G. Pascal Zachary
Africa Writings For the past six years I’ve spent a good deal of time traveling, working and writing about African affairs. My work ranges over politics, social issues, business and technology and culture. I have avoided following the media herd, and reporting on the sorts of disaster, disease and mayhem articles that reinforce the image of Africa as hopeless and Africans as brutal, stupid or both. The picture I present of Africa is partial, biased in favor of hopefulness, positive action and constructive role models. I am ever aware of the disappointments, inequalities and sheer misery in many parts of Africa, but I have not yet chosen to allow these realities to define my writing about this fascinating region of the world. Below I list some of my characteristic pieces: “Hotel Africa,” Wilson Quarterly, summer, 2006 [on new African immigrants to the U.S. and their ties back home] “Blame the Natives,” Salon, July, 2006 [a review of a book on why aid fails Africa] “Creative death in Darfur,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 2006 “Chimp Pawns in a Human Game,” San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 27, 2005 “TRhe African Hacker,” Spectrum, Aug. 2005 “Poor Idea,” New Republic, March 7, 2005 [on difficulties of combating African poverty] “A Skeptic’s Guide to Aid for Africa,” Milken Institute Review, Winter, 2004 “Cheap Chickens: Feeding Africa’s Poor,” World Policy Journal, Summer, 2004 “Ghanaian Rule: Gays be silent,” SF Chronicle, Nov. 23, 2003 “A Program for Africa’s Computer People,” Issues in Science and Technology, Spring, 2003 “Searching for a Dial Tone in Africa,” The New York Times, July 5, 2003 “Is There Hope for Africa?” In These Times, July 28, 2003 “Ice Cream and Poverty in Ghana,” San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 8, 2002 [how some people manage to live well in a poor country] “Ghana’s Digital Dilemma,” Technology Review, July, 2002 [a report on the “digital divide,” through the prism of one African country] “Dancing with Dictators,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 2002 [on why African elections don’t always translate into democracy] “Shortage of Nurses Hits Hardest Where They are Needed Most: Holland Hires in South Africa, Which Looks to Ghana, In a New Global Market,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 24, 2001 [examines the global trade in nurses and its effect on an African country] “Tangled Roots: For African-Americans in Ghana, the Grass Isn’t Always Greener,” Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2001 [on Africa’s appeal to African-Americans – and the challenges faced when they return to the “motherland” to live and work] -- GPZ |
|
