Africa: Blazing a trail
POLITICAL and military intervention by the United States and former European colonial powers Britain and France exerted considerable influence on political developments in Africa in 2003.
US intervention in Africa was twofold: pluralistic democracy, with human rights and good governance on the one hand, and economic de-regulation and privatisation on the other. European powers followed America's lead in Africa, stressing economic and political reform.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in the three neighbouring West African countries of Ivory Coast , Liberia and Sierra Leone. The US flexed its muscles in Liberia and kicked out the war-torn country's democratically-elected leader. France's hegemonic role in its former colony Ivory Coast was consolidated, even though popular resentment at French military presence intensified. Likewise, British interests in its former colony, Sierra Leone, were further entrenched, with complete disregard to local sensibilities.
The UN played a secondary, albeit symbolically important, role in diffusing tensions in Africa. Invariably complementary to that of the Western powers, its role was designed essentially as a fig leaf to cover up the naked Western intervention in the continent and to lend legitimacy to Western-led operations on the continent.
Nowhere was US dominance in Africa more flagrantly flaunted than in Liberia, a country founded as a safe haven by the Americans for freed slaves in 1847. The country's constitution was modelled on that of the US, until Charles Taylor's election in 1997 and his ruling National Patriotic Party was swept to power in a landslide victory to the chagrin of Western powers. Mineral-rich Liberia proceeded to be torn apart by ethnic conflict and more than 80 per cent of its 3.5 million people now live in abject poverty. Earlier in the year, Washington signalled that it wanted Taylor toppled, and by early August three US warships, with 2,300 US troops, were anchored off the Liberian capital Monrovia.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Liberia is a member state, provided the bulk of the peacekeeping forces that moved in under the ECOWAS Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL). Some 3,600 West African peace-keeping forces, mostly Nigerian, now maintain the tense and tentative peace.
Other peace-keeping operations in Africa were strengthened in 2003, including the 15,000-strong UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), with 12,184 troops, of which Africans constitute 36 per cent.
Ivory Coast is host to an ECOWAS force of 1,300 troops in addition to France's 4,000-strong force. There are UN missions to Guinea Bissau -- the UN Peace-building Support Office in Guinea Bissau (UNOGBIS) -- and in Western Sahara the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
The UN is also present in the Central African Republic where political instability compounded the country's economic woes. The UN mission in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known by its French acronym of MONUC, has kept the ephemeral peace. The mandate of Operation Artemis in the DRC, launched by France in conjunction with other European countries, expired on 31 August.
The Burundi African Mission in Burundi (AMIB), the Somalia UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) and the Ethiopia and Eritrea UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) are other leading UN operations in the continent ravaged by civil strife in 2003.
More African countries held democratic elections in 2003 than ever before. In Mauritania, however, results of the November presidential polls were hotly contested by many opposition groups.
Economically, 2003 was a mixed bag for the continent. The world's fastest growing economy, Chad, is the latest African oil exporter. With a 58 per cent growth rate, Chad is still not exactly destined to become Africa's Kuwait, but the strategically located central African country has already become a magnet for foreign investors seeking business opportunities.
The economic performance of most African economies, however, fell short of expectations. Stagnant and declining prices did not help Africans achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of halving the number of people in absolute poverty.
Africans spoke out against deteriorating terms of trade for African commodities during the World Trade Organisation's talks in the Mexican resort of Cancun. The talks collapsed, however, due, in part, to vigorous protests of African delegates and anti-globalisation activists.
The elusive millennium goals cannot be obtained while Africa's unsustainable debt burden remains. In 2003, Africans called for the continent's $400 billion debt to be written off. The pleas, however, fell on deaf ears.
The Economic Report on Africa 2003, published by the Addis Ababa-based Economic Commission for Africa, noted that, "Of the 53 countries in Africa, only five achieved the seven per cent growth rate required to meet the MDG". Foreign direct investment, crucial to improving growth rate, was "hampered by weak governance, poor infrastructure and institutions, and ongoing conflicts," the report stated. The report also revealed that mineral-rich and petroleum-exporting countries such as Angola, Cameroon, the DRC, Ivory Coast and Nigeria have the highest stock of capital flight, noting that over the past 27 years, capital flight has amounted to some $187 billion.
Reviewed by Gamal Nkrumah
