Dear Readers:
Today I have sort of a travelogue piece by Russian reporter Dina Karpitskaya. Here is how she described the reaction of her [racist] friends to her plan to visit Africa:
“Lord God! Africa! Have you had your vaccinations? Aren’t you afraid to go there? I mean, those people run around carrying spears…”
Dina is appalled by the ignorance of ordinary Russians when it comes to the so-called “Dark Continent”. But a more educated person of the group dives in to correct the stereotypes and misconceptions: “Have you ever been there? They have civilization, just like here. It’s all modern. Go and see for yourself.”
Dina: On the map, Africa consists of 54 nations. Independent nations, which is a particular source of pride to the Africans themselves. Because this independence was bought by them at a very high price of blood and sweat. Hundreds of years of slavery and oppression. It’s hard to believe, but Zimbabwe, for example, got rid of its colonizers only in 1980; and Angola in 1985. And in South Africa, right up until 1994 they still practiced segregation of the races. Blacks were forbidden to go out on the streets at night, to get a job in management, or to live where they pleased; they had to live in the ghetto.
And thus for many centuries the voices of these people were never heard. But now, for the first time in history, Africans have an actual influence in world politics. Because 54 votes in the UN, that’s a third of the total. Not to mention economic growth, consumer markets, and a population boom. According to prognoses, by 2050 Africa’s population should reach 2.5 billion!
Everybody in the world is flocking here, all kinds of foreign delegations, competing for influence. The Chinese have workers settlements in almost every African capital.
Russia is trying not to fall behind. Twice in 2023 Sergei Lavrov went on grand tours of the African continent.
The first Russia-Africa summit was held in 2019 in Sochi, and greeted leaders of 43 countries. The next one is scheduled for St. Petersburg. All of these bustling events are quite disconcerting to the former colonizers from the West. For example, French President Macron was begging to be invited to the August BRICS in South Africa. Prior to this, the West used to make fun of BRICS or look down their nose at it. But now they are panic, because Africa refuses to sanction Russia.
Russia’s trade with Africa could use improvement. It’s not that much. On the other hand, our political weight and historical influence is enormous.
16 Hours In the Airplane
There is no place in Europe or Asia where Russians have not set foot. Same thing with America. But Africa, that’s different, it’s practically unknown to Russians. Not that there are many restrictions to getting there. Most African countries don’t even require a visa. And thus I board my plane. The trip takes 16 hours in all, the first 8 to reach Addis Ababa [Ethiopia], and then another 8 hours from there to Cape Town, South Africa. Those scenic mountains… It’s a different world!
“Greetings!” from Lyosha, a young Russian man who meets me in the airport. He is to be my local sherpa. “I wasn’t expecting to see other Russians here.”
Indeed, there are not many of us in Cape Town. Only about 3,000 which is a drop in the sea of almost 4 million residents. Nonetheless, there is a Russian cafe, bar, karaoke. In internet chat-rooms expats discuss where to pick the best mushrooms in the local forests, or where to find a children’s matinee show.
“I work in the sphere of telecommunications,” Lyosha explains. “This is a booming field here in South Africa. They offered me a job here, and I agreed immediately. I brought my whole family, my son goes to the local school, he is learning English and Afrikaans.”
In South Africa there are 11 national languages, but everybody here speaks English.
[…]
Cape Town stretches out along the coast from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. It is green, calm, nice and cool. Lyosha explains that the seasons are reversed here. They have winter too, when it’s summer in the Northern hemisphere. Yes, it can get a bit chilly, especially at night; but no, they never get any snow.
Wine, The Beloved Country!
South Africa is the wealthiest nation on the continent. It has a third of the GNP of all of Africa, and 17th in the whole world. An important new product is wine, which is pushing out French and Italian wines from the shelves.
Dark-skinned somelier Ben explains to the reporter: “Most of our wine export goes to England.” Ben works at a winery called Stenberg. He studied wine-making at technical school. And he knows everything about the history of Russian wines, all the Crimean brands, for example. “We were taught all of that in our lectures,” he explains to Dina proudly.
South Africa is seventh in the world, in the export of wines. And they are planning to increase their exports to Russia. “Please try our flagship brand Katarina. It was named after the first founder of these vineyards. She was married 5 times. Her first husband went off to hunt lions and got eaten by a lion. Her second one – a rhinoceros. Husband #3 got into a feud with a local warlord and was killed. The fourth one took off to the mountains, and never returned. The fifth one actually outlived Katarina, and they had 13 children together!”
Katarina’s wine is delicious. It seems like a blend of three things, the blood of a lion, blood of a rhinoceros, with a fine bouquet of widow’s tears.
Next Dina visits the township called Westlake. It was built 30 years ago, and consists of brick houses. In general, education in South Africa is not free, but the township sponsors a free school, which is paid for by philanthropists.
It is not recommended to wander around without an escort. White strangers are not always welcome in these townships. There is an initial unpleasant incident, when an ABW (“Angry Black Woman”) misunderstands Dina’s attempt to offer her some boiled chicken legs that she bought from a street vendor. [yalensis: Eek! Well, at least it wasn’t Colonel Sanders chicken drumsticks, or Popeye’s Fried Chicken.] Fortunately, the misunderstanding is quickly cleared up, and the local township people accept her, once they learn that she is Russian. They invite her to the local bar, where she gets to dance and play billiards for money against some black guys. Eventually some people even invite her as a guest into their homes. Her biggest calling card is that she is Russian. “We love Russians!” they exclaim affectionately. “You Russians helped us overthrow apartheid.”
Dina asks them how they know that fact of history, and they tell her they learned it in school. Every South African child learns that history in school.
The Road To Johannesburg
Having conquered the hearts of Cape Town, Dina proceeds to the city of Johannesburg, noting that all the roads and highways in South Africa are simply gorgeous.
Everybody she meets is curious to know how Russia is surviving the sanctions. Dina is actually shocked that even the ordinary people she meets on the street, are fully informed about the whole situation: the Special Military Operation, the sanctions, everything. The Africans call them “Our Russian brothers”, and are super-friendly.
Dina meets her new best friend, George Sebulela who heads an association of African-Russian energy businesses. “I’m so happy to meet somebody from Russia,” George greets her. He himself has visited Russia a few times. He is eager to do some deals and get some businesses started. “So far things are going too slow, I don’t know why. We have a lot of problems with energy, and Russia could help us a lot, with your expertise. In all of Africa, only 50% of homes have electricity. There is an enormous business potential here. Russia has cheap but reliable technologies. Bring them here to us!”
And what about oil and gas? “We have tons of that here. Russia can help us extract it.”
Not to mention financial services, George persists: “We know that you Russians have a developed system of financial services and technologies. We need that too, what with the growth of our middle class. There is a huge demand: We can hand you customers on a silver platter. Russian brothers, where are you!? Why don’t you come here? Europe and China are already grabbing our market, you’ll be caught too late and lose the race!”
Dina ends this installment of her trip by noting that the Belorussian brothers are eagerly conquering Africa. As she flew out of South Africa and landed in Zimbabwe, the first thing she noticed was a billboard advertising Belorussian tractors.
Awful Avalanche 
This had to be explained?!? The ignorance of Africa must be greater than I thought!
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Haha!
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Well of course Russia is behind China in Africa. China has almost 10x the population and much larger economy. Russia is stretched thin and can only do so much
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That is a poor excuse. Japan and Brazil have more trade with the African continent compared to Russia.
Russia has so much goodwill built up in Africa and they are only realizing the opportunities now. I guess the Russian govt and elites were too busy dreaming about European integration.
Russia Africa summit is coming up. I guess better late then never.
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I think you are correct, AI. Like I said before, I think the current Russian govt and elites were very strong Westernizers, so it was in their nature to tilt towards Europe and ignore the rest of the world. Well, “ignore” is a strong word, but still… Like you said, better late than never.
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I think Russians are welcome because they educated a lot of Africans and then took them into Soviet universities and…many Han/Han-inculcated Asians can be pretty racist/superior and while they do so discretely, folks can pick up on quiet whisperings.
That is why the “Russian-brand” of can-do socialism [alongside a local market economy] has stronger staying power in Africa. That and the fact that Russia didn’t colonized Africa like the Arab/Dutch/English/German did. No, I didn’t forget the French, it’s just that their particular brand of colonialism is not in the past tense because…it’s still underway!
The French still demand a payment from it’s former African nations for the benefit of having been colonized and…for not going scorched earth upon withdrawal.
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Plus, they are just French! i.e., superior, it just goes without saying.
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China has been in Africa for a long time. Even before the BRI they had been sending medical teams and African students traveled to China for higher studies.
As for racism that doesn’t seem to be as much an issue as before. BRI has evolved and most projects hire locals as oppose to an all Chinese crew. The fact that countries continue to sign up are testament to the fact that barring some mistakes and poor investments the projects have helped their economies.
Russia has a lot of goodwill in Africa and there is much nostalgia for the USSR. But Russia always seems slow to the game. Even Canada which barely has 40 million people pretty much runs mining operations in Africa or has controlling stakes in major mines. Even Brazil has more trade with Africa then Russia ($17 billion vs $14 billion).
No wonder Africans are scratching their heads in confusion.
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BRI = “Belt and Road Initiative”
Thanks for comment, AI.
To reiterate your point, Dina noted at the end of her piece that even tiny Belorussia is ahead of the game.
Personally, I think Russia wasted way too many years playing footsie with Western Europe and trying to get things going there, when they should have been focusing on Africa.
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Dina’s “knowledge” of “Africa” is pathetic and incorrect. To say Africa has been colonized for hundreds of years is total bullshit. It only really started in the late 1800s in anywhere but the coasts. I mean “Dr Livingstone, I presume” happened only in 1871! The interior of Africa was first really explored by Livingstone for the 25 years preceding that! And of course he was my most unfavourite kind of nitwit, the proselytizing idiot of a “missionary”, bringing Jesus’ word to the savages, and saving them, by God. As if they gave a damn or needed some interfering Scottish nincompoop to come along and try to upend their lives.
The most colonizing penetration into the interior of Africa prior to the carving up of the continent was by the Dutch Boers in South Africa. Aside from the Mediterranean coast and Egypt, that is, and most people don’t really consider those places Africa in the context of an “article” like this. After 1870, Europe carved up Africa. The Germans, Portuguese, Belgians, French and the Almighty Brits ran wild. In WW! they had white man armies fighting each other there.
Dina needs to at least read Wikipedia.
My niece emigrated to South Africa 15 years ago by marriage and lives in Durban. That south east coast was where the Brits first landed and began to challenge the Boers for control. And then Kenya. They brought Indians as professionals and shopkeepers -0 these are the folks who today “run” South Africa behind the scenes as it were, and you never hear a word about them. My brother, a Doc and his wife visit Durban every year , and he says the local hospital is run byIndians, is up-to-date and makes hospitals in Canada look bad. Of course, you have to have money to access its services, so blacks are generally SOL.
Hundreds of years of colonization, Dina? Pfft. When did Mussolini invade Abyssinia? 1637 AD? I will say, as in China in the late 1800s, the USA was a laggard at being a rip-off colonizer of Africa — they got nothing. Then stood up and pretended they were anti-colonial, but nabbed the Philipines while they bloviatingly orated at the evils of the colonists. At least British Africa was liberated by US pressure on Blighty after WW2, but the French and Belgians paid no attention to Americans. For sheer African rip-off artists, France and Belgium take the crown. From the 1880s or so.
So we’re talking the last 150 years, not centuries. Dina needs to read some history. And not very old history by Russian standards at that.
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But weren’t the Portuguese poking around in those parts since the 1500’s?
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And what about the (multinational) international slave trade from the early 1600s on — or were the Portuguese already selling slaves even earlier? I also wonder why the article doesn’t mention the NATO-enabled slave trade in the once-most-prosperous nation in Africa, Libya? We still don’t know where Gaddafi’s gold (and his dream of a unified African currency) is, though it was likely divided up between Hillary, the Aic, and Otan generals.
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And….
While we are tripping down memory lane, let’s not forget the destruction of Mali->Songhai Empire by the Almoravid/Arab/Muslims and the TRUE origins of African slave trade that fed the America’s.
That’s right folks, “whiteys” were the johny-come-lately’s to the African slave trade, it was Arabs, using muskets, that put west Africa in chains. And I add, approximately half of the slave trade went east into Arab lands…never to be seen or, heard of again. Odd that only caucasians are to be left standing in these games of moral musical chairs?
Of course, sugar plays a big role in the development of large scale cash crops which fueled the west African slave trade to the Americas. And if you knew that dirty secret, first it was the Caribs, who quickly succumbed to European/Asian disease, then it was the Irish, who also succumbed as their naked fair skin couldn’t withstand the tropical sun and finally it was the west Africans turn, racism being a subset, a justification, a rationalizing construct of the human on human parasitation that plagues our species.
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Sugar, rum, and slaves. Those were the major international cash crops of the era.
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Yep. Many arabs still refer to blacks as Abid, which is the Arabic word for slave.
Didn’t you learn in school that only whites are racist and kept slaves. Before the white man came everyone was holding hands and singing kumbaya😉
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The word “kumbaya” has an interesting back story, which Yalensis would probably know, because he has an affinity for the Gullah (South Carolina coastal island ex-slave society) dialect. It’s a Creolisation of the words “come by here” from an old spiritual song, urging Jesus to come on down and relieve our troubles. “Someone’s crying, Lord, come by here…” And now it’s mainly used as an insulting term — “you’re a softgayfag who thinks that people should get along with each other instead of being nasty to everyone they meet.”
When I first started seeing it used that way, on right-wing websites circa the mid 2010s, it stuck me as another sign that American society was sinking into savagery. A kindly, beseeching term from a religious tune being turned into a weapon for online arguments. Linguistically beating a ploughshare (as it’s spelt here) into a word-sword. Viciousness is viewed as a sign of strength in the U.S. and ideals of brotherhood are seen as weakness.
There’s plenty of divisiveness in other nations, of course, but it seems more focussed: “I’m a Hutu and you’re a Tutsi, so I’m going to hack you to pieces with this machete!” But in the U.S., it seems incoherent antisocial ideation has infiltrated every sphere of interpersonal imagination. “You’re not me, so I want to smash you!” It’s not just the Righties who are that way, of course — lots of Lefties are filled with contempt for anyone who they see as a Trumplorable. When TSHTF in the Dissolving States of Amerika, the “war of each against all” (to paraphrase Hobbes) is going to be spectacular. As in “a spectacle.” If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d insert that .gif from “The Gladiator” — Are you not amused?
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Bukko, I did not actually know that etymology of “kumbaya”, but it makes complete sense, so thanks for that. Especially given the Gulla pronunciation and tendency to drop final /r/ on a word, so the word “here” would morph to something like “hya”. I can see exactly how “come by here” would flow into “kum-bay-hya”. And you’re right, that’s such a nice, gentle song, it was written to bring consolation and hope to people living in total despair.
Yeah, American viciousness has turned every good thing into a term of abuse. I remember a few years back when the Pepe the Frog people on the internet (aka “Deplorables”) started throwing around the insult “social justice warrior”. As in, everybody who believed that, say, races and/or sexes should be treated with equal respect, was a damned despicable Social Justice Warrior (SJW). Because in America, it’s only cool to be prejudiced, intolerant, and treat other people with extreme violence.
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Well yalensis, Dina would do well to remind her readership that Africa is a very big continent and is 53 nations more than the S in BRICS. Best thought out in regions- South, East, West, Central and North. It’s the future. Heaps of resources and very dynamic peoples.
As for colonisation, Ethiopia is the only African nation not be colonised. It was invaded by the Italian fascists when it was Abyssinia (1935-37), but despite the cruelty, Mussolini failed in his attempt to recreate a Roman empire. The nation now known as Eritrea, formally acknowledged in 1952, was also relinquished upon Italy’s defeat in WW2. But this much can be said of the Italian occupation- they built a beautiful capital city for Eritrea- Asmara. It’s elevated, thus has an enervating climate, and the architecture is in the art deco style. Absolutely gorgeous, as Dina might say. Kind of hard to believe you’re in Africa, and for the adventurous with a bicycle it’s downhill all the way to the coastal city of Massawa. (And the stifling heat). Eritrea is a great holiday destination.
And what about Liberia? Colonised by Afro-Americans. Ex slaves. And they are regarded as rather too hoitytoity by their indigenous brethren!
And the history of African colonialism, how about the Phoenicians and Carthage? Having visited Carthage, let me say that those Romans really meant it when they executed Cato’s dictum “Cathago delenda est”. Except for a humble museum with a few sarcophagi statues, there’s not a vestige of that grand city left now.
Thanks yalensis (and Dina) for today’s thought provoking post.
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And thanks back to you, Australian Lady, for your travel and historical expertise!
Regarding Ethiopia, I am sure you know this, but Verdi’s opera heroine Aida is an Ethiopian Princess. Her people were at war with Egypt at that time, for some reason; or maybe Egypt just trying to conquer them for some silly reason.
The Pharaoh sends his army against the Ethiopian army. General Radamès captures Amonasro, the King of Ethiopia, along with his daughter Aida. However, both are in disguise, so the Egyptians don’t even realize what important people they have captured here, and just treat them like common captives. Aida is given an ordinary job as the chambermaid of the Egyptian princess Amneris. Amneris hopes to marry General Radamès, but the latter is infatuated with Aida.
Long story short, they all die in the end, except for Amneris and the Pharaoh.
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I’ve met and got to know two people from Eritrea, both were incredibly smart people. They were fellow engineering students at the gritty city college I went to before transferring to university. Both were gifted mathematically, one was horribly wounded as an Eritrean soldier; it was a nasty head shot that went front to back. Looking at it, fully healed, I would have guessed it unsurvivable and on that day, in battle?
The fact that he survived, the fact that he prospered after taking such a wound speaks volumes to the efficiency and heart of the Eritrean people in their war of liberation from Ethiopia. Few Americans know that the US Army, at one time, [post-Viet Nam, before the returning to it’s incessant neocolonialist wars under Bush, the 1st] held the Eritrean forces in very high regard for their world-class medical evacuation of the wounded…in very difficult circumstances.
I knew an Army doc who studied Eritrean medvac techniques, he had been in country and held Eritreans in the highest regard…”though you know, they’re communists” he would say in an exaggerated and dismissive tone, in case anybody else was listening to our conversation. I think some of the pictures in his office contradicted that quip.
My hope is that both Ethiopia and Eritrea will go forward in peace, both are a great people, both capable and with good hearts, both countries should prosper.
https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/AP23151526117617-1686657947.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80
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