Into Africa, a place of oppression and pain

The eyes of the world are temporarily on Africa because George W. Bush is making his first trip (five days) there. The issues of HIV/AIDS, despotism, inhumanity and corruption on the continent are in the spotlight.

For me, an African-American, one of the most important recent trends related to Africa is the courage of a growing number of prominent blacks in the United States to publicly criticize African heads of state.

I am especially pleased that black organizations, such as the TransAfrica Forum and Howard University's Africa Action, have sent formal complaints to several African leaders, including Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and, of course, Charles Taylor of Liberia.

About the shift toward criticizing black Africans, Bill Fletcher Jr., president of TransAfrica, told the New York Times: "When the enemy was evil white people in South Africa, that was easy. But when the enemy becomes someone who looks like us, we're very skittish about taking that on. It's difficult to accept that a ruling class has emerged in Zimbabwe that is oppressing its own people, but you've got to face the reality. I felt like we had to speak out."

In a letter to Mugabe, Fletcher and others wrote: "We view the political repression under way in Zimbabwe as intolerable and in complete contradiction of the values and principles that were both the foundation of your liberation struggle and of our solidarity with that struggle."

Although most black-American Africa worshipers condemn this harsh criticism, ordinary Africans suffer from international neglect, repression, poverty and disease. They will benefit from this new stance. For the sake of ordinary Africans, black Americans, who can influence U.S. African policy, need to become realistic about conditions on the continent, face hard truths and take unapologetic action.

I have not been to sub-Saharan Africa since the mid-1970s, when I tried to fulfill a lifelong dream of reconnecting with the source of my beginning. (I had intended to go to Ethiopia last year but changed plans to co-author a play.) Never part of the politicized pan-African movement that captured the black imagination during the 1970s, I went to Africa solely for personal enrichment. My 18-month itinerary took me to Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zaire (today the Republic of Congo).

Culturally, socially and politically, I did not reconnect with Africa. When I returned to the United States, I was a disillusioned ex-pilgrim. I was appalled by most of what I witnessed - the violence and hunger, the disease and suffering, the graft and selfishness, the ignorance and vanity. After Marxist thugs in Addis Ababa threatened to shoot my three companions and me for being "CIA operatives," I was back in Chicago five days later.

Like me, many other American blacks come away from Africa disappointed, some permanently alienated. In her 1981 book, The Heart of a Woman, poet and novelist Maya Angelou, for example, describes her ill-fated marriage to a South African freedom fighter.

She was drawn to him, as she was to the continent, by her own naivete and grand myths about the "Motherland" and tales of the nobility of its peoples. Angelou's final disillusionment with Africa is a powerful reminder that much of the real Africa is a place of oppression and pain. As I read her book, I sensed its subtext: American blacks and Africans have little, if anything, in common.

More vehemently than Angelou, another black, Washington Post journalist Keith Richburg, argues that American blacks and Africans have nothing in common. In his 1997 book Out of Africa: A Black Man Confronts Africa, chronicling his eyewitness accounts of horror, he shows his contempt for the genocidal Rwandans, Somalis, Ugandans, Ethiopians and others.

When American blacks accused Richburg of hating Africa and Africans, he said: "I don't hate Africa, and I don't hate Africans. . . . I hate the corruption. I hate the brutality. I hate the inhumanity. . . . I hate the kids who point guns in my face. I hate the big men who spirit away billions in the Swiss bank accounts. . . . I hate people who toss firebombs in the offices of the opposition newspapers. . . . I hate the way people can walk by the suffering."

As I write, the following headline appears on A1 of the New York Times: "Liberian Says U.S. Backs his Enemies: Taylor Vows Exile Will Be Brief Before a Return to Politics." Charles Taylor, a brute and a thug, is the last thing ordinary Liberians need in their lives. And, by the way, while President Bush is in the nation-building mood, Liberia should be next up. American blacks must support him on this one.

... anyone who is doubtful about the situation there, or perhaps curious about how much goes unmentioned & unreported by the laughingly-misnamed "watchdog press" need only click the "keyword: Africa Watch" or go here:

AfricaWatch:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using AfricaWatch, click below:
	click here >>>	AfricaWatch	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

Daily Reports Rhodesia

Rhetoric of blame is now a white lie (AFRICA, HEAL THYSELF)
The Daily Telegraph ^ | September 3, 2002 | Tim Butcher
"I remember Africa in the 1960s, everyone was filled with high expectations after independence. Forty years on, Africa is a series of kleptocracies, many worse off than they were under colonial rule. Almost all of the common people in relative worse shape to the rest of the world than they were before independence. Africans after 40 years have no one to blame but their own leadership for their problems. The leaders want to deflect blame to the West. The West's not buying it anymore..."

CIA -- The World Factbook -- Zimbabwe

First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.

-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--

Parallels between Apartheid SA & USA today

South African Crime Report

ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe
... Books & Videos. Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power
In Zimbabwe This book tells the story of Zimbabwe from the hopeful era of ...

MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ...

Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa

The Coming Anarchy
February 1994. The Coming Anarchy. by Robert D. Kaplan. ... All rights reserved.

-South Africa - The sellout of a nation--

FYI, I wrote this a while back:

I don't know what will happen in southern Africa beyond a general breakdown into chaos & anarchy... the old bugbear was the Soviets gaining control of the tip & choking our fleet's movements, coupled with control of the mineral wealth. Now it look like Quaddaffi is angling to take over Rhodesia and perhaps spread to South Africa.

At this point, we are 20 years too late, but we can at least bear witness to the debacle.

Bear in mind I am a partisan- I supported ( with reluctance ) the old white-minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa, because I knew the Communists and their puppets- including proxies like Cuba- were angling for control of southern Africa.

One big problem we have is our media. They have tried to portray the situation in southern Africa as a clone of our own civil-rights struggles when in fact just the opposite was true. Africa is degenerating into chaos and anarchy under the guise of "liberation" and "one man, one vote."
( One time- then forevermore a dictatorship... )
All while the media here turns a blind eye to what is really happening.

What I used to tell people was that while Apartheid was an onerous, offensive system, I would prefer being a black South African under Apartheid to being a person of any color under the old Soviet system- and I still believe those words to be true and correct. Given time, the old South African government would have worked out its problems- but it was not allowed to do so.

Today, we are seeing the results of this folly in Zimbabwe- or rather, we see what tiny bits the web and small elements of talk radio cover.

The whole story of contemporary Africa is a sad tale of tribalism, class warfare, kleptocracy, and massive corruption- and one the media here "won't even talk about" because it does not fit within their template of acceptable ideas.

I would also add, that both the press and entertainment arms of the media encouraged and supported the toppling of the old governments, i. e., they were in collusion, and complicit in the fall. Now that things have worked out at variance with their idealistic fantasies, they simply "don't talk about it..."

"Why do you keep posting this stuff? Nobody cares about Africa, anyway..."

Clive, Cincinatus's Wife, blam, myself, and a few others get asked that occasionally- we are among the keepers of the "AfricaWatch" columns, and we continue to post articles about what I believe will prove to be one of the great, tragic stories of the new century.

The mainstream press never publishes more than one Africa story a day, and it's usually some fluff or dodge around how grim the situation is over there.

But the truth is archived here on Free Republic, and I maintain that one day, when things over there are too awful to be ignored any longer, those who have eyes to see will read the stories here, and be appalled at the silence.

That is all...

-30-

backhoe

Cynthia Tucker - July 9, 2003 Africa needs all that Bush can provide [Full Text] Contrary to expectations, President Bush has taken a sudden interest in the African continent. This week, as he embarked on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, he not only pledged economic aid to several needy countries but he also promised to consider sending American soldiers to help stabilize war-torn Liberia.

This is unconditional good news. As was the case with Richard Nixon's visit to China, the attention of a popular Republican president could guarantee that Africa commands a high place on the foreign policy agenda.

Africa desperately needs the notice. Racked by war, famine and disease, it has fallen far behind other parts of the developing world. While India and China are transforming themselves and producing a large middle class, much of Africa has become poorer since its nations gained their independence from colonial rule, starting in the 1960s.

Black Americans hold to a romantic naiveté about Africa, ignoring the tyranny and corruption of many black leaders while celebrating the achievements of a few notables, such as Nelson Mandela. For Atlanta's jet-setting black upper middle class, for example, South Africa is one of the most popular destinations for business and leisure travel.

Indeed, the recent decision of some black activists, including TransAfrica Forum, a black-run advocacy group, to denounce the tyranny of Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe has drawn harsh criticism from some in the black intelligentsia, who still hail Mugabe as a hero. Bill Fletcher Jr., TransAfrica's president, was so stung by the controversy that he issued a long (and defensive) explanation.

In a letter posted on the organization's Web site, Fletcher contended, among other things, that "speaking out on Zimbabwe is . . . a 'pre-emptive strike' against the 'regime change' rhetoric and possible action of the Bush administration and the Blair administration. Both have opportunistically seized upon the crisis in Zimbabwe over the last two years in order to focus attention on the plight of white farmers."

Nonsense. The vast majority of those killed in the violence that has convulsed Zimbabwe over the past several years have been black farmhands and laborers. In addition to unleashing thugs to take over farms, Mugabe engaged in blatant fraud in the last elections and has sought to silence his political opposition.

While African leaders have dithered over a response to Mugabe's madness, Bush has mustered the gumption to state the obvious: Mugabe must stop trampling democratic principles. And if Bush goes further and insists on regime change in Zimbabwe, that wouldn't be a bad thing.

Bush's newfound interest in the continent is prompted, in part, by his understanding that unstable countries are breeding grounds for Islamist terrorists. Some intelligence reports suggest that Somalia and Sudan, among others, may already harbor al-Qaida members. The White House knows it can fight terror best by helping those countries achieve peace and stability.

But the president has a notoriously short attention span. (He has already forgotten Afghanistan, and it has fallen back into the hands of warlords and narco-traffickers.) The proper role for advocacy groups such as TransAfrica is to insist that the president keep his pledge for economic assistance -- especially funds to combat AIDS.

Bush's visit to Africa is a promising new start. If advocates for Africa will push the White House to follow through, it could become much more than that.

Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays.

Jeff Jacoby - Bush now cares about Africa *** Signs of Bush's heightened interest in Africa have not been hard to find. Even before this week's visit to five countries in sub-Saharan Africa, he had already met with 22 of the region's 48 heads of state, more than any previous president. In his State of the Union address in January, he proposed spending $15 billion over five years to combat AIDS in 14 afflicted countries, 12 of them in Africa. Another Bush initiative, the Millennium Challenge Account, would spend billions more to reward African countries that take concrete steps to promote economic freedom and protect civil liberties.

For more than two years, the president has repeatedly condemned the Islamist government of Sudan, whose savagery toward the country's black African population has left 2 million people dead, 4 million homeless, and - perhaps most shocking of all - tens of thousands in chattel slavery. ''Sudan is a disaster area for human rights,'' he declared bluntly in May 2001, vowing ''to speak and act for as long as the persecution and atrocities in the Sudan last.'' At a White House ceremony last fall, he spoke with Francis Bok, a former Sudanese slave who escaped in 1996. It was the first meeting between a US president and a former slave since the 19th century.

Bush's lieutenants have followed their commander's lead. In May 2002, for example, former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill spent 11 days on an ''Odd Couple'' tour of sub-Saharan Africa with Bono, the lead singer of U2. (Like Geldof, Bono has taken a deep interest in Africa's humanitarian needs.) At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last fall, Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned the blatantly racist government of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and didn't flinch when he was booed for speaking the truth. He repeated his condemnation in a New York Times op-ed column last month. ***

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