Why is it that so many “experts” on Africa conclude that foreign aid/investment is the key for African development. It is true that foreign investment/aid, when used appropriately, can stimulate economic growth through job creations and industrialization. However, Africa has its own wealthy elite who if they invested in their countries, would lessen the “need” for foreign aid/investment for Africa to develop. If these rich African elites were to marshal their vast resources, they could pour millions into their countries achieving the same goals as foreign aid/investment and maybe even surpassing them.
However, it must be understood that there are strong barriers preventing these wealthy elites from achieving this goal. To begin with, many of these wealthy Africans got wealthy from stealing from their countries. Many cut deals with foreign oil, diamond, and gold companies (to name a few) and actively participated in the exploitation of their country’s resources. With this money, these African elites began investing their money not in their countries but in places like France, Britain, or the US. They bought villas, stocks, and any manner of wealth holding assets outside of their birthplaces thus in a way giving the west returns on their investments in Africa as they money they poured into certain nations came back to them in this manner.
Furthermore, much of the African elite are either presently in the government or military, or where so at some point. This is problematic because many of them abused the powers of their offices and illegally profited from them. In addition to this, they have no motivation to invest in their countries because they enjoy their positions of power and influence in society. They fear investing in their people because that might upset the status quo where they are dominant in society by creating more people having income and wealth. Moreover, many foreign companies/businesses rely on this corruption of the African elite and political leaders to continue their exploitation of our resources. They will not easily allow an upsetting of this system and will make it difficult to change.
However, even though there are indeed a lot of drawbacks to trusting and relying on the African elites, there is hope. In this article it has been mentioned that most of the African elite are at this point in time not trustworthy or useful in terms of being able to properly find the incentive to invest in their countries. But there is a smaller percentage, unseen by the international as well as national communities that are in a good position to invest in their countries.
These elites need to take the lead in working together to pour money into their own country’s industries and businesses. Entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged and rewarded by government in order to develop the country. The incentive that these elites need to see is that there is huge potential for profit in their own countries by investing in them. Foreign companies and governments are not running to Africa spending billions of dollars because they are crazy, they see untapped potential and wish to make billions off of their millions in investments! Our African elite needs to see this and organize themselves and start identifying sectors of the economy that has a strong possibility for strong returns on their investments and start making moves.
But in order to create more of an incentive for these African elites to spend the money they have, government is necessary. In many countries, Namibia for example, the official rate of interest is roughly 12%. This is a problem has now investor will only take out loans and invest in projects/business ventures that yield over 12% in profits. It is very hard and rare to find any investment opportunity that yields this kind of profit in the short term or even the long term. Loans taken out at this level need very wealthy people who can take the losses that will occur on their investments. Something needs to be done to lower these interest rates in order to provide a stronger incentive for the wealthy to risk their money.
Government also needs to lower income taxes in order to encourage the upper classes to start spending and investing. With a lower income tax rate a further incentive is created for the African elite to begin investing their wealth as they now have more disposable income with which to do so. The draw back of this is that unfortunately in countries like Namibia and South Africa this upper class is taxed heavily because less than half of the population pays tax. So in my opinion government needs to find a way to get people who indeed are capable of paying taxes to start paying in order to help recoup the losses in revenue it will incur when they lower taxes on the rich.
And it is my belief that if this is done, the rich will begin investing in the country and jobs will be created. As more jobs are created more of the population will be able to be taxed which in the medium and long run is good for the country as government has more revenue! More revenue for government means more services for the population such as the building of schools, hospitals, police stations, roads and all manner of public works.
If government and the private sectors can learn to work together and can mutually assist each other in the growth of their respective nations, Africa will not need much foreign assistance in order to develop. Although this article does not speak to all of the problems facing this relationship between government and the private sector, it does tackle the key issues. Africa does not need to west, China or India in order to develop, what we need is a stronger will and desire to better ourselves and when this is achieved, we will develop beyond our wildest dreams.
In a recent article posted on Deutsche Welle, former German Ambassador Volker Seitz was interviewed on his opinions regarding the problems facing Africa. In this interview, he stated that it is corrupt political elites that block development in Africa and not Europe. Ambassador Seitz spent 17 years serving Germany in various African countries and has concluded from his experiences that former colonial powers are not the reason for Africa’s lack of development and overall poverty. He believes that Europe feels responsible for Africa’s development but shouldn’t as that is the job of Africa’s elites. In other words, Africans need to be the ones leading the charge for their own development and not Europe.
This argument that can be found on this link (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4643406,00.html) and in my opinion is important and accurate for many reasons. To begin with, many African countries have been “independent” for almost forty years now and yet have not experienced much of a change in peoples living standards. When compared to Europe we can’t even compete and even when compared to other Asian countries that gained independence at similar times, we do not measure up. This can be attributed to western influence (interference) as they did meddle in our affairs which lead to numerous wars, the application of poor economic growth plans, and overall mismanagement of our freedom. However, this article wishes to remind us, and rightly so, that it was the African elites/leaders of the newly independent nations that followed the advice of the west and thus we have to live with the consequences of their decisions. Many of our leaders, whether political or in the private sector, did not make good decisions when we gained independence and now are suffering for it through civil war, large international debt, extreme poverty, corrupt leadership and many other issues.
In addition to this, why should the Europeans care about us? They colonized us in order to get resources from us to feed their growing industries and expanding markets. They colonized us for their own self-interests and had to be forcibly removed from our land in order for it to stop. So why would they give us advice that is the best for us or do what is in our best interests? Of course they are going to manipulate us, lie to us, trick us and do whatever they can get away with if it is to their advantage to do so. This shouldn’t be a surprise and thusly we need to enter into relations with them understanding this and make the best deal for ourselves too or not make any agreements at all. Once this happens, and the west realizes that we will not allow them to do whatever they want to us, they will change the way they deal with us.
Finally, much of the blame that gets thrown at the west from us flows from the fact that we are unable to take responsibility for our own actions. Mobutu Sese Seko and Idi Amin, two of Africa’s worst dictators many times openly blamed the west for the problems in their respective countries. And although the west was interfering, it was they who were active partners in the rape of their countries resources and potential. However, by blaming the west, the spotlight was turned off them. People saw the poor performances of Zaire and Uganda and didn’t focus enough on the evidence at hand which was that these leaders were also, with the west, guilty of destroying their countries.
This example can be used in many places in Africa and quite frankly it needs to stop. It is hurting our people and damaging our countries and preventing us from achieving our full potential as nations. By creating a dream world in which others are primarily to blame for our own faults we will never be able to see what the real problems and challenges facing us are and thus we will be unable to solve them.
However, this is not to say that colonialism did not cripple our natural growth as a people. It did and its scars and wounds can be seen and felt to this day but we must clean them out, let them heal and move on. African unity/development will only happen when we as Africans take our destiny into our own hands and fight hardest for ourselves rather than ask for, demand or expect the Europeans, Americans, or Chinese to work for us. We must act or else we will remain poor, underdeveloped, unsafe, unstable and backwards. Harsh words true and it must be noted that there are many African countries that have managed their independence well such as South African, Botswana, Namibia, Ghana and a few others. These countries have their problems for sure but they are on the right path towards growth, development, political stability and general betterment of themselves. If Africa is ever to be united we must all be like them and when that goal is achieved, nothing will stop us from bettering the lives of our people.
When Reagan came to the White House in 1980, he would make the US more involved in the conflict in Angola. To begin with, he increased military aid given to Savimbi and increased the amount of military aids dispatched to UNITA bases. However, Reagan was still limited in what he could do because the Cark Amendment was still in effect and instructed countries such as Apartheid South Africa, Morocco, Mobutu’s Zaire, and Israel to be the medium for the dispersion of this military aid to UNITA.
During Reagan’s two terms in office, the MPLA and its allies, Cuba and SWAPO, tried numerous times to sign peace agreements between themselves and UNTIA and have elections. The Reagan administration counseled Savimbi not to agree to this because CIA reports were very clear that in Angola, the MPLA was the more popular party and would win the election.
In 1985, after tireless battles by the Regan administration, the Clark amendment was overturned and the US could legally give aid to Savimbi. This occurred and Regan even invited Savimbi to the US and was quoted thanking him for being a “defender of democracy and capitalism” and hoped to see him “win a victory that electrifies the world”. So, from 1985, the US was able to send covert aid to Savimbi in the form of $15million annually. They provided avenues for him to sell his illegally mined diamonds on the international market and supported him in the UN.
In addition to his political support, the Heritage Foundation in the US offered enormous amounts of support to Savimbi and his guerilla war. They were a group that was influential in shaping the Reagan Doctrine. According to their website, “The Heritage Foundation is committed to building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish.” So naturally, they gave their support to a ruthless megalomaniac with no concept of democracy but who hated communism because it had denied him access to power. Throughout the 80s and 90s the Heritage Foundation was a powerful voice for Savimbi to the American people and provided him with numerous platforms to voice his opinions and be heard by certain influential Americans.
Nevertheless, once the Reagan left office and Bush Sr. ascended to the Presidency, international pressure had grown to a point where the US could not justify both the support of UNITA forces and the illegal occupation of South Africa over Namibia. SWAPO, the MPLA, and Cuba were scoring major military victories and the UNITA and the South African Army were being beaten. Furthermore, the ANC was making things difficult for South Africa and this limited their ability to fight a war on three fronts, in Angola, Namibia, and at home. On top of all this, the USSR was falling and it became even harder to justify US support of UNITA against supposedly Russian backed MPLA when the USSR was falling. So, Bush did the clever thing and helped broker an agreement where Cuban troops would gradually reduced their armed forces in Angola. And in exchange, the US would allow UN Resolution 435 to be implemented and they would help national elections for a transitional government take place in Angola. So, Namibia gained independence on the 21st of March, 1990 and won the UN monitored elections in a landslide. Angola’s elections were set to begin in 1992.
In the build up towards the 1992 elections in Angola, it became clear to the US, from CIA reports and other indicators that the MPLA was going to win the election. As the date for voting came ever closer, the Bush administration began pushing for the implementation of a coalition government to prevent the complete control of government of the MPLA. After losing the election, Savimbi attacked the MPLA hoping to score a sneaky victory. People had become hopeful in the build up towards the elections and with the departing of the Cuban forces, reduced aid from Moscow, and the MPLA beginning to disarm slightly, Savimbi initially was very successful militarily. But by this point, he had lost the support of even his own tribal areas and since the late 80s had been forcing people to join his army, selling women into sexual slavery, and burning all those who opposed him. The US knew this but still continued to support him and his reign of terror.
During the Clinton administration, things got slightly better. Aid to UNITA was cut and international support for Savimbi was zero. However, aid was still being given and Savimbi continued to throw Angola into continuous chaos. Another peace process was attempted in 1994 but again Savimbi broke it and continued fighting. It wasn’t until 2002 when Savimbi was ambushed by MPLA and Namibian troops and finally killed, did the civil war in Angola come to an end. Many in the UNITA party wanted to abide by the peace processes in place and help build a new Angola, but through the will of one man, a nation was plunged into a 27 year civil war that even now they are still recovering from.
To put things bluntly, Savimbi was a war criminal. With military aid from the US Savimbi was able to control large portions of the rural areas in central and south-eastern Angola. He, with the support of Apartheid South Africa, scored numerous victories against the MPLA and her allies and many times helped the Apartheid regime attack SWAPO installations. In addition to their military aid, the US turned a blind eye towards Savimbi’s illegal mining the vast diamond wealth in the areas he controlled. This allowed him to sell these diamonds to the DeBeers Company and this provided him with the majority of his income. Money that could have been going to feed the people of Angola went instead to the purchasing of guns and mines to fight against the party representing the general will of Angola.
