Questão de Língua Inglesa

Text III

1 ____ Pierre Englebert’s attempt to measure all of Africa
using the yardstick of a single historical factor is highly
problematic. In this regard, Englebert’s book suffers from four
4 tendencies, the first two of which involve a dominant mode in
current writing about Africa, and the third and fourth of which
reflect the constraints of academic publishing, particularly in
7 the United States of America. Current writing about Africa is
characterised, firstly, by a remarkable tendency to generalise
about the entire continent, which no author specialising in
10 Asia, for example, would dare contemplate. This usually
involves the extrapolation of a single empirical situation to the
entire continent. In Englebert’s case, this clearly relates to his
13 experience in the eastern Congo, which is made to serve as an
example for all of sub-Saharan Africa. This tendency is
associated, secondly, with an intensive search for a single
16 factor that would explain the plight of Africa, a conceptual
master key that can unlock the puzzle of the “African
exception”. Englebert’s book is a typical example of this
19 tendency to substitute historical explanations with a philosophy
of history. He is not concerned with the identification of
contingent factors which, through their myriad combinations
22 and mutual (correlated) causal processes, have led to the
emergence of the current complex situation on the African
continent. Instead, he claims that the entire situation arose from
25 a single historical moment — that of decolonisation — and
evolved by necessity from this, and that this historical moment
gave birth to a structure of post-coloniality, from which
28 African states are fundamentally incapable of liberating
themselves (while non-African post-colonies apparently are
capable). Here, the argument becomes outright theological:
31 The sovereignty accorded by outside actors represents the
“original sin” of African statehood. As a consequence, and
keeping in line with this theological mode of thinking,
34 post-colonial Africa can be saved only by others.

T. Bierschenk. Book Review — Pierre Englebert (2009), Africa: unity, sovereignty,
and sorrow . Internet: (adapted).

Decide whether the following statements, concerning the grammatical and semantic aspects of text III, are right ( C ) or wrong ( E ).