August 29, 2006
I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard about a conference where European Christians are apologizing for slavery and colonialism in Harare, Zimbabwe this week. I tried to find a story online, but I couldn’t. So Google away all you want.
The radio clips I heard featured people on the brink of tears, if not past it, apologizing for the wrongs that their countries did at the 1884 Berlin Conference, where 14 European countries divided up the continent into the truly stupefying boundaries we have today. The believers went on to apologize for slavery and for stealing natural resources. Although they couldn’t speak for their governments, the Christians wanted to make it known that reparations needed to be paid.
It’s all very sweet and nice. But it’s also very silly, ineffectual and totally blind to the way Africa is run now. I hate to be nasty to people who mean well, but I think that their actions are counterproductive.
First of all, they’re doing this conference in Zimbabwe. Granted, Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia until 1980 or so, named after Cecil Rhodes, one of the worst people ever. And yes, there was a violent civil war that shook off a regime every bit as brutal and racist as the apartheid government in South Africa. But ask my friend Fungayi Kapungu, who is Zimbabwean, why he’s working in South Africa rather than his native country.
Robert Mugabe, the tyrant who runs the country now, has committed genocide against a national minority – and no, wasn’t the white people who stayed. He has recently made his country starve, when it once had been a net-exporter of food, by closing down productive farms in the name of land reform. Really, the reform was giving land to his cronies who were unhappy with their cut of the national pie. Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation, at around 1000 percent and he constantly makes threats against the democratic political opposition. They’re being told that they’re fomenting a coup.
So by apologizing for past evils in Zimbabwe, these people are ignoring the current evils that are still going on. And while those problems are tangentially and historically related to colonialism, they’re right now the doings of Africans. When does the dictator have to apologize to his people?
Second, people are calling for reparations and restitution. Africa has already received the equivalent of the Marshall Plan several times over since independence broke out in the 1960s. And from my experience, they haven’t done much with it. In fact, there’s a good argument to be made that aid has stunted political and economic growth. Why does a government need to reform if some European or American aid agency is going to come in and rebuild the road that the government is supposed to build? Aid reduces accountability, the argument goes.
Look at the roads in Cameroon. Except for Yaoundé, Douala and a few inter-provincial highways, they’re all dirt. This is a problem in a country that has two rainy seasons and is among the wettest in the world. But why bother changing policies? The people aren’t going to say anything because foreign aid comes in and does enough to keep people alive and provide basic services. That should be the job of the Cameroonian government. But they don’t have to do it.
Granted, people could argue that African countries were meddled with by Western powers when they gave aid. But those people should look at the histories of Greece, Italy and Turkey. All three of those almost “went Communist”. They all had democratic elections overturned. In Italy that gave us the wonderful chaos we have today. In Greece and Turkey, we got brutal military governments.
So why throw more money at this? I think I’m being won over, despite an aid agency paying my rent and beginning to feel like some cranky conservative (I’m not, by the way). I stress, as I always do, that these problems have nothing to do with intellect, talent or culture. They stem from corruption and dictators.
After the story, several people from different African countries text-messaged the radio show to say Western countries need to give more money. How about no.
Is it heartless for me to think that more than 40 years into independence, others have said sorry enough and people in Africa should start taking matters into their own hands?
….
Here’s a highlight from last weekend:
I was doing an interview with a musician, and afterwards someone came up to me and said, “Are you a trumpet player from Iceland? You look just like a trumpet player I know from Iceland.”
That’s a first. People say I look like someone they know all the time. But this was something different.
I, of course, said yes.
I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard about a conference where European Christians are apologizing for slavery and colonialism in Harare, Zimbabwe this week. I tried to find a story online, but I couldn’t. So Google away all you want.
The radio clips I heard featured people on the brink of tears, if not past it, apologizing for the wrongs that their countries did at the 1884 Berlin Conference, where 14 European countries divided up the continent into the truly stupefying boundaries we have today. The believers went on to apologize for slavery and for stealing natural resources. Although they couldn’t speak for their governments, the Christians wanted to make it known that reparations needed to be paid.
It’s all very sweet and nice. But it’s also very silly, ineffectual and totally blind to the way Africa is run now. I hate to be nasty to people who mean well, but I think that their actions are counterproductive.
First of all, they’re doing this conference in Zimbabwe. Granted, Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia until 1980 or so, named after Cecil Rhodes, one of the worst people ever. And yes, there was a violent civil war that shook off a regime every bit as brutal and racist as the apartheid government in South Africa. But ask my friend Fungayi Kapungu, who is Zimbabwean, why he’s working in South Africa rather than his native country.
Robert Mugabe, the tyrant who runs the country now, has committed genocide against a national minority – and no, wasn’t the white people who stayed. He has recently made his country starve, when it once had been a net-exporter of food, by closing down productive farms in the name of land reform. Really, the reform was giving land to his cronies who were unhappy with their cut of the national pie. Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation, at around 1000 percent and he constantly makes threats against the democratic political opposition. They’re being told that they’re fomenting a coup.
So by apologizing for past evils in Zimbabwe, these people are ignoring the current evils that are still going on. And while those problems are tangentially and historically related to colonialism, they’re right now the doings of Africans. When does the dictator have to apologize to his people?
Second, people are calling for reparations and restitution. Africa has already received the equivalent of the Marshall Plan several times over since independence broke out in the 1960s. And from my experience, they haven’t done much with it. In fact, there’s a good argument to be made that aid has stunted political and economic growth. Why does a government need to reform if some European or American aid agency is going to come in and rebuild the road that the government is supposed to build? Aid reduces accountability, the argument goes.
Look at the roads in Cameroon. Except for Yaoundé, Douala and a few inter-provincial highways, they’re all dirt. This is a problem in a country that has two rainy seasons and is among the wettest in the world. But why bother changing policies? The people aren’t going to say anything because foreign aid comes in and does enough to keep people alive and provide basic services. That should be the job of the Cameroonian government. But they don’t have to do it.
Granted, people could argue that African countries were meddled with by Western powers when they gave aid. But those people should look at the histories of Greece, Italy and Turkey. All three of those almost “went Communist”. They all had democratic elections overturned. In Italy that gave us the wonderful chaos we have today. In Greece and Turkey, we got brutal military governments.
So why throw more money at this? I think I’m being won over, despite an aid agency paying my rent and beginning to feel like some cranky conservative (I’m not, by the way). I stress, as I always do, that these problems have nothing to do with intellect, talent or culture. They stem from corruption and dictators.
After the story, several people from different African countries text-messaged the radio show to say Western countries need to give more money. How about no.
Is it heartless for me to think that more than 40 years into independence, others have said sorry enough and people in Africa should start taking matters into their own hands?
….
Here’s a highlight from last weekend:
I was doing an interview with a musician, and afterwards someone came up to me and said, “Are you a trumpet player from Iceland? You look just like a trumpet player I know from Iceland.”
That’s a first. People say I look like someone they know all the time. But this was something different.
I, of course, said yes.
posted by Evan Weinberger at 8:51 AM
3 Comments:
Well, they got it half right, no? You *do* play the trumpet, if I recall correctly.
Yeah, they got it half right. But it's the other half, Marky.
Hey Ev,
Quite an interesting entry. I'm learning more about Africa than I ever did in school. Now about that trumpet.... It is still in the hall closet.... Anytime you need it!!!
Love, Mom
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