Africa

James Heartfield Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk
Sun Dec 1 04:34:17 PST 2002


The WEEK ending 1 December 2002

DEMOCRATISING AFRICA: THE LEGACY

Missile strikes on Jewish people and businesses in Kenya, and violent riots against the Miss World contest in Nigeria have all added to the picture of Africa descending into chaos. British and American officials have underscored the view that Kenya - site of the 1998 US Embassy bombing - is a lawless state. For media commentators the overall picture is of people who are very different from us, and have to be treated with kid gloves, in case our 'Western values' cause them gratuitous offence.

But the grandiose cultural analyses of the Third World in general and Africa in particular as irredeemably different from the West only help to obscure the real sources of conflict in these societies. Furthermore, these analyses cover up the way that Western programmes to 'democratise' and civilise Africa only served to destabilise already fragile states, increasing the opportunities for conflict and bombings.

In May 1993 the then US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, admitted that 'during the long Cold War period, policies toward Africa were often determined not by how much they affected Africa, but by what advantage they brought to Washington or Moscow'. But his strategic apologia was only the precursor to a new US writ in Africa: Henceforth, 'an enduring commitment to democracy and human rights' would be at the heart of America's relations with Africa.

Whatever the intentions, America's policy on Africa had the effect of destabilising already fragile regimes. A battery of policies - generally reflecting Western preoccupations as much as African realities - were directed at the continent, with little sense of what consequence they would have for stability. In Somalia, US troops backed up famine relief, quickly being dragged into a 'tribal' war. In Rwanda, and then Zaire, America supported the Rwandan Patriotic Front in a campaign to unseat the Habyarimana and Mobutu regimes in 1994-5, leaving only an ethnic dictatorship and a civil war in their wake. In Kenya, the embattled regime of Daniel arap Moi was forced to open a multi-party parliament in January 1993, only to close it down again.

Ignoring these setbacks, the bandwagon of democratisation gathered pace. In 1996, Christopher was again touring Africa, clocking up more miles than any other US leader. Hillary Clinton highlighted the issue of women's oppression in her visits to the region. In 1999 World Bank head James Wolfensohn launched the Comprehensive Development Framework that made social programmes a new condition for aid. African regimes that were already weakened by their low level of development were being overburdened by Western ambitions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has added to the flow of crocodile tears coming from Western leaders, telling the United Nations millennial summit on 6 September 2000 that 'there is a dismal record of failure in Africa'. 'Twenty-one of the 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by conflict which undermines efforts at development', Blair continued, demanding that 'We must be partners in the search for change and hope'. Blair's many promises to reform Africa have become an annual fixture at his party conference.

The question remains why the rhetorical commitment of the West to Africa has only translated into heightened conflict within African societies, and between the West and Africa. One answer might be that the words are empty. But the truth is more problematic. The West's actual contribution to African society has been to further destabilise the continent. Political Islam played a peripheral role in sub-Saharan Africa until recently. But as nationalist strategies were compromised by Western domination, the regimes in Nigeria and the Sudan have appealed to conservative clerics as a source of authority.

The bombings and riots are wholly reactionary in their outlook, and deserve to be condemned in their own right. But the destabilisation of African states is a consequence of a misplaced attempt by Western societies to play the white man. -- James Heartfield The 'Death of the Subject' Explained is available at GBP11.00, plus GBP1.00 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'



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