African Legacy: Solutions for a Community in Crisis

In African Legacy: Solutions for a Community in Crisis, Bernard Lugan draws on extensive research to refute the myths surrounding the "Africa question": namely, that the slave trade emptied the continent of its human substance and that the colonial powers enriched themselves with the sweat and blood of their colonies. According to Lugan, these beliefs survive because African politicians need to keep the guilt of their partners in the industrialized world alive to hold onto their stake in the billions in international aid that results. Having now been independent for forty years, Africa's states are largely responsible for their own problems, Lugan maintains. Their leaders must admit that Western-style democracy is provoking catastrophes because it does not take into account the ethnic realities that are tearing these artificial nations apart. Borders inherited from colonization are the main cause of massacres and must be drawn anew. With respect to the U.S., arguably the most implicated country of our time, Lugan asserts that the nation is unable to assess the situation with the necessary objectivity. Even more than its European counterparts, the survival of America's idealism and raison d'être - liberty, equality, justice - depend on repairing the wrongdoings of the past. In addition to forging an international presence, the U.S. has instituted domestic policies, such as affirmative action, as a way of shouldering the burdens of a continent of people. With its black population on the rise (among other ethnicities), Lugan contends that America attempts to maintain a "melting pot" at the expense of turning a blind eye to the realities of any given situation. America's approach to Africa does not take into account its differences. According to the author, the results of liberalism - economic, political and social - are pre-determined. In the end, the effects will be lost so long as the underlying issues are ignored. African Legacy is a passionate indictment that attacks prevailing ideas and condemns false solutions put forward in the name of "political correctness." Lugan's objective is to awaken Blacks and Whites alike to the underlying realities of Africa's plight and save the continent from a certain death.