive been around a bit mostly to cities and never for very long. don't know if it's just illegible to me but cities in africa remind me of north america in that they're pretty similar to one another. I don't see big differences between eg Dakar, here and Addis. but perhaps I just can't see it coz I know so little and maybe the differences aren't so visual. europe and asia feel more different from country to country.

people talk about neo-colonialism in africa in particular. it's a vague piece of vocabulary but I can't see what they're talking about mostly. CAR is the exception coz there were french and canadian troops all over the place and I had the impression they were calling the shots. but generally i can't see much that looks like a colonial structure. i see foreign influences. but i don't think that's the same thing.

i have been to addis and dakar and they are not that similar surely?
maybe you just stayed in behind the barbed wire in the corporate compound/wazungu jail

 

[sufi]

i never visited kinshasa yet, maybe that's more similar to dakar, being coastal and francophone,
but addis is in the highlands and is orthodox christian and east african as far as i remember

 

[Mr. Naga Pickle]

i've been to uganda and ghana to play rave music + egypt to see the pyramids. really loved the little bit i've experienced and think about returning pretty much every day. how is kinshasa? is the music scene absolutely devastating?

 

[mixed_biscuits]

I'm in kinshasa for my work doing psyops and I'm going to write about it here, and we can have the thread to talk about Africa as well.

europe and america (ie us) have at this point a mostly imaginary relationship with africa I think. almost no one ever goes there unless you've got roots there or you're going for work or you're a more adventurous traveller. there's almost no lived experience. what happens instead is that africans come to the west. you can see the small cultural threads that emerge from that, in england a bit and in France too I think. a little nudge to the culture. something like care work for example has an african influence because of how many africans are involved.

ive been around a bit mostly to cities and never for very long. don't know if it's just illegible to me but cities in africa remind me of north america in that they're pretty similar to one another. I don't see big differences between eg Dakar, here and Addis. but perhaps I just can't see it coz I know so little and maybe the differences aren't so visual. europe and asia feel more different from country to country.

people talk about neo-colonialism in africa in particular. it's a vague piece of vocabulary but I can't see what they're talking about mostly. CAR is the exception coz there were french and canadian troops all over the place and I had the impression they were calling the shots. but generally i can't see much that looks like a colonial structure. i see foreign influences. but i don't think that's the same thing.

Isn't the contemporary neocolonialism a corporate one: who owns what and who employs whom.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Why haven't I seen anything like this on Novara? It can't just be because I don't watch any Novara can it?

 

[mixed_biscuits]

There's also the West's armchair colonialism of asset-stripping the best brains to fill any roles for which the West has failed to plan judiciously.

 

[craner]

This thread reminds me of the time I almost got laughed off the forum for casually saying that I liked "African music".

 

[sus]

my work doing psyops

Um, say more about this

 

[shakahislop]

i've been to uganda and ghana to play rave music + egypt to see the pyramids. really loved the little bit i've experienced and think about returning pretty much every day. how is kinshasa? is the music scene absolutely devastating?

no idea at all. on sunday I walked past a building vibrating with religious music. today the radio was playing us rap with some bars that ended every line on the word 'pussy' which was good coz I was squashed in the back with a load of mid-level civil servants. probably the music is good. the first impression I got was 'this is like new york', the sheer number of people around squashed in together, from all over the place. it's a migrant city I think. or at least that's part of what's going on

 

[shakahislop]

i have been to addis and dakar and they are not that similar surely?
maybe you just stayed in behind the barbed wire in the corporate compound/wazungu jail

I get what you mean. Addis had something set apart going on culturally. maybe not the best example actually. I'm not saying there aren't differences. I'm saying that they're smaller than you'd expect.

haven't been anywhere where you can't walk on the street so have been able to get around

 

[shakahislop]

Isn't the contemporary neocolonialism a corporate one: who owns what and who employs whom.

probably someone has written a whole book about it but as a layman I would say that probably to call something colonialism probably there needs to be colonies.

 

[yyaldrin]

i would feel too self-conscious going to an african country i think. i already feel embarrased as a tourist wherever i go and i think it would be even worse in africa.

 

[luka]

i get that feeling too. my african family said the only whites you see are in bullet proof 4x4s. shaka in a convoy getting driven gated compound to gated compound. and sufi on a camel, dispensing haribo to native children.

 

[shakahislop]

there's a sort of megacity pressure here. there's just people fucking everywhere hanging about in massive groups in the dark. loads and loads of people everywhere

 

[mixed_biscuits]

probably someone has written a whole book about it but as a layman I would say that probably to call something colonialism probably there needs to be colonies.

I guess it depends on one's definition of colony or colonialism, but if a country's major industry and source of income and employer is a foreign firm, whose position also then enables it to move the political and social markets, then there's not much missing other than the political branding that would ironically make the relationship less likely to be exploitative by making it more obvious. There are Western companies whose exit from African countries would collapse those countries, and that gives them a lot of clout.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

there's a sort of megacity pressure here. there's just people fucking everywhere hanging about in massive groups in the dark. loads and loads of people everywhere

Bill Gates' thoughts exactly.

 

[luka]

 

[mixed_biscuits]

If the aim of colonialism is to make lots of money then cuckoo-like corporate occupation may be more effective as it doesn't have to shell out as much on infrastructure and the host can make out that it's still in charge.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

International directives also stymy Africa's independent development under the pretext of the climate emergency, an independence that would create competition and drive down Western profits (as well as making the West less attractive as a destination for alternative employment.