The Dark Continent - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 350

sequence, for a time food production did not keep pace with people production, the only
region in the world to experience this phenomenon at that time. And a decade later, the
continent would be hit with the AIDS epidemic, taking a severe toll among a significant
percentage of able bodied workers.
THE SPECIAL CASE OF SOUTH AFRICA
If ordinary westerners could identify anything about the African continent, among the items
on their very short lists would be the idea of apartheid in South Africa and its connection to
Nelson Mandela (although most would likely not be able to recall the specific role the latter
played in ending apartheid). South Africa had been part of the British empire but had en-
joyed home rule since early in the twentieth century. Within the country, there was a racial
divide, which led to much contention beginning in the 1940s. As non-whites increased their
demands for greater freedom, whites continued their hardened stance, even as racial in-
justice was being successfully fought elsewhere in the world. Nelson Mandela became part
of the fight against apartheid in the 1940s, subsequently emerging as a leader of the non-
white opposition, and was imprisoned in the early 1960s for almost three decades. Released
in part because of worldwide pressure, he later served as the country's president, after the
whites-only government finally gave into worldwide pressure and ended apartheid. Man-
dela received the Nobel peace prize in 1993. His presidency was marked by reconciliation
between whites and non-whites.
A HOPEFUL CONTINENT TODAY
This section takes its title from an article in The Economist . [300] Its thesis is simple: the
lives of common Africans have greatly improved in the last ten years and we can expect
the next decade to be even better. Here are the reasons outlined in the article. First, while
Africans struggle with the trails of daily life, most do not fear their lives coming to a viol-
ent and premature end. This feeling is supported by social indicators, as secondary-school
enrollment has grown dramatically (48 percent) over a recent eight-year period. Malaria-
related deaths and HIV infections have declined by 30 percent and 74 percent respectively,
while life expectancy is up 10 percent with child mortality sharply down.
The reason: a booming economy claims Oliver August of The Economist who cris-
scrossed the continent to check the current pulse of Africa. Real income has increased over
10 percent in the past decade (compared to a large decline in the previous decade), the fast-
est of any continent. GDP is expected to rise by 6 percent per year and foreign direct invest-
ment has almost tripled in the last decade. Previously scarce goods and services are becom-
ing easily available, as witnessed by the projected fivefold increase in television ownership
in a decade.
Political development, measured in terms of movement toward democracy, has also
made significant strides. The Economist reports that while at the end of the cold war only
three out of the then fifty-three countries of Africa could be considered democracies, today
the number is twenty-five countries, with twenty-two more moving in that direction as