Contemporary 'Africa Rising' narratives in historical perspective

近年来，出现了一种非常积极的政策和学术上的“非洲崛起”叙事。基于非洲的经济增长和民主化，这种叙述在基调上明显不同于对死亡、饥饿和战争的描述，而这些似乎是整个1980年代和1990年代对非洲大陆的流行报道的定义。在以盎格鲁为中心的背景下，这种叙事甚至渗透到流行文化中，通过非洲电影节，“非洲人”文学和流行电视，塞维里诺和雷的书“非洲时刻”（2010）出现在广受好评的美剧《纸牌屋》的中心角色中。因为它是乐观的，这种关于非洲“崛起”的叙述，尽管有争议，似乎与一些更明显的贬义的非洲悲观主义有所不同，后者在过去几十年里主导了对非洲的报道，并将非洲人描绘成无助或暴力的人。然而，这个项目试图通过在三个选定的历史时期探索非洲的积极性来准确地询问这些叙述的新内容。由于非洲崛起叙事是对非洲悲观叙事的进步回应，该项目将在英国背景下探索这种叙事的历史迭代，这种叙事是由自我认同的进步运动推动的，这些运动在英国重新考虑与非洲关系的时期出现在前台，受到更广泛的地缘政治和经济事件的推动。为了将当前非洲崛起的时刻历史化，该项目将重点关注以下运动和时期：i) 19世纪至19世纪20年代在南部非洲工作的传教团体，这是英国考虑非洲内陆的时期；ii) 20世纪20年代至30年代的“至上主义”和非洲权利运动，当时英国的政策试图理解其非洲殖民地日益增长的民族主义情绪以及欧洲战场上的战争威胁；iii) 20世纪50年代至60年代的自由移民和多种族主义运动，当时英国的政策是与新的非洲政府和现在和以前殖民地的移民社区建立工作关系。该项目通过实证档案研究来探索这些时期。详细了解英国进步运动使非洲变得乐观的方式将有助于将当代非洲崛起的叙事历史化，并说明话语的连续性和断裂，这些叙事定义了这些叙事的时间，以及它们与同时出现的悲观叙事的关系，这些叙事一直是批评学者对英国和帝国对非洲的表现的主要焦点。的确，由于这种对非洲代表权的明显贬损性质的关注，这些文献的大部分乍一看似乎无法理解更直接地关注非洲机构、成就、增长和发展的现代叙述。因此，该项目有助于正在进行的关于西方对非洲的描述的批判性辩论，但采取了与传统方法不同的策略。它挑战了公认的批判性智慧，即英国与非洲的接触总是基于对非洲人能力的种族主义悲观主义，而不是关注非洲和非洲人的更积极的表现，同时认识到种族偏见可能也影响了这些观点。该项目为研究不同帝国中心对非洲的积极叙述以及对英国其他殖民地所表达的乐观主义提供了基础，并将乐观主义研究纳入其他区域专家和学科的范围，包括历史、政治、文学和电影，以及有关的普通公众。项目发展将通过流行的非洲新闻和评论网站传播。

In recent years a very positive policy and scholarly 'Africa rising' narrative has emerged. Based on Africa's economic growth and democratisation, this narrative differs significantly in tone from the depiction of death, starvation and warfare which seemed to define popular coverage of the continent through the 1980s and 1990s. In an anglo-centric context, this narrative has even penetrated popular culture, via Africa film festivals, 'Afropolitan' literature, and popular television, where Severino and Ray's book 'Africa's Moment' (2010) appears being read by a central character in the critically acclaimed US drama House of Cards.Because it is optimistic, this narrative about Africa's 'rise', although contested, appears discursively distinct from some of the more evidently pejorative Afro-pessimism which dominated coverage of Africa in the preceding decades and rendered Africans as helpless or violent. This project however seeks to interrogate precisely what is new about these narratives by exploring positvity about Africa during three selected historical periods. Because Africa rising narratives have emerged as a progressive response to more pessimistic narratives about Africa, the project will explore, in a British context, historical iterations of this narrative promoted by self-identified progressive movements which have come to the fore during periods of British reconsideration of its relationship with Africa, driven by broader geo-political and economic events. In order to historicise the current Africa rising moment the project will focus on the following movements and periods:i) Missionary societies working in Southern Africa from the 1800s-1820s, a time of British consideration of the African interior;ii) 'Paramountcy' and African rights movements during the 1920s-1930s, as British policy sought to make sense of growing nationalist sentiment in its African colonies alongside the threat of war in the European theatre; iii) Liberal-settler and multi-racialist movements in the 1950s-60s, when British policy was concerned with establishing working relationships with the new African governments, and settler communities in its current and former colonies. The project explores these periods through empirical archival research. A detailed understanding of the ways in which British progressive movements have rendered Africa optimistically will help to historicise contemporary Africa rising narratives, and illustrate the discursive continuities and ruptures which define these narratives across time as well as their relationships with the simultaneously pessimistic narratives which have been the primary focus of critical scholars on British and imperial representations of Africa. Indeed, because of this focus on the evidently pejorative nature of Africa's representation, much of this literature at first glance appears unable to comprehend modern narratives which focus more squarely on African agency, achievements, growth and development. The project thus contributes to ongoing critical debates regarding Western representations of Africa, but takes a different tack from more conventional approaches. It challenges received critical wisdom that the British encounter with Africa has always been based on racially-informed pessimism regarding the capabilities of Africans, by instead focusing on more positive representations of Africa and Africans, whilst being cogniscant of the racial prejudices which may have informed these perspectives as well. The project provides the foundations for studies of positive narratives about Africa across different imperial centres, as well as optimism expressed towards Britain's other colonial possessions, and brings the study of optimism within the purview of other regional specialists, and disciplines, including history, politics, literature and film, as well as the concerned general public. Project developments will be disseminated via popular African news and commentary websites.