Charles Onyango-Obbo
21 August 2007
column
Nairobi — There are many waves of change that sweep across the world that, when they finally reach Africa's shores, have spent all their fury and turn into fads that don't result in any significant improvements, and sometimes leave us worse off.
Take the democratisation tide of the late 1980s and early 1990s; in many African countries, they forced regimes to adopt multiparty politics, but little changed because ruling parties and incumbents took to stealing elections even more. The result is that in the past 20 years, only two sitting African presidents have lost an election.
Then came privatisation. In many countries, all it produced was a bonanza of bribe-taking by privatisation officials, and the transfer of public assets into the hands of politicians, generals, their relatives and friends.
Not all is lost, though. These movements created some spaces and nooks in which committed reformists and entrepreneurs could operate, while keeping a wary eye on predatory governments.
The latest big thing is China. China is reordering the global economy. In the West, unions are up in arms, angry that too many jobs are being exported to China (and India). Nationalists in the old global powers are worried their countries are become insignificant in the world.
Environmentalists are denouncing China for its polluting ways. And businesses are griping that China's economic boom is gobbling up so much of the world's raw materials, they aren't sure there will be anything left for them at prices they can afford.
This is where Africa comes in with its vast natural resources, because China seems to be a better trading and business partner for governments. It will lend money without imposing irritating Western-style conditionalities. It won't demand that a government release political prisoners first or stop corruption before signing a multibillion-dollar trade deal.
THE WESTERN MEDIA AND WORLD Bank have been warning Africa, saying this approach is disastrous. How can you lend money without insisting that the borrower take steps that will enable him to pay it back? What good is a trade deal, if a government isn't taking steps to ensure that it can continue supplying you with oil or timber? This approach will encourage delinquent behaviour that will harm not only Africa in the long run, but also the global economy.
To Africa, the issue is clear. The West is jealous and is being a bad loser. After years of treating Africa badly, they are now angry that China has showed them up and is grabbing their once-captive markets on the continent.
However, just as the old Western-dominated economic order failed to lift Africa out of poverty, so will China fail. Today, the reasons why Africa continues to do badly, in large part, have to do mostly with internal conditions.
Is the flexibility that doing business with China offers resulting in major economic improvements on the ground? Hardly. In the oil-rich countries, corrupt leaders are still pocketing the revenues from oil deals with China. Officials are taking bribes from Chinese logging companies, and turning a blind eye as they wipe out huge chunks of forests.
China, meanwhile, is booming. In the past few years, exploiting access to new markets and resources from, among others, Africa, it has pulled nearly 400 million of its people out of poverty. Continent-wide, meanwhile, about an equal number of Africans have slipped into poverty!
If things don't improve in Africa, even China will leave us with huge holes in the ground, land polluted by oil spills, and wastelands where once lush forests stood. We shall be vilifying it the way we do the West today, and waiting for a "better deal" from a new, better global economic power - India.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's managing editor for convergence and new products.
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