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Without Debt Reduction, Africa Cannot Compete
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Without Debt Reduction,
Africa Cannot Compete
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by Mohamed El-Bendary
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FROM Zimbabwe to Sierra Leone, violence is mounting and casting a gloomy shadow on peacekeeping operations on the African continent.
"We are very close to resumption of hostilities and the outbreak of a new round of fighting, which . . . would constitute the largest war on the continent," cautioned U.N. envoy Richard Holbrook on Wednesday after three days of failed diplomacy between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
A journey through Africa today shows that many of its wounds are residues of past colonial times.
In his book, "Africa," Sanford Ungar points out that the deepening class schism in African nations (former colonies of the Europeans) will never be bridged until national wealth is more evenly divided and widespread corruption is stamped out.
Africans endured harsh rule under European colonialism. European explorers and colonists -- be they the British, French, Dutch, Belgian or Portuguese -- often betrayed what they called their very best friend: the African.
Can Europeans today bury such ugly chapter of history? Can they regain the trust of the indigenous African?
I witnessed this rising tension between the powerful Europe and the powerless Africa last month, when I spent a week in Cairo in the midst of the African-European summit. Editorials in the Egyptian press fiercely criticized Europe's colonialism and exploitation of Africa.
During the summit, human rights organizations from Africa and Europe suggested Europeans should apologize to Africans for colonizing their continent and plundering its wealth.
A host of a renowned Egyptian television show put the apology question to a Portuguese political science professor. The TV host made a reference to the pope apologizing to Jews for acts committed by the Catholic Church, and the Japanese apologizing to Asian nations for the anguish they endured during World War II.
Like the supremacist social Darwinists of the 19th century, the Portuguese professor cunningly avoided the question and alluded that it's Africa that needs Europe today, not the other way around.
The racist theory of Social Darwinism claimed that it was right and necessary for the "superior" Europeans to occupy and dominate the non-European countries. According to the theory, the white man needed the resources of Africa to survive. These ideas of the social Darwinists were, of course, incongruous with the Christian faith that preached freedom and equality for all humans.
The West's oblivious and unkind view of the African people continues in the European and American press today. The media never worry about Africa until there is a crisis.
Coverage of Africa is often distorted and pro-European. The Western media see Africa as nations without history -- except that which European "explorers" left for them. The deck is stacked against Africa. Freedom, democracy and human rights are all fine concepts, but they can't feed starving African children today. They can't fight the growing HIV virus in the Horn of Africa or wipe out the continent's $350 billion debt.
Nations mired in ruinous foreign debt cannot improve their educational system, health care and other needed infrastructures. Most of their capacity goes to repaying loans and interests.
To help heal the wounds of Africa and forge a new partnership between the North and South, Western nations must adopt a quick debt relief strategy for Africa. They should then increase trade with African nations. (Africa's trade with the outside world has declined dramatically in recent years, causing the continent to lag behind the world economy.)
The Africa of today and the Africa of tomorrow will depend on how fast the rich Europeans find a formula to write off Africa's debt. Western democracies can't just sit silent while famine and disease strip Africa of its children. For we, too, share the blame for Africa's wounds today.
Mohamed El-Bendary is a doctoral student at Louisiana State University's School of Mass Communication, Baton Rouge, La.
© 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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