''Dangers in neglecting Africa''
on Tuesday, December 25 @ 18:20:08 EST

By Wole Akande
YellowTimes.ORG Columnist (Nigeria)

(YellowTimes.ORG) – As the “War on Terrorism” moves from Afghanistan to Somalia and possibly other African countries such as Sudan, it is impossible to shake off layers of skepticism that has been brought on by years of what has been (at best) a benign neglect of Africa.

We are all familiar with the grim images that spring to mind from the minimal news coverage—most of it bad—we get about Africa from the mass media. We may not admit it, but the temptation is strong to “write off” places and peoples that seem beyond hope.

When in August 1998 terrorists killed 12 Americans and over 200 Africans in attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, official America displayed little empathy for the African dead and injured. Although Washington eventually provided some aid to survivors, there was never a clear acknowledgment that it was Africans who had paid the greatest price.

The ensuing investigation and trial received little attention from the media, and the American public was denied the stories of suffering and heroism that generate compassion and a sense of common purpose. Kenyans filed for damages and built a memorial park, but African states were left largely on their own to deal with these new threats.

Speaking to African trade ministers in Washington on October 29, President Bush thanked African states for their messages of support. He called for more states to ratify the 1999 Algiers Convention against Terrorism and asked skeptical African nations to support the plan to launch a new round of trade talks next month at the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar.

But he made no mention of the political and economic damage to Africa from the aftermath of September 11. And the only measures he announced as U.S. contributions to Africa were a $200 million investment guarantee for U.S. firms wishing to invest in Africa, and $15 million for an advisory program to help African businesses take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

This business-as-usual response shows that U.S. policymakers are still not making the connections necessary for a truly global response that includes Africa. This is a mistake.

Africa is key because it is more vulnerable to terrorism and more closely intertwined with the wider Muslim world than is generally recognized. It is also the region most exposed to the ensuing international economic shocks. Indeed, the real connection between terrorism and Africa is poverty. The truth is that in the absence of economic solutions it is difficult for poor countries to avoid the trauma of religious fundamentalists. Indeed, poverty is the fertile soil for terrorist activities around the world because in the poorest of the poor countries, a dollar goes a long way to buying allegiance and a following.

Consequently, perhaps we should not be too surprised when Susan Rice in her testimony to Congress on November 15 described Africa as the “world's soft underbelly for global terrorism.” Sadly, Africa is still saddled with the devastating effects of colonial rule. European powers left African peoples with giant western type nation-states but without the political experience, educational systems, industries and infrastructures needed to run those states. Africa will not emerge without a massive, comprehensive attack on its problems.

The emerging shift in U.S. policy toward Africa suggests that national governments will be judged almost exclusively on their immediate value in the “War on Terrorism.” The U.S. hopes to gain intelligence cooperation by short-term bilateral measures. Thus, Washington is downplaying criticism of Sudan's counterinsurgency war, which includes terror bombings against southern civilians in order to gain access to dossiers on the bin Laden network.

The reality today is that over time, “government,” as it is known in the West, has ceased to exist in Africa. Government institutions have been corrupted and their functions perverted. Meritocracy, rule of law, property rights, and administrative capacity has vanished.

Without effective government institutions such as non-political armed forces, an autonomous judiciary, an efficient civil service, independent media, viable economic systems, inclusive political structures and a transparent banking system, it is difficult to see what most African governments can offer to the U.S. in the “War on Terrorism.”

What is required is honest long-term cooperation which includes taking broader African security needs seriously. Indifference to conflict resolution and poverty alleviation will sharply reduce the odds of helping Africa build effective barriers to terrorism.

The UN estimates that Africa's economic growth rate will drop by more than one percent as a result of September 11. Africa will lose much of the $7 billion a year it normally earns from tourism, for example. In Africa, as elsewhere, the poor are the most vulnerable.

There is an urgent need to promote economic development in Africa and other poorer parts of the world; otherwise the current wave of international terrorism will have only short-term success at best. Economic underdevelopment and poverty in many of the world's poorest countries creates national instability that leads to regional instability and in turn produces international instability. International instability, given the actual or potential access of terrorists to biological and chemical weapons, has become far more complicated and terrifying for citizens of the United States and its allies.

The threat of global terrorism can be reduced while working to minimize the widening economic imbalance between nations. Continued poverty remains an important, indirect and hitherto associated source of fundamentalism in the world.

After years of neglect and crippling under investment, hopefully this administration (unlike its predecessors) will realize it is in America’s long term and short-term interest to ensure that Africa is lifted out of its present morass.

Wole Akande encourages your comments:  wakande@YellowTimes.ORG

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