At the moment I’m preparing my first trip to Africa ever. My first date with the so-called dark continent will be with the young state of South Sudan. Although I’ve always been fascinated by the setup processes of new states I’m incomparably more excited to visit South Sudan than other young states. The main thing that triggered my interest for young nations is that people of the Western world tend to call them “failed from the beginning”. I never agreed with this attitude. Not because I doubt the existence of huge problems in terms of resources, identity and many other fields, but because I think you can’t just write a country off like that. The daily reading of European and American newspapers and blogs could give you the impression the world thinks it’s done by predicting the failure of a state as if it was some technical experiment. In my opinion this view of the world is not an option for one important reason: There are people living in these countries. What about all of these people if their country “failed from the beginning”? They have to go on with their lives, they will have to meet their day to day troubles no matter if their country broke down in the eyes of the Western world or not. I’m not only referring to our duty to help (help doesn’t mean conquer). For me it is a matter of respect for our fellow human beings. You can’t just declare the end of something that needs to have a future because of the many people who are depending on this future.
I’m very happy to have some interesting company on this trip. Freelance photographer Matt Lutton will join me. Check out his Website! It’s worth it.
