Obama and liberal Afro-pessimism

Authors

  • Ian Glenn University of the Free State, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18820/24150525/Comm.v22.1

Keywords:

Afro-pessimism, Afro-optimism, Western liberal orthodoxy, Speech, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Rhetoric, African Union, Rhetorical criticism

Abstract

This article disputes academic accounts of Afro-pessimism, which see it as a product of ideological or discursive bias in the viewer, or as a crude generalisation across very different countries and cultures by examining the context for and major themes of Afro-pessimism after 1994. In particular, it shows that modern Afro-pessimism is largely a product of liberal concerns and liberal media. It demonstrates the salience of these themes by showing how they permeate and influence former US President Barack Obama’s African outlook by a close reference to his speech to the Ghanaian parliament in 2009 and suggests that they may provide the context for the views of current US President Donald Trump.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

##submission.downloads##

Published

2017-11-06

Issue

Section

Articles