![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
02-12-2021, 04:42 PM
Patrick Gathara
Communications consultant, writer, and award-winning political cartoonist based in Nairobi.
Published On 1 Dec 2021
......
Prince William, has once again caused an uproar by blaming population growth in Africa for the declining fortunes of the continent’s wildlife. Many have pointed out the hypocrisy of a father of three demonising African households for having too many babies.
Others have noted that the United Kingdom is much more densely populated than any part of Africa and that British hunters and colonial settlers have been responsible for the savage decimation of animals. Not to mention the effect of global warming and climate change, majorly caused by William’s ancestors, countrymen and neighbours, which may endanger between 25 and 40 percent of mammal species in national parks in Africa.
......
It was the second time William was complaining about the continent’s rising population having previously raised the issue in 2017. That same year, French President Emmanuel Macron, who also likes to talk about African birthrates, blamed the continent’s “civilisational” problems on nations that “have seven or eight children per woman”.
And of course, there were the perhaps not entirely surprising allegations last year by William’s own sister-in-law, Meghan, an African American woman, that some in the royal family were concerned about the possibility of her and Prince Harry’s son not being the desired royal colour.
......
It is telling that the troubling, apocalyptic descriptions in The Population Bomb are about teeming misery in non-white countries such as India, not in Europe or North America.
......
By 2100, there could well be seven Africans for every European.
With the rise of Asian giants like China and India already supercharging white racist fears (and partly driving the resurgence of right-wing extremism), the prospect of Europeans taking a back seat to Africans as well is undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire.
......
Kenyan ecologist, Dr Mordecai Ogada ...... says, “the absolute numbers of people in Africa are far from being a problem for our environment more so because of the very light footprint of the people here”. He points out that many Indigenous communities have little incentive to harm the environment which they directly rely on to fulfil essential needs.
And when it comes to the environment, many Western do-gooders “look at human numbers instead of human behaviour”. It is the same flawed argument that claims African communities that have lived with wildlife for millennia are the real threat, while Westerners who have driven much of their own wildlife to extinction, have the answers.
The talk of overpopulation also feeds into a narrative that seeks to completely exonerate the West from the problems facing Africa. Africa – the tale they would like to tell goes – is poor and starving because it has too many Africans who are very bad at running their own affairs without murdering each other, and incapable of managing the natural resources and wildlife the continent is blessed with. Sound familiar? It was the justification for the “civilising mission” that was the cover for the brutal European plunder of the continent.
The legacy of colonialism and its genocides, displacements and murders; the trade and financial systems that continue to milk the continent for the benefit of outsiders and at the expense of locals; the interventions to prop up murderous, kleptocratic regimes; and the destruction of the global environment all pale into insignificance when compared with the misfortune of actually hosting Africans. Like his ancestors before him, this is what William considers the continent’s – and the planet’s – true tragedy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/...ack-babies
Communications consultant, writer, and award-winning political cartoonist based in Nairobi.
Published On 1 Dec 2021
......
Prince William, has once again caused an uproar by blaming population growth in Africa for the declining fortunes of the continent’s wildlife. Many have pointed out the hypocrisy of a father of three demonising African households for having too many babies.
Others have noted that the United Kingdom is much more densely populated than any part of Africa and that British hunters and colonial settlers have been responsible for the savage decimation of animals. Not to mention the effect of global warming and climate change, majorly caused by William’s ancestors, countrymen and neighbours, which may endanger between 25 and 40 percent of mammal species in national parks in Africa.
......
It was the second time William was complaining about the continent’s rising population having previously raised the issue in 2017. That same year, French President Emmanuel Macron, who also likes to talk about African birthrates, blamed the continent’s “civilisational” problems on nations that “have seven or eight children per woman”.
And of course, there were the perhaps not entirely surprising allegations last year by William’s own sister-in-law, Meghan, an African American woman, that some in the royal family were concerned about the possibility of her and Prince Harry’s son not being the desired royal colour.
......
It is telling that the troubling, apocalyptic descriptions in The Population Bomb are about teeming misery in non-white countries such as India, not in Europe or North America.
......
By 2100, there could well be seven Africans for every European.
With the rise of Asian giants like China and India already supercharging white racist fears (and partly driving the resurgence of right-wing extremism), the prospect of Europeans taking a back seat to Africans as well is undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire.
......
Kenyan ecologist, Dr Mordecai Ogada ...... says, “the absolute numbers of people in Africa are far from being a problem for our environment more so because of the very light footprint of the people here”. He points out that many Indigenous communities have little incentive to harm the environment which they directly rely on to fulfil essential needs.
And when it comes to the environment, many Western do-gooders “look at human numbers instead of human behaviour”. It is the same flawed argument that claims African communities that have lived with wildlife for millennia are the real threat, while Westerners who have driven much of their own wildlife to extinction, have the answers.
The talk of overpopulation also feeds into a narrative that seeks to completely exonerate the West from the problems facing Africa. Africa – the tale they would like to tell goes – is poor and starving because it has too many Africans who are very bad at running their own affairs without murdering each other, and incapable of managing the natural resources and wildlife the continent is blessed with. Sound familiar? It was the justification for the “civilising mission” that was the cover for the brutal European plunder of the continent.
The legacy of colonialism and its genocides, displacements and murders; the trade and financial systems that continue to milk the continent for the benefit of outsiders and at the expense of locals; the interventions to prop up murderous, kleptocratic regimes; and the destruction of the global environment all pale into insignificance when compared with the misfortune of actually hosting Africans. Like his ancestors before him, this is what William considers the continent’s – and the planet’s – true tragedy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/...ack-babies
![[Image: 2-A37-EE7-A-3603-446-B-82-C3-C05-BF570-EC15.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/5RfRf9J/2-A37-EE7-A-3603-446-B-82-C3-C05-BF570-EC15.jpg)
![[Image: BAE7-F0-EA-7-CFC-4186-9-FBC-BF057946-FAD5.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/JywN6bs/BAE7-F0-EA-7-CFC-4186-9-FBC-BF057946-FAD5.jpg)
