I had an itch every time I saw Matthew Parris quoted by missionaries as a stamp of approval for the work they do. I was of the mind of getting to thinking what to write about this fella who is seemingly stuck between colonial-nostalgia and post-colonial shock. His need for having something to say about Africa (with such limited lived experience here/limited personal encounters with diverse Africans on the longer term) is beyond me. I suppose access to the global media has a way of making folks give an 'educated' opinion at every whim?? Search me. Anyway, I came across (quite thankfully) these two blogs that wrote on the topic of Matthew Parris much better than I could ever hope to. Luckily there's a balance actually: the one link is written by an African and the other a Westerner. http://benbyerly.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/i-dont-need-god-but-those-africans-sure-do-on-matthew-parriss-popular-column/#comment-3908 http://wherehermadnessresides.blogspot.com/2009/01/i
Resisting the stereotypes.