Africa is on fire
In the past, African tradition has excluded women and young people
from any discussion among the elders about the future of the community.
So, we are grateful to the Commission for Africa for giving young
people the opportunity to contribute to the international
decision-making process. But the members of the Commission should be
mindful that the western nations have a moral and historic duty to
reach out to help Africa in its humanitarian disaster. The extreme
poverty overshadowing Africa today is due, in large part, to the
conduct of Europe and the western nations, both in the past and even
today.
There is also a social responsibility. If your neighbour’s house catches fire in the middle of the night, you must not lie in bed, but run to help the victim. Otherwise who will help you if your house catches fire? In Africa, no one can rest peacefully as long as their neighbour is suffering. For example, when someone in the village dies, even those who had made other plans for the day cannot leave the village. Social responsibility dictates that they stay to support the bereaved family.
In the same way, the western nations can never really claim to live in peace if their neighbour, Africa, is ablaze. And Africa is on fire – with armed conflict, dire poverty and the scourge of HIV and AIDS. On the other hand, people in distress cannot think clearly. They turn to their neighbours for encouragement and comfort to enable them to recover sufficiently to face the future. Unless Africa is helped by its western and oriental neighbours, it will be very difficult to wrestle free from the stranglehold of extreme poverty, and to break the cycle of interminable conflicts. And neither could the rest of the world live in peace if Africa continues to burn. The massive exodus of African emigrants, exiles and asylum seekers looking for their earthly paradise in the West would be an unending stream lapping at the doors of western nations.
Almost everywhere, Africans continue to suffer the effects of external forces, such as slavery, colonisation and neo-colonialism. Africa’s abundance of natural resources has become a curse rather than a blessing. Consequently, in some areas, the pressure from external, resource-hungry enterprises far outweighs the much weaker internal opposition. To paraphrase Mussanzi wa Mussangi: " Africa is like a rich man who is insecure just because he is married to the most beautiful woman in the village. The chief, his neighbours and passing businessmen all want to kill him and run off with his lovely wife." Africa will continue to be a victim of its natural resources, unless the West is serious about offering help.
Instead of simply producing a report on the illegal exploitation of a country’s resources, the international community and the UN should introduce measures to enable a nation’s riches to benefit the ordinary population – first and foremost.
While they are victims of the colonial principle, ‘divide and rule’, in the wake of this cycle of violence Africans wage tribal and ethnic wars between themselves. The fires of destruction may be stoked from within, or by external resource-hungry enterprises, or by troublemakers taking advantage of chaos and confusion. This happens simply because Africans are not wise enough to find ways of defending themselves against divisive influences pressing upon them. The result is that Africans are actually destroying the little infrastructure and potential for development that existed before the conflicts. So Africans are not exempt from blame for their tragedy.
Nevertheless, the international community should exert pressure on all forces that threaten global peace in any part of the world. Africa needs a UN that is able to give substantial financial support for initiatives that will resolve and transform conflicts, as well as for post-conflict reconstruction.
Africans also need a system of education directed towards raising the awareness of the masses, and of young people in particular. Only this will enable Africans to grasp the severity of their woes, and find solutions for them. Problems will never be resolved without first addressing the internal and external causes of poverty. The first internal cause to be addressed is the myth that the West offers some kind of earthly paradise. Lasting change for Africa will only come about when Africans realise that their own continent is the real paradise on earth.
Ignorance, corruption or the desire for power and money have led African leaders and members of the élite to sell their countries’ rights to mineral-hungry merchants. For this reason, the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR) believes that a nation’s security does not just lie in arms, but also in peace education. The CCR wants to set up a pan African university for peace in the next few years, which would be based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are asking the Commission for Africa to support initiatives like this over the long-term.
Individual Africans have an important role to play. Mineral-hungry merchants – both within and outside a country – may not change their ways, but ordinary citizens can learn that they should join forces and work together. True national security lies in the education of the population – only this will open the way for the development of Africa. Instead of being a permanent beggar, Africa will be free to make its triumphal entry into the era of "giving and receiving" prophesied by President Léopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal.
Mapenzi Mussanzi is a medical student studying in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo