Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Why Africa Matters

In this week's San Francisco Chronicle, G. Pascal Zachary has a generally worthwhile article, "Why Africa Matters." Although I could do without a few of the more self-indulgent parts of the piece, Zachary makes a few good points, including the gist of his argument:
Yet humanitarian motives rarely produce lasting connections between peoples, probably because ties are predicated on an inequality: Africans lack something (food, health care, organization, money) that well-meaning Americans can provide. When Americans give, however, they can create a dependency relationship for Africans. We should not be surprised, then, to learn from many successful Africans about the perverse effects of humanitarian aid -- and not only for reasons of national pride, or the perverse effects of dependency, but also, as William Easterly methodically shows in his new book, "White Man's Burden," because most aid to Africa and other parts of the world fails to lift the poor out of poverty.

The Council on Foreign Relations, in a recent report, "More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa," argues that sympathy for Africans is a weak foundation for a lasting relationship between prosperous Americans and Africa's masses. The influential think tank insists, fortunately, that there exist "strategic" reasons for caring about impoverished Africans. These four reasons cut at the core of central American concerns:

-- The need for secure supplies of foreign oil.

-- Security against terrorism.

-- Freedom from pandemics.

-- The need for talented, energetic immigrants to refresh the American workforce.

Over time, these "strategic" reasons will persuade Americans that poverty reduction in Africa will do more than enhance our moral authority but also directly benefit the United States.

Add to these that we will benefit tremendously from forging diplomatic ties with African nations that we might in the future call upon for support in peacetime and war.


In 2003 I argued something rather similar at History News Network in "Why Africa Is Finally Getting Attention"
A taste of what I felt then and still feel now:

Curtailing future acts of terrorism. Expanding our access to available oil. Protecting human rights. These are goals that cross the ideological spectrum. And there is one continent where we can do all of these things. That continent is Africa, perhaps the part of the globe that Americans most overlook, except to catch a glimpse of the latest disaster coming from its shores, like rubberneckers straining to see the gore after a highway accident.

The time is ripe for Americans to start getting to know Africa as more than the sum of its grisly events. Many experts believe that the United States will get 15-20 percent of its oil exports from West Africa in the next decade. Large parts of the continent are vulnerable to exploitation by radical fundamentalist terrorists, some of which already have a foothold on the continent. Whether we like it or not, American attention will focus increasingly on what many still patronizingly see as the Dark Continent, a seemingly mysterious and dangerous land of poverty and violence and malarial infestations. But America must act now. We cannot afford to sit aside and wait for Africa to open its doors to us, nor can we assume that those doors will open simply because we are the United States.

To my mind, Africa provides a confluence of opportunity and necessity -- not only should we engage with Africa, but with each passing year we must engage with Africa. no longer can we ignore Africa and its people simply by arguing that we have no self interest there. Our self-interest is clear, but so too are African needs and desires. We may never be fully equal partners with Africans, but we need to work toward something resembling a legitimate partnership with as many heads of state and NGO's as possible. For them, yes, but increasingly for all of us.

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