Though Darkest Europe was published shortly before the much discredited December 27, 2007 presidential election charade... , this book appears to be describing the Kenyan situation. It even casts doubts as to who is in control in this eastern African nation that had been for a long time described as an island of peace in a troubled ocean. ....
Like a loving African grandmother who reprimands her grand child in an effort to nudge him in the right direction, the Kenya-born author who holds diplomas from the London School of Economics and the London School of Journalism states that Africans are the only people on the planet who seem to be convinced that they do not deserve any happiness whatsoever....
Saying many parts of Africa are ruled by absolute despots with the ordinary citizen bereft of any legal defense against oppression by the government and officialdom in general, the writer correctly opines that the police are viewed not as friends but 'terrorists' in many sub-Saharan African nations. "When African soldiers, militia and police are set loose on innocent demonstrators, they seem to lose their humanity. Whether unleashed on university students or ethnic groups that have been deliberately incited to butcher each other by politicians motivated by dubious ambitions...."
Akinyi Princess of K'Orinda-Yimbo then moves on to describe how slavery, colonialism and post-independence dictatorship have traumatised Africans....She contends that Africans are the only human beings whose average lifespan is declining while other human beings are living longer and healthier than ever before and that unless urgent measures are taken, one in three Africans will not see one's fortieth birthday over the next decade!
The writer then looks at contemporary political, humanitarian and economic trends. She considers the World Bank, WTO, G8 and the IMF to be the long arms of the world oligarchies.
The West, she points out, deliberately keeps Africa poor and warring through 'aid' disbursed through the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). "While the per capita GDP in sub-Saharan African countries continues to drop, the NGOs are proliferating". But it is startling that about 75% of the money aid agencies collect is spent on the administration of their own organisation. The World Food Programme, for instance, spends more than a million dollars per day (75%-80% of which is spent in the administration of WFP alone) for southern Sudan.
... At the same time, the author equally reprimands not only the predator politicians and elite of the African continent but all Africans for their passive resignation to a fate they can change through affirmative action.
Though China comes to Africa posing as equals, with no colonial hangover, no complex relationship of resentment, no outward show of hegemonic clout , the German-based Akinyi Princess of K Orinda-Yimbo argues that China is making a fortune on Africa s natural resources without addressing the African people s poverty and that it demands no good governance, adherence to human rights, an end to corruption, environmental rules...and democracy. ...
While arguing that Africans have suffered serious psychological damage from slavery and colonialism, the author, who considers globalisation the fourth stage in the penetration of Africa by world powers, nevertheless contends that this "can no longer be a legitimate explanation of all of Africa's underdevelopment in the 21st century." --Art Matters Jan. 2008
It is often said that Europeans brought Christianity to Africa. Not so, says Akinyi Princess of K'Orinda Yimbo. "Jerusalem long lost or not, Christianity is Afro-Orient, not European. Christianity was thriving in the Horn of Africa in the 1st century, before this religion had really taken root anywhere in Europe," she writes, adding "from as early as the Carolingian period - 7th to 8th century African warriors were fighting in Europe under the banner of the lion, the shield and the half moon in order to bring the `true faith', Christianity or Islam, to Europe. Europeans at the time were in the majority heathen and did everything in their power to remain heathen. Because Christ came from their corner of the world, [Africans] had embraced Christianity at a time when the religion was struggling to take root in Greece and Rome." As usual, the African Diaspora in Britain will organise various events throughout October to mark the occasion. This year, New African celebrates Black History Month with a special package, staring here with an extract from Akinyi Princess' excellent book, Darkest Europe and Africa's Nightmare published earlier this year. In this extract, she focuses on a section of the African past which is too often swept under the carpet. Other articles in the package include "The Greek philosophers who came to Africa to study", "The 25th anniversary of the American invasion of Grenada", and "Another black history month in November if Obama wins the American presidency". It is not the usual fare, so please sit back and enjoy ... and we wish you a happy Black History Month. Her book is highly recommended by
New African. --
New African October 2008
Akinyi Princess of K Orinda-Yimbo was born on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu, the capital city of Luoland, Kenya, in November 1962. At a very young age she was sent to private school in Yorkshire, England. She is a graduate journalist of the Nairobi and the London Schools of Journalism as well as an economics graduate of the London School of Economics (1981-1987). She moved to Bavaria, Germany, where she studied Germanistics and German-specific economics (1993 to 1997). She has been writing as a freelance journalist since 1980, serving as a columnist with various dailies and monthly magazines in Africa and Europe. She gives lectures and seminars in various German universities, colleges and high schools on topics ranging from socio-economy in Africa, Business English, African literature and the socio-ethnological conflicts in the traditions of Africans and Europeans in particular, and the West in general. She is the CEO of her companies Eur-AfrAsia Association for Quality Management & Intercultural Communications Training, and PAKY Investment Holdings Ltd. She has written and published articles, papers, and a novel in German: Khiras Traum. She speaks seven languages and lives in Bavaria.
