EN - FR - Yükselen Afrika ve Türkiye / Rising Africa and Turkey 3

174 Yükselen Afrika ve Türkiye / Rising Africa and Turkeymight well be just another temporary boom rather than the beginning of a sustainedrecovery”. Since it can not be clearly predicted which region is more likelyto be hit by any economic downturn Afro-pessimism glimmers throughthese sentences.The distribution and use of income gains from terms of trade changes isthe most important aspect of the rise in terms of trade. The terms of trade improvementssince 2002, had little effect on the domestic incomes of most ofthe developing countries with Côte d’Ivoire (10.3%), and Ghana (5.0%) butfrom sub-Saharan Africa being the exception. The African exporters of mineralsand mining products, South Africa and Zambia, both also had large relativegains in domestic income.The rise of incomes as a result of improved terms of trade led to an increasein aggregate demand which made Africa an important destination forTurkish exports. This situation can be captured in the words of Mr. KürflatTüzmen, Minister of Trade and Industry that “Turkey aims to increase exportsto Africa to $10 bn, by 2008 from its $3 bn level in 2004” (Sabah, 2005).From Turkey’s point of view, increased momentum of trade and economiccollaboration with Africa requires a balanced and objective evaluation ofthe continent that it deserves. In the next section this is done by questioningAfro-pessimism as a method of understanding Africa.III. Afro-Pessimism: “Not Even In Uganda!”The Turkish literature on Africa is generally compassionate without beingpatronizing. It was journalistic writings of Dr. H›fz› Topuz during 1960sand 1970s, a UNESCO official and a vanguard African specialist of Turkishorigin, and his subsequent books on the continent were influential for the benevolentfeelings for Africa. However, for most Turks, sympathetic views arebased on the disturbing evidence derived from Africa’s experience with Westerncolonialism (K›vanç, 1979). In the sense that, the ugly face of colonialismin Africa is the embodiment of what would have been in Turkey had they notdefeat the colonialist assault through a national liberation war led by the founderof modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his associates.The strength of anti-colonialist sentiments in Turkey is well documentedand studied. In many ways, Turks were able to relate their own experience ofanti-colonial nationalist war of independence with the African liberation movementsof the 1960s. In this regard, Dr. H›fz› Topuz’s work on Lumumba, anAfrican hero and the founder of modern Congo murdered by the colonial Belgium,stands out as an important contribution in raising consciousness, in Turkey.