I recall vividly that at the time Life magazine obligingly featured Nkrumah in an article in which it referred to him as “the George Washington of Africa.” So the idiocy began. Once again we say, D’Souza nailed it; this piece is a more concise version of his book “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.” This lady is certainly right on with a thought we have often expressed: the worst thing taken from Europe by so many colonized people was Marxism.
Published on May 1, 1990
The End of African Socialism?
By George B.N. Ayittey
In most places in Africa, telephones don’t work; they bite back. What are called “roads” are cartways truncated with crevasses large enough to swallow a truck. Vehicles move in a crab-like fashion: pointing sideways but moving perfe c tly straight. These, in shor4 are a few of the manifestations of the deepening crisis gripping Africa.
Once a region with bountiful stores of optimism and hope, the African continent now teeters perilously on the brink of economic disintegration, politica l chaos, and institutional and social decay. The decline in income per capita has been calamitous for many African countries. Agricultural growth has been dismal, with output growing at less than 1.5 percent since 1970. Industrial output across Africa has a lso been declining, with some regions experienc- ing de-industrialization. Export volumes for many African countries have faltered, leading to a fall in Africa’s share of world markets by almost hal To maintain income and investment, African governments borrowed heavily in the 1970s. Total African foreign debt has risen nineteen-fold since 1970 to a staggering $230 billion, equal to its Gross National Product (GNP), making the region the most heavily indebted of all (Latin America’s debt amounts to around 6 0 percent of GNP). Debt service obligations absorbed 47 percent of export revenue in 1988, but only half were actually paid. The arrears are constantly being rescheduled. With scarce foreign exchange increasingly being devoted to service debt obligations, less became available for imports of spare parts, drugs, textbooks, and other essential supplies. Infrastructure began to crumble for lack of maintenance. Roads started to deteriorate and telephones refused to work. Even hospitals in many African countries had no running water.
At the Akomfo Anokye Hospital in Ghana, patients were asked to bring their own bandages, blankets, and food. “Harvard” in Ruins. Educational facilities soon began to disintegrate. Makerere Univer- sity in Uganda, once called “The Ha r vard of Africa,” is now in total ruins. The University of Ghana at Legon, once a world-class institution, has not seen a single coat of fresh paint since the colonialists left in the fifties. In sub-Saharan Africa (or black Africa), the economic deteriora t ion has been so severe that this region now has the dubious distinction of being home to 24 of the world’s 36 poorest nations. Economic performance of this region, measured crudely by the rate of growth of income per capita, has been pathetic, as the foll owing table indicates:
G eorge B.N Ayittey, a native of Ghana, is a Bradley Resident Scholar at the Heritage Foundation. He spoke at The Heritage Foundation on January 24, 1990. ISSN 0272-1155. 01990 by The Heritage Foundation.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/The-End-of-African-Socialism