Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Africa. It could be seen as the great test of the West; economically, intellectually, spiritually. The "dark continent" was seen as a source of power for the West through its natural resources, a place of harvest for western religious missionaries, a prize area for anthropologists - a dark continent to be illuminated by our western lights. Now, darker, all but extinguished some think, by the attentions of its invaders, Africa is outside the take-up of the twentieth century it seems. But is this received view is merely clichéd and too easily pessimistic. With Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, Chair of the Afro-American Studies Department, Harvard University and presenter of the BBC 2 series Into Africa; Anthony Sampson, writer, journalist and author of Mandela: The Authorised Biography.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk. |
| 0:09.0 | I hope you enjoy the program. |
| 0:11.0 | Hello in the spring of last year, President Bill Clinton glad handed his way across the continent of Africa. |
| 0:17.0 | And taking up Tarbaum-Becky's theme and phrase, he told the world about an African Renaissance. |
| 0:21.0 | He said that from Cape Town to Campala from Daris Salaam to |
| 0:24.1 | Dakar, democracy was gaining strength, business was growing, and peace was breaking out. |
| 0:28.4 | Little over a year later, war ravages the continent from Sudan to Ethiopia, chaos and corruption undermine the |
| 0:34.7 | rule of law from Liberia to Somalia, and men like Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic |
| 0:40.0 | of Congo, once held by the West as a new breed, have turned out to be just as selfish, |
| 0:44.3 | divisive and disastrous as their ignoble forebears. A fortnight ago, the instability and the threat of terrorism |
| 0:49.9 | in Africa meant that Britain closed closes embassies in Gambia, |
| 0:53.4 | Namibia and Senegal and the United States ceased its operations in |
| 0:57.1 | Liberia and Tongo. With me to discuss Africa's future is |
| 1:00.9 | Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. chair of the Afro-American |
| 1:04.1 | Studies Department at Harvard University and one of Time magazine's 25 Most |
| 1:08.4 | Influential Americans and the presenter of a new BBC series into Africa in which he explores the continent and attempts |
| 1:14.5 | to unearth its forgotten history. |
| 1:16.3 | I'm also joined by the distinguished writer and journalist Anthony Sampson, who's had a long |
| 1:20.2 | association with South Africa in particular and is the author of Mandela the authorized |
| 1:24.8 | biography. |
| 1:26.4 | Is there any sense, Antinous Sampson, in which we can look on Africa as a test of Europe? |
| 1:31.0 | We've written all over it in various ways. We've invaded it. We've given |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.