OPINION: “Africa’s stolen voice!”
SALIM LONE writes:
In the wake of the awful attacks of September 11 2001, Tony Blair’s passionate denunciation of impoverishment in Africa as “a scar on the conscience of the world” convinced many that the west would propel the issue of mass poverty and injustice to the top of the international agenda in the cause of a more stable world.
This week’s news only confirms that it was a misplaced hope. Not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa has met the criteria set by the UN’s millennium development goals on poverty alleviation, the centrepiece of the project. Some observers believe the number of poor, and the intensity of the poverty, has actually risen in almost all countries.
In truth there was never any real prospect that Western governments, which have gleefully presided over the creation of new classes of the super-super-rich, would use their considerable influence to push African leaders to pursue policies which would shift resources away from the rapacious national elites towards the poor.
After many false starts, the millennium project, launched with huge fanfare in 2000, was meant to be the definitive development compact, a blueprint to substantially reduce the extreme ravages of poverty by 2015. But now it is sputtering. People are being lifted out of extreme poverty at less than one per cent a year, which makes even Bono’s 2003 warning that Africa would take 100 years to meet these goals seem optimistic.
Abutting virtually every African slum are the castles of the unimaginably rich. There is little incentive for those who hold the reins of power to redirect investments away from themselves to the very poor, given the abiding conviction on the continent that they have an unlimited capacity to weather their punishing adversities — with the help of repressive security systems, of course.
But the poor do not always tolerate such inhumanity. There are mini-revolts brewing in many places. In Kenya, for instance, the Mungiki sect, which has tens of thousands of members and is loosely fashioned on the Mau Mau freedom movement, is pushing for land redistribution and a return to traditional values.
G-8-approved plans are not going to end poverty. Africa needs strong, revolutionary leaders popular enough to put pressure on both their elites and international partners to modify their policies. But it is well-nigh impossible for such leaders to get elected.
In the shadow of 9/11, aid is increasingly becoming an instrument of anti-terrorism strategy. This means that the US and Britain in particular are ready to countenance wars of aggression and other human rights abuses by governments which are partners in the war on terror — as recently witnessed when Ethiopia invaded Somalia and installed a client regime with US and British support. Uganda has also committed appalling rights abuses against its northerners. In the end, only Africa’s own leaders and people can address its rawest suffering. Donors have a minor but vital role to play, but they must get this role right, and that includes recognising that what Africa needs most of all is space to formulate its own policies. To determine what these might be, the donors need to radically alter their approach and engage first and foremost with the grassroots. Despite the rhetoric, Africa’s voice is rarely heard. Can Gordon Brown make a difference? After the multiple promises Blair made and betrayed, no one will want to get too excited about his successor.
He did move immediately to merge the aid and trade departments, which will bring much-needed synergy on two crucial issues. He has also made the extraordinary appointment to the Africa portfolio of Mark Malloch Brown. Both these Browns are likely to be more firmly committed to the rule of law in resolving international disputes, but they will also have to shed some of their conviction in the power of the free market — even when it is working well — to uplift the poor.
Guardian News Service