Ntone Edjabe

Ntone Edjabe (born 1970) is a Cameroonian writer, journalist, DJ and founding editor of Chimurenga magazine. Quotes Anti-African xenophobia has been a consistent post-independence syndrome across the continent since the 1960s. It’s been running at a lower intensity in this country since the early '90s. And when it finally blows up in 2008, the rhetoric of the Struggle, and of the Rainbow Nation, the exceptional trajectory, all of that is blown out of the water. I don’t think it’s possible for human beings to live without any form of conflict, some of it generates progress, but it is not the colonial master that necessarily taught us how to live together. So, it’s something that we constantly aspire to and constantly work towards, just as much as every other society in the world. In my own opinion, the west today is far more confronted with that question than we would ever be. There is a level of animosity and guardedness in Europe today, that I find the west far less tolerant about different cultures, backgrounds and complexities than anything remotely possible in say, Lagos, where you have 200 nations sharing space in the city. The advice I have is more towards the generation before them, what are the references? Because to ask of them to recognise references that might be applicable to their system into the context might be unfair. So, how can they recognise the references that are applicable to their context? Some of it requires their own efforts, consciousness, curiosity and investigation, but some of it also requires us to help them to generate the language that will make it possible for them to recognise this. External links Category: living people