Africa stands alone!

Africa seems to stand alone in the world, being the poorest continent, the continent most affected by HIV/AIDS, the continent most affected by malaria, the continent with the worst dictators…

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

When the Berlin wall came down in 1989, neo-liberals rubbed their hands in glee, professing the triumph of capitalism over communism and other versions of left-wing politics. It was affirmed that the collapse was proof that at best, states should leave the market place alone, since the market regulates itself.

The dazed left responded that the ruthlessness of capitalism requires that to best serve all humans, the answer was not free wheeling capitalism but a marriage - a Third Way - that shunned the classical, outdated political positions of the left and the right and sought a convergence towards using both capitalism and social welfare politics to serve the people. The left accepted the market economy as the best avenue for creating wealth for the fulfilment of professed social aims.

With the present collapse of the market model totted by neo-liberals, it is time for the left to rub its own hands in glee in celebration of the death of unregulated markets! One of the lessons of the collapse is that the market economy can only function to the benefit of all if the state does intervene to regulate it; that the market is so selfish that left to its own designs, it consumes even itself!

The collapse brings to centre stage politics of the Third Way. Concepts like free market economy, planned economy, the welfare state, private enterprise and others need to be viewed with new lenses to provide new orientations that benefit both the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak.

Between the left and the right, it can now be said that there is no victor and no vanquished, since each side has had its moment of glee. The two sides need to return to the drawing board, not in their usual, quarrelling camps, but together to seek a new understanding of the market to redesign it to the benefit of all humanity.

The collapse of the market has seriously affected every continent except ... Africa! This is not a reflection of strength but of the weakness of the economic systems in Africa. If Africa suffers any effect at all, it would be what can be described as the bystander effect.

Africa’s position brings to mind Kruschev’s answer when he was asked what would happen if all bombs in the world exploded: he responded that there would be nobody left except the Chinese and the Africans. The Chinese have since moved on, leaving the Africans alone in that league! In a way, China moved on, encouraged by the nuclear status of the other four members of the UN Security Council (USA, then USSR, UK, France). Following China’s first nuclear test in 1964, members of the Security Council created the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) which arrogantly grants to five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council the right to be nuclear weapons states and at the same time denies the same right to the rest of us.

All four recognised sovereign states that refused to be parties to the treaty - India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea – seem to have nuclear weapons today, especially India and Pakistan. In spite of Kruschev’s comments that would hurt any proud people, no African country refused to sign the treaty on the basis of principle, as did the four countries cited above!

Africa seems to stand alone in the world, being the poorest continent, the continent most affected by HIV/AIDS, the continent most affected by malaria, the continent with the worst dictators, the continent with the most barriers to free movement of people and goods, the continent with the poorest communication infrastructure, the continent with no stake in space, and on and on! Africa needs to assert itself. Africa urgently needs renewal and change.