Reflections on Africa

I suppose Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday is as good a time as any to briefly reflect on Africa. As an African by both birth and choice, I must admit that my heart is often broken by this continent. Albeit that Africans are resilient, remarkably adaptable and generally hospitable and friendly (among the black languages of South Africa, for example, there is no indigenous word for “stranger”), there never seems to be a week without some tragic tale emerging from the 52 nations of this mighty continent. I am not saying that everything is as bad as the global news headlines often make it out to be. But, Africa nevertheless seems to have massive problems when compared to the issues facing other regions of the world. Why is this?

One thing that has helped me recently is reading Jeffrey Sach’s “The End of Poverty” in which he lists the major causes of extreme poverty (and most of Africa is in this category), showing that many of the factors that cause African poverty are beyond the control of people. Africa’s mosquitoes carry malaria, whereas India’s do not, for example. Africa has no major navigable rivers (OK, there is one, but that is all within the DRC). Africa has the worst top soil of any continent (except, I suppose, Antarctica). And Africa’s tribes are more divided by culture and language than any other continent (in South Africa, for example, there are eleven official languages. In Nigeria, there are over 100 unique, indigenous languages). So, Africa is partly as it is due simply to the lottery of geography.

But, in the 21st century, that does not explain the whole story. It does not explain Sudan, for example. And, it most certainly does not explain Zimbabwe.

Over the last few weeks and months, a number of related issues in southern Africa have all built to a crescendo in my mind, and are fuel for this reflection:

• A few weeks ago, xenophonbic violence broke out in the transit townships around the country’s major cities. A few South Africans made life exceedingly unpleasant for about 40,000 foreigners living in already desperate circumstances. These foreigners were other extremely poor Africans who are in “the United States of Africa” looking for work. Poor beating up on poor. That was the story of those few weeks. (Actually, I think the story was also of the extraordinary response and outpouring of assistance from all sectors of South Africa – you could argue even that it was an overreaction, because we as South Africans really do feel the sense that we are still on – or near – the brink, and need to do all we can to allow our humanity to carry us through to the promise of a truly new rainbow nation).
• A Petrol attendant was killed near Soweto, supposedly over high fuel prices and commuters not being prepared to pay.
• A man was killed in the township of Diepsloot on suspicion of stealing a cellphone.
• Two groups of refugees in a camp in Cape Town got stuck into each other, resulting in serious injuries. The violence was about an electrical supply point for charging mobile phones.
• President Mugabe said before the Zimbabwe elections, ‘Only God can remove me.’ That is proving to be correct, while he continues to allow the military to run amock, beating and killing innocent Zimbabweans. And hardly anyone in SADC (the Southern African Development Community, comprising all of the southern African countries) says anything. In fact, a South African government delegation went to Zimbabwe last week, but “because of time pressures” only had a day, meeting only with Mugabe and not with anyone from the opposition.
• The ANC secretary general in South Africa has consistently been telling lies (this is a statement of fact, documented in the media), and over the past few weeks has had to do some very fun-to-watch backflips to try and say that he did not say what he is said to have said, but even if he did say it, he didn’t mean it to be understood that way… How an official can survive so many of these gaffs – with the most recent one being a spat with the Mail & Guardian just last week – I have no idea. Any honourable man would have resigned a long time ago. But there is a tragic lack of honorable resignations in Africa. In fact, besides Nelson Mandela, how many “ex” leaders of anything do you know in Africa?
• And, even more frighteningly, Jacob Zuma has been saying that, ‘We’ll be in power until Jesus returns.’ He is referring to the ANC.

Why? Why do these stories surprise no-one who knows Africa? What is it about Africa – and Africans – that creates an environment where stories like this are so tragically commonplace?

I am not saying that this is all there is to Africa, nor that these stories define our African experience. Just last week, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf delivered the sixth annual Nelson Mandela Lecture, in which she highlighted both the excellent and the tragic in Africa. Read her address here. Her address, titled Behold The New Africa was less of an optimistic prophesy of what may one day come and more of a celebration of achievements made thus far. She is right – there are some great stories that emerge from Africa. Yet, such tragedy, too. What I am saying is that the tragic side is too common in Africa, and carry an edge of menace in them that is not often present elsewhere in the world.

These African tragedies, and the reasons behind them, could fill books, newspaper column inches and PhD dissertations for many years, I am sure. But, in recent weeks, I have had some new thoughts that I just need to capture somewhere. So, in no particular order, and without in any way claiming to be solving the problems or answering all the questions, here are some suggestions as to the causes of Africa’s malaise:

The price of life – AIDS, malaria – in an environment where life is short and often brutal, the value of a human life is diminished. When this happens, people will be prepared to kill for very little. Life started in Africa. Life must be given back it’s value in Africa.

DNA of liberation movements – much of Africa has had to struggle against colonial masters in order to achieve independence. In the last few decades, these liberation movements had become organised and became political parties when their countries were liberated. SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organization), FRELIMO (Liberation Front of Mozambique), MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), ZANU PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front), ANC (African National Congress), and others, all fought for the liberation of their countries. Unfortunately, the DNA of a liberation movement is not the same as that required to rule. When these liberation movements won their victories and came to power, most of them did not do specific and deliberate work to change their DNA to that of a ruling party. Recent statements by Mugabe and members of the ANC are witness to the fact that even two decades later, the liberation blood flows strongly in their veins. This is not healthy.

Interestingly, Botswana had no liberation movement, and maybe this is why Botswana was the first SADC country – and is now the loudest voice – speaking out against Mugabe. But Mbeki, Mugabe, Nujoma and others have all at one or another, in various ways, expressed the “divine right to rule” that is the scariest part of liberation DNA. To be fair, Bush, Blair, Reagan and even Thatcher also expressed similar divine themes in some of their more profound moments. Maybe that, too, was at the root of the scarier parts of their terms of office, too.

Another thought came a few nights ago in conversation. Although the ANC was a liberation movement, and although there was a lot of violence in apartheid South Africa, the ANC never engaged in a war, and South Africa never descended fully into civil war. Maybe there is a glimmer of hope in this thought.

History of liberation and transitions to democracy – Almost nowhere in the world has a country gone through “regime change” without messy consequences, typically involving corruption, scandal, bloodshed, war and worse. We live in more enlightened times, but even so, this may be the human way – to make these types of transitions painfully. Maybe Africa is just doing what European countries did for a millennium before them, and what America achieved through bloody wars, ethnic cleansing and genocide but a few centuries ago. How I wish it could be otherwise. How wonderful would it be if Africa could be the continent to learns lessons from the history of other nations.

Alas, it seems that this is not to be. And we must do our history ourselves, with all the good and tragic consequences.

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