any part of the world.
The World Bank has
stated that 90% of. the
most indebted nations are
African
Sub-Saharan Attica's debt now stands at $190
billion, over 100% of its GNP. While much of its
export earnings go to debt payments, Africa meets
. only half of scheduled payments. Africa has made
a net transfer of billions of dollars to northern
countries over the past decade.
Creditor nations continue to insist on, World
Bank and International Monetary Fund UMF)
sponsored "Structural Adjustment Programs"
(SAPs) as the necessary prescription for Africa's
economic woes (see 8th Day Focus, March & April
1992). Based on the premise that further integra-
. tion into global "free market" Capitalism is the
answer, SAPs demand drastic cuts in government
expenditures, privatization of state-run indus
tries, and export promotion.
THESE POLICIES llA VE only served to
worsen African standards of living in the 3 ub
Saharan African nations implementing SAPs.
Among the U.N.'s 47 "Least Developed Countries"
32 are in Africa.
SAPs did help to bring a dramatic increase in
the volume of African exports. However, the prices
paid for those exports on the global market
dropped even more dramatically over the past
, decade, bringing a decrease in the earnings those
exports brought to Africa.
Export orientation has also diminished Africa's
food security, as more land and government
spending goes to large commercial farmers grow
ing export crops. The free market ideology allows
subsidized Western farm products to undercut
local farmers, forcing them out of food production.
Africa has become more dependent on imported
food, while its ability to buy those imports baa
fallen.
SAPs also cut government food subsidies, mak
ing it harder for people to purchase the food they
need. Street rioting resulted when Zimbabwe re
cently implemented its SAP-mandated cutoff of
.flour subsidies. Little wonder that the Economic
Structural Adjustment Program has been dubbed
"Extensive Suffering for African People" by Zim
babweans. Zambia's bishops recently denounced
the country's SAP, pointing to the hardships that
have brought malnutrition to 40% of Zambia's
children.
. HEAL T ERVI E AND educational sys
tems det rior te as government spending is
;slashed by SAPs. Infant mortality rates rose
I hroughou Africa during the past decade as a
:result. A fourth of all African children under age
"
Tariffs and other barrie in industrialized
countri prevent African manufactured goods
from competing in northern marke . In Ghana,
the IMF' "showcase" of structural djustment,
over 1,200 local industri have collapsed since
the SAP began in 1983.
Some 200,000 Ghanaian tate workers have
been p hed into unemployment by cu in gov
ernment spending, and recently the World Bank
th tened to cut its project funding by half if
deeper cuts aren't made in the public wor force.
A showdown between the newly elected Ghanaina
government and the trade unions is heating up.
TillS ECONOMIC AND social devastation,
coupled with Siad Barre's oppression, set the
stage for famine and war after his overthrow in
1991.
In order to bring in quick foreign exchange for
debt payments, SAPs also promote the exploita
tion of raw materials by foreign conglomerates
through tax breaks, investment credits, and cheap
concessions. The environment suffers as forests
are cleared to export logs, poverty forces people to
overuse marginal land, and government spending
cuts diminish the enforcement of environmental
laws.
Structural adjustment thus serves to maintain
Africa's place in the trade patterns established
during colonial times: a source of cheap raw ma
terials and agricultural commodities, and a mar
ket for northern manufactured goods. Structural
adjustment has thus been called' "market eoloni
alisrn" and the" new neocolonialism."
Marginalization
While debt and SAPs queeze every possible '
drop of blood out of Africa, the 'global capitalist
economy shows an increasing disinterest in th
continent. Africa's role in the global economy is
small, and shrinking. Africa has a 40/( share of the
world market's non-oil commodities, down from
7lft. in 1970, Less than 20/( of U.S. trade is with
Africa. With other our or synthetic substitutes
for many of the commoditie coming from Africa,
resources once considered "strategic" to U.S.
needs have become less important.
WIT T U.. administration [i used on
solidifying NAFI'A, th 'European Community
still absorbed in consolidating itself in the wake of
the changes in eastern Europe, and the Pacific
Rim continuing to exp nd and build upon the
newly indu trial pow rs, Africa is more marginal-
,-
"
THE U.S. THUS claims no responsibility for
its role in helping to create current crises in Africa.
Following the destructive U.S. intervention oUhe
past, all that is left is what Council on Foreign
Relations analyst Michael Clough calls "cynical
di ment". WOMENE P CIALL HAVE hown�
""e U. . otTers little support for lving con- - initiati in ing' .. into thei dwll
flicts it had a heavy hand in creating. Constructive. hands .1»)" -forming elf-help organization. NetJ
support for negotiations was needed a year before works of peasant farmer organizations, with
U.S. troops arrived in Somalia, but Bush's "new women leading the way, count 100,000 members
world order" evoked the sarne old military re- in Senegal and 300,000 in Burkina Faso.
sponse. These movements have grown with the ccop-
Meanwhile, Washington continues to ignore eration of their countries' governments, and un
grassroots groups all over Africa struggling for dertake local development projects like well
more participatory democracy and creative devel- digging, building granaries, and organizing com
opment efforts. Washington funnels much of its munal fields. The "Six-S" movements helps fi
economic support to structural adjustment pro- nance projects determined by farmers themselves,
grams, which continue to punish the poor, bring with a half-million members in eight countries
lower living standards, and heighten the moun- across the Sahel. .
tain of debt.
While State Department rhetoric calls for sup
port of democracy, what little assistance it gives
goes not to grassroots efforts at evolving new
indigenous African "experts" who equate free
markets and party politics with "democracy"
formed in the American image and likeness.
In tm nt by ind rializ oountri
in coming to - nctioned outh fri
i well d loped inf tructure.
Given thi economic marginalization nd the
lac of tra gic in t in Africa in th post-cold
war era, orne ha d ibed th p nt lity
"postneocolonialism". Northern nations have
imply written off Africa, and do not care what
happens there. Africa' poverty' reI gated to
multi teral institutions to d 1 with a " .aJyage
operation", with little concern for what �ults
may take place ince the world economy will not
be effected one way or the other.
As the cold war ended and the U.S .. no longer
needed to prop up dictatorial regimes in various
African nations to counter a Sovie presence in
neighboring nations, the U.S. has watched from a
distance as the massive arms it sent to Africa
throughout the '80 fueled brutal wars in Liberia,
Somalia, Sudan, and Angola.
In Zaire, Malawi, Kenya, and elsewhere, re
gim that had been favored friends of U.S. cold
war interests used sheer force of arms to counter
rising popular cries for change and democracy.
Once a country was no longer of "strategic" inter
est to the U.S., it could count on 0 U.S. interest
in its affairs.
Liberians learned this lesson the hard way.
Liberians had hoped that their historical "special
relationshipt'with the U.S. would bring some ac-
tion when the country fell into a civil war that
caused 60,000 deaths. Washington absolved itself
. of any responsibility despite the arms it had sent
to the Doe regime in the '80s, leaving neighboring
West African countries with few resources to try
to bring peace. ,1
Towards a different future
The policies of Western "experts" have only
mired Africa deeper in poverty. However, African
leaders and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) have voiced demands fo change. Grass
roots movements have evolved alternatives to the
marginalization and exploitation facing the conti
nent.
Clearly, Africa's debt must be lifted. Despite all
the talk among the Western nations about
"Toronto" and "Trinidad" terms of debt reduction,
this has amounted to a small portion of Africa's
debt. 'A recent study of Uganda's debt profile
shows that even with far greater than average
rescheduling, write-ofTs, and buy-backs, Uganda's
debt continues to eat up 60% of all export earn-
ings. .
Debt burdens Africa's people, but non-payment
does not threaten the international financial sys
tem. Even the governments and institutions that
collect the debt admit that it is impossible for it to
be repaid, much less repaid on time.
Some 80% 0 frica's debt is "official" debt,
owed to other nations or multilateral institutions
like the IMF and World Bank. Citizen action in
creditor countries could help pressure their gov
ernments to write off African debt. The U.S. has
the leading role in setting policy at the IMF .and
World Bank, and could change policies that pre
vent debt rescheduling or write-offs.
GLOBAL TRADE MUST also be trans
formed. The General Agreement on Trade and
Tariffs (GA'IT) should prohibit unfair agricultural
subsidies, in the West, which would enable Africa
not only to grow its own food but to export com
petitively. World food markets then would not be
so depressed by the dumping of subsidized prod-
ucts. .
Tariffs and other barriers to African manufac
tured goods in industrialized countries must be
torn down. The World Bank estimates that a 50%
reduction in trade barriers in the three major
trading blocks would increase Third World export
earnings by 50 billion annually r: an amount
equal to the 1991 net flow of development aid to
them.
The U.N. Economic Commission for Africa's
African Alternative Framework to Structural Ad-
African NGOs and grassroots movements, also
emphasized greater self-reliance in Africa. It fo
cused on the need for popular participation in
government decision making, which would make
economic policies lees reliant on IMF seals of
approval and more responsive to peoples' needs.
Many grassroots movements throughout Africa
have already begun this process locally, and are
expanding into national and international move
ments.
In Kenya, the Greenbelt
Movement has mobilized
50,000 women to plant
trees and protest,
government projects
damaging the
environment.
These and many other farmer's, women's, and
youth organizations radiate hope for Africa. They
show the creativity and initiative of Africans us-
. ing their own resources without foreign interfer
ence. Throughout the continent,
non-governmental human rights groups have
sprung up despite little international assistance
and government harassment.
THE REPUBLIC OF Somaliland has shown
how Africans, without outside intervention, can
make peace based on traditional values. Eritrea's
independence, based on democratic' ideals, has
begun building a multi-ethnic nation without out
side assistance. .,
If the U.S. has ny humanitarian interest in
Africa, support for these efforts, and not military
invasions, would prove it. If the agitation for par
ticipatory democracy in various African nations is
to avoid being hi-jacked by old political elites, the
popular movements and their creative vision must
be supported,
U.S. aid, funneled through bi-lateral as well as
multi-lateral institutions, must be redirected to
support those who always knew what Africa
needs: the people of Africa themselves. .
8th Day Report is a publication of the 8th Day
Center for Justice, 205 W. Monroe, Chicago, IL
60606-5033. Pho1U!: 312-641-5151.
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