Washington, DC — When terrorists killed 12 Americans and over 200 Africans in attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in August 1998, official America displayed little empathy for the African dead and injured. Although Washington eventually provided some aid to survivors, there was never a clear acknowledgment that it was Africans who had paid the greatest price.
The ensuing investigation and trial received little attention from the media, and the American public was denied the stories of suffering and heroism that generate compassion and a sense of common purpose. Kenyans filed for damages and built a memorial park, but African states were left largely on their own to deal with these new threats.
One month following the recent terror attacks in the U.S., 30 African countries met in Senegal to discuss their capacity to respond to international terrorism. The next day, anthrax was identified in a letter in Kenya, mailed from Atlanta. Investigators still disagree on whether subsequent tests do show anthrax, or whether this is one of many cases worldwide of false alarms.
Speaking to African trade ministers in Washington on October 29, President Bush thanked African states for their messages of support. He called for more states to ratify the 1999 Algiers Convention against Terrorism, and asked skeptical African nations to support the plan to launch a new round of trade talks next month at the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar.
But he made no mention of the political and economic damage to Africa from the aftermath of September 11. And the only measures he announced as U.S. contributions to Africa were a $200 million investment guarantee for U.S. firms wishing to invest in Africa, and $15 million for a advisory program to help African businesses take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
This business-as-usual response shows that U.S. policymakers are still not making the connections necessary for a truly global response that includes Africa. This is a mistake.
Africa is key because it is more vulnerable to terrorism and more closely intertwined with the wider Muslim world than is generally recognized. It is also the region most exposed to the ensuing international economic shocks.
The cost for Africa of September 11 is considerable. In addition to the deaths of as many as 100 Africans thought to have died at the World Trade Center, the ripple effects are far-reaching. Over 100 people died recently in Muslim-Christian clashes that followed a demonstration in Kano, Nigeria against U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. Yet an unidentified U.S. diplomat dismissed the event's significance, telling allAfrica.com's Charlie Cobb Jr. that "they've been doing this since long before September 11."
Such thinking is facilitated by the common mental map of the Islamic world stretching from North Africa to Indonesia, with Africa a separate world beginning south of the Sahara. In fact, Islamic and African worlds intersect in virtually every African country, from the Cape to Cairo and from Dakar to Zanzibar.
Twenty-seven African countries make up almost half the members of the Organization of Islamic Conferences. Nigeria's approximately 60 million Muslims (roughly half the country's population) are comparable to the populations of Egypt or Iran.
In Africa, peaceful religious coexistence is far more common than religious conflict. Nevertheless, Africa's fragile societies are highly vulnerable to external shocks. Revulsion at the terrorist acts is widespread. But doubt about U.S. global strategy is not confined to Muslims. In Kenya and Nigeria, demonstrations against U.S. bombing in Afghanistan were organized by Muslim groups. In South Africa, Christians, Muslims and others joined in peaceful protests against the U.S. bombing, as well as in services commemorating the dead in New York and Washington.
The emerging shift in U.S. policy toward Africa suggests that countries will be judged almost exclusively on their immediate value in the new war on terrorism. The U.S. hopes to gain intelligence cooperation by short-term bilateral measures. Thus, Washington is downplaying criticism of Sudan's counterinsurgency war, which includes terror bombings against southern civilians, in order to gain access to dossiers on the bin Laden network.
But honest long-term cooperation requires taking broader African security needs seriously. Indifference to conflict resolution and poverty alleviation will sharply reduce the odds of helping Africa build effective barriers to terrorism.
The UN estimates that Africa's economic growth rate will drop by more than one percent as a result of September 11. Africa will lose much of the $7 billion a year it normally earns from tourism, for example. In Africa, as elsewhere, the poor are the most vulnerable.
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This blow to Africa coincides with the international failure to respond adequately to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is taking almost 7,000 African lives every day. The $3 billion a year that would be an appropriate U.S. share of the $10 billion needed for the new Global Health Fund to fight AIDS is modest, compared to spending in response to September 11. Yet the U.S. has only pledged $200 million.
The particulars are different, of course. Yet the deaths on September 11 and the deaths each day in Africa from AIDS both testify to the vulnerability of life and to the need for global cooperation to promote human security. Failing to act on urgent African security needs such as AIDS will sabotage potential good will and widen the zones of instability.
Americans increasingly recognize that the "new war" will fail without new international cooperation. But they are only beginning to understand that there can be no real safety in islands of prosperity. Greater security in the United States can come only when it joins others in seeking inclusive security for our common humanity.
Salih Booker is the executive director and William Minter is the senior research fellow at Africa Action, the oldest U.S.-based Africa advocacy group, with offices in New York and Washington.
