The Shackled Continent

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The Shackled Continent Page 28

by Robert Guest


  4. Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide, Hurst & Co., 1997, pp. 1–35.

  5. John Reader, Africa: A Biography of the Continent, Alfred Knopf, 1998, p.621.

  6. Prunier, 1997, pp. 80–81.

  7. Ibid., pp. 75–7.

  8. If this seems implausible, see ibid., pp. 102–7.

  9. Ibid., p.223.

  10. Ibid., p.224.

  11. Ibid., p.250.

  12. “Prosecutor Accused,” Economist, 21 August 2003.

  13. Eghosa Osaghae, Crippled Giant: Nigeria Since Independence, Hurst & Co., London, 1998, p.21.

  14. Ibid., p.5.

  15. Thomas Sowell, Preferential Policies: An International Perspective, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1990, p.71.

  16. UNDP, Human Development Report 2002, pp. 151 and 158–9.

  17. Wole Soyinka, The Open Sore of a Continent, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, p.124.

  18. Ken Saro-Wiwa, quoted in Abdul Rasheed Na’Allah (ed.), Ogoni’s Agonies: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Crisis in Nigeria, Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ, 1998, p.339.

  19. The two men have even written a book together: The Pastor and the Imam: Responding to Conflict, Muhammad Ashafa and James Wuye, Ibrash Press, Lagos, 1999.

  20. Ben Maclennan, Apartheid: The Lighter Side, Carrefour, Cape Town, 1990, p.153.

  21. The best short account of the transition to majority rule is Patti Waldmeir’s Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa, Penguin, London, 1997.

  22. See, for example, Lawrence Schlemmer’s survey for the South African Institute of Race Relations in 2001, www.sairr.org.za.

  23. Speech to the national assembly, May 1998. Quoted in Thabo Mbeki, Africa: The Time Has Come, Tafelberg/Mafube, Cape Town, and Johannesburg, 1998, p.71.

  24. Thabo Mbeki, address to the fifty-first national conference of the ANC, 16 December 2002, www.anc.org.

  25. House of assembly debate, 1953, quoted in Allister Sparks, The Mind of South Africa, Arrow Books, London, 1997, p.196. Verwoerd’s vision had started to fade long before 1994, however. From the 1970s, white governments spent much more on black education, although the racial gap was never eliminated. See John Kane-Berman, South Africa’s Silent Revolution, SAIRR, 2nd edition, 1991.

  26. See “Race, Law and Poverty in the New South Africa,” Economist, 30 September 1999, and Tom Lodge, “ANC Factionalism: Curse or Blessing?” Focus, March 2003, www.hsf.org.za.

  27. South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), South Africa Survey 2001/2002, p.240, www.sairr.org.za.

  28. SAIRR, 2001/02, pp. 268 and 275.

  29. Quoted in Focus, the magazine of the Helen Suzman Foundation, September 2000, pp. 20–21, www.hsf.org.za.

  30. Sunday Times (Johannesburg), “The Yummy and the Crummy,” 13 May 2001.

  31. Themba Sono, From Poverty to Property, FMF Books, Johannesburg, 1999, p.9.

  32. SAIRR, 2001/02, pp. 213–15.

  33. Although it spent much more after the Soweto revolt in 1976, hoping to defuse black insurrectionary fervor.

  34. Another 25 percent was listed in March 2003, with a discount for non-white South African buyers.

  35. Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, Africa Works: Disorder as a Political Instrument, International African Institute and James Currey, Oxford, 1999, pp. 38–9.

  36. Paul Collier and H.P. Binswanger, “State Reconstruction, Civil Wars and Ethnic Conflicts,” paper presented at a World Bank conference in Abidjan, July 1999, cited in World Bank, Can Africa Claim the 21st Century? Washington, 2000, p.25.

  37. Quoted in Sparks, 1997, p.70.

  Chapter 6. Fair Aid, Free Trade

  1. Andrew Roberts, A History of Zambia, Heinemann, London, 1976, pp. 185–94.

  2. Tim Wadeson, CEO, Konkola Copper Mines, interview with the author, March 2001.

  3. Faysal Yachir, Mining in Africa Today: Strategies and Prospects, London, 1988.

  4. Lise Rakner, Nicolas van de Walle, and Dominic Mulaisho, “Zambia,” in Aid and Reform in Africa, World Bank, Washington, 2001, p.555. See also African Development Indicators 2002, World Bank, Washington, 2002.

  5. Rakner et al., 2001, table 9.7 in appendix 9.5. www.worldbank.org.

  6. George Ayittey, “Why Africa Is Poor,” Daily Telegraph (London), 27 August 2002. Between 1960 and 1997, Africa received aid totaling roughly $400 billion (adjusted for inflation).

  7. World Bank, Assessing Aid: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998, p.14.

  8. Several African officials have complained to me about this, but most seemed to think that there was little they could do about it.

  9. Graham Hancock, Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992.

  10. Hendrik van der Heijden, The Ineffectiveness of Economic Policy Reform, Foreign Aid and External Debt Relief in Zambia, report for the Swedish embassy in Lusaka, June 2000, p.8.

  11. Ibid., 2000, p.9.

  12. Interview with Theo Bull of Profit magazine (Lusaka), April 2000. Bull added together the aid foregone because of the delay, the mines’ operating losses, and the $45 million difference between the price received and an earlier (rejected) offer of $135 million.

  13. I visited Zambia several times while Chiluba was in power and was struck by how few of the people I interviewed were prepared to be quoted by name – mindful, perhaps, that a number of prominent Zambian dissidents had died in mysterious circumstances. Among the courageous few who shunned anonymity, Fred M’membe, editor of the Post newspaper, and Dipak Patel, the former minister of commerce, were the most helpful. The November 2000 Report of the [Parliamentary] Committee on Economic Affairs and Labour on the Review of the Privatisation of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd, which the government suppressed, also makes interesting reading, if you can get hold of a copy.

  14. William Easterly, The Ghost of Financing Gap, Policy Research Working Paper 1807, World Bank, Development Research Group, Washington. Cited in World Bank, 1998, p.10.

  15. W.A. Edge and M.H. Lekorwe (eds.), Botswana: Politics and Society, J.L. van Schaik Publishers, Pretoria, 1998, p.444.

  16. Several interviews with economists and officials in Botswana helped flesh out this section. Among the most helpful were Kenneth Matambo of the Botswana Development Corporation, Charles Harvey and Keith Jefferis of the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis, and Santi Chakrabati of the finance ministry.

  17. World Bank, 1998.

  18. Ibid., p.3.

  19. Alberto Alesina and David Dollar, Who Gives Aid to Whom and Why?, NBER Working Paper 6612, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Mass. Cited in World Bank, 1998, p. 16.

  20. World Bank, 2000, p.5.

  21. Rakner et al., 2001, pp. 551–5.

  22. Ibid., p.537.

  23. World Bank, Annual Review of Development Effectiveness, 1997.

  24. “Reform school,” Economist, 5 April 2001.

  25. David Dollar and Jakob Svensson, What Explains the Success or Failure of Structural Adjustment Programs?, World Bank, Development Research Group, Policy Research Working Paper 1938, Washington, 1998, cited in World Bank, 1998, p.52.

  26. Howard and Janet Pack, “Is Foreign Aid Fungible? The Case of Indonesia,” Economic Journal 100, March 1990.

  27. Various sources, cited in World Bank, 1998, p.68.

  28. World Bank, African Development Indicators 2002, p.289.

  29. A few hours later, during an interview with the author in the back of a darkened minibus, May 2002.

  30. The only other time was when I was a young freelancer, and I was asked to interview a South Korean rock band called the Seoh Taeji Boys for an entertainment magazine. I’d never heard of them, but they seemed nice. I’ve no idea if the piece was ever published.

  31. Brian Reidl, The Case Against the Farm Bill, Heritage Foundation web memo, 5 February 2002, www.heritage.org.

  3
2. Consumers’ Association, 2003, www.which.net/campaigns/food/production/page2.html

  33. P.J. O’Rourke, Eat the Rich, Picador, 1998, pp. 116–18.

  34. For more details, see Economic Freedom of the World: 2001 Annual Report, Cato Institute, Washington, 2001, pp. 74–9, www.cato.org.

  35. Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner, Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, No. 1, 1995. Cited in Aaron Lukas, WTO Report Card III: Globalization and Developing Countries, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute, Washington, June 2000.

  Chapter 7. Of potholes and grasping gendarmes

  1. Naomi Klein, No Logo, Picador, 2000, p.334.

  2. Edward M. Graham, “Trade and Investment at the WTO: Just Do It!,” in Launching New Global Trade Talks: An Action Agenda, Special Report No. 12, Institute for International Economics, Washington, September 1998, p.158. Cited in Aaron Lukas, WTO Report Card III: Globalization and Developing Countries, Center for Trade Policy Studies. Cato Institute, Washington, 2000, p.7.

  3. Philippe Legrain, Open World: The Truth about Globalization, Abacus, 2002, p.21.

  4. UN Conference on Trade and Development, World Investment Report 2002.

  5. Interview with Bunmi Oni, October 1999.

  6. UNCTAD, World Investment Report 1999.

  7. Interview with Mark Hill, CE, Microsoft South Africa, February 2000.

  8. A fine account of Shell’s troubles in Nigeria can be found in Daniel Litvin’s book Empires of Profit: Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility, Texere, New York, 2003.

  9. For a longer account, see Karl Maier, This House Has Fallen: Nigeria in Crisis, Allen Lane, London, 2000, pp. 75–110.

  10. Interview with Bobby Danchin, February 2000.

  11. De Beers might be an exception. If an NGO campaign made diamonds unfashionable, thus reducing the value of De Beers’ stockpile (valued in 2000 at about $4 billion), the damage would be quantifiable and therefore, in theory at least, insurable.

  12. “Ethically Unemployed,” Economist, 30 November 2002.

  13. George Ayittey, Africa Betrayed, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1992, pp. 122–3.

  14. Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, Africa Works: Disorder As a Political Instrument, International African Institute, 1999, pp. 102–3.

  15. The Economist, Survey of Nigeria, 15 January 2000, p.10.

  Chapter 8. Wiring the wilderness

  1. Shereen El-Feki, “Biting the Silver Bullet,” Economist, Survey of Agriculture and Technology, 23 May 2000.

  2. Most of the modern statistics in this chapter are taken from the UNDP’s Human Development Report 2001: Making New Technologies Work for Human Development.

  3. All the truly ancient statistics in this chapter are culled from Angus Maddison’s magisterial The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD, 2001.

  4. I lifted the facts in this paragraph from Stephen Moore and Julian Simon’s excellent book It’s Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years, Cato Institute, Washington, 2000.

  5. Interview with John Kabayo, August 2002.

  6. Economist Intelligence Unit, country reprints, 2003.

  7. “Wireless warriors,” Economist, 14 February 2002.

  8. See David Bevan, Paul Collier, and Jan Willem Gunning, Nigeria and Indonesia: The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity, and Growth, Oxford University Press, 1999.

  9. Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 28 May 2000.

  10. “Leave Them Be,” Economist, 4 April 2002.

  11. Interview with Focus, the magazine of the Helen Suzman Foundation, Issue 23, September 2001.

  12. P. J. O’Rourke, Eat the Rich, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1998, p.187.

  13. World Bank, Can Africa Claim the 21st Century? Washington, 2000, pp. 20–1.

  14. The Oxfam Education Report, p.214, www.oxfam.org.

  15. World Bank, 2000, p.44.

  16. UNDP, Human Development Report 2002, p.169.

  17. Liz McGregor, “Risky Business,” Guardian (London), 30 November 2002.

  Chapter 9. Beyond the rainbow nation

  1. Ben Maclennan, Apartheid: The Lighter Side, Carrefour Press, Cape Town, 1990.

  2. Tom Sharpe, Indecent Exposure, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1973.

  3. Paul Kirk, “Mutilation by the Military,” Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, 28 July 2001.

  4. South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), South Africa Survey 2000/2001, p.166.

  5. National Electricity Regulator. Cited in ibid., p.338.

  6. Budget estimate, cited in ibid., p.172.

  7. Ibid., pp. 213–15.

  8. Thabo Mbeki, interview with the author, July 2000.

  9. Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools, Human Rights Watch, New York, 2001, pp. 21–8.

  10. “Beating Crime, Not Suspects,” Economist, 22 January 2000.

  11. South Africa’s Bill of Rights, 32, 1a.

  12. Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, October 1998, www.truth.org.za.

  13. Saturday Star (Johannesburg). Peter Fabricius, “Mbeki Hails Cuba’s Humanism,” 31 March 2001.

  14. BBC News Online, Mandela Adds to Mugabe Pressure, 7 May 2000, news.bbc.co.uk.

  15. “Mboweni Slams Zimbabwe,” Reuters, 23 August 2001.

  16. Speech to the Fifty-first National Conference of the ANC, 16 December 2002, www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/speeches/2002.

  17. Mugabe’s Secret Famine, documentary written by Peter Oborne, produced by Juniper, broadcast on Channel 4 (UK), 12 January 2003.

  18. Victor Mallet, “Rainbow Nation in Search of Self-assurance,” Financial Times (London), 6 October 2000.

  19. Howard Barrell and Sipho Seepe, “A Sense of Hope,” Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg), 2 March 2001.

  20. Maclennan, 1990, p.65.

  21. Public Service Accountability Monitor, Rhodes University, www.psam.ru.ac.za.

  22. Interview with Judge Willem Heath, head of the Special Investigating Unit, December 1999, and telephone interview with his spokesman, March 2000.

  23. Colm Allan, head of the Public Service Accountability Monitor at Rhodes University, quoted in Focus, the magazine of the Helen Suzman Foundation, Issue 17, March 2000, www.hsf.org.za.

  24. The State, Property Relations and Social Transformation, ANC discussion document, 1998, www.anc.org.za (archive).

  25. Victor Mallet, “South Africa Opposition Attacks ANC Voter Threats,” Financial Times (London), 8 December 2000.

  26. McGregor’s Who Owns Whom, cited in SAIRR, 2001/2002, p.188.

  27. David Christianson, “Liberals Can Espouse Black Empowerment,” Focus, March 2003.

  28. Patrick Wadula, “Empowerment Needed at Company Level,” Business Day (Johannesburg), 6 June 2001.

  Conclusion: One step at a time

  1. New African (London), January 2003.

  2. Interview in Carte Blanche, a South African television news program, 3 September 2000.

  3. See, for example, Doug Bandow, Native American Success Stories, 11 May 1998, www.cato.org.

  4. Adrian Blomfield, “Tribesmen Paint the Town Red After MoD £4.5m Windfall,” Daily Telegraph (London), 28 November 2002.

  5. Anton La Guardia, “African Rift Over Calls for Slavery Reparations,” Daily Telegraph (London), 31 August 2001.

  6. George Ayittey, Africa Betrayed, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1992, p.6.

  7. For a lively account of life in Europe between the collapse of Rome and the Renaissance, see William Manchester’s A World Lit Only By Fire, Little Brown, Boston, 1992.

 

 

 
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