Politics empathy with the suffering masses of the continent – Afrophilia . This leads to all manner of humanitarian crusading and grandstanding on issues of human rights abuses and what Dr Golooba-Mutebi characterises as democracy merchandising .
A great part of Afrophilia entails an exaggerated sense of mission to ‘ save ’ Africans from their misery and poverty , both material and , I suppose , intellectual . The saviour here is the Africa ‘ expert ’, predominant a white male , who has unquestionable claim to scholarly authority on key questions and concerns , is a consultant for development agencies such as the World Bank and intergovernmental bodies like those under the UN system , provides expert opinions to major Western media houses and gets praises from many , including African acolytes .
The African ‘ expert ’ loathes running into some iconoclastic African who cannot sing his praises or one who even remotely asks some critical questions or makes comments that challenge the ‘ expert ’. When this happens , the African ‘ expert ’ expresses a sardonic tone and outrage at being challenged or at best seeks cover under the claims of being misunderstood .
CODESRIA has been at the forefront of battels against the distortions by the self-anointed
Africa ‘ expert ’, and as Godwin noted , successive generations of African scholars have to confront new guises of Afrophilia and the saviour ‘ expert ’.
‘ Paternalism based on a display Afrophilia credentials ’, Dr Murunga pointed out , ‘ seems to be passed on from one to next the generation of African ‘ expert ’. Unfortunately , he continued , ‘ even when it is so obvious to us , those afflicted with this malaise tend to deny it , feign ignorance or simply proceed as if protestations from the Black and Africa world don ’ t matter .
And here is the clincher that spoke directly to my own experience : ‘ A persistent issue is
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