AA,
exactly right, there. It is intellectual laziness to treat Africa as one unitary thing and not a large group of individuals in individual countries with their own histories and dynamics. Many of us are currently ignorant due to the fact that Africa neither inspires our greed nor our fear at present. The only group in the West at present with sufficient interest to look at Africa at all are those who find the victims they need to dispense their magical transforming empathy and “aid” upon so that we can see what superior souls they possess (you may supply your favorite popculture personality here).
Fact is, a large part of what makes America incomparably strong today is Africans – we wouldn’t be what we are today without them. The Anglosphere and English Common law get a lot of credit in these parts for what America means to the world, but our greatest strength and most irresistible weapon is our popular culture. This would never be what it is were it not for the unmistakable and undeniable hand of Africans in our midst and what we have learned from them and they have learned from (and about) us as we all have become Americans over the last couple of centuries. It’s a work in progress.
