President Obama, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, What is the future for AFRICOM? Reflections on “America’s New Frontline” Aljazeera Video Report by Evelyn Sallah

This article addresses one of President Obama’s key challenges concerning U.S.-Africa foreign policy inherited from the Bush administration and the U.S.’s Africa Command, widely known as AFRICOM.  A recent video report published by Aljazeera News’ America’s New Frontline focuses on the U.S. strategy to strengthen African militaries in order to combat underground militias. U.S. military officials state that those militias threaten global security. (http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2009/09/2009910121135544650.html).

The U.S.  has a problematic history in Africa, especially in regards to its military operations. For example, many recall several failed covert operations in Somalia prior to the country’s full state failure particular the deployment of 120 U.S. soldiers in October, 1993.    Furthermore, AFRICOM has undermined local liberation movements, as well as increased the military power of rogue governments whose policies stray far from democracy, transparency, or the provision of basic civil liberties. All of which are  prerequisites to good governance in a democratic political environment.

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Book Review-Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa by Illenin Kondo

Book Review by Illenin Kondo, PhD Student in Economics at the University of Minnesota

Dambisa Moyo. Dead Aid: Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa. ISBN: 0374139563, 9780374139568. 208 pages

Summary

Nearly sixty years after their independence proclamation, most African countries have not achieved the goals of progress and emancipation that sustained their struggle for independence. In “Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa”, Dambisa Moyo is revisiting this conundrum with a focus on the role of aid in Africa’s fate. Dambisa Moyo argues that the “aid model” is failing the African continent and suggests that African governments need to innovate – or at least replicate – a different model to finance long-term economic growth. This new model should fundamentally rely on international capital markets according to Dambisa Moyo.
While Dambisa Moyo convincingly correlates some well-known artifacts of Africa’s development path and its reliance on foreign aid, her theory of aid-hindered development is less compelling. Hence, international capital markets – “the better way for Africa” – may not be the best way forward. Overall, Moyo offers an unconventional view of Africa’s way forward. The originality of her contribution lies in the radical view that aid has be totally abandoned in favor of international capital markets because its disastrous effects. However, the text constantly struggles to establish causation between aid and failure on one hand and between international capital markets and growth on the other hand.

Below, I provide an overview of Dambisa Moyo’s text and conclude with some key limitations of the solutions outlined in the text.

Aid-hindered development

Dambisa Moyo begins her book by establishing two very simple facts. First, development assistance to Africa has considerably increased since the seventies. In particular, foreign aid as a percentage of African governments’ budgets has increased. Second, despite these large aid inflows, the poverty rate in Africa substantially increased over the same period. Based on this evidence, Moyo posits the unequivocal negative externalities of aid.  To support her hypothesis, Moyo notes that aid only worked when it operated as stimulus limited in time and commitment. The Marshall plan is the perfect example of such focused stimulus. Unlike the Marshall plan, the aid provided to African countries operates in fact as a constantly available grant source (and so are the loans because of the soft repayment conditions). Given the posited negative impact of aid, Moyo calls for the adoption of an alternative financing model.

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A Book Review of Graham Hancock’s “The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business” by Anyango E. Reggy

Lords of Poverty is a controversial and comprehensive text in which British writer and journalist Graham Hancock critically examines the “self-serving behavior, arrogance, paternalism, moral cowardice and mendacity” of the 60 billion dollar a year international aid industry. In this book, Hancock highlights the glaring contradictions within the development business, in which multilateral and bilateral organizations claim to promote greater human and social development, but continue to support policies and programs that further poverty within the Global South.

While Lords of Poverty uses several examples of mal-development in sub-Saharan Africa, the book does not focus exclusively on the African continent. Instead it is an account of the catastrophic practices of international development agencies around the world which, as Hancock argues, is proof that foreign aid does not work anywhere.

Throughout the text, Hancock cites numerous examples of mismanagement and incompetence in the provision of international aid which has had a detrimental impact on the political, social, and economic well-being of impoverished communities across the globe. The reality is that Western taxpayers and the world’s poor are being duped; the international development industry is making large amounts of money with very few accountability measures in place. Instead, they are primarily answerable to other institutions and governments with similar ideas and philosophies on issues of development and underdevelopment.

Additionally, Hancock insists that not only is development wasteful and poorly planned, it can also be outright harmful to the individuals and communities that it is supposed to help. He maintains that “some humanitarian aid can kill”! For instance, through the building of large structures such as water dams which displace entire communities, or the provision of food aid which is often times provided too little too late.

Hancock is also skeptical of foreign aid’s laundry list of promises. He maintains that aid does not work; it is neither necessary nor sufficient. He further argues that in countries with little or no foreign aid, communities thrive, while in countries where aid is in abundance, communities “suffer the most abject miseries”. Additionally, foreign aid creates a cycle of dependency which stifles the creativity and self-sufficiency of poor countries. He asserts that aid “is possibly the most formidable obstacle to the productive endeavors of the poor. It is also a denial of their potential, and a patronizing insult to their unique, unrecognized abilities”.

Is aid inherently bad? Hancock’s argument is that aid is “utterly beyond reform”. Hancock’s solution is for foreign aid not to be decreased or redirected but to be cut off completely! According to Hancock, it is meaningless to continue with what he refers to as a charade; that is the illusion that foreign aid is working. For instance, Africa, “the world’s most aided continent” – which was self-sufficient in food production before the introduction of development assistance – is now “a continent sized beggar hopelessly dependent on the largesse of outsiders”.

In the end Hancock reiterates his main argument, that foreign aid hinders the ability of impoverished and vulnerable people to create their own ways of dealing with critical issues such as how to satisfy their basic needs, create sustainable political practices, reduce poverty, and attain equitable standards of living without destroying the environment.  

Although the text was written more than a decade ago, the issues the author raises are an invaluable contribution to the current discourse on the ethics of aid, a discussion that has been revived by African voices such as Dambisa Moyo in “Dead Aid”, and Binyavanga Wainaina (http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/ethicsofaid-kenya/) among others.

Anita Wheeler’s Book Review of When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa by Robert H. Bates

 
Robert H. Bates. When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. xv + 191 pp. Graphs. Maps. Charts. Appendix. Bibliography. Index.
 
Theories of state failure have come to dominate contemporary studies on the political economy and governance of African countries. When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa by Robert H. Bates contributes to a well-established body of literature on conflict and state failure in Africa by applying game theory to explain the behavior of state actors.

 
Evoking a prominent theme in Chinua Achebe’s 1958 text Things Fall Apart, Bates presents the reader with a fable to illustrate the challenges of a ruler, his/or elite and the citizenry vying for economic and political security within their communities. The question Bates poses is whether political order can prevail amongst groups with differing interests. Bates answers with a hesitant yes; thus setting up the narrative of the text.

 
In the first part of the text, Bates elegantly distills a review of literature outlining the prevailing theories of state failure; proposes the use of game theory to explain the behavior of actors in creating political disorder, and; presents three units of analysis to measure the possibility of political order in Africa.

 
The theory attempts to explain why governments engage in predatory practices and why citizens take up arms in response. At the root of state failure, is the inability of states to collect and distribute revenues equitably among the citizenry. In a state of insecurity, communities take up arms and governments become increasingly authoritarian and repressive. Government leaders and civil servants extract money from the state revenues for their own survival and conflicts arise between the ruler, the elite and the citizenry.

 
Bates argues that the economic forces in Africa, driven by external and internal policies, have contributed to African states being a source of insecurity to their citizens. Factors such as the collection of public revenues, levels of democratization and natural resource wealth influence the possibility of political order. Political order is also predicated on the links between political competition, political conflict and political incentives. With this theoretical framework, Bates examines the choices made by state actors. Those choices, primarily the choices of “specialists of violence” or rulers and civil servants, often result in creating political and economic insecurity that induce state failure.

 
The second part of the text applies the theory periodically and thematically to a number of African countries, most notably Zambia. Bates has done extensive research in Zambia since the late 1960s. The study covers the period after independence, the Cold War, structural adjustment and the third wave of democratization (1960-1995). He uses cross-national regressions to measure and compare policy choice, political reform, and political disorder. Bates’ research concludes that changes in the global economy and economic mismanagement have led to political disorder in many African states. Even though Bates reluctantly indicates in the first chapter that political order will prevail in Africa, the data and analysis indicate that Africa has been caught in the “perfect storm.” In other words, the foundation of African states has been unstable from the outset– inevitably leading to state collapse.

 
This text expands the debates on the origins of conflict and political instability in Africa by clearly challenging the prevailing explanations of conflict– notably ethnicity, resource wealth, and democratization. Many Africanist scholars want to move beyond theories that dwell on either exogenous or endogenous factors, such as: government mismanagement, clientelism, patronage politics, corruption, state survival, and ‘big man politics.’ Bates’ theory offers a gradual movement away from the prevailing paradigms; by examining the damage, external economic shocks have on African systems. Instead of blaming individual rulers for the crisis of African states, Bates makes the case that the leaders are making choices based on the rationality of the African political and economic situation.

 
However, Bates’ analysis lacks an African perspective. This is a problem with most political science texts on Africa produced in the West. Bates’ analysis is disconnected from the complex histories and realities of African communities—most notably the detrimental role colonial policies has on the formation of the African state. Applying game theory to African politics further disconnects African peoples and communities as the primary units of analysis.

 
Bates employs a theoretical framework that reduces the complexities of Africa to rational choice based models. Fundamentally, there is no universal definition of rational choice. Nevertheless, Bates’ text is a contribution to the field because it factors in both external and internal forces in leading to Africa’s state failure. Africa does not fit neatly into a model originally designed to understand the nature of politics in post war Europe.[1] Bates offers no prescriptions to the problem instead he offers explanations. In conclusion, the text is concise, written primarily for scholars and students interested in a contemporary analysis of state failure and conflict in Africa.

 
 
Anita C. Wheeler
PhD Student
Howard University
Washington, DC

Diana Duarte on Blackness and Cape Verde

There is perhaps no issue as controversial in the discussion of Cape Verdean identity as that of race. 

As an experiment, someday I’d like to swing by one of the biggest Cape Verdean gatherings in the US—the 5th of July independence day celebration at India Point Park in Providence, RI—and conduct an informal poll.  Amidst the people enjoying the live music, playing soccer and eating katchupa, I’d pose a simple question: “Are Cape Verdeans … African?”  Or even, “Are Cape Verdeans … black?”

 I’ve never done such a poll, so my reflections here are anecdotal and certainly not scientific.  But in my limited experience, I have come across a wide range of reactions when it comes to Cape Verdean racial identity.  Colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century and used as a colonial way-station for hundreds of years, the Cape Verdean people that emerged from this history were largely the product of Portuguese explorers and African slaves.

 Yet, for some Cape Verdeans, it’s as if the 375 miles of ocean between Cape Verde and the West African coast is enough to wipe any trace of African blood from their DNA.  The arguments tend to fall along similar lines.  Oh no, they say, you must remember the culture.  Cape Verdean culture, language, food is unique and unparalleled; but if you must draw a comparison, it would be much more European than African.

 At a library in the capital city of Praia, where I was studying documents related to the independence struggle, I once ran into an elderly man who insisted that the Cape Verdean language bore no resemblance to any African language.  In fact, he asserted that Kriolu, the term for Cape Verdean creoles, was actually a long-lost version of Portuguese, preserved as in a time capsule from the 15th century. 

 Or, they might accusingly point out, one must always remember to be proud of our Cape Verdean heritage.  It’s like a fingerprint, they seem to say—or ten fingerprints—in the middle of the Atlantic.  Nothing like it anywhere else in the world, and certainly not in Africa.

But then there’s those Cape Verdeans like my parents.  They immigrated to the US in the 1960s and 1970s and got caught in the heady moment of revolution.  On one side of the ocean, black pride was emerging, and they absorbed the words, “Black Is Beautiful.”  On the other side of the ocean, African revolutionaries were picking up their pens and their guns, and with both were saying, “This is our nation, our independence.”

In the jungles of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verdean leader of the independence movement Amilcar Cabral worked to create a political party of African unity, bringing together Cape Verdeans and Guineans to stand against Portuguese colonialism.  (You could write a dissertation on how well he succeeded or how dismally he failed.)

In that context, my parents embraced their blackness.  Growing up under their influence, it was almost without question that I embraced mine. 

I embraced it just as I embraced my other identities.  I would be a black woman, a Cape Verdean, an American.  I would confront anyone who told me that I couldn’t be any one and all of these things.  I would be a black woman, although my strange name and my strange origins often threatened to throw it into question.  A Cape Verdean, although I never learned to speak my parents’ Kriolu and have only visited the islands twice in my life.  An American, although I have spent only a fraction of my life in this country and so much feels foreign to me here.

Every identity I have embraced has been challenged at one point or another by those who feel entitled to categorize me.  So I realize the potential irony in making the argument that Cape Verdeans should embrace their black African identity, if they are not already so inclined.  Perhaps it’s because I believe in the intersection of experiences and lives – you don’t have to choose just one.

But the real urgency lies in this: when we cut ourselves off from our many identities, we deprive ourselves.  We lose the chance to make connections, to share experiences, to realize that our fortunes are linked and to build movements.  Our Cape Verdean community—whether in the islands or in the diaspora—can’t afford to lose these chances.

First African Faces Charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC): Redemption for Sierra Leone and Africa? by Evelyn Sallah

This past July the International Criminal Court (ICC) case of Liberian warlord Charles Taylor was in the news for his role in funding the Sierra Leonean civil war that took place in the 1990’s.  As this case enters the docket and his fate is yet to be determined, this is an appropriate time to ask what significance does this potential indictment have for Sierra Leone and the rest of Africa?
 
There have been many perpetrators of massive executions, human rights abuses, and war crimes across the continent. Will Taylor’s conviction send a message to those accountable for atrocities in Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, and the DRC that their day is yet to come?
 
Is this a confirmation that African lives have become valuable enough for the international community to send UN peacekeepers to restore peace in less than 10 years after a conflict has claimed so many lives?  Is this a message that the international community is willing to try those accountable to war crimes in the international justice system?
 
Sierra Leone suffered over a decade of civil strife led by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) army led by Foday Sankoh.  Many in the western world are familiar with the conflict through the Hollowood blockbuster “Blood Diamonds” starring Leonardo diCapprio and Djimon Hounsou.  In addition the book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier written by Ishmael Beah received major exposure in the international journalist arena.
 
The war was sparked at a time of major economic woes in the small mountainous nation, known for its widely ethnic, and religious diversity.   Similar to many African nations, this economic failure was a result from the destabilizing impact of a colonial legacy, which resulted in weak national infrastructure, failing public institutions, and corruption.
 
National instability coupled with an undiversified export reliant economy, and a highly valuable natural resource (alluvial diamonds), inevitably sparked conflict.  The RUF funded by the diamond trade with Charles Taylor as their biggest client, and their principal arms dealer.  Today he faces charges for being implicit in encouraging the use of child soldiers, child brides, massive rapes, and numerous other war crimes. 
 
By the time the international community sent UN peacekeepers to the country, over hundreds of thousands of people had been killed from the violence, warranting the largest deployment of UN peacekeepers in Africa.  On the ground there was an ECOWAS (Economic Commission on West African States) created force, ECOMOG, primarily comprised of Nigerian troops.  Through military partnership, peace was finally restored.
 
As a very proud Sierra Leonean-American it brought nothing but joy to my heart to visit Freetown this past August, and see how much progress has taken place.  The cleanliness of the vibrant city streets, and large billboards displaying messages promoting positive thinking, were signs of the national effort to prosper in peace.
 
Despite these efforts, the nation still has a long way to go to fight poverty and improve social conditions.  Sierra Leone has some of the worst human development indicators in Africa and the world.  The country has many hurdles to overcome including reintegrating child soldiers and others who lost their entire families and social safety nets due to the war. 
 
Furthermore, high rates of infant and maternal mortality, unemployment, and the dangerous effects of the poor sewage system at Krou Bay, all are priority areas for the relatively new democratic government and its stakeholders.
 
Despite these challenges, there is hope for major improvements in “Salone’s” future. Although there were many traditional and judicial tribunals after war, if Taylor is indicted at the ICC, it sends a warning to all those guilty of the worst crimes across the continent.  Taylor’s prosecution will let them know that even all the money and power in the world will not make them untouchable in the court of law, in short, that they will reap what they sow.

Is it time we relocated back home? by Nana N’dow

This is a question that has been on my mind for now six months. Although, my answer is a definite “yes” I know it is not an easy decision to be made for so many of my fellow Africans.

Indeed, for many of my fellow Africans living abroad there are so many factors to be taken on board. Many professionals now have families, a mortgage to pay and are in positions where they see their potential being used to the fullest.

Furthermore, a corrupt and fragile (in most cases) government does not render the decision easy.

After living abroad for a while, one becomes accustom to a certain lifestyle and relocating back home is a big step.

I personally believe that although it is riddled with problems, Africa is slowly moving away from being the everlasting victim to being a continent full of opportunities.

Africa is slowly waking up and many Africans are going back home.

This is in part thanks to the Economic recession, which has shown us that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Indeed, many of the professionals, who were made redundant, found positions in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Senegal.

But this new wave of Africans returning to Africa is not limited to just them.

I find myself being surrounded by an ever-growing number of young Africans tired of the life abroad and wanting to go back home to make a difference in one way or another. These same Africans are more and more proud of where they come from and want to see Africa shine.

For instance, there is a strong African pride rising up in the fashion business. Indeed, the first Africa fashion week was launched in South Africa last month. The outfits were colourful and the creativity the designers displaced was dazzling. I saw so many outfits I knew I could see myself wearing either here in the UK or back home.

Fashion is one example amongst so many.

I read an article about a young Ghanaian woman who had given up her life as an investment banker in New York to relocate back to Accra and start a business with her father. When asked about her decision, she simply replied: “When I came back on vacation I found that I could get everything I bought regularly in New York just as easily here in Accra”. She now sells washing powder and her business has picked up in the last months.

This story is typical of so many other stories I have heard.

My fellow Africans have gone back home and invested themselves into an array of businesses: recycling, banking, interior designing, real estate, development and policy making, media and publicity, music etc…

I do realise that not every countries are safe to go back to but I am adamant that it is us, the young generation of Africans who must go back home and change things. It is just too easy to sit abroad and complain about whatever is wrong with our governments and countries. By doing so, we only perpetrate what the generations before us did: deflate our continent of its intellectual riches.

This is not entirely their fault though; the killings, the rapes, the blind loyalty to men who have no interest in building their nation, the continual habit of changing constitutions so leaders can stay on and on, all have played, and still play a major rule in bleeding out Africa of its own people.

And people will ask: can this change? According to Barack Obama, during his visit in Ghana, it is all up to us. We cannot wait for people to do the job for us, we must take part in the own success of our countries, and show the younger generation that being an African living in Africa should not be seen as a failure.

I am aware of the stew being stirred in Africa, and I think it is the right time for us to go back and add to our continent.

From Robben Island to Goree Island

As an African American growing up in the southern city of Nashville I always dreamed of going to an island, seeing the waves of the ocean crash on the beachfront, and watch the sunset.  So when I made my first trip to Jamaica one of my dreams came true. I took in the Caribbean skyline drinking coconut juice.  Then I realized there was another dream unfulfilled and that was venturing to the vast homeland Mother Africa.

 

 I have been to Africa a few times since that vision first appeared, and each time I think about what a beautiful, diverse, and historical continent it is.  Each visit to Africa whether it is Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana or Senegal I continue to get a crash course in cultural filmmaking. I record the smiles of school children as they approach me even when I try to blend in and be unnoticeable.  The landscape of the mountains and the oceon are hypnotizing, it consistently gives me a strong emotional feeling of what we are missing in the Americas.

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A Gender Regime Change in Africa? by Anyango Reggy

In many parts of Africa today, there are unprecedented changes taking place in the decision-making spheres of the society. Some African parliaments are moving away from old boys clubs, to governments that are more inclusive of women and their concerns. Ironically, while politics became more male-dominated in colonial and post-colonial Africa (in the name of adhering to traditional cultural practices, which some claim limit women’s public participation), women throughout pre-colonial Africa held significant formal and informal leadership roles as chiefs and monarchs within their various societies. Moreover, during the struggle for independence, women in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, and other parts of Africa, were actively involved in the continent’s liberation.

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Is Polygamy the Answer? by Nana N’dow

 Polygamy is defined as the condition or practice of having more than one spouse at one time.

In the numerous different cultures that populate Africa, polygamy was (and still is in some parts) the norm.

A man was judged by the number of wives that he had. Various wives offered increased prestige, economic stability, and sexual companionship. Although there were feuding and sexual jealousies, the families seemed to live in harmony.

I am not an expert and the knowledge I have only comes from reading Novels written by the likes of Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Ama Ata Aidoo and Wole Soyinka.

But according to what I have read, if a woman greeted another man in the village on her way to run errands, she was not to stop too long as it was not appropriate. Consequently, a man knew when to walk off in order not to bring shame upon the woman.

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