Africa Needs Action, Not Kind Words
Business Day (Johannesburg)
OPINION
February 11, 2002
Posted to the web February 11, 2002
David Monyae
THERE are many discomforting trends defining contemporary global politics in
the postSeptember 11 terrorist attacks.
Africa continues to be showered with kindest words that become a mockery
when judged against tangible deeds from the developed north.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in particular, makes the greatest noise
about Africa, declaring it to be one of his second term's foreign policy
priorities. In an article in a UK newspaper early this month, Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw argued that Blair's visit to Africa last week could
help bring peace to the continent and that the key purpose of British
foreign policy was to make the world safer for British citizens.
But Blair's African foreign policy needs critical analysis.
The main purpose of Blair's four-day trip to Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone,
and Senegal he says was to develop support for a new partnership between
Africa and the developed world.
But there is a growing view among Africans that Britain considers Africa
seriously only when its vital interests are threatened.
In this light, the way Blair and Straw have dealt with, and continue to
interact with Zimbabwe where British descendants own large tracts of land
and are in conflict with president Robert Mugabe's embattled government is a
big test of the UK's "new" relationship with Africa.
Notwithstanding Mugabe's undemocratic rule and disregard for the rule of
law, it has still to be seen whether Britain has the political willpower to
acknowledge its historical role in the Harare land crisis and its failure to
honour its part of the 1979 Lancaster House agreement which ushered in
Zimbabwe's independence. The UK has reneged on its promise to finance land
reform in the country.
Whatever Mugabe's shortcomings, land remains a source of potential conflict
in much of post-colonial Africa.
One way in which Britain could atone for its role in this historical
injustice is to pledge substantial amounts of money as London's contribution
to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). This could also be
followed by vigorous support for African countries in various global forums
where Britain has influence. The European Union should be the first arena in
which Britain should support attempts by Africa to improve its access to
richer markets, particularly agricultural products which Tanzanian Minister
of Industry and Trade Mohammed Simba calls "matters of life and debt for
us".
The second platform that Blair can use is the G8 summit to be held in Canada
in June.
Here it would be useful if Blair demonstrated the same level of enthusiasm
as he showed in the war against terrorism, especially the reconstruction of
Afghanistan, followed by the Tokyo gathering where massive financial and
technical support was pledged to Kabul by the rich countries.
Having said that, Straw's recent utterances on Africa also need to be
understood within the context of the long history of British intervention in
Africa, especially in Zimbabwe. Mugabe's undemocratic rule creates lots of
room for Britain, as the former colonial master, to take a high moral ground
on issues that it partly created during the decolonisation process.
In his statement, Straw said Britain "cares about Africa because it is no
longer possible to neglect the world's problems without running the risk of
eventually suffering the consequences". The hope is that the UK makes good
on this promise as there is little doubt that British diplomatic and
humanitarian intervention in some parts of Africa have made profound
positive change. A case in point is Britain's participation in the Sierra
Leone peace-enforcement initiative which reversed a chaotic and desperate
situation.
Having said that, it is doubtful whether Britain's enthusiasm to rein in
Mugabe, for example, can be extended to deal with the likes of Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.
One does not have to be a rock scientist to figure out that since the second
rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kagame and Museveni's
activities in that country went beyond protecting their national boundaries
from "negative forces" as they keep telling the world. The fact is like
Mugabe, Kagame and Museveni close allies of Britain have been involved in
atrocities and raping of natural resources of the Congo.
In a letter to the British Minister of Overseas Development, Claire Short,
Museveni made it clear recently that he relied on the goodwill of Britain to
strengthen his military hardware, not to improve the lot of his
poverty-stricken nation.
Kagame and Museveni are clearly not promising democratic African leaders
that Britain should encourage to underpin the success of Nepad. Multiparty
politics are not on the cards in Uganda, while Rwanda continues to wave the
"genocide card" in an attempt to stop travelling the road to a multiethnic
democracy in that country.
Blair's trip to the continent should not go down in history as yet another
African safari by a western leader, as last undertaken by Bill Clinton.
Africa should not be the continent reserved for empty kind words or
political symbolism.
If Blair can turn his promises into concrete action and tangible benefits,
he will truly become a friend of Africa. But he still has much ground to
cover before this can be realised.
Monyae lectures in the international relations department at Wits University
and is a member of the Centre for Africa International Relations.
If Blair can turn his promises into concrete action, he will truly be a
friend of Africa
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