Annotation # 4. Assignment 11

         Lameck, Lucy. "Africans Are Not Poor." Reading The World: Ideas That Matter.
Ed. Editor's Michael Austin. New York/ London: W.W Norton & Company, 2010. 352-355. Print.

        Lucy Lameck writes a speech that is given to the Parliament of Tanzania. She writes it as if she is speaking to any minister and addresses him as Mr. Minister. "Her primary strategy is to contest the underlying assumptions about poverty held by her audience and offer a new, less stigmatizing definition in its place." She tries to persuade her audience into agreeing that Africa really isn't poor, it's just underdeveloped compared to the rest of the world and has a long way to go. They are not poor. Africa is filled with tons of natural resources and some of which have not been utilized yet. "Our country today has value, it has riches, it has good land, it has animals, different types of livestock, minerals-and it is rumored that there are millions and millions of [tons of] coal, iron, and other ores-which we have not yet managed to find the means to explore and exploit and process for our benefit." In saying this she emphasizes that Africa does have a long way to go but they have the tools they need to build up their continent and make it more developed like the rest of the world.
        "The world surrounding us is developing fast in the economic and scientific spheres: rockets are being sent into space, huge buildings are being being erected, the condition of the life is so different,there are many industries, etc." Africa still has a long way to go but their economy is built by their people. Britain and America had many colonies in Africa and used the poor people to form the lands and used the poor people to farm the lands and used them in factories. The poor were forced to do the hard labor while the rich people were in government, and had the most control. Americans and the British would got to Africa to get materials and take it back to their lands. This just shows that Africa is full of useful resources but they are not yet being used properly by Africa. One main reason for this is because the continent is not united and has difficulties deciding what they want to do as a whole. "There is confused talk, so that we do not really know where we are going and what we want to be: will there be cars or not? Will there be farms or not? And if farms will be there, on what basis will they run? What type of economy shall our country have? Will foreigners and the common people living here go on with the same type of life or will their lives be organized differently?" This is something that i'm also curious to know about. I don't think any type of research could really help me figure out what it will be like in Africa several years from now but I am curious to see what will happen.
       This source is again in my opinion a reliable and credible source. I found it out of a book I have been using for previous assignments for my English class. I see this source as a building point into the rest of the articles I have read, as a way of connecting my thoughts into them more. This story is very simple and straight forward, in that it is an easy read and explains things well. She makes several points about how the resources were taken from their country and how they are still developing a overall sense of direction in their country which is something I plan on looking into further. I want to obtain more information on how Africa became the way that it is and research more on colonialism.