The Newsweek of 11 July 2005, carried a multiple page on Africa (read it here). It is fairly upbeat, arguing that Africa cannot wait for foreign assistance or aid, but needs to sort its own house out. It goes on to point out that money countries are doing this now. More than half have democtratic governments. Most have positive GDP growth, many of them higher than the global average of 4.3 (Angola currently tops the list at 14%).
South Africa is the powerhouse, with just nearly half of all economic activity happening in the world’s 23rd largest national economy. But, its going to take a decade or so more to really get the benefit, and there are many things that could still trip Africa up.
Its great to see Tony Blair leading the G8-way to putting Africa on the global agenda. But you have to get that past George Bush, who famously said, “Africa is a country with lots of problems” at a UN speech.
Hi Graeme,
You may be interested in reading Dave’s blog: How to Save the World. See the entry: http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/08/28.html.
This was my comment in response to his post:
In addition to the cultural unpreparedness and inertia of Western suburbia, does he (the author of the book you mentioned) consider the aspirations of the more underdeveloped or newly developing countries that aim towards the very thing western suburbia needs to let go of? These countries represent a large percentage of the human population, and they are rapidly and desperately trying to develop towards the kind of consumerism that the first world countries are starting to try and curb! How do we help these newly developing communities to accept that they need to let go of all the conveniences they have seen are possible just as they are starting to achieve and experience it for the first time? That, I would imagine, is a greater challenge than changing the inertia of those who already have it all to learn to live with less. The newly developing African countries, for example, have always lived with less and now they see a chance for more. They themselves have long since abandoned a ‘natural balance’ with their environment due to ever growing population explosions, so a return to this type of non technical and non industrial world doesn’t solve the problem either. Now, more than ever, the world needs to unite as a species in order to understand the common problem and work towards the common solution. Unfortunately, in times of impending crisis, fear is rampant. And fear is what prevents us working together. It appears to me that we need a world-wide healing programme so that each individual can let go of fear and insecurity – the seeds of the excessive behaviour that leads to where we are. Just me, being a caring idealist with limited logic:)
Every week, South Africa’s President sends out an email. You can subscribe at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/subscribe.html.
This past Friday, his topic was relevant to this discussion. Here are his thoughts:
Claiming the 21st Century
In 2000, the World Bank published a book with the challenging title: “Can Africa claim the 21st Century?” It said:
“Despite gains in the second half of the 1990s, Sub-Saharan Africa enters the 21st century with many of the world’s poorest countries. Average income per capita is lower than at the end of the 1960s. Incomes, assets, and access to essential services are unequally distributed. And the region contains a growing share of the world’s absolute poor, who have little power to influence the allocation of resources.”
The question – can Africa claim the 21st century – is best answered practically. It is through what it does in practice that our continent can give a convincing answer as to whether we are serious when we say that the 21st will be an African Century. Developments in Burundi and Côte d’Ivoire, among others, demonstrate that we can indeed claim the 21st century!
On August 26th we were privileged to participate in a ceremony in Bujumbura during which the new President of Burundi, Professor Pierre Nkurunziza, was sworn in as President of the Republic. This concluded the process of the return of this sister country to democracy, following a coup d’etat in 1993 during which President Ndadaye and other leaders were killed, leading to a protracted civil war.
The foreign guests at the ceremony were afforded an opportunity to address the gathering and the people of Burundi as a whole, who followed the proceedings through radio and television. All the speakers spoke in praise of what the people of Burundi had achieved to negotiate peace agreements, manage the transition and go through a democratic electoral process culminating in the election and installation of President Nkurunziza.
This process had included a constitutional referendum, local government and National Assembly elections, the election of a Senate and finally the election of the President. Whatever the difficulties experienced during these elections, especially the local/communal government elections, the Burundi parties and the international observers accepted that the outcomes truly reflected the will of the people of Burundi.
Unfortunately, one of the armed groups, Palipehutu-FNL, had excluded itself from the peace process. This meant that even as the Barundi went to the polls, armed clashes were still taking place, though on limited scale. This served to underscore the determination of the people of Burundi to return their country to peace and democracy, to create the possibility for them to confront the difficult challenge of the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment.
The speakers at the Presidential Inauguration also drew attention to the critically important fact that the Burundi peace process had been managed almost exclusively by Africa, with the rest of the world playing a supportive role.
The Burundi negotiations had been initiated by the late President Julius Nyerere, resulting in protracted negotiations that took place in Arusha, Tanzania. When President Nyerere unfortunately passed away, President Nelson Mandela was asked to succeed him as Facilitator of the Burundi Peace Process.
Under his leadership, finally the Arusha Peace Accord was concluded.
To assist the Barundi to implement the Accord, then Deputy President of the Republic, Jacob Zuma, was then asked to succeed to the position of Facilitator.
He worked with the Barundi through a complex process that included conclusion of ceasefire agreements with various armed groups and the drafting and adoption of a new Constitution, consistent with the provisions of the Arusha Accord.
When this Accord was agreed, it became necessary that the negotiators should return to Burundi to implement it. Some of these had been driven into exile, but had to return to serve in the transitional governance structures. This immediately raised issues of their security inside Burundi.
Because the peace agreements had not yet been negotiated, the United Nations could not, at that stage, deploy a Peacekeeping Force that would have helped to secure the Burundi leaders on their return to their country. But it was also obvious that the Accord could not be implemented unless these leaders returned to Burundi.
The Facilitator, South Africa, was then asked to provide the necessary protection for the leaders, even though this had to be done without a UN mandate and financial support, but with the full mandate of the African Union.
For the sake of peace in Burundi and saving the lives of fellow Africans, we agreed to the deployment of units of our National Defence Force in Burundi to provide the required protection.
Later, the conclusion of the ceasefire agreements meant that more troops had to be deployed to assist especially in the cantonment of the armed groups. We agreed to increase our complement of troops to address this Peacekeeping challenge. Fortunately, Ethiopia and Mozambique then also provided additional forces, which enabled us together to discharge our responsibility focused on the implementation of the negotiated ceasefire agreements.
Happily, at this stage the UN Security Council then agreed fully to assume its responsibilities towards Burundi and therefore converted the African Mission troops into a UN Peacekeeping Force. But by this time, as Africans we had demonstrated our resolve to solve our problems and determine our destiny, focusing on the most critical challenges that face our countries and continent.
In this regard, we must also express our appreciation for the financial and logistical support the African Mission received from such countries as Belgium, the US, the UK and the Netherlands.
Our continent is of course also involved in helping to solve the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. Here too the urgent challenges are the restoration of peace and democracy to this sister country, and create the conditions to address the common problems of the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment.
Again in this instance, the African continent had intervened to find solutions to problems that started with a coup d’etat in 1999, escalating to an armed insurrection in 2002, which resulted in the division of the country into two.
The necessary interventions were made by the OAU and ECOWAS to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ivorian conflict, including the reunification of the country. The African Union inherited this task from the OAU and persisted in the effort to find an African solution to this African problem.
It was in this context that in November 2004, the Current Chairperson of the African Union, President Obasanjo of Nigeria, asked us to take on the responsibility of serving as the AU Mediator in Côte d’Ivoire. We are convinced that assisted by this mediation process, agreement has been reached on all the major issues that constitute the necessary package of measures to take the Côte d’Ivoire forward to peace, reunification and democracy.
In this regard, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Côte d’Ivoire, Mr Pierre Schori, spoke on August 31, after a UN Security Council meeting and correctly said:
“South Africa would continue with the mediation or would help implement the Pretoria Agreement and Declaration of 29 June. The general sense in Pretoria was that South Africa had done what it was supposed to do, which was to negotiate with all the parties and persuade them to sign on to the road map to peace and if the Ivorians did not take their responsibilities, the international community needed to use stronger measures.”
In this regard, the then current President of the Security Council, Ambassador Kenzo Oshima of Japan, also said: “The members of the Security Council reiterate their readiness to take all steps they consider necessary, including the implementation of individual sanctions, in order to ensure the respect of the resolutions of the Security Council. The members of the Security Council reiterate their full support for the action undertaken by the South African Mediation, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and the High Representative for the elections.”
With regard to the AU Mediation, we must pay tribute to the initiative that was taken by the French Government, which resulted in the Ivorian parties adopting the framework Linas-Marcoussis Agreement. The AU, ECOWAS and the Ivorian parties have engaged one another on the basis of this Agreement, intent not to delay the restoration of peace and democracy in Côte d’Ivoire by trying to replace Linas-Marcoussis with a new framework agreement.
The UN Security Council met in a closed session on August 31 to assess the situation in Côte d’Ivoire. After this meeting, Mr Pierre Schori made some comments relevant to the challenge we have mentioned of Africa’s response to its problems.
He said that “the peace process in the Côte d’Ivoire has moved from globalization, with United Nations involvement, to Africanisation, with African Union (AU) mediation, and now Ivorians must take responsibility for nationalizing the next steps. The Ivorians themselves must now take real responsibilities” for the success of the peace process.
Echoing this theme, when he addressed the nation on his inauguration, President Nkurunziza said: “We urge all Burundians to work hard, and engage in all activities that are likely to sustain visual development of the country.
Traders, self-employed persons, farmers and stock-breeders are asked to drive further in courage and enthusiasm for work. On our part we will take appropriate measures to ensure the growth of the national economy. This is not the time to allow things to lie fallow: the time for idleness is over.”
Reflecting on the broader challenges facing Burundi, which demand the united response of the people, he said:
“It is a shame to see that today the image of Burundi in the minds of the international community is of a country having internal problems between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. Further, the country is (distinguished) by corruption, impunity, (the habit to tell) downright lies, and other evil actions.
Likewise,
social ties between Burundians have loosened, and the economy of the country declined over the years (to the point where) the nation has fallen to the bottom of the list of developing countries.”
Everywhere, from Burundi, to Côte d’Ivoire, to South Africa, we must take President Nkurunziza’s message to heart. Our people must work hard, and engage in all activities that are likely to sustain visual development of our countries and continent. Only in this way will we be able to claim the 21st Century for Africa.
Thabo Mbeki
When you start to realize that factors working in on an entity on macro-scale (e.g. on an army, on a city, on a nation) can also be made applicable to small entities – a business, even an individual person, it makes sense that African/developing countries should also initiate change from within than just waiting for help from outside. How many motivational speakers don’t use the theme of “Change comes from within”?! As we all know (especially we South Africans), dumping huge sums of money on an African nation won’t resolve the problems – it may even worsen it.
The situation with the environment is a big problem in my eyes also. These developing countries who are only now falling head and toes into the big pie of globalization with all its benefits (I’m not anti-globalization though!) have an easy resource close at hand that they can use to get some kind of competative edge with and the ethics of environmentalism doesn’t always accompany their actions. Fortunately South Africa has realized that you can make a lot of money from tourists by caring for your environment. I hope this trend here continues.