Conclusion: A Diverse Africa

By referring to “Africa” or an “African way” is to suggest that there is only one kind of approach to life, business, and government in Africa, and that the largest continent on the planet with over 2,000 different ethnic and cultural groups is somehow homogeneous in culture, resources, governance, language, infrastructure, values, religion, societal structure, healthcare, and so forth. Equally, by referring to only a handful of African leaders such as Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Muammar Qaddafi, Olusegun Obasanjo, Thabo Mbeki, Hosni Mubarak, and King Hassan II, does not qualify as a full understanding of African leadership. In addition, Africa in its entirety is not all living in the so-called third world — there are many parts of Africa that daily are enjoying a so-called first world lifestyle, others one may argue is closer to a yet undefined second world, and many parts are in the so-called third world. Unfortunately, much of the historical and current media, as well as day-to-day reference at all levels of global discourse, refers to Africa as a single entity — and therefore ignoring the diversity of Africa itself — often diversity even within one country and within one ethnic group, and shaped by a myriad of diverse influences. Africa is more heterogeneous than China, North America and the European Union, and to write and speak only about a uniform entity is short-sighted, risky and even dangerous.