Article/Special
Report on the page is a contribution by Yemi
Ogunshola in a past issue of Good Times
International magazine. The realities there-in
are as apt today as they were when written.
Africa:
''A Moral Outrage"
–
Tony Blair
By
Yemi Ogunshola, Editor
“Europe
is not a bad example of how things can change…Europe
was at war; Europe was subject to the most terrible
resignation.” Words
very well put by Mr. Blair at a world press conference
in 2005, to which Good Times International (GTI)
was invited. Europe's is a history fraught over
many centuries with uncertainty. It has endured
wars, poverty, and pestilence. Britain has had
its share of these, battling internal strife,
two world wars, general discontent and hardship.
More
than once the country has experienced royal discontent
as feuds rent apart members of the ruling families,
for instance, during the period of the Plantagenets.
Nor was the nation exempt from disasters: some
70,000 lost their lives to the famous plague.
Then in 1666, as in Nero's Rome, a great fire
seared through the city of London, destroying
buildings and sending terror into the hearts of
inhabitants. It was, as one historian wrote, '…a
place of fear and flames.'
Yet, the people picked themselves up and rebuilt
anew, as they did after the terrible destruction
of World War II.
“I think it's possible to make a change,”
said PM Blair. “Things can change…This
(change in Europe) didn't happen strictly by Europeans
themselves. There was a partnership there…”
Over the years the picture painted of Africa to
the richer nations of the world has been dire.
It is too often a story of a tired people seen
on television, too listless to lift their arms
to swipe at flies as hunger rages in the wilderness.
TV pictures present negative images of women and
children displaced by war and civil strife as
rampaging soldiers kill, loot and rape. Other
images paint a picture of 'saving angels', the
Red Cross and members of Western society appearing
with food, drugs and clothing to 'save' the naked
children.
But what is often not expressed is the wealth
and diversity of Africa's history. The cameras
neglect to take shots of her beautiful streets,
graceful ladies, harmonious dwellings, and rainy
season flowers that bloom at some time in the
year in most parts of the continent. It is from
Africa, scientists say, that all mankind originated.
The story of Africa is about diminished faith.
When hope diminishes, people become like puppets
on weakened strings of other men.
Western society is at last focusing on Africa,
striving to find ways to assuage the guilt of
a dark past that, some would argue, had been the
cause of the continent's dire straits. Africa,
once strong and vibrant, now seems a shadow of
that happier past. Victim of slavery, cruelty
of 'the middle passage', battered by western colonization,
discrimination, and seemingly afflicted by an
inability to adopt patient thinking, her green
fields which once fed millions are now changed
in colour, brown and exhausted.
Mr. Blair's response was to set the Commission
for Africa in 2004. Since then activities have
gone into overdrive. Tony Blair's comments to
the world press after the third meeting of the
Commission for Africa in 2005 were as strong as
they were emotive. He recalled the Tsunami disaster
earlier in the year that had claimed so many lives.
“What has happened in Africa is roughly
equivalent to that scale of disaster,” said
the PM.
Interesting thoughts! But, unlike in the past,
thoughts are now backed with serious action. And
it was action of a different kind, as the PM set
initiatives in motion, enabling the gathering
of minds to brainstorm on the problem. In Great
Britain, the host country, the United States of
America and also in the historic cities of Africa,
they sought to find answers.
Tony Blair spoke further: “So, what we can
try and do is to come together - commissioners
from different parts of the world, different walks
of life - (for) consultations, discussions with
people of different countries. 93,000 people and
organizations put their interests in. We received
hundreds of written submissions. We've seen literally
hundreds of foreign people (who) have participated
to discuss the issue…We have to wait for
the report to judge that properly. But I do say
this is to set out a comprehensive plan with a
very powerful position for a strong and prosperous
Africa.”
The report, produced after a long and tortuous
process, was published in early spring, 2005,
at the British Museum, London.With Mr. Blair as
President, the Commission drew several people
from Europe and other continents, including Chancellor
Gordon Brown (UK), former Boomtown Rats singer
Bob Geldorf (Ireland), Fola Adeola (Nigeria),
KY Amoako (Ghana), Nancy Baker (USA), Hilary Benn,
Vice President (UK), Michael Camdessus (France),
and Ralph Goodale (Canada).
Other members of the Commission are William Kalema
(Uganda), Trevor Manuel (South Africa), Benjamin
Mkapa (Tanzania), Linah Mohohlo (Botswana), Ji
Peiding (China), Tidjane Thiam (Cote d'Ivoire),
Anna Tibaijuka (Tanzania), and Meles Zenawi, the
Ethiopian Prime Minister.
The Commission held meetings, based on consultative
fora across the continents. The final and conclusive
meeting took place in the last week of February
2005. And GTI witnessed it all.
Details of various brainstorming sessions in Africa
and Britain are interesting to say the least.
The mind-set suddenly seems to be shifting just
a little. No longer do Africans at such discussions
accept the traditional thinking. And maybe this
will change the strangely poor perception held
by non-Africans of the continent's story being
confined to the televised imagery of black, malnourished,
unkempt, fly-infested men, women, and children
with protruding tummies, with trembling hands
clutching, and with tears in their eyes weeping
for dear mercy.
The often-fiery meetings of Africans gathered
for discussion mostly asked for something else:
RESPECT.
The session organized in London, the host city,
by the African Commission in conjunction with
AFFORD (and ADVAD), was an enlightening evening
indeed. It was attended by individuals and groups
representing almost every country in Africa. They
spoke for ideas concerning HIV-AIDS, democracy,
African development, and Media (GTI/Executive
Books expressed the importance of publishing and
reading culture), and other interest groupings.
Discussions, perhaps short as a result of time
constraint, focused mainly on five issues: Marginalisation,
Migration, Remittances, Trade Debt and Development,
and also the African Image. However, one could
be forgiven for thinking that all sessions under-stated
the importance of mind culture.
Each group's submission seemed to express the
old concern of not being taken seriously enough.
Now, they'd love to see a move to the Promised
Land. Some observed the pain and anguish of the
African, even in Great Britain, where Africans
often have the most menial jobs regardless of
their levels of intelligence or the skills and
high qualifications they'd acquired in Africa.
That, in a nutshell, seems the dilemma of the
African. It is a story fired by the flames of
pain and non-expression.
The
Big Brainstorm
Participants
also wanted Western banks to stop accepting dubious
wealth embezzled out of Africa.
Some saw the African as a sad reflection of black
Britain, a situation where opportunities
are relatively few, jobs are hard to find, where
children imbibe more of the drink and gun culture
than school. Many also wondered why black people
hardly ever rise to the very top in management
and politics. They'd like to see more black people
in white-collar jobs. Sadly, Trevor Phillips,
chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality,
recently even advocated the separation of black
pupils from their white counterparts as a solution
to the generally poor performance of Negro youngsters.
Many argued that the Western world was to blame
and would seek reparation for years of misery
caused by their forbears in the slave fields of
the Americas, and to a lesser extent in Europe.
Yet others argued that Africans should quit looking
to the past; that the vision for the future resides
in new dreams.
But dreams need the encouragement of hope. Many
would argue that the stagnation in Africa is a
result of the lack of sweet dreams, that state
of calmness, which allows for aesthetics and creativity.
Years ago, someone once wished that time could
stop in Africa! That the busy minds of Africans
could be still for once; that creativity could
flourish; that the old African ideals of courage,
cooperation, fairness, aesthetics and honesty
would be back as in the old days of philosopher
kings and that creative thinkers could once again
have influence.
Cntinued
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