[lbo-talk] Kenya offended at N. Zealander's dog food aid offer

[Joseph Wanzala]

I'm not sure how to interpret your question, of course 'corrupt African 
regimes' is a tired stereotype... 'Corruption' has become a way of life in 
most African countries and it is an expression of many factors - poverty, 
opprtunism, as well the fact that Western corporations and government 
benefit greatly from paying off middlemen who faciliate - via repressive 
measures - the extraction of wealth from the continent etc. We all know this 
story. Futhermore, it is a given that all governments and corporations are 
corrupt.

What is more significant is the level of sheer criminaility, even 
thuggishness rampant in Africa (and to be sure the rest of the world).

I'd highly recommend:-

THE CRIMINALIZATION OF THE STATE IN AFRICA. Jean-François Bayart, Stephen 
Ellis, and Béatrice Hibou. Oxford, Bloomington & Indianapolis: James Currey 
& Indiana University Press, 1999. 126 pp. cloth $ 39.95. paper $ 18.95.

http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v4/v4i1a4.htm

The Criminalization of the State in Africa chronicles in fascinating detail 
the totality of state-supported criminal activities. The book analyzes the 
impact of criminal activities on African nations. It examines the future of 
public life in Africa, and reveals how African states have become vehicles 
for organized crimes. It addresses the manner in which African states, 
through criminal means, cover up the corrupt practices of those in power. 
The book exposes the linkages between government and institutionalized 
fraud: smuggling, the plundering of natural resources, the growth of private 
armies, the privatization of state institutions, and the development of 
"economies of plunder." The result is an incisive and authoritative exposure 
of Africa's entanglement in a web of internal and international crimes. More 
innovative than anything else is the analysis of the internationalization of 
crime in Africa from two fronts. First, the study deals with criminal 
activities initiated in Africa by corporate officials, employees of 
parastatal organizations, and government officials at both the national and 
continental levels. Secondly, the book examines Africa's role in the 
internationalization of certain criminal activities involving non-Africans, 
but supported by African entrepreneurs and policy-makers.

Although originally written in French, the book's scope is not limited to 
francophone Africa. It dwells on the involvement of all African 
nation-states, south of the Sahara, in the international drug trafficking, 
money-laundering, currency counterfeiting, credit card fraud, conversion of 
cash of dubious origin into legal goods, and theft of international food 
aid, just to mention a few. Throughout the book, the authors contend that 
"politics in Africa is becoming markedly interconnected with crime" (p. 25). 
They examined six main indicators of the criminalization of African politics 
(pp. 25-26) and, interestingly, conclude that "only Equatorial Guinea, the 
Comoros and Seychelles could be correctly classified as criminal states at 
the moment." The majority of other African states, write the authors, 
exhibit classical symptoms of what Bayart calls "la politique du ventre," a 
Cameroonian popular adage that means [loosely translated], a goat eats where 
it is littered.

On the whole, the book is a beautifully conceived, richly textured work. 
Powerful, intriguing, and essentially transcending national territorial 
boundaries, it offers an important analysis of state-supported corrupt 
practices in contemporary Africa. The authors might have further explored 
the varied levels of democratization in specific African nations, and 
discussed how the leadership of those nations either promoted or discouraged 
state-supported criminality. Such an exercise would likely reveal the 
emergence of a "moi je m'enfou" (colloquially translated as "I don't give a 
damn") attitude among some African leaders. It is this "moi je m'enfou" 
attitude, resulting from the gross lack of accountability in the performance 
of government duties, that weakened rigid press censorship imposed by 
totalitarian governments and now gives a false sense of democratization. 
Regardless, each chapter pulls the reader deep into the innermost circles of 
corruption, kleptomania, criminal actions by governments in power, and the 
resultant destitution of independent Africa.

Fuabeh P. Fonge
Department of History
North Carolina A&T State University


>From: Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Kenya offended at N. Zealander's dog food aid offer
>Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 15:21:53 -0800
>
>What determines which countries are corrupt?  The economics story is that 
>those who rely on
>markets avoid corruption, but I doubt that that idea holds up very well.
>--
>Michael Perelman
>Economics Department
>California State University
>Chico, CA 95929
>
>Tel. 530-898-5321
>E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk