Foreign Experts Killing the African Dream
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
April 21, 2006
Posted to the web April 20, 2006
By James Shikwati
Nairobi
This continent never had a joint dream. This, however, license NGOs from
developed countries, think tanks and governments to mess up the great
opportunity presented by modernism for Africans to create an African dream.
African intellectuals, businesspeople and policy-makers must soberly
seek ways to stem the rising tide of intellectual onslaughts from the
West on the future of Africa.
Under colonialism, Africa boasted of a huge percentage of exports to the
developed world. Countries such as Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, were touted
as the breadbasket of Africa.
A friend in South Africa pointed out recently that apartheid was very
efficient when it came to security issues. What is it that makes it
difficult for Africans to manage their own affairs effectively?
The few international magazines and newspapers I have read in the last
one year appear to have a common story-line on Africa - famine,
corruption, war, disease.
Proposed solutions intriguing
The proposed solutions to these apparent problems are even more
intriguing - monetary aid, technical assistance, capacity building and
environmentalism, among others.
Most African newspapers portray rich nations as bent on a rescue mission
in Africa, save for occasional dissent from the likes of former
President Moi, President Mugabe and lately President Museveni. Are
Africans being rescued or killed?
The malaria season is here. Sample this: 21 per cent of Uganda's
hospital deaths and 13 per cent in government hospitals Kenya are due to
malaria.
The figures exclude all those who die of malaria without ever reaching
hospital. The mosquito is wreaking havoc on Africans. But there is
little they can do because they have to ensure they do not lose markets
for their agricultural produce in Europe.
African children must continue to die because, according to the head of
the Economic, Trade and Social Sector desk at the EU delegation in
Uganda, consumer organisations in Europe will pressure supermarkets not
to sell Ugandan products in Europe.
"We have advised the government that they are taking a risk if they go
ahead with this DDT use- " The EastAfrican quoted Mr Tom Vens as saying.
Uganda's Health minister Jim Muhwezi is reported to insist that Uganda
will go ahead and use DDT to kill mosquitoes by spraying indoors. He
denies claims that DDT causes impotence, infertility, neurological
damage, and cancer.
These are among other reasons that activists cite for America and
Europe's fear of the pesticide. The solution by Western think-tanks? Use
treated mosquito nets.
On the famine front, drought is wreaking havoc, locusts and other pests
are destroying crops in Africa.
According to African Union figures, the continent has the lowest
fertiliser use in the world, at 25 kilogrammes a hectare, and loses up
to 30 per cent of harvested crop due to poor storage.
But what do activists in Europe recommend? African baby-sitting experts,
such as the Pesticide Action Network of Britain, are on the frontline
fighting the possible introduction of pesticides in Africa.
One of their reports, entitled Pesticides, Poverty and Food Security,
concludes that "pesticide reliance imposes particularly high burdens on
poorer farmers, many of whom are women, and generates additional costs
in health and loss of livestock, and undermines farm productivity."
The solution: Give priority to alternative field and storage pest
management methods, support use of bio-pesticides, invest in organic
production for local and export markets, and wait for food aid if these
methods fail.
But, according to India's Dr Prasanna Srinivasan, since 1961,
agricultural output has outstripped global population growth by 20 per
cent, with a proportionate increase in per capita food availability.
He attributes the increase by 60-70 per cent of agricultural output to
improved agricultural technologies.
What the international headline-grabbing images of the perceived poverty
in Africa do not tell the world is the double role international
activists' play in Africa's plight.
They fight known solutions and offer ideal solutions, leaving Africa
static and desperate. Africans must stop them before the present
disastrous trend reaches irrevocable levels.
Playing with lives of Africans
The above two cases illustrate how the developed countries are playing
around with the lives of Africans by putting up barriers to development.
Africans cannot export unless they meet the stringent anti-chemical
standards set up by the developed nations. African children must keep
dying until such a time as some developed country scientist will approve
the use of certain methods to destroy mosquitoes.
Africans must continue to perish due to lack of food because developed
country experts forbid the use of technology to turn around the famine
situation.
African intellectuals, for their part, are a big letdown. When will they
independently scrutinise some of these so-called international standards
to establish whether a whole generation of people is being destroyed in
the name of the environment?
Africans must put up a team of independent legal and scientific experts
to establish the authenticity of the anti-technology activism.
Should their arguments be found to be driven by mere greed to raise
funds, they should be held accountable for each and every African death
and made to pay for it.
Mr Shikwati is the director of the Inter-Region Economic Network and
co-ordinator of the Africa Resource Bank
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