- This topic is empty.
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
-
Posts
-
Hannes Wessels,
The only country is sub-Saharan Africa not to have been the recipient of USAID is Eritrea. For all the rest, the ‘Trump Effect’ and the end of unconditional American kindness, is probably going to have more impact on Africa than any other continent. This is because African countries are the most dependent on outside assistance. On the face of it, this dramatic shift in US policy could not have come at a worse time.
Most indicators show that, apart from very few possible exceptions like Namibia, Rwanda and Botswana, Africans are poorer now than ever before and home-grown solutions seem elusive as always. The same chronic problems persist; poor governance, bloated bureaucracies, corruption, civil strife and in the words of Donald Kaberuka, former president of the African Development Bank, ‘demography is galloping everywhere,’ making African urbanisation ‘the fastest in human history.’ Added to all this is the increasing balkanisation of the sub-continent, as central governments find their capacity to project power and therefore control, within their polities, increasingly constrained. Sectarian violence is escalating.
Against this background, the stark truth is that there is little to show for the massive injection of foreign, mainly Western financial largesse, over the last 70 years so one, possibly positive conclusion can be drawn from this disaster, and that is that money alone, is not what African needs to reform and prosper.
A novel approach is urgently required. And much as they would like to think they can ignore this unfolding humanitarian disaster, the Europeans, and to a lesser extent, the Americans, cannot, because millions of desperate people are looking for new homes and it is to Europe and America where most of them are heading.
Probably no country better exemplifies Africa’s plight than the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). Arguably the richest on earth, it is also the poorest, and all the above-mentioned ailments apply.
The ‘government’ of President Felix Tshisekedi seems to have lost control of the country beyond the city limits of Kinshasha. This failure has created a power vacuum throughout most of the rest of this huge estate which has been filled by various militias led by warlords backed by Uganda, Rwanda and various shadowy financiers who thrive on exploiting the opportunities presented in failed states such as this. God alone knows how much aid money has disappeared into this particular black hole, but it is a big number, and the end result is something resembling Joseph Conrad’s original descriptions in his classic, ‘The Heart of Darkness.’
But with little or no prospect of any further financial support from America, and Western European countries facing their own budgetary constraints, the Congolese president has obviously been forced into a corner and decided on a new approach, which, if followed elsewhere, might prove a watershed moment in the history of post-colonial Africa.
As I write, it is reported, a high-level team from Kinshasha is in Washington meeting officials from the State Department and the Pentagon to discuss a possible solution which pivots on inviting an American intervention in return for preferential access to minerals and mines, which, it is hoped, will bring some semblance of peace and prosperity to this beleaguered country.
The tough nut to crack is the militant lawlessness that presently blights the land, which the United Nations forces have failed so miserably to contain. Hard to see President Trump, aiming at being a ‘peace president’, committing US troops to the fight but reports indicate this issue might be addressed by the involvement of Erik Prince, former CEO of the Blackwater group that played a prominent role in Afghanistan and other Middle-East conflict zones.
There is some irony in this development. At the same time, in South Africa, ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula rails against the Trump administration, accusing it of pursuing a ‘neo-colonialist … imperialist’ agenda, adding fuel to the diplomatic fire already burning. But Mbalula clearly ignores the fact that South African troops are effectively held hostage in the eastern Congo, forsaken by the powers that be in Pretoria, and their best hope of returning home safely might be in the hands of the American ‘imperialists,’ Mbalula castigates.
Only time will tell how the Tshisekedi initiative will play out, but regardless, the Congolese president might be setting an encouraging precedent.
The way forward for Africa might be to marginalise meddlesome bureaucracies that stifle free enterprise, and free up their resources to the private sector from the developed world to be used as a bargaining tool in return for assistance on the ground in the form of qualified people who can improve the quality of governance, and provision of more security in areas plagued by violence.
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.