The Legacy of Colonial Racism in Africa

Author(s): N. Noah Bassil

Source: AQ: Australian Quarterly , Jul. - Aug., 2005, Vol. 77, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 2005),
pp. 27-32, 40
Published by: Australian Institute of Policy and Science

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20638352

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Australian Institute of Policy and Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to AQ: Australian Quarterly

This content downloaded from

141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 the legacy of
colonial racism in africa
By . NoahBassil
Recently, a Sydney academic1 of question
able authority in the field of race relations
has provided a startling reminder of the
resilience of racism. A decade after the end
of Apartheid in South Africa, and in the year celebrat
ing the sixtieth anniversary of the defeat of National
Socialism in Germany we are once again faced with
the challenge of discrediting racist views in our own
society here in Australia. Australia has of course, its
legacy of racism and racial discrimination from which
it hides from view through various means. However,
unlike the racism, against Aboriginals, which Australia
has dealt with so inadequately in many quarters, the
recent comments were aimed at the relatively small
and recently settled African community in Australia.
Such views, shocking to most Australians, and
undoubtedly intellectually facile, are certainly hard for
most of us to comprehend. However, the "debate" over
the comments regarding the Africans here in Australia
demonstrates that racism in spite of everything done
to combat this idiocy exists in contemporary Australia.
As a result, I feel it necessary to "speak up" and publish
a brief reminder that the racism against Africans was
"invented" over centuries of European contact, and
processes of control, and by interrogating the history
of European contact with Africa, I can assist in explain
ing the construction of an inferior Africa from which
Europeans have profited.
Let me emphasise that Africa is a continent and not
a country, this may seem incredibly obvious but what I
mean by this that Africa is a geographical concept and
that the idea of Africa as a distinct place is an invention
of European cartography and expansionism, as Edward
Said so eloquently has argued.2 In addition the diversity
and distinctness of the many Africa's which exist should
be accentuated. The processes of colonisation and the
knowledge utilised to facilitate the colonial projects,
and there were many, have constructed this idea that
Africa exists as a unit in historical terms, but this is
a recent construction and the possibility for Africa's
Noah Bassil is currently writing a PhD on the causes of the
conflict in the Dar Fur province ofWestern Sudan.
This content downloaded from
141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
future I argue, here and elsewhere, is to transcend the
Euro-centric construct of Africa, politically, economi
cally and equally importantiy, ideologically.
It is necessary to state at this point, as I set out to
discuss representations of Africa and Africans that all
history is written by humans3. Whilst a "real" world does
exist, the explanations of this world demand interroga
tion. The purpose of the interrogation is to explore and
delineate the relationships of power and the interests
inscribed onto the understanding of the world. Without
undervaluing the importance of the debate about
knowledge, it is the implications attached to this
idea which are profound and offer the opportunity to
question accepted and even indisputable assumptions
about the world.
Valentin Mudimbe, who's seminal work on the
colonisation of Africa by Europeans politically, and eco
nomically, (which was the focus of much debate during
the 1970's and the 1980's by dependency and Marxist
scholars) also argues that the colonialism of knowledge
about Africa has had profound effects.4 Mudimbe
argues, the power of this process to transform Africa,
in relation to the way the world views Africa, which is
significant, but also the power of the European colo
nialisation of Africans minds to transform Africans
self-perception and the world they inhabit. Mudimbe's
work has proved incredibly influential for scholars
attempting to understand the effects of colonialism
and the legacy, which Africans themselves continually
struggle to undermine. Mudimbe states that,
"It is in these very discourses that African worlds
have been established as realities for knowledge.And
today African themselves read, challenge, rewrite
these discourse as a way of explicating and defining
their culture, history and being."5
I attempt to discuss, albeit briefly the ideological
transformation of the continent by colonisation. It
must also be stated that the political, economic and ide
ological processes operate concomitantly, that is there
is a continual process of symbiosis, between political,
economic and ideological factors. It is important to
explore the transformation of Africa in a multileveled
way, taking into account not only the political changes,
economic reorientation but also the profound and dis
turbing effect of the reconceptualisation of Africa and
AQ Jul-Aug2005 27
 colonial racism
Africans as a result of European expansionism and the
creation of a global capitalist economic system from
the sixteenth century onwards. Mudimbe reminds us
that the process of colonisation in Africa proceeded
as "three complementary hypotheses and actions...
the domination of physical space, the reformulation
native's minds, and the integration of local economic
histories into the Western perspective."6 This in turn
provides the fdundation for explorations of decolo
nisation, development and underdevelopment, and
conflict across the continent. The question that the
analysis of the history of Africa attempt to determine,
again and again, is the extent that the problems across
contemporary Africa are a result of the profound trans
formative effect of colonialism.
The perspective that the legacy of the period of
European colonialism continues to afflict the African
situation cannot be ignored. That the representa
tions of Africa constructed during the era of European
expansionism remain pungent are apparent, espe
cially at times such as that which we face today will the
renewed diatribe against Africans recently occurring in
Sydney. It is important to interrogate our own perspec
tives of Africa whenever you consult literature about
Africa and when you see news stories chronicling the
woes of the continent. Most importantly, ask yourself
how these representations of events may be condi
tioned by a history of the knowledge regarding Africa,
who composed that knowledge and for what purpose
was the knowledge of Africa constructed?
So, let us turn back to the sixteenth century for
a moment in time when Africa remained largely
unknown to the European mind. Mariners in the
sixteenth century and earlier feared the southern seas.
It was widely believed that the crossing of the equator
would lead to the blackening of one's skin, the conver
sion of the white man into a black one. Two interesting
points arise from this- one that the colour of one's skin
was alterable and whilst undesirable and even dreadful,
it was still a superficial feature of the human condition.
Black people were black but were still people. The
second point is that this myth does not though have
a reciprocal return quality, once past the equator and
transformed there was no undoing of this magical
effect. The Negro was not considered inferior at this
point in history, feared and a relative unknown to the
28 AQJul-Aug2005
This content downloaded from
141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Mariners in the sixteenth century and
earlier feared the southern seas. It was
widely believed that the crossing of the
equator would lead to the blackening of
one's skin, the conversion of the white
man into a black one
European consciousness but not less human. To re
emphasise this point, I have two other brief examples.
Firstly, Shakespeare's hero Othello is a Moor, which
as Iago relates to the audience, Othello is definitely a
black man. However, of incredible significance is the
fact that Shakespeare places a black man at the centre
of the play as tragic hero, Othello it must be remem
bered has been placed in command of the Venetian
army and has married the white, Christian and aristo
cratic Desdemona. His place, certainly as the defender
of the Venetian state, also must reach beyond military
status through his marriage to Desdemona. More than
this Othello, a black man and from Africa, is contrasted
to the barbarous Ottomans. In fact Othello states when
breaking up the fight between Cassio and Montano,
that:
"Are we turnedTurks?And to ourselves do that which
heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? For Christian
shame, put by this barbarous brawl..."7
That a black man, a character in a play written and
performed in Jacobin England, exclaims this, is further
evidence to the acceptance of the possible equality of
the races. Caliban, another of Shakespeare's black char
acters, it is remembered is subject to Prospero because
he lacks language, not because of an inherent racial
inferiority.
The European perspective of Africans is also further
revealedbytheeffortsofKingJohnofPortugalinthel5th
Century to reach the famed Prester John of Ethiopia.
The first clear description of an African Prester John is in
the Mirabilia Descripta of Jordanus, around 1329. From
this period on the possibility of a Christian kingdom
in Africa prompted attempts by European rulers to
establish diplomatic ties. In the fifteenth century,
Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal was so impas

sioned by the possibility of surrounding the Islamic
kingdoms of North Africa through an alliance between
Christian Portugal and Ethiopia, he financed fourteen
expeditions along the West African coast. Undoubtedly
though, it was also the possibly of advancing Portu
gal's economic interests that motivated Henry and the
Portuguese. They had long viewed the Atlantic as their
major trading area and they had few business interests
in the Mediterranean, Prince Henry saw Africa as a rich
alternative market teeming with natural resources and
raw materials. However, the potential for a Euro-African
Catholic alliance against Islam was a temptation also
driving the Portuguese to embark on expeditions
beyond the equator.
So, history records that the Portuguese were the first
Europeans to arrive in Sub-Sahar?n Africa. By 1471,
under the patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator,
they had reached the area that was to become known
as the Gold Coast for the reason that the area was well
known as the source of the gold that reached Muslim
North Africa by way of trade routes across the Sahara.
The initial Portuguese interest in trading for gold, ivory,
and pepper increased to the point where it became
expedient that they would build their first permanent
trading post on the western coast of present-day Ghana
in 1482. This fortress was called Elmina Castle, and was
This content downloaded from
141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
colonial racism
Photo: AAP
constructed to protect Portuguese trade from European
competitors and hostile Africans. However, the first
European possession was Ceuta in Northern Africa
which was conquered by the Portuguese in 1415. Rather
than relate the history of colonisation, my point is that
at this time in history when Europeans were exploring
Africa, the place of the Negro was not immediately as an
inferior or as sub-human, or even as uncivilised. There
is no evidence in this period of initial contact and trade
that a perspective of the inferior African existed, in fact
as I have pointed out, Shakespeare writing just over a
century after the establishment of Elmina Castle, does
not consider Africans as violent, primordial, irrational
or as uncivilisable. In fact, these perceptions of Africa
have been constructed and it is our task to explain this
process as part of a strategy of physical conquest and
domination, thus the power / knowledge nexus at work.
History's divisions are always determined somewhat
arbitrarily but there are at least three "moments" in the
history of the Afro-European relationship when histori
cal events provide opportunities to explore alterations
in the European ideas about Africa. I use "European"
advisedly, and emphasise Europe's transactions with
Africa vary, as do the discourses accompanying them.
If Africa is a continent with differences across time
and space, then this is also true of the Europeans that
AQJul-Aug2005 29
colonial racism

The idea that Europe discovered Africa

neglects centuries of contact between
East Africa and the societies inhabiting the
explored, enslaved and colonised Africa. The first
departure point coincides with the establishment and
expansion of the Atlantic slave trade in the sixteenth
century and the discourse that dominated this process
is constructed around the idea of the Christian mission
to convert the heathen to Christianity, and hard labour.
The initial contact between Africans and those
Europeans who travelled around the continent was
seen as exploration and investigation. The fact that
Africans inhabited the African continent and that
in many cases, complex political and social systems
existed did not hinder the construction of the myth of
the discovery of Africa by explorers from Europe. Whilst
in most of Africa, the absurdity of terra nullus was not
employed to legitimate occupation, the concept of the
discovery of Africa, by European adventurers was a
persistent theme in European accounts of Africa. Even
today, peruse the shelf or, possibly two shelves devoted
to African history in any of the major bookstores and
count the titles devoted to adventure in Africa, explo
ration of the continent or accounts by non-Africans of
the travels across the harsh African landscape. What
you will find is this theme remains an attraction to the
western reader.
The idea that Europe discovered Africa neglects
centuries of contact between East Africa and the
societies inhabiting the Indian Ocean. The east coast
of Africa had been involved in trade and cultural
exchanges with the people of the Arabian Gulf much
earlier than the appearance of the first European naval
expedition rounded the Cape of Good Hope. However,
as with the America's and Australasia the impression
that Europe discovered Africa remains a powerful
notion. To further emphasise the idea of discovery
Africa has been described as isolated and in darkness.
The economic engagement Europe's colonial powers
commenced with Africa developed over time on the
basis of the idea that Africans had no connections or
history with the outside world. We will return to this
later, but the point I want to dwell on for a moment
is the idea of the isolation of Africa, its lack of history
and the idea of the Dark Continent so prevalent in the
western consciousness.
As the Atlantic slave trade expanded throughout
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a discourse
developed that enabled slavery to be considered a
Indian Ocean
benefit for the savage. Slavery and the slave trade were
sanctioned by papal bull and government decrees and
slavery was justified on the basis that it lifted the black
race out of darkness and on to the road to salvation. In
the nineteenth century similar arguments for slavery
continued to be employed. J.S Mill argued slavery rep
resented a higher stage of development than tribal
existence. As a result, for Mill, slavery was permissi
ble, when individuals were lifted from primitiveness.
The similarity between the views held by Mill and
earlier Europeans is based on the notion Africans are
essentially the same, and with the right conditioning,
potentially no different from Europeans. The important
point to note is that in this period, there is a shift from
the earlier idea of the African Othello, and Prester John
to a race of people desperately requiring the grace of
European patronage to raise them from moral, cultural
and intellectual primordialism. However, in the figure
of Caliban, Shakespeare anticipates the changes to
occur in the representation of Africans.
The darkness of Africa is a further perpetuated
myth. Africa as wild and impenetrable jungle remains
an incredibly powerful image. In fact, less than five
percent of the continent is jungle and the majority of
the continent is not shrouded in darkness at all. The
image of the jungle, further illustrates the isolation of
the continent from the outside world. This becomes
an exceptionally powerful idea for continuing the
penetration of the continent by European traders, mis
sionaries and explorers whose recordings of the Africa
they encountered presented the next stage in the devel
opment in the construction of the idea of Africa. The
processofthedenigrationofAfricawasbeingreinforced
by the accounts returning to Europe from the settlers,
travellers and the missionaries who were involved with
the continent in different ways. Each had their own

30 AQJul-Aug2005

This content downloaded from

141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 colonial racism

.?5?*e?.?fs5??a?^ ..... ?v?saaw-'.: j

The trade
interests for embellishing in human
their tales
lumber
and the peoples they and other
encountered whi g
Increased trade
to the growing misconceptions of theo
estingly, the yet
Africans were nineteenth ce
to be involve
of permanent
their histories, customs and colonies
beliefs.
of of the disturbance
the nineteenth century as the slave
structures
ingly being questioned of the c
as a legitimate
Europeans, the slave trade
perception of was irr
Africa
humanity's dark pastthe slave
had trade
taken wa
root.
income
of Africa is a potent and
example. the end
Hegel sta
see the demise of th
"Africa is not interesting from the po
towards a movemen
its own history, but because we see m
the Ottoman domi
barbarism and savagery which is preve
and missionaries i
being an integral part of civilization.Af
continent and the
as history goes, has remained closed w
guese in the ninet
the rest of the world."8
colonial societies. In
are viewed
In time the slave trade as an itse
and slavery int
of the fledging
by movements in Western Europe andcol
Africans
teenth century, Britain participa
and France ou
the British take active
business
steps
ventures,
to elimin
together. Liberia being
is encouraged
established as an
tlement in West and
Africa the imitation
for slaves o
freed
was the most
sea, as well as emancipated succ
slaves fr
were provided with as the
emerging
means indig
to "r
homeland. The reality for most
cooperated with em
th
terthe
from the US was that theonly
colony. The
home th
American
which they were leaving. society
Africa was a
as it would have been for is
people other non-b
another e
The cessation of the slave
possible trade
for was
African
welcomed. However, as the slave
of European tr
societi
tled the ance.
settlement It is at
of Africa this
by po
Euro

AQJul-A

This content downloaded from

141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 colonial racism
as the industrial revolution expanded Western Europe's
appetite for raw materials and markets that Africa
became more important to the European powers.
However, it was events elsewhere that was to
influence the status of Africans in their own continent.
The India Mutiny in 1857 dramatically altered the
colonial plan adopted by the British. To understand
why, it is necessary to dwell, for a brief moment on the
way that India had been controlled by the British in the
forty years from the establishment of British supremacy
in 1818 and the ideas that provided the foundations
for the form of colonial governance that eventuated
in this period. It was widely held that Britain and the
other nations of Western Europe sat atop a hierarchy
of nations on the basis of the level of culture and civi
lization achieved. Historically though western Europe
had not always been pre-eminent. In preceding ages
the civilizations of the Indians and the Persians and
Egyptians had surpassed those in Europe but through
gradual erosion and misrule by despots these regions
had fallen behind European progress. However, under
the correct tutelage the glory of these civilizations could
be regained and British rule in India would provide that
guidance. This translated into forms of government
that attempted to provide Indians with the necessary
skills to progress. Marx's comments that the infiltra
tion of capitalism was the necessary first step for the
progress of India are illustrative of the prevalence of this
idea in European thinking. His view that the oriental
despot was responsible for the stagnation of the orient
is far from unique in this period. The manner in which
Africa was governed also displayed the tendencies for
self-rule and progression. It was also able to justify the
tactics of forced labour and colonisation that was about
to overtake the African continent.
However, as suggested the India mutiny led to a ques
tioning of the belief in the ability of non-Europeans to
self-govern themselves effectively. It was also at this
time that the theory of evolution emerged and the idea
that in fact species could be differentiated as a result of
evolutionary adaptability. It was increasingly argued by
Europeans that their success in conquering the world
and subjugating other races to their rule indicated an
inherent superiority. The idea that it was possible for
Indians or Africans to progress to the stage reached
by Europeans was no longer a issue of education and
32 AQJut-Aug2005
This content downloaded from
141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
tutelage. Rather the inherent differences between the
races determined the relative place in the world they
would attain. Africans were relegated along with the
Australian Aborigine and Pacific Islanders to a position
of primitiveness. It was believed that the natives were
unable to progress beyond the most basic levels of civili
sationThe result was the idea that Europeans should not
only govern the colonies but that the locals should only
be allowed minimal authority in their own communi
ties. African peoples were placed above apes but below
Asians and Arabs who it was argued demonstrated some
level of civilisation in the past and the possibility for the
advancement of the African was far more remote than
of others. It was at this time that the idea of the child-like
native, naive, innocent and incapable of understanding
complexities became widespread. The noble savage of
earlier times had been replaced by a conceptualisation
of natives that legitimated total control. It was this view
of Africa that remained prevalent at least until World
War One with different levels of appeal and utility by the
different colonisers.
At this point I want to stress the heterogeneity of the
colonial project across Africa and that this discourse
which I have related to you was not the only discourse
and the counter-ideas that were expressed through
out challenged and forced reconsiderations of these
ideas continuously. However, what is most revealing
about the discourses is the absence of African voices
speaking for themselves. However, these voices were to
emerge and challenge the concept of colonisation, and
the racist notions that accompanied colonial control.
These counter-discourses became powerful tools in the
advancement towards African independence and are
discourses that still resonate today.
I have briefly outlined the history of European
thinking regarding Africa. The racism that emerged
cannot be understood externally of the Atlantic
slave trade and the conquest and subjugation of the
continent by the European powers. Decolonisation
altered the representations, to a point, but decades of
civil conflict and impoverishment have allowed the
discourse of African inferiority to persist. The existence
of racism in contemporary Australia is a reminder of the
necessity to remain vigilant and challenge those views
whenever they arise. acl

John Brogden: Fallen or Pushed?
1 Katharine West, Power in the Liberal Party, Cheshire
1965, viii.
2 Ibid, p. 168.
3 See Marion Maddox, God under Howard: the rise of the
religious right in Australian politics, Allen and Unwin
2005.
4 Mark Aarons, Sanctuary Nazi Fugitives in Australia,
Heinemann 1989, and War Criminals Welcome, Black
2001; and Andrew Moore, The Right Road: a history
ofright-wing politics in Australia, Oxford UP 1995 (in
which the mis-spelling "Clark" occurs).
5 Robert Wainwright and Paola Totaro, ' Right Wing and
a Prayer", Sydney Morning Herald, September 10-11,
2005.
6 "The Religion Report", ABC 12 May2004.
7 NSW Legislative Council, Debates, 27 May 2003.
Promoting a Multiracial Australia:
Population Policy and Intercountry
Adoption
1 Readers might recall the recent article by van Onselen
and Errington on the aging of the Australian popula
tion. See Peter van Onselen & Wayne Errington,
'Solutions and Diversions: The debate on Australia's
ageing population', AQ -Journal of Contemporary
Analysis, July-August, 2004.
2 The comments made in relation to the behaviour of
state government officials do not relate to current staff
of the Intercountry Adoption Unit of the Queensland
Department of Child Safety, and is not intended to
imply any criticism of them. Any references to adoption
refer to intercountry adoption unless local adoption is
specified.
3 Figures taken from Australian Bureau of Statistics and
intercountry adoption statistics from the Australian
Institute of Health & Welfare, in Australians Adopting
European Children (AAEC)'s Submission to Inquiry into
Adoption of Children from Overseas, 2004, p. 7.
4 Dianna Bagnali, "The Adoption Twist", The Bulletin, 10
April 2002.
5 The perception that natural disasters such as the 2004
tsunami have left large numbers of parentless children
available for intercountry adoption just waiting to be
'saved' is false. The worst thing for disoriented children
in a time of crisis would be to send them overseas, and
concepts such as 'saving' children are inappropri
ate. However, throughout the world as a whole there
are large numbers of children in need who have been
relinquished, but Australian governments have no great
incentive to initiate new programs. For a discussion
on 'saving' children by adoption see Sarah Armstrong
and Petrina Slaytor, The Colour of Difference: Journeys
in Transracial Adoption, The Federation Press, Sydney,
2001, pp, 12-13. Yet there are children seeking families
overseas. To take one example, in Ethiopia there have
been 900,000AIDS deaths leaving up to 5 million
orphans.
6 ' Brad and Ange bring their baby home', Woman's Day, 1
August, 2005.
7 Dealing with grief and loss is a significant component
of pre-adoption education.
8 As an example, the sentence from an American study of
intercountry adoption says 'Jim and Nancy had waited
a long time - over eighteen months in fact', Jay Rojewski
and Jacy Rojewski, Intercountry Adoption from China:
Examining Cultural heritage and Other Postadoption
Issues, Bergin & Garvey, Westport, Connecticut, 2001, p.
41. In Australia this would be considered an unbeliev
ably rapid adoption.
9 Audrey Marshall and Margaret McDonald, The Many
Sided Triangle: Adoption in Australia, Melbourne
University Press, Melbourne, 2001, p. 18.
10 Australians Adopting European Children (AAEC) 's
Submission, op cit., p. 8.
11 Sharon Byerley, 'How is the expression of interest
going?', International Adoptive Families of Queensland
Magazine, March 2005, p. 4.
12 Many applicants have married late, delayed childbirth,
tried IVF and then moved on to adoption. Most states
have removed age discrimination in adoption, but most
countries that offer children for adoption have age
limits. For this reason the age of parents is a significant
issue.
13 Jay Rojewski and Jacy Rojewski, op. cit. p. 21.
14 Dianna Bagnali, op cit.
15 Proof Committee Hansard, House of Representatives
Public Hearings and Transcripts, Brisbane, Thursday 21
July, 2005, p. 27.
16 For an excellent example of this practice see Suzanne
Chick's Searchingfor Charmain, Pan Macmillan,
Sydney, 1994.
17 This issue is raised by many observers. See for example
Anne Suskind, 'Bringing over baby', The Bulletin, 2 June
2004, pp. 30-32, and Australians Adopting European
Children (AAEC)'s Submission to Inquiry into Adoption
of Children from Overseas, 2004, p. 8.
40 AQJul-Aug2005
141.70.15.125 on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:36:30 +00:00
18 See Alan Gill, Orphans of the Empire, Millenium Books,
Sydney, 1997.
19 These figures were provided by the Queensland
Department of Child Safety.
20 In Australia children must be 5 years old, with occa
sional exceptions allowed for sibling groups. In the
United States much older children are adopted.
21 Intercountry Adoptions: A Reform Proposal for NSW,
NSW Department of Community Services, Sydney, April
2004.
22 'New adoption rules will cost SA more', 3 February
2005, http://www.sa.liberal.org.au/news/news_item.
asp?NewsID=3623
23 Liz Gooch, 'Inquiry tackles adoption law maze', The Age,
20 April 2005.
24 Farah Faroque, family affair', The Age, 17 December
2003.
25 Australians Adopting European Children (AAEC) 's
Submission to Inquiry into Adoption of Children from
Overseas, 2004, p. 12.
26 For a further critical discussion of changing trends in
the United States see Maureen Ittig, Family Perspec
tive on Transracial Adoption', The Policy Institute for
Family Impact Seminars, University ofWisconsin,
Madison, 2003.
27 Armstrong & Rose, op cit., p. 26.
28 In the well publicised case of Daniel O'Connor, most
of the discussions of fatherhood revolved around Tony
Abbott, not Daniel's adoptive father of 27 years, John
O'Connor.
A Creative Solution to the Dilemma of
Voluntary versus Compulsory Student
Union Fees
1 Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and
Education Legislation Committee. 2005. Report on
Provisions of the Higher Education Support Amendment
(Abolition of Compulsory Up-front Student Union) Bill
2005. Canberra: Australian Senate.
2 Queensland Government. 1978. Local Government
(Aboriginal Lands) Act 1978 (Qld)
3 Rawls, John. 1972. A Theory of Justice. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Intervention and Prevention - How
Dangerous?
1 The phrase comes from NJ.Wheeler, Saving Strangers:
Humanitarian Intervention in International Society,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000
2 Kofi Annan, "Two Concepts of Sovereignty", The
Economist, 18 September 1999
3 Adam Roberts, "Humanitarian War: military interven
tion and human rights", International Affairs, 69:3,
1999.P.444
4 Catherine Guicherd, "International Law and the War in
Kosovo", Survival, 41:2, Summer 1999, p.26
5 ibid.
6 ICISS2001, The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the
International Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty, IDRC, Ottawa
7 Kofi Annan, "Two Concepts of Sovereignty", The
Economist, 18 September 1999, p. 369
8 The National Security Strategy of the United States of
America, The White House: Washington, September
2002.
9 The National Security Strategy of the United States of
America, p. 15
10 For an exhaustive treatment of the subject see, Phillipe
Sands, LawlessWorld: America and theMakingand
Breaking of Global Rules, Camberwell, Vic: Allen Lane,
2005, pp. 174-203.
The legacy of colonial racism in Africa
1 I have preferred not to mention the name or provide
any further coverage to the inherent racism or to the
views recently espoused which, it has been openly
admitted are based on the "poor" science of eugenics.
2 Said, Edward. W, Orientalism, Routledge Paul,
London, 1978, p3.
3 Ibid
36 Alexander Wendt, 'Anarchy is What States Make of It:
4 Mudimbe, V. Y, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philoso
The Social Construction of Power Polities', International
phy and the Order of Knowledge, Indiana University
Press, 1988. Organisation, 46/2:391-425 (1992), p. 398.
37 However, more work needs to be done on the moral
5 Ibid, pxi
6 Ibid,p2.
7 From, Othello Act2 Scene 3,166-8
8 Hegel, G. W. F, The Philosophy of History, translated J.
Sibree, Introduction, CJ Freidrich, Dover Publications,
New York, p99.
How Are We to Think About the
'National Interest'?
1 Quoted in A. J. Bacevitch, 'Bush's Grand Strategy', The
This content downloaded from
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
American Conservative, l/November 4:12-14 (2002), p.
13.
2 Tampa Asylum Seekers Caught in Political Deadlock',
7.30 Report, ABC, 30 August 2001, http: / / www.abc.net.
au/7.30/content/2001/s355371.htm.
3 Games Birth and the Taint of Money', The Age, 28 April
2004, p. 16.
4 Hans J. Morgenthau. 'The Problem of the National
Interest', in Politics in the Twentieth Century, vol. 1
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 94-5,
100.
5 Thomas Hobbes (1651], Leviathan, edited by Richard
Tuck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991),
13:90.
6 Hobbes, quoted in Marshall Cohen, 'Moral Skepticism
and International Relations', Philosophy and Public
Affairs, 13/4: 299-346 (1984), p. 321.
7 Hans J. Morgenthau. Politics Among Nations: The
Struggle for Power and Peace (NewYork: Knopf, 1948), p.
5.
8 Stephen Krasner's term. Stephen D. Krasner, Defending
the National Interest: Raw Materiah Investments and US
Foreign Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1978).
9 Morgenthau, 'The Problem of the National Interest', p.
94.
10 Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, p. 12.
11 Hans J. Morgenthau, American Foreign Policy: A Critical
Examination, published in USA under the title Defence
of the National Interest:A Critical Examination of
American Foreign Policy (London: Methuen, 1952), p.
242
12 Quoted in Nathan A. Scott, Jr., Reinhold Niebuhr (Min
neapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1963), p. 41.
13 Quoted in Michael J. Smith. Realist Thought from Weber
to Kissinger (London: Louisiana State University Press,
1986), p. 18.
14 Quoted in ibid., p. 127.
15 Ibid., p. 123.
16 Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History, (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952).
17 Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the
Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and
a Critique of its Traditional Defense, (NewYork: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1944), p. 41.
18 Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, p. 12.
19 Reinhold Niebuhr [1932], Moral Man and Immoral
Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics (NewYork: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1947), p. 267.
20 Robert C. Good, 'The National Interest and Political
Realism: Niebuhr's "Debate" with Morgenthau and
Kennan', Journal ofPolitics, 221 A: 597-619 (1960), p. 617.
21 Quoted in ibid., p. 617.
22 Ibid., p. 598.
23 Tucker suggests that Morgenthau implicitly acknowl
edges this. Morgenthau's crusade exhorting states to
follow his supposed 'iron laws' of international politics
would be meaningless, Tucker suggests, if it wasn't for
the fact that states do act contrary to these laws. Robert
W. Tucker, 'Professor Morgenthau's Theory of Political
"Realism"', The American Political Science Review, 46:
214-224(1952).
24 Smith, Realist Thought, p. 160.
25 James N. Rosenau, 'National Interest', International
Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, vol. 11 (NewYork: Free
Press, 1968), p. 36.
26 Ibid., p. 37.
27 Smith, Realist Thought, pp. 226-234.
28 See the chapter entitled 'The Pole of Power and the Pole
of Indifference' in Arnold Wolfers, Discord and Collabo
ration: Essays on International Politics (Baltimore: John
Hopkins University Press, 1962), pp. 81-102.
29 Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration, p. 93.
30 Ibid., p. 76.
31 Ibid., p. 93.
32 Ibid., p. 72.
33 Ibid., p. 151.
34 Ted Hopfs term. Ted Hopf, 'The Promise of Construc
tivism in International Relations Theory', International
Security, 23:171-200 (1998).
35 Martha Finnemore, National Interests in International
Society (NewYork: Cornell University Press, 1996), pp.
1-4.
implications of constructivist claims.
38 Alexander Wendt, Social Theory oflnternational Politics
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 238-243.
39 Quoted in Warner R. Schilling, 'The Clarification of
Ends, or, Which Interest is the National?' World Politics,
7:566-578 (1956), p. 569.
40 Jack Donnelly, Realism and International Relations,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 187.
41 Smith, Realist Thought, p. 235.
42 Niebuhr. The Children of Light and the Children of
Darkness, p. 41.