Washington, DC — Although Africa has readily joined the US-led anti-terror coalition, the meaning and structure of that fight has raised uncertainty in the minds of some African leaders.
At a symposium of African ambassadors, Wednesday, fighting terror was consistently linked to fighting poverty, underdevelopment and continuing the trend toward democracy and transparency in government.
But how much importance the United States and other Western powers place on these longer term projects is not clear. The fear is that some sort of anti-terrorist 'quick fix' will prove more attractive than expensive commitments to broad and vital social change.
If that fear is justified and the continent's own concerns are placed on the back burner, Africa could be facing the degree of marginalisation it experienced during the Cold War.
There are some "root causes" to be faced, said Mali Ambassador, Cheick Oumar Diarrah, citing absence of democracy in many nations and Africa's great poverty, and "[fighting] terrorism should not hide the real agenda of Africa. We cannot use terrorism as an excuse.
And this is where uncertainty creeps in.
"Africa's backwardness, which results from a long process of impoverishment largely due to slavery and to some effects of colonization, is the most serious issue of this century," President Wade said in Dakar, Senegal, on Wednesday.
"The best way to counter terrorism in any country is good government," Nigerian Ambassador Jibril Aminu told the symposium. Freedom, democracy, justice and human rights were critical: "We hope America will not cooperate, in this fight, with governments who terrorize their own people."
The U.S. will not do that, according to Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Walter Kansteiner. "In the long term, you'll be more effective in fighting terrorism and keeping a stable environment if you have a democratic system than if you have an authoritarian one," he said in an interview last month.
But 'long term' thinking often seems absent from policy implementation, as illustrated in the current conflict with Afghanistan's Taliban, themselves former recipients of American assistance when their foe was the Soviet Union.
And the presidents who have rushed to condole with President Bush on the September 11 attacks - and are eloquently fulsome in their promises to join the anti-terrorism campaign - include a number with dubious human rights records at home.
Liberia's Charles Taylor, who earlier this year threatened the American ambassador with arrest, has offered to contribute troops. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe has offered sympathy.
History - and memory of the Cold War policies that nurtured Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and other authoritarian rulers in the name of fighting communism - have left some wondering whether lining up with the U.S. in the anti-terrorism coalition will turn some of the bad guys into allies. Will security needs be seen as more important than transparency of government?
Additional uncertainty comes from a worsening economic climate. The prospect of world recession that has hardened in the aftermath of September 11 had African Finance Ministers meeting in Amsterdam, Wednesday, worrying out loud at the prospect of falling prices for their export goods, as well as the derailing of democratic reforms in the name of national security.
Dutch Development Minister Eveline Herfkens warned that aid donors might now shift their attention to South Asia as the plight of Afghan refugees in particular begins to demand attention.
If September 11 has moved previously hot domestic issues in the U.S. to the back burner, it does seem reasonable to speculate that issues that were driving American policy toward Africa a month ago, might now be parked.
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Speaking to the ambassadors in Washington, House Africa subcommittee chair, Ed Royce (R-CA) pledged that "our commitment to fighting terrorism will not lead to a lessening of our commitment to Africa."
But the National Security Council's Africa specialist, Jendayi Frazer, seemed to suggest that some shifting was likely: "We need to ask ourselves how we realign some of our policies in terms of September 11."
The administration has not defined an anti-terror strategy specifically for Africa. Most analysts point to certain states as key while tagging others as largely peripheral. So Sudan, which remains one of seven nations on the Department of State's terrorist country list, was one of the first nations Secretary of State Colin Powell called on to participate in the anti-terrorist coalition. And Khartoum has responded.
It is too early to tell whether the fears being expressed are justified; but as American policy towards countries such as Angola, Zimbabwe, Liberia and Sudan unfold over the coming months, the Bush administration can expect close scrutiny.
