Out of Africa: More Hypocrisy

The rapid changes leading toward democracy in South Africa and the end of colonialism on the continent with Namibia’s forthcoming independence, while important and laudable developments, also expose the rest of Africa to a more rigorous examination of its own political problems.

Until now, it has been convenient for other African nations to divert attention from their own failures with outcries against South Africa and its system of apartheid. The international institutions, including the Organization of African Unity, and even the United Nations itself, have found it easier to criticize South Africa than to address grievous disputes among and within the nations of the continent.

Yet it is a sad truth that most African nations have not been well served by their own leaders in the post-colonial period. Corruption has eaten at the national fabric. Mobutu Sese Seko has exploited the presidency of Zaire to become one of the world’s richest men. Governments have been quick to condemn racism in South Africa while remaining silent on tribalism that, in Burundi alone, has proven a far more deadly toxin than apartheid. Democracy is virtually unknown. Ideology-driven socialist schemes have been perpetuated years after being proven failures. The press is, without exception, closely controlled, and when it raises its voice to expose official corruption, as in Zimbabwe, it is punished, not praised.

The weakness of the Organization of African Unity reflects a complicity among the national regimes that cripples the functions of statesmanship and peacemaking. The most venturesome efforts to resolve problems have come outside the OAU, including Mobutu’s moves to end the warfare in Angola, and the support of independence for Namibia reinforced by the front-line states, including Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The U.N. Economic Commission on Africa has become an instrument for undermining fundamental economic reforms through the zealous leadership of Adebayo Adedeji, its executive secretary, who doesn’t like what the World Bank and International Monetary Fund experts have proposed. No government has raised the issues of freedom, torture, imprisonment of political foes and free elections because none meets the standards set by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In fairness, the desultory record of the African nations has been matched by the African policies of the Western democracies, including the United States. Washington was the driving force behind an economic reform program developed in the U.N. General Assembly. More than 20 nations adopted the new programs, usually at great political cost, only to discover that the Americans had decided not to provide the aid that had been promised as a reward for the reforms. Congress found it cheaper to impose sanctions on South Africa than to provide adequate development assistance to struggling nations. Nor has nation-building been easy in the wake of colonialism. So American officials have justified their generous and forgiving relationship with Mobutu for the reason that a united and relatively stable Zaire was worth the cost of corruption. That same argument has been made in overlooking the abuses of the late Jomo Kenyatta and now Daniel Arap Moi in Kenya.

If Pretoria succeeds in its struggle for a peaceful transition to democracy, it will be a model for the people of Africa as striking, tempting and attractive as anything that has happened recently in Eastern Europe. But it is by no means certain that African governments, too long settled into the comfort of rule by edict and bribery, will respond. Nor is there any promise that those responding will receive the required resources from the world’s democracies, especially now that they seem more motivated to support Eastern Europe’s new interest in market-driven economies.

The West is rushing to provide aid to Eastern Europe to encourage and advance the democratic revolution. The need is no less in Africa. Change in South Africa already is inspiring demands for change throughout Africa. But that change will be fragile and inconclusive at best unless matched by resources to accelerate development.