A Continent ready to break free from its chains?

Either by chance or by a strange twist of fate I've had Africa consistently on my mind of late. Shortly before Christmas at a bargain book sale I picked up a work called The Shackled Continent by Robert Guest, a writer with The Economist magazine. It's an excellent read which covers a very broad and complicated subject in a succinct and interesting way. Guest attempts to explain why Africa has become so infamous throughout the western world as a continent of poverty, disease, famine, war, corruption and despotism.

The film magazine Sight & Sound in its latest issue has a special feature on African cinema, something which appears to be going through a renaissance at the moment. I recently went to see The Last King of Scotland, a first rate film capturing the vibrancy of Africa and building up tp a thrilling climax. Forest Whitaker (who I last saw as a British soldier with a convincing Birmingham accent) is on top form throughout as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, brilliantly conveying his Jekyll and Hyde character which alternates between bungling clown and evil psychopath. In short an excellent film adapted from an excellent book even though both tend to mix historical fact with fiction in a somewhat confusing way. The subject matter is certainly topical considering how many other African nations are to this day suffering under the yoke of similarly tyrannical regimes. Zimbabwe, a country whose once flourishing tourist industry has all but been destroyed by the insane policies of Mugabe springs to mind. Zimbabwe of course is not rich in oil, nor does it occupy a strategic position of potential benefit to America, so the west leaves it well alone, allowing another dictator to continually subjugate and torture his citizens.

I've also acquired a dvd of The Constant Gardener featuring Ralph Fiennes as a diplomat attempting to expose the hidden agenda of unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies in Africa following the murder of his wife played by Rachel Weisz. And I look forward to seeing the newly released Blood Diamond starring Leonardo di Caprio, a morality tale highlighting the evils of diamond mining and conscription of child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

So it was to my surprise that I saw on the side of a London bus an ad promoting the Nigerian tourist board. Nigeria has come in for bad press lately. Stories of foreign oil workers being abducted and gullible westerners falling for elaborate e-mail scams would not exactly persuade you to visit the country. Having said that it is a big place and we only hear the horror stories rather than getting the bigger picture, so good luck to the tourist campaign. The country badly needs tourist money, but lets hope it benefits local economies rather than end up in the pockets of corrupt government officials and their cronies.