James Shikwati
21 April 2006
opinion
Nairobi — This continent never had a joint dream. This, however, license NGOs from developed countries, think tanks and governments to mess up the great opportunity presented by modernism for Africans to create an African dream.
African intellectuals, businesspeople and policy-makers must soberly seek ways to stem the rising tide of intellectual onslaughts from the West on the future of Africa.
Under colonialism, Africa boasted of a huge percentage of exports to the developed world. Countries such as Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, were touted as the breadbasket of Africa.
A friend in South Africa pointed out recently that apartheid was very efficient when it came to security issues. What is it that makes it difficult for Africans to manage their own affairs effectively?
The few international magazines and newspapers I have read in the last one year appear to have a common story-line on Africa - famine, corruption, war, disease.
Proposed solutions intriguing
The proposed solutions to these apparent problems are even more intriguing - monetary aid, technical assistance, capacity building and environmentalism, among others.
Most African newspapers portray rich nations as bent on a rescue mission in Africa, save for occasional dissent from the likes of former President Moi, President Mugabe and lately President Museveni. Are Africans being rescued or killed?
The malaria season is here. Sample this: 21 per cent of Uganda's hospital deaths and 13 per cent in government hospitals Kenya are due to malaria.
The figures exclude all those who die of malaria without ever reaching hospital. The mosquito is wreaking havoc on Africans. But there is little they can do because they have to ensure they do not lose markets for their agricultural produce in Europe.
African children must continue to die because, according to the head of the Economic, Trade and Social Sector desk at the EU delegation in Uganda, consumer organisations in Europe will pressure supermarkets not to sell Ugandan products in Europe.
"We have advised the government that they are taking a risk if they go ahead with this DDT use- " The EastAfrican quoted Mr Tom Vens as saying.
Uganda's Health minister Jim Muhwezi is reported to insist that Uganda will go ahead and use DDT to kill mosquitoes by spraying indoors. He denies claims that DDT causes impotence, infertility, neurological damage, and cancer.
These are among other reasons that activists cite for America and Europe's fear of the pesticide. The solution by Western think-tanks? Use treated mosquito nets.
On the famine front, drought is wreaking havoc, locusts and other pests are destroying crops in Africa.
According to African Union figures, the continent has the lowest fertiliser use in the world, at 25 kilogrammes a hectare, and loses up to 30 per cent of harvested crop due to poor storage.
But what do activists in Europe recommend? African baby-sitting experts, such as the Pesticide Action Network of Britain, are on the frontline fighting the possible introduction of pesticides in Africa.
One of their reports, entitled Pesticides, Poverty and Food Security, concludes that "pesticide reliance imposes particularly high burdens on poorer farmers, many of whom are women, and generates additional costs in health and loss of livestock, and undermines farm productivity."
The solution: Give priority to alternative field and storage pest management methods, support use of bio-pesticides, invest in organic production for local and export markets, and wait for food aid if these methods fail.
But, according to India's Dr Prasanna Srinivasan, since 1961, agricultural output has outstripped global population growth by 20 per cent, with a proportionate increase in per capita food availability.
He attributes the increase by 60-70 per cent of agricultural output to improved agricultural technologies.
What the international headline-grabbing images of the perceived poverty in Africa do not tell the world is the double role international activists' play in Africa's plight.
They fight known solutions and offer ideal solutions, leaving Africa static and desperate. Africans must stop them before the present disastrous trend reaches irrevocable levels.
Playing with lives of Africans
The above two cases illustrate how the developed countries are playing around with the lives of Africans by putting up barriers to development.
Africans cannot export unless they meet the stringent anti-chemical standards set up by the developed nations. African children must keep dying until such a time as some developed country scientist will approve the use of certain methods to destroy mosquitoes.
Africans must continue to perish due to lack of food because developed country experts forbid the use of technology to turn around the famine situation.
African intellectuals, for their part, are a big letdown. When will they independently scrutinise some of these so-called international standards to establish whether a whole generation of people is being destroyed in the name of the environment?
Africans must put up a team of independent legal and scientific experts to establish the authenticity of the anti-technology activism.
Should their arguments be found to be driven by mere greed to raise funds, they should be held accountable for each and every African death and made to pay for it.
Mr Shikwati is the director of the Inter-Region Economic Network and co-ordinator of the Africa Resource Bank
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