From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Fri Jul 24 2009 - 22:53:18 EDT
Barack Obama’s three misdeeds in Africa
By CADTM
Global Research, July 21, 2009
Article authored by
Emilie Tamadaho Atchaca (Benin), Solange Koné (Ivory Coast), Jean Victor
Lemvo (Congo Brazzaville), Damien Millet (France), Luc Mukendi and Victor
Nzuzi (Congo Kinshasa), Sophie Perchellet (France), Aminata Barry Touré
(Mali), Eric Toussaint (Belgium), Ibrahim Yacouba (Niger)[1]
After the G8 summit in Italy , US President Barack Obama flew off to Africa
with a so-called gift: an envelope of 20 billion dollars to distribute over
3 years, so that “generous” donors in the rich countries could
“help” reduce world hunger. While the promise to eradicate hunger has
been made on a regular basis since 1970, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published a report last month indicating
that the number of undernourished people has passed the one billion point,
that is 100 million more over the past year. At the same time, the United
Nations World Food Programme (WFP) sounded the alarm bell and announced
that it had to cut rations distributed in Rwanda , Uganda , Ethiopia ,
North Korea and Kenya (Obama’s paternal family’s home country),
principally due to the reduction in contributions from the US , its main
donor[2].
Beyond the effect of President Obama’s announcement, the latest in a long
list of good intentions that have done nothing to improve the current
situation, it is worth recalling that the 20 billion dollar aid figure over
3 years amounts to less than 2% of the sums the US spent in 2008-2009 to
save the bankers and insurers responsible for the crisis.
After extending a hand to the “Muslim friends” in his Cairo speech
(while continuing to destabilise the Middle East region behind the scenes),
after a hand held out to the “Russian friends” (while maintaining his
stance on the Eastern European anti-missile shield), now Obama is extending
a hand to the “African friends” (while keeping his neocolonial cap
firmly atop his head).
When Obama lets the rich countries off the hook
Obama’s long address in Accra , Ghana , follows up on a series of
meetings with his counterparts abroad. Under the pretext of setting new
bases for US relations with the rest of the world, once again Obama has
excelled in the art of advocating openness and change, while continuing to
implement his forerunners’ disastrous policies[3].
>From the outset, he stated that it was “up to Africans to determine
Africa ’s future”. And yet, while everyone can agree with this
statement that makes perfect sense on the face of it, in reality this is
not always put into practice, and the G8 countries over the past
half-century have played a key role in depriving African peoples of their
sovereignty. Obama doesn’t fail to remind us “I have the blood of
Africa within me”, as if this automatically provided more strength and
legitimacy to his message. In any case the message was clearly conveyed:
the colonialism their ancestors were victims of should no longer provide
excuses for Africans. This is very similar to the speech French President
Nicolas Sarkozy pronounced in Dakar a few months after his election. But
Sarkozy’s speech sparked a wave of well-deserved protest, and so far
Obama has miraculously averted such a response… But now we will do what
it takes to end this injustice!
Straight off, Obama let the Western world off the hook for the current
state of the African continent’s development. Declaring, “development
depends upon good governance” and “that is a responsibility that can
only be met by Africans”[4], he starts out from the false observation
that the poverty plaguing Africa is primarily due to poor governance or the
free choices of African leaders. In short, it is Africans’ fault. Nothing
could be farther from the truth!
With affirmations such as “the West is not responsible for the
destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in
which children are enlisted as combatants”[5], President Obama is
downplaying the rich countries’ central role in the course Africa has
taken. And in particular the role of the major international financial
institutions, starting from IMF and the World Bank, which are powerful
instruments of the great powers’ domination organizing the subjection of
the peoples of the South. This is done via structural adjustment policies
(end to subsidies for staple goods, drastic cuts in public spending,
privatisation of public companies, market liberalization, etc.) that make
it impossible to meet basic needs, spread deep poverty at breakneck speed,
increase inequalities and make the worst horrors possible.
When Obama compares incomparable situations
To back up his statements, Obama compared Africa to South Korea . Firstly,
he explained that fifty years ago, “when my father travelled to the
United States from Kenya to study, at that time the per capita income and
Gross Domestic Product of Kenya was higher than South Korea's”, before he
added: “There had been some talk about the legacies of colonialism and
other policies by wealthier nations, and without in any way diminishing
that history, the point I made was that the South Korean government,
working with the private sector and civil society, was able to create a set
of institutions that provided transparency and accountability[6]. Regular
and attentive readers of CADTM publications choked on that one!
This is because South Korea ’s supposed economic success[7] came about
despite the recommendations imposed by the World Bank on most other
developing countries. After the Second World War and up until 1961, the
military dictatorship in power in South Korea benefited from significant
donations from the United States , totalling the sum of 3.1 billion
dollars. This is more than all World Bank loans to the other Third-World
countries during the same period! Thanks to these donations, South Korea
did not have to go into debt for 17 years (1945-1961). External borrowing
only became significant from the end of the 1970s, once Korea ’s
industrialisation was well under way.
So everything started out in Korea through an iron-fisted dictatorship that
implemented a statist and highly protectionist policy. Washington set up
this dictatorship in the wake of the Second World War. The State imposed a
radical agrarian reform under which big Japanese landowners were
expropriated without compensation. The peasants took on ownership of small
plots of land (equivalent to up to 3 hectares per family) and the State
expropriated the surplus crops, formerly pocketed by Japanese landowners
when Korea was a Nippon colony. The land reform set stringent restrictions
on the peasantry. The State set prices and production quotas, not allowing
for the free play of market forces.
>From 1961 to 1979, the World Bank backed Park Chung Hee’s military
dictatorship although Korea refused to follow the Bank’s development
model. At the time, the state was planning the country’s economic
development with an iron fist. Continuing to implement a policy of
industrialisation by substitution for imports and the overexploitation of
the working class were two ingredients in the country’s economic success.
The World Bank did back Chun Doo Whan’s dictatorship (1980-1987) although
the Bank’s recommendations were not always followed (particularly in
terms of restructuring the automotive sector).
Thus when Obama declared, “the South Korean government, working with the
private sector and civil society, was able to create a set of institutions
that provided transparency and accountability”[8] he failed to mention
that the private sector was clearly guided by the State and the Korean
dictatorship “dialogued” with civil society by guns and cannons. The
history of South Korea from 1945 until the early 1980s was marked by
massacres and brutal repression.
It is also important to refresh Barack Obama’s memory as he refers to the
Zimbabwean example to illustrate Africans’ failure and comparing it to
the South Korean model. The year Zimbabwe achieved independence (1980) was
marked by popular uprisings against the South Korean military dictatorship.
These were crushed in blood; more than 500 civilians were killed by the
military with Washington ’s backing[9]. At this time, and since 1945, the
South Korean armed forces were put under a joint US-Korean command, itself
under the control of the commander-in-chief of United States forces in
South Korea . The massacres perpetrated by the South Korean army in May
1980 were completed by a massive repression in the following months.
According to an official report dated 9 February 1981 , over 57,000 people
were arrested during the “Social Purification Campaign” underway since
the summer of 1980. Almost 39,000 of these people were sent to military
camps for “physical and psychological re-education”. In February 1981,
the dictator Chun Doo Hwan was received at the White House by the new
United States President, Ronald Reagan. Is this the example Obama wants to
offer to the people of Zimbabwe and other African countries?
Korea’s geostrategic position was one of its major assets until the end
of the 1980s, enabling it to avert IMF and World Bank control. But in the
1990s, the entire geopolitical situation was in disarray following the
collapse of the Soviet bloc. Washington ’s attitude towards allied
dictatorships shifted gradually, accepting to support civil governments.
Between 1945 and 1992, South Korea lived under a military regime with
Washington ’s blessing. The first civil opponent elected to the
presidency in an open election was Kim Youngsam, who accepted the
Washington Consensus and implemented a clearly neoliberal agenda
(elimination of tariff barriers, multiple privatisations, liberalization of
capital movements), plunging South Korea into the 1997-1998 South-East
Asian economic crisis. In the meantime, South Korea was able to achieve an
industrialisation the rich countries refused in Africa ’s case. We can
thereby understand to what extent the South Korean model is unconvincing
and can’t be reproduced everywhere.
Moreover, South Korea ’s relative lack of natural resources paradoxically
favoured its development because the country avoided transnational
corporations’ resource lust. The United States viewed Korea as a
strategic zone from a military standpoint, facing the USSR bloc, not as
crucial sources of supplies (as were Nigeria , Angola and Congo-Kinshasa).
If Korea had major reserves of oil or other strategic raw materials,
Washington would not have allowed it the same elbowroom to develop a
powerful industrial complex. The United States are not prepared to
deliberately foster the emergence of powerful competitors with both major
natural reserves and diversified industries.
When Obama pardons capitalism for its misdeeds
As for the current economic crisis, Obama spoke out against the
irresponsible risk-taking of a few, sparking a recession that has swept the
world. Thus, he conveys the impression that this crisis was caused by the
irresponsibility of a handful of individuals whose excesses plunged the
world into recession. This analysis eclipses the responsibility of those
who have imposed financial deregulation for almost thirty years, above all
the United States . It would be more precise to underline the productivist
capitalist development model, painfully imposed by the countries of the
North, as the source of the many crises underway. These are not merely
economic crises, but also food, migratory, social, environmental and
climate crises.
All these crises originate with decisions made by imperialist governments
in the North, and above all the United States government which controls
both the IMF and World Bank, so it can impose conditionalities favourable
to its interests and those of its major firms. Since the early 1960s, when
most African countries achieved “independence”, IMF and the World Bank
have been a kind of Trojan horse to promote the appropriation of natural
resources and defend creditors’ interests. By supporting dictatorships in
many corners of the world, (Mobutu in Zaire, Suharto in Indonesia, Pinochet
in Chile and so many others), then by forcing the implementation of harsh
antisocial policies, successive Western governments have never allowed for
the guarantee of basic human rights throughout the world. Expressions such
as “right to self-determination”, “democracy”, “economic and
political rights” are not realities in Africa , contrary to the crushing
weight of debt repayments and the pleas of the starving.
When will African emancipation come?
Africa was broken by the devastating slave trade system in the context of
the triangular international trade established by Europe and its settlers
in the Americas from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Then it was held in
trusteeship by European colonialism from the end of the 19th century until
independence. Thereafter, Africa has been held in dependency through the
mechanism of the debt and public development aid. After African countries
achieved independence, they were handed over to potentates (Mobutu, Bongo,
Eyadema, Amin Dada, Bokassa, Biya…) most of whom were protected by the
European capitals and by Washington . Several important African leaders who
sought autonomous development that would promote their peoples were
assassinated on the orders of Paris , Brussels , London or Washington
(Patrice Lumumba in 1961, Sylvanus Olympio in 1963, Thomas Sankara in
1987…). The African ruling classes and the political regimes they
established have a very clear share in the responsibility for Africa ’s
litany of misfortunes. Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe is one of
these. Today, the peoples of Africa are directly affected by the effects of
the world crisis whose epicentre is in Washington and Wall Street,
revealing that capitalism is up against an impasse unacceptable for
peoples. Barack Obama’s African origins are a godsend for businesses in
his country defending very specific economic interests in the exploitation
of Africa ’s resources. This is a reality that Obama sweeps away with the
back of his hand, as he continues a paternalistic and moralising path in
order to convince Africans not to undertake the struggle for meaningful
independence and real development, finally guaranteeing the full
satisfaction of human needs.
Translated by Maria Gatti.
[1] Emilie Tamadaho Atchaca is president of CADD Benin, Solange Koné is a
women’s rights activist in Ivory Coast, Jean Victor Lemvo - Solidaire-
Pointe Noire (Congo Brazzaville), Damien Millet is the CADTM France
spokesperson, Luc Mukendi is the coordinator of AMSEL / CADTM LUBUMBASHI ,
Victor Nzuzi is a farmer, coordinator of GRAPR and NAD Kinshasa, Sophie
Perchellet is a researcher at CADTM Belgium , Aminata Barry Touré is
president of CAD-Mali/Coordinator of the Peoples’ Forum, Eric Toussaint
is president of CADTM Belgium , Ibrahim Yacouba is a trade unionist in
Niger, … all are members of the international CADTM network,
www.cadtm.org
[2] See the Financial Times (FT) 12 June 2009 . According to FT, Burham
Philbrook, the US Undersecretary of State for Agriculture declared that
Washington could not guarantee funding of WFP at the level of 2008, during
which the United States had brought 2 billion dollars to the WFP budget.
Also according to FT, Philbrook suggested that WFP had to reduce its aid
although he knew perfectly well that the number of hungry people increased
in 2009.
[3] This continuity is also visible in Obama’s failure to take action in
the putsch in Honduras . While denouncing it, he lets matters slide.
Furthermore, the Pentagon is very close to the putschists. The latter would
not remain in power if the Pentagon gave them the order to withdraw.
[4] http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56711G20090711
[5] http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=165220
[6] From Obama’s statement at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila .
[7] See Eric Toussaint , World Bank : A Critical Primer, Pluto-Between the
Lines-David Philip, London-Toronto-Cape Town, 2007, chapter 11, “South
Korea: the miracle unmasked”. online:
http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?article1847
[8] http://seoul.usembassy.gov/pres_071009.html
[9] Eric Toussaint , chapter 11, “ South Korea : the miracle unmasked”,
p. 117.
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