Nothing about us without us
Britain has adopted Africa as a centrepiece of its Foreign Policy
this year. In his usual missionary approach the British Prime
Minister, Tony Blair, has re branded himself from being the Secretary
of State for America into Prime Minister for Africa. It was in this
Africa mode that he went to America, earlier this week, to try to
exact some concessions from his bully buddy, Bush. Blair's mission
was to persuade Bush to buy into his three-pronged Africa programme:
More aid, debt cancellation and international trade reforms. He
arrived in Britain on Wednesday with a few million dollars in pledges
from the Americans towards drought relief in the horn of Africa.
There was also a promise to consider 100% debt cancellation for some
32 countries in Africa.
British NGOs and antipoverty campaigners have already condemned
Bush's crumbs to Blair as miserly and far below the multi billion aid
begging bowl Blair is expecting the rest of the richer countries to
contribute to before their rich men's club meeting in Gleneagles next
month. Bush defended himself by drawing attention to the fact that he
had trebled aid to Africa already and given 15 billion dollars
towards HIV/Aids in Africa. Of course what he did not say is that
even more dubious than under the cold war, American aid is now more
tied to compliant regimes in Africa no matter how unpopular they are
with their peoples. This as long as they are on the side of his war
without end in the name of international terrorism. Most of his AIDS
money will actually be beneficial to American pharmaceutical
companies and their very expensive medicines because the Americans
are opposed to cheaper derivative drugs from India, Brazil, China or
South Africa. Also the administration believes only in abstinence
campaigns and it is prisoner to faith-based (meaning Christian
fundamentalist) groups and lobbies. This means that what Bush gives
with one hand is immediately taken with the other through his big
business and religious sponsors.
As a Bush-Blair cynic I am not really surprised at the games being
played by these global con men but unfortunately there are still too
many people both in Britain and outside who still believe that Tony
means well and somehow he can persuade Bush and the rest of the world
to do right by Africa. My position is that instead of Blair preaching
to the rest of the world about Africa let the British government
challenge other Western and richer countries by showing good example
through confession and remorse and then tangible concrete action that
shows that it has its mouth in tandem with its pocket.
Even if he has now succeeded in getting Bush to use nearly the same
language as him on debt cancellation this is where it stops. The
devil as they say is in the details. The Bush people want debt
cancellation to be paid for by the lending multilateral institutions
such as the IMF and the World Bank. This may mean that money pledged
for relief of poverty will be diverted to debt cancellation. In plain
language: No new monies on the table just a recycling of what is
already available. In biblical terms it means robbing Peter to pay Paul.
So where does this leave Blair and his big plans for Africa? Nowhere
really. While he has put high premiums on persuading his American
bosses the truth is that other G8 countries are not really singing
their hymns from the same book as him. Germany, France and Japan have
their own priorities and would not be lectured to by a British Prime
Minister on his way out of No 10 Downing Street. Blair may be seeking
his international legacy via Africa but both the German Chancellor
and the French President are also seeking their own legacies too, and
Africa may not play big in their calculations.
Also this premium on Washington ignores other multilateral creditors
to Africa such as the Africa Development Bank which in many cases, is
a bigger lender of development loans to many African countries.
African countries still hold a majority stake in the bank. Why is
Blair not canvassing them for support on his debt right off? It must
be his patronising assumption that once Europe and America agrees
which African dares oppose? Two weeks ago Blair's people made a big
play on the EU countries agreeing to double aid to Africa as yet
another major breakthrough. This will be done by 2008. But the same
EU was already committed to making AID 0.7% of GNP for thirty years
and renewed this pledge 5 years ago through the Millennium
Development Goals of the UN. Are we to celebrate their promising to
reach 0.50% when they promised 0.70% 30 years ago?
My concern is that this Blair focus on Africa is going to be yet
another Shakespearean tale, "... told by an idiot, full of sound and
fury signifying nothing."
Africans must stop looking outside for our progress. Our salvation is
within us. We are our own liberators.
Does that mean there is nothing outsiders can do to help us? No,
there is a role for others but we cannot adequately take advantage of
other peoples' help if we have not decided what we want to do for
ourselves and how we want to go about it.
When Bob Geldof was challenged about why he is organising a concert
for Africa 21 years after his first one and there are no African
musicians apart from Yousof N'dour, the pathetic response from one of
his spokespersons was that he did not have African musicians in his
address book. This from a man who is regarded as Mr Africa globally
merely shows how Westerners regard Africans as objects of their
sympathy rather than agents of changing their own situation.
We have to summon the courage to stand up to these new missionaries
in Africa represented by western humanitarian NGOs and politicians
like Blair and 'Globatricians' like Bob Geldof. Their 'good'
intentions must match our aspirations. We should do it together where
possible, do it alone where necessary but at every stage we should
have the veto, not them. We cannot outsource our progress and
development. To borrow a phrase recently used by my Good Ndugu,
Firoze Manji, Editor of Pambazuka News: Nothing About Us without Us.