• On Tuesday evening, Toyin Falola, a distinguished teaching professor at the University of Texas at Austin, discussed the African impact on the United States during the 2009 Ralph H. Metcalfe Sr. Lecture.
• According to Falola, Africa plays an increasingly significant role in supplying energy, halting the devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and contributing to the global economy.
• Falola said Africa offers great opportunity to build partnerships, and a core of democratically elected presidents is leading the continent in the direction of greater democracy.

Toyin Falola, a distinguished teaching professor at the University of Texas at Austin, discussed the African impact on the United States during a lecture in the Alumni Memorial Union Tuesday evening.

Falola delivered the 2009 Ralph H. Metcalfe Sr. Lecture. Metcalfe, a black Marquette alumnus, won Olympic medals in 1932 and 1936 as a sprinter. He was at one time considered to be the world's fastest man, according to Chima Korieh, a Marquette assistant professor of history.

More than 100 students and faculty members attended the discussion.

Falola began the lecture by showing some of the first pictures that appear when the words "Africa" and "African" are typed into a Google Image Search. The majority of these images were pictures of Bushmen, grass huts and the African desert, which Falola said perpetuate the myth that Africa is a "useless continent."

"Our perception of Africa is built on bumper stickers rather than on knowledge," Falola said. "What people hear is the humanitarian talk of Live 8 and scattered cases of economic assistance, but Africa is much more central to the importance of the U.S. and the world."

According to Falola, Africa plays an increasingly significant role in supplying energy, halting the devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and contributing to the global economy.

"In the next ten years, Africa could be supplying the U.S. with as much oil as the Middle East," Falola said. "In areas that were never thought to have oil before, even in Ghana, enormous quantities of oil are now being found."

Falola also said Africa is the key area for much of the HIV/AIDS research currently being done.

"AIDS and other communicable diseases do not stop at borders. What we learn from our research in Africa will solve problems elsewhere," Falola said. "People in San Francisco, New York and even Milwaukee will all benefit."

Falola said transnationalism is another way in which Africa is currently impacting the United States.

"Communities are not always solely defined by territorial boundaries — there is a Cuba in Miami, Mexico in El Paso and Nigeria in Houston. Migrations move people around," Falola said.

There are an estimated one million transnational Africans in the United States who were born in Africa, he said.

Falola said the major task ahead is to integrate Africa into the global economy through trade reforms that will bring additional benefits to both African countries and the U.S.

"We need to promote a reliable supply of energy from Africa," Falola said, "and we need to do it through investments, not charity."

But, Falola said, we have "to change the image" before we can "change the narrative."

He ended the lecture by showing pictures of some of Africa's major cities — pictures that were different from those shown at the beginning of his speech.

"I'm sure that it will surprise many of you that these are images of Africa," Falola said. "Many people do not know that there is a First World in what they consider to be the Third World.

"Africa offers great opportunity to build partnerships. A core of democratically elected presidents is leading the continent in the direction of greater democracy."

Tony Perillo, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said his image of Africa changed after listening to the lecture.

"I was surprised to hear that in ten years Africa could be producing as much oil as the Middle East," Perillo said. "If that's the case, there's definitely going to be a lot more trade going on between the U.S. and Africa in the future."