Africa Flooded

Perhaps it is indicative that this is the first time I even hear of the flooding!  We could go on and on about how life of color is worth less in the popular imagination – Iraqis, Katrina, Rwanda, etc... But what blows me away is the way Africa is a sort of fantasy land in this same imagination.  The primitive land of wild animals and primordial tribes, the land of magical origin and the land of famine, Apartheid, war – darkness! 
  
What an unbelievable set of borders, all dehumanizing in their own way.  And we can’t talk about borders, bodies, boundaries without talking of displacement – why has displacement become such a part of the African experience since its early encounter with the Europeans? 
  
How do BBB intersect with the African American experience, or, at yet another level, the experience of the Afro-Latin immigrant who might not even have black skin but can only walk, talk and dance because she has Africa within? 
  
Who assigns value and worth to life?  What does it mean to care in the face of natural disaster and how does this translate to care in the face of man made war – Darfur, Congo, Zimbabwe? 
  
Sometimes I wish we could just start over from scratch…

Saludos,

Gibran