By Chris Fomunyoh, Ph.D.*
About ten days ago, African Heads of State converged in Abuja, Nigeria, for a summit meeting of the African Union, AU, the organisation that covers all of the continent's 53 member states. These leaders reflected upon the devastating costs, both human and material, of current crises in Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Darfur, Sudan, and assessed progress made on African-led initiatives such as the African Peace and Security Council and the New Partnership for African Development, NEPAD.
Many ordinary Africans hoped that these leaders would also consider how best to engage the G7 countries to take advantage of, among other things, the newly constituted Blair's Commission for Africa, and the World Bank and other international financial institutions on the crushing debt burden.
In the post-Abuja period, as I look at the full plate of unfinished business awaiting the AU, I hasten to suggest this be the appropriate time to revisit the relevance of a slogan engraved in many a speech and declaration in the last decade.
The catch-all phrase of "African solutions to African problems" became part of parlance as a matter of necessity, following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda when African countries watched the international community stand by as over 800.000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by Hutu extremists.
Coming on the heels of the Somalia experience in which the United States sustained casualties and became unwilling to commit troops to interventions in African crisis situations, and with other world powers equally disengaged, African leaders learned the hard way that ultimately they have to resolve crises on their continent and look out for their own.
A priori, the principle of personal responsibility for self-preservation looks right in its face; however, in today's global context, the slogan African solutions to African problems smacks of self-inflicted isolation, and invites further marginalisation and benign neglect.
Ten years after Rwanda, this phrase has lost its rationale. The continent has made progress on democratic governance in more than twenty countries including Benin, Botswana, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and South Africa, and citizens of these countries now see themselves as members of a larger community of democrats worldwide.
The AU itself is being energized by new leadership with a new vision, and sub-regional organisations such as the South African Development Community, SADC, and the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, are having an impact. Armed conflicts that raged in the 1990s in countries such as Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Angola have ended, yet the slogan paints a blanket imagery of "all of Africa equals problems."
On the one hand, it has been misused by autocratic regimes in countries such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, Togo, Guinea and Cameroon, who claim that the rest of the world has no business criticising their human rights violations, stolen elections and culture of corruption.
On the other hand, the slogan provides solace to some bureaucrats in donor countries who are reluctant or unwilling to propose bold steps that can bring their countries to assist Africa in its path. Even "friends of Africa" are left wondering whether their genuine efforts and initiatives would be second-guessed ad nuseum or met with excessive hostility and unnecessary criticism by those they intend to assist.
The terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, changed the world, and the earlier bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were a harbinger of worse things to come. While the sadist perpetrators of these acts define the United States as their target, political leadership here rightly casts this horrific phenomenon as the global threat of our century.
Cooperation and assistance of all sorts, and from countries big and small, contribute significantly to the results that have been accomplished thus far in the now global war against terrorism. A month ago, the tsunami hit several countries in Asia (and a few in Africa) with hundreds of thousands of deaths and immeasurable property loss.
The world did the right thing and no one said the tsunami was an Asian problem. Yet, to paraphrase the words of one of the lead United Nations coordinators of the tsunami relief effort, to understand the enormity of the crisis in eastern Congo for example, one has got to imagine a tsunami hitting that country every six months.
Yes, one crisis may be a natural disaster, and the other man-made, but does that mean we shut our eyes to the suffering, or conversely that Africans close their doors to other people's relief and assistance?
It is one thing to encourage, support and strengthen African capacity to respond to unforeseen calamities or to prevent differences of opinion and competing interests from spilling over into armed conflict; it is quite another, and in today's context, indefensible, to revert to an outdated and obsolete dictum.
*The writer is Senior Associate for Africa at the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affaires, and adjunct faculty of African government and politics at Georgetown University. The views expressed are his alone. [email protected]
All nonsense. Most, if not all of these guys are greedy.
Posted by: Ace | Tuesday, 08 February 2005 at 03:40 PM
Mr. Ace,
The point is not to shy away from the issue, but to face it and propose whatever you think may be a way forward, rather than be so sarcastic in your views. Which guys are you talking of? Can you be more elaborate in you participation on educative fora like this.
Others and i will appreciate you humble opinion.
KKK
Posted by: Kelvin Kumbringu Kaba | Wednesday, 09 February 2005 at 12:37 PM
Mr. Ace,
I believe some of us are just exhibiting our ignorance to understand a piece of academic work like this. How on earth can you relate this work to greediness? I'll rather refer the bullet to you for your lack of appreciation. If you don't have anything to say concerning a subject, you better stay quiet rather than try to discredit a prolific and renowned writer and analyst of most African problems. For your information, I have seen the author on several occasions analysing international political issues on CNN. Had he not been good, he would not have gained international recognition.
Posted by: Ndingi | Thursday, 10 February 2005 at 11:25 AM
Africa's Solution to African Problems:A Slogan Whose Time Has Passed.
The above aphorism underpinning Fomunyoh's presentation should be understood and interpreted in the right context. It seems to me that he bases his interpretations on faulty hypothesis. Africa's Solution to Africa's Problems does not and should not be construed to mean that Africans and their leaders have insulated themselves from the outside world as Fomunyoh seems to imply. It's common knowledge that the supercommunication highway has built bridges and encouraged cultural diffusion. I suspect that Fomunyoh's interpretation has been inspired by the post-war nationalists call: Africa for Africans.In recent times it does not imply that African problems should be solved only by Africans or by outsiders without African perspectives and engineering.
African leaders learning from the crises Fomunyoh cited have become more conscious of their international and continental responsibilities which I agree. The end of the Cold War and the present democratisation process in most African nation-states does not mean the end of imperialism and neo-colonialism in the continent. Though having a weak economic and political position internationally, Africa should and must have a voice not only in world affairs but in particular, in African geo-politics.
When Fomunyoh mentions the Asian Tsunami relief effort,he should recognise one fact. If there was international solidarity, it was not because the Great Powers "loved" the affected nations and communities "greatly". The US used it as a public relations outfit to prove to the world how human they are. Secondly and most importantly, the role played by the mass media especially the CNN, TV5, CFI, BBC, etc conscientised humanity of its responsibility to the affected areas.
What we need is the neccessary resources to make things work by using what Noreena Hertz calls the Middle Path, that is, by negotiating between our perspectives and that from abroad by Africans for Africans in order to establish a platform of common interests. But above all, African vision and pragmatism is, should be, and must be very relevant. To Dr. Fomunyoh, I say the "time has not passed". It is now and forever.
Posted by: Fotso Didi | Friday, 11 February 2005 at 12:41 PM
Africa's Solution to African Problems:A Slogan Whose Time Has Passed.
The above aphorism underpinning Fomunyoh's presentation should be understood and interpreted in the right context. It seems to me that he bases his interpretations on faulty hypothesis. Africa's Solution to Africa's Problems does not and should not be construed to mean that Africans and their leaders have insulated themselves from the outside world as Fomunyoh seems to imply. It's common knowledge that the supercommunication highway has built bridges and encouraged cultural diffusion. I suspect that Fomunyoh's interpretation has been inspired by the post-war nationalists call: Africa for Africans.In recent times it does not imply that African problems should be solved only by Africans or by outsiders without African perspectives and engineering.
African leaders learning from the crises Fomunyoh cited have become more conscious of their international and continental responsibilities which I agree. The end of the Cold War and the present democratisation process in most African nation-states does not mean the end of imperialism and neo-colonialism in the continent. Though having a weak economic and political position internationally, Africa should and must have a voice not only in world affairs but in particular, in African geo-politics.
When Fomunyoh mentions the Asian Tsunami relief effort,he should recognise one fact. If there was international solidarity, it was not because the Great Powers "loved" the affected nations and communities "greatly". The US used it as a public relations outfit to prove to the world how humane they are. Secondly and most importantly, the role played by the mass media especially the CNN, TV5, CFI, BBC, etc conscientised humanity of its responsibility to the affected areas.
What we need is the neccessary resources to make things work by using what Noreena Hertz calls the Middle Path, that is, by negotiating between our perspectives and that from abroad by Africans and for Africans in order to establish a platform of common interests. But above all, African vision and pragmatism is, should be, and must be very relevant. To Dr. Fomunyoh, I say the "time has not passed". It is now and forever.
Posted by: Fotso Didi | Friday, 11 February 2005 at 12:45 PM
After all the said, nothing will change in Togo and those very people fighting against Faure's taking over will be the first to invite him or visit him.It is an issue of using action and not words.I think if the AU wants to make itself felt, it must start from this and see that Faure is out by all means even by force or else it will continue in other parts of Africa like Gabon,Cameroon,Congo-Braza,Equitorial Guine etc.
We Africans do not lack the ability to solve our own problems but it is an issue that also involves greed like some one said and others were bitter on him.Why is it an issue of greed,When you look across all the names of the heads of states insisting on the departure of Faure,you will not see the names of all those who have been there for say 10years or more simply because they have the same plans in their minds and can not stand to say NO to it today and also because they know the way they got in was not right or again their being maintained in power is as a result of alot of odds.
Let all the other 52 states stand up and act against this and send an AU force in Togo to send Faure out.Where is small Togo to be above the AU?If this can not be solve today let them desolve the AU because when that will happen in Cameroon in the near future no one will be able to change it.I no be gambe man but I di see far.Pascal
Posted by: Pascal | Monday, 14 February 2005 at 12:03 PM