Understanding Modern Africa: How do you eat an Elephant?

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Understanding Modern AfricaHow do you eat an
Elephant?
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Major Topics
I didnt know anything about the continent until
I visited and Im really angry about that. I
thought it was just animals walking down the
street. I was shocked to see tall buildings and
BMWs and to hear rap music. Its really
beautiful. It feels like God visits everywhere
else, but lives in Africa. Will Smith, Actor.

• Understanding African History
• Implications of African History
• African Renaissance
• African institutions
• Western Institutions
• Issues for Africas Future

No black history becomes significant and
meaningful unless it is taught in the context of
world and national history. In its sealed-off
black-studies centers, it will be simply another
exercise in racial breast-feeding. Roy Wilkins,
Civil Rights Activist.
A majority of Africans are waiting, waiting for
change to happen, a passivity inherited from 400
years of oppression, where things can only go
from bad to worse. Jean-Marie Teno, Cameroonian
film director
Our problem is just this how to get the
benefits of European society benefits that have
been brought about by an organization based upon
the individual and yet retain Africas own
structure of society in which the individual is a
member of a kind of fellowship.. Julius
Nyerere, First President of Tanzania
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Understanding African History

• Pre-contact Africa- before 700 AD
• Established Empires Mali, Songhai, Ghana,
  Monomatapa
• Stable Governments based on Ubuntu
  consensus rule
• Strong Economies trade with China, India,
  Europe

Salt comes from the north, gold from the south,
but the word of God and the treasures of wisdom
are only to be found in Timbuktu. Ancient
Malian proverb
Several historians of Africa, after surveying the
developed areas of the continent in the 15th
century, and those within Europe at the same
time, find the difference between the two in no
way to Africas discredit. Walter Rodney,
historian
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Understanding African History

• Religious Colonization 700 1600
• Islam North Africa by the sword, sub-Saharan
  Africa by trade
• Christianity Portuguese Missionaries as advance
  teams for slave trade
• Outposts for slave trade
• Slave Trade 1600 1850 AD
• Destroyed Economic Development Slave profits as
  an economic sedative
• Decimated Populations 15/50 million people over
  200 years
• Fomented Ethnic Conflict Pitted groups against
  each other to provide slaves

When the white man first arrived, he had the
Bible and we had the land. When he finally left,
we had the Bible and he had the land. Ndebele
proverb
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Understanding African History

• Colonization 1850 1950 AD
• Fragile states designed to be ungovernable by
  local peoples
• Extractive economies designed to provide raw
  materials at little profit
• Introduced exploitative governance Government
  to serve the colonial elite
• Exacerbated rising ethnic tensions used small
  ethnic groups as proxies

If there be a God, then what he would like me to
do is to paint as much of the map of Africa
British red as possible. Cecil Rhodes
For every dollar that the British have put into
Gambia, they have taken out ten. Its just plain
exploitation of these people. There is no
education whatsoever. FDR, President of the US
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Understanding African History
We in Africa have no more need to be converted
to socialism than we have of being taught
democracy. Both are rooted in our past in the
traditional society which produced us. Julius
Nyerere, First President of Tanzania

• Pan African Movement Key Factors
• Ethiopia and the League of Nations
• African service in two World Wars Fighting for
  freedom and liberty
• Synergy with the American Civil Rights Movement
• Marcus Garvey
• Martin Luther King, Jr
• Independence
• Started with Ghana - 1958
• Ended with South Africa - 1994

Africa wants to develop our own community and an
African personality. Others may feel they have
evolved the best way of life, but we are not
bound, like slavish immitators, to adopt it as
our own. Kwame Nkruma, First President of Ghana
It is easy enough to shout slogans, to sign
manifestos, but it is quite an different matter
to build, manage, command, spend days and nights
seeking the solution of problems. Patrice
Lumumba, First Prime Minister of Congo
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Understanding African History

• Cold War 1950 1990 AD
• Big Man Syndrome favored autocratic and
  despotic rulers
• Pitted ethnic groups against each other
• Fed Kleptocratic rule in exchange for ideological
  loyalty

It was disastrous for Africa to come of age
during the Cold War. Both the United States and
the Soviet Union helped to install and maintain
tyrants who are a blot on the human race.
David Aronson, Historian
The distinction between an Ashanti from Ghana and
a Xhosa from the Cape is at least as obvious as
that between a Sicilian and a Finn. James
Cameron, Political Scientist
Who taught us corruption? I believe it was you,
frankly... It's an import from France. Mobutu
Sese Seko, former President of Zaire/DRC
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Implications of African History

• Fractured peoples
• Ethnic groups split between states to make
  dominant groups minorities
• Ethnic conflict
• Use of small ethnic groups as proxies created
  explosive tensions
• Irrational states/borders
• Borders were designed to ensure that states
  couldnt be governed
• Extractive economies
• Designed to benefit elite few at the expense of
  majority
• Institutional corruption as the norm
• Exploitative governments
• Power concentrated at the top and used as a
  weapon for control
• Culturally foreign institutions
  economic/political
• Western democracy/capitalism and
  socialism/communism have no cultural relevance in
  Africa.

The Cold War is over, and Africa lost. Major
General Joseph Garba, Nigeria
Nigeria was an artificial creation which did not
take into consideration either the wishes or the
will or the interests of the people who were
enclosed and lumped together within the boundary.
The genesis of Nigeria, as with many other
countries, is flawed. Wole Soyinka, Nigerian
Nobel Laureate
Dictatorship was never part of the indigenous
African political tradition. Nobody declared
himself chief for life and his village to be a
one-party state.. George Ayittey, Ghanaian
Political Scientist
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African Renaissance1991-present
The greatest glory in living lies not in never
failing, but in rising every time we fall.
Nelson Mandela

• Positive Developments
• Independence for Namibia 1990
• Majority Rule in South Africa 1994
• End of civil war in Mozambique and Angola
  1992/2002
• Emergence of AU/NEPAD 2001
• Wave of Democratization 1992-2009
• Negative Developments
• Ethnic Conflict West Africa 1991 Present
• Failed States Somalia 1991 Present
• Genocide Rwanda 1994
• African World War Eastern Congo 1992
  Present
• Despotic Rulers Zimbabwe, Gabon, Equatorial
  Guinea

There are no devils left in Hell. They are all
in Rwanda. Missionary in Kigali
European colonial rule in Africa was more
effective in destroying indigenous African
structures than in destroying African culture.
The tension between new imported structures and
old resilient cultures is part of the
post-colonial war of cultures in the African
continent. Ali A. Mazrui, Kenyan Academic
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African Institutions

• OAU/AU Organization of African Unity/African
  Union
• OAU Designed to promote independence and the
  end of colonialism
• AU Designed to fix flaws of OAU
• Provisions for intervention
• Security mechanisms
• Africa Standby Force
• Sub-regional Organizations
• Economic Community of West African States
  (ECOWAS)
• Most advanced and capable
• Southern African Development Community (SADC)
• Emerging as most dynamic and resourced
• East African Community (EAC)
• Embryonic and without capacity
• Common Market for East and Southern Africa
  (COMESA)
• Economic and trade coalition
• NEPAD New Program for African Development
• Designed to balance power between donors and
  recipients

The African Union is exactly the same as the
Organization for African Unity, only minus the
organization. Comment overheard at the AU
Inaugural Session
The most important problem for the countries of
Africa arises out of our aspirations for unity.
Modibo Keita, first President of Mali
The African renaissance is about creating a new
Africa, about ending poverty and oppression,
regaining dignity. Thabo Mbeki, former President
of South Africa
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Outside Institutions/Actors
If the pictures of tens of thousands of human
bodies being gnawed on by dogs does not wake us
out of our apathy, I dont know what will. Kofi
Anan, Secretary General of the UN

• United Nations
• UNDP, UNAIDS, UNHCR, Multiple PKOs
• EU European Union
• Economic/Diplomatic ties
• Military Cooperation
• NATO
• Diplomatic and Security Cooperation
• Military Cooperation
• European Former Colonial Powers
• Bi-lateral political, military, economic ties
• Regional influences in security and economics
• United States
• Bi-lateral relations with nations
• AFRICOM Problematic start-up, Africans very
  skeptical
• China
• Heavily involved in trade in China economic
  colonization
• Desperate for African energy resources oil and
  gas
• China sets the bar for economic/political/military
  reform in Africa

.the instance of Rwanda lets us know in a very
brutal way that we cannot evade this historical
challenge any longer. The horror of Rwanda is
too high a price to pay for a very vaporous and
whimsical notion of what constitutes inviolate
territorial borders\ Wole Solinka, Nigerian Nobel
Laureate
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Issues for Africas Future
Children are precisely innocent and therefore you
can fashion them into the most ruthless,
unquestioning too of war Olara Otunnu, UN Envoy

• Ungoverned spaces
• Exploitation by extremists foreign and domestic
• Viable nation-states/borders
• Nigeria/Sudan/Congo ensuring survivable states
• Fractured peoples
• Uniting ethnic groups divided by national
  boundaries
• Developing national identity
• Economic Exploitation
• Corruption
• Kleptocracy
• Health
• Endemic Disease
• HIV
• Globalization
• Lack of internet access
• Inability to benefit from increasing
  interconnectedness
• Growing sense of isolation and paranoia

Political conventions that have been widely
respected in the past, such as the maintenance of
artificial state boundaries, can no longer be
taken fro granted when the mighty Soviet Union
breaks up into 15 different fragments, there is
no way an artificial African state can hold
together unless most of its people want it
to. Christopher Clapham
A lot of people here are dying. If you ask
people how their weekend was, theyll tell you
they went to a funeral. Lester Chitsulo,
Director, Malawis National AIDS Control Program
if rich countries face any threat from the third
world, it will come not from countries enjoying
rapid economic growth, but from the 500 million
or so, most of them in Africa, who risk being
left behind. Economist article
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US Interests/Policy

• Post Cold-War US policy has been driven by four
  primary interests
• Democratization
• US has supported democratization in many, but not
  all cases
• Advancement of Trade
• Much of US policy has been to develop African
  industry to address poverty and develop a market
  for US goods
• Energy
• Africa oil and gas
• Human Security
• Poverty Alleviation
• Disease/HIV
• Food Security
• Violence and Conflict

The United States has not always done the right
thing by Africa. The biggest mistake the United
States made was neglect and misunderstanding.
Former US President Clinton
When something goes wrong in Somalia, the
residents of Dead Mans Creek in Mississippi do
not say, Something has gone wrong in Somalia.
He says, Something has gone wrong in Africa.
Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa
Forty years of failed dictatorships have taught
Africans that the best way to move our countries
forward is to try and have clear rules that apply
equally to everybody. These are democratic
principles that are dear to America, and the best
way for America to insure its interests in Africa
is not to compromise them. Jean-Baptiste Placca,
editor-in-chief, LAutre Afrique
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Questions?
The darkest thing about Africa has always been
our ignorance of it. George Kimball
Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man
cannot understand them. But, a wise man respects
them. Miriam Makeba, Mother Africa - singer
I come here this evening because of my deep
interest in and affection for a land settled by
the Dutch in the mid-17th century, then taken
over by the British, and at last independent a
land in which the native inhabitants were at
first subdued, but relations with whom remain a
problem to this day a land which defined itself
on a hostile frontier a land which has tamed
rich natural resources through the energetic
application of modern technology a land which
was once the importer of slaves, and now must
struggle to wipe out the last traces of that
former bondage. Senator Robert F. Kennedy at
University of Cape Town, 1966
I refer, of course, to the United States of
America.