A group of African Christians met last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and issued a searing attack on what it called “neoliberal economic policies” and the exploitation of Africa by the developed world. An article at the Web site of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches stated:
A severe reminder “of the wealth that was built and sustained on the continued extraction and plunder of Africa’s resources as well as on the exploitation of Africa’s people” was addressed to Christians in the global North by the participants in the African ecumenical consultation “Linking poverty, wealth and ecology” last week.
At the 5-9 November gathering in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, some fifty women and men of faith from Africa and beyond – youth, activists, theologians and church leaders–worked on ecumenical strategies and actions for addressing the interlinked problems of poverty, excessive wealth, and ecological degradation.
I wonder what is meant by “Africa and beyond,” since there are no names attached to the published statement, which can be found here. A lot of the rhetoric smacks of left-wing Western feminism and neo-Marxism, but that doesn’t mean that the critique is all wet:
Structures of domination and exploitation based on class, gender, or ethnicity are sinful, they declared, citing the woeful heritage of slavery and colonialism alongside negative consequences of neoliberal globalization.
“Neoliberal trade policies and patent systems that force Africa to produce cash crops for export” and bar poor people from access to medicine and healthcare, as well as reduced chances for young people in privatized educational systems are concrete grievances named in the final statement. It also denounces “desperate economic conditions produced by systemic trade deficits, external indebtedness and structural adjustment” that abet ecological destruction, insecure labour, human trafficking and violent conflict over resources.
There’s a lot of truth here, but as I read through the DeS statement I kept looking for some recognition that Africans themselves bear at least some portion of responsibility for the condition of the continent. There was virtually none. The only reference that could be taken to even hint at it was one to African elites as “agents of empire.” Beyond that, there was no suggestion that among the problems that keep Africa mired in poverty are:
*Expropriation of foreign assets by kleptocratic governments, scaring away foreign investment.
* Lack of transparency in government, making it impossible for outsiders (including citizens) to make long-term plans.
*Lack of respect for basics for stable and healthy societies such as freedom of speech, an independent press and judiciary, civilian rule over the military, free association, free markets, etc.
*An unwillingness to play by the same rules as the rest of the international community.
*A refusal to abandon destructive personal behaviors by millions of Africans, especially men (AIDS has become epidemic in Africa almost entirely because of heterosexual male promiscuity, even as the president of South Africa continues to deny that AIDS is sexually transmitted).
Recognizing these realities isn’t a matter of blaming the victim. It’s a matter of recognizing that the plight of Africa can’t be solved solely by Western groveling, much less by “reparations” (which the statement calls for, and which, if the demand were met by the West, would as things stand simply mean billions more dollars and euros going to the Swiss bank accounts of various thugs). It will only happen through African-Western cooperation that will entail, among other things, Africans putting their own house in order through instituting such basic political and economic necessities as those mentioned above. And all the carping in the world about “patriarchal structures” and “imperial ideologies” won’t get it done.
