African clichés, brought to you in taxonomic form

While already picked up by the ladies at Wronging Rights, I feel that Rachel Strohm's comparative taxonomy of African clichés is sufficiently invaluable (and indeed amusing) to likewise find its way onto this here blog. An excerpt for your reading pleasure:

Africanus occidentalis: This cliche is at home in a broad variety of habitats, be it among development practitioners or wide-eyed teenagers visiting Africa for the first time.  It can be distinguished by its prominent belief that concerted Western action can solve all of Africa’s problems.  The Africanus occidentalis studentia lives a peaceful life in the dorm rooms of university students, who often react to its presence by talking at length about the spiritual connection and cultural vitality that they experienced while visiting one country in a very large continent for two weeks last summer.  (The tragedy of receiving a university education whilst children in Africa are dying is an alternate topic, although this should not be confused with actual discussions of Rawlsian justice.) 

Rachel's rather brilliant self-proclaimed rant plays into timely discussions regarding frames of references in addressing development issues (i.e. the inherent problem in talking about development from a purely Western paradigm, much to the disregard of the culture, traditions, ideologies, etc. of the country one is seeking to assist). I could go on, but Rachel does such a brilliant job in her post that there really is little need for me to do so.

Chinatown, Angola

A superb video from Current TV examining the growing presence of Chinese in Angola. While the video's focus remains largely on China's infrastructure projects across the country, it nevertheless does a great job touching upon the variety of sectors in which the Chinese have become quite active. The video itself is somewhat lengthy, but certainly worth a viewing for those seeking to gain a better sense of 'China in Africa' (or Angola, as the case may be):

HT: Africa is a Country