Nepad - "White Man's Burden" Part Two

At the G8 Summit held in Kananaskis last week, a charade was played out for the benefit of the world's people. The central character in the charade was Jean Chretien, playing the role of saviour of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, struggling to prevent U.S. President George W. Bush from pushing the plight of Africa off the Summit agenda in favour of his new "peace plan" for the Middle East. In true theatrical tradition, Chretien prevailed and succeeded in keeping the three-hour discussion of African problems on the agenda.

In reality, there was never any danger of the issue being pushed off centre stage. A supporting cast of African leaders were already ensconced behind barricades, waiting for their cue to plead with the world''s eight most powerful capitalist countries for a "new deal" for Africa. Their proposal - the New Partnership for African Development, or Nepad for short - is neither new nor a partnership. Rather, it is the same old neo-liberal "restructuring" policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a new twist. This time, instead of the IMF presenting the proposals and insisting that African leaders submit to them, the IMF has coerced various African leaders to adopt the IMF program as their own and demand that the G8 countries implement it.

Following the victory of various African national liberation struggles against European colonialism during the 1960s and 1970s, African economies grew at unprecedented rates. However, those economies were based almost exclusively on the supply of raw materials to the manufacturing economies of North America and Europe. During the 1980s the most powerful capitalist countries conspired to depress the prices of raw materials, while prices of manufactured products continued to soar. The result was the destruction of the resource-based economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The IMF then stepped in to impose onerous debt-reduction measures on these countries, resulting in their total bankruptcy. Economic bankruptcy, in turn, led to the collapse of democracy and democratic institutions in these countries.

The Nepad proposal mentions nothing about this historical reality. Instead, various African leaders blame the Africans, themselves, for all of their problems. According to Nepad, all of Africa's economic woes stem from the corruption and anti-democratic practices of various African governments.

Through this sleight-of-hand the G8 masters of the world have succeeded only in transforming the tragedy of Africa into a farce, in which the corrupt African leaders will be taught the "principles" of democracy, accountability and honest government by the likes of Jean Chretien and George W. Bush.