Africa Watch

It is not hard to find bad news about Africa. The nightmare in the Sudan, rapacious corruption in Zimbabwe, the utter chaos in the Congo River Basin, the list goes on depressingly. In this week’s New Republic Austin Merrill chronicles the latest carnage in Cote d’Ivoire. In yesterday’s New York Times Nicholas Kristof informs readers of the plight in what he boldly (but perhaps accurately – how can we ever really know?) calls “the most wretched country in the world,” Niger.

Of course while Africa burns, America and most of the rest of the globe fiddles. Today’s Times reveals yet another case of Congressional inaction in the face of African suffering.

Meanwhile some Africans continue to hope for a better tomorrow, however long the odds. In war ravaged Liberia, a former soccer star and national legend, George Weah, is running for the Presidency and is expected to win yesterday’s elections. Liberians queued by the thousands, and experts predict that Weah, the former world footballer of the year and star for Chelsea and AC Milan, will emerge victorious and that perhaps he can lead the nation, the closest America has ever had to an African colony, into a democratic future despite the bloody, blighted past Liberians have known.

I sincerely hope so. But I am skeptical. One need look no further than this review essay in the latest issue of The Nation, which addresses three important recent books, none more significant than Martin Meredith’s magisterial The Fate of Africa. One can take issue with some of the conclusions – I do – but it is clear that the majority of Africans are still in for a long, hard walk to freedom, peace, and justice.