Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial African Issues

PART 1. Development ISSUE 1. Is Africa a Lost Cause? YES: Gavin Kitching, from "Why I Gave Up African Studies," African Studies Review and Newsletter (June 2000) NO: Jeff Popke, from "'The Politics of the Mirror': On Geography and Afro-Pessimism," African Geographical Review (December 2001) Gavin Kitching, professor of political science at the University of New South Wales, left the field of African studies because he "found it depressing." According to Kitching, Africanist scholars have failed to see Africa's own ruling elites as the principal culprits for the continent's dire predicament. He suggests that we "have to ask what it is about the history and culture of sub-Saharan Africa that has led to... its disastrous present." Jeff Popke, a professor of geography at East Carolina University, challenges the notion that "Africa's 'failure' is due to its backward and uncivilized culture." He suggests that Afro-pessimists are prone to ethnocentric assessments of Africa that judge the continent on Western rather than African terms. While African realities may not reflect our own assumptions about modernity, he argues that Africans are pursuing their own vision of development with great skill. ISSUE 2. Has the Colonial Experience Negatively Distorted Contemporary African Development Patterns? YES: Marcus Colchester, from "Slave and Enclave: Towards a Political Ecology of Equatorial Africa," The Ecologist (September/October 1993) NO: Robin M. Grier, from "Colonial Legacies and Economic Growth," Public Choice (March 1999) Marcus Colchester, director of the Forest Peoples Programme of the World Rainforest Movement, argues that rural communities in equatorial Africa are today on the point of collapse because they have been weakened by centuries of outside intervention. In Gabon, the Congo, and the Central African Republic, an enduring colonial legacy of the French are lands and forests controlled by state institutions that operate as patron-client networks to enrich indigenous elite and outside commercial interests. Robin M. Grier, assistant professor of economics at the University of Oklahoma, contends that African colonies that were held for longer periods of time tend to have performed better, on average, after independence. ISSUE 3. Have Structural Adjustment Policies Been Effective at Promoting Development in Africa? YES: Gerald Scott, from "Who Has Failed Africa? IMF Measures or the African Leadership?" Journal of Asian and African Studies (August 1998) NO: Macleans A. Geo-Jaja and Garth Mangum, from "Structural Adjustment as an Inadvertent Enemy of Human Development in Africa," Journal of Black Studies (September 2001) Gerald Scott, an economist at Florida State University, argues that structural adjustment programs are the most promising option for promoting economic growth in Africa and asserts that mismanagement and corruption are responsible for prohibiting economic growth. Macleans A. Geo-Jaja, associate professor of economics and education at Brigham Young University, and Garth Mangum, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Utah, argue that structural adjustment programs and stabilization policies rarely have been effective. Rather, they contend that the available evidence indicates that these policies have "accentuated the deterioration in the human condition and further compounded the already poor economic conditions in many African countries." ISSUE 4. Are Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) More Effective at Facilitating Development Than Government Agencies? YES: Maria Julia, from "One NGO's Contribution to Women's Economic Empowerment and Social Development in Zimbabwe," Journal of Social Development in Africa (1999) NO: Giles Mohan, from "The Disappointments of Civil Society: The Politics of NGO Intervention in Northern Ghana," Political Geography (2002) Maria Julia, professor of social work at Ohio State University, argues that the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is critical for facilitating the empowerment and development of poor women in Zimbabwe. She makes this point by examining the role of a micro-credit NGO that provides financial assistance, as well as educational and emotional support to female entrepreneurs. Giles Mohan, a lecturer in development studies at the Open University, presents a case study of non-governmental organization (NGO) intervention in northern Ghana. His examination reveals that tensions exist between the northern NGO and its partners, that local NGOs create their own mini-empires of client villages, and that some NGO officers use their organizations for personal promotion. ISSUE 5. Should Developed Countries Provide Debt Relief to the Poorest, Indebted African Nations? YES: Dorothy Logie and Michael Rowson, from "Poverty and Health: Debt Relief Could Help Achieve Human Rights Objectives," Health and Human Rights (1998) NO: Robert Snyder, from "Proclaiming Jubilee-for Whom?" Christian Century (June 30-July 7, 1999) Dorothy Logie, a general practitioner and active member of Medact, and Michael Rowson, assistant director of Medact, argue that debt is a human-rights issue because debt and related structural adjustment policies reduce the state's ability to address discrimination, vulnerability, and inequality. Debt relief, if channeled in the right direction, could help reduce poverty and promote health. Robert Snyder, an associate professor of biology at Greenville College, counters that debt cancellation will only work if the factors that created debt in the first place are addressed. He uses a case study of Rwanda to demonstrate why political and social change must occur for debt forgiveness to work.PART 2. Agriculture, Food, and the Environment ISSUE 6. Will Biotech Solve Africa's Food Problems? YES: Florence Wambugu, from "Why Africa Needs Agricultural Biotech," Nature (July 1, 1999) NO: Brian Halweil, from "Biotech, African Corn, and the Vampire Weed," World Watch (September/October 2001) Florence Wambugu, CEO of Harvest Biotech Foundation International, argues for the development and use of agricultural biotechnology in Africa to help address food shortages, environmental degradation, and poverty. She asserts that only wealthy nations have the luxury of refusing this technology. In a case study examining attempts to control the parasitic Striga weed, Brian Halweil, a research associate at the Worldwatch Institute, questions whether producing maize that is bio-engineered for herbicide resistance is really the best approach in the African context. He suggests that improved soil fertility management practices and mixed cropping are more appropriate and accessible strategies. ISSUE 7. Is Food Production in Africa Incapable of Keeping Up With Population Growth? YES: W. Thomas Conelly and Miriam S. Chaiken, from "Intensive Farming, Agro-Diversity, and Food Security Under Conditions of Extreme Population Pressure in Western Kenya," Human Ecology (2000) NO: Michael Mortimore and Mary Tiffen, from "Population and Environment in Time Perspective: The Machakos Story," in Tony Binns, ed., People and Environment in Africa (John Wiley and Sons, 1995) W. Thomas Conelly and Miriam S. Chaiken, both professors of anthropology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, examine an area in Western Kenya that has very high population densities. Despite the wide variety of sophisticated practices that maintain a high level of agro-diversity, they conclude that intense population pressure has led to smaller land holdings, poorer diet quality, and declining food security. Michael Mortimore, a geographer, and Mary Tiffen, a historian and socio-economist, both with Drylands Research, investigate population and food production trajectories in Machakos, Kenya. They determine that increasing population density has had a positive influence on environmental management and crop production. Furthermore, they found that food production kept up with population growth from 1930 to 1987. ISSUE 8. Are Abundant Mineral and Energy Resources a Catalyst for African Development? YES: Oliver Maponga and Philip Maxwell, from "The Fall and Rise of African Mining," Minerals and Energy (2001) NO: Sunday Dare, from "A Continent in Crisis: Africa and Globalization," Dollars and Sense (July/August 2001) Oliver Maponga, chair of the Institute of Mining Research at the University of Zimbabwe, and Philip Maxwell, professor at the Western Australian School of Mines at Curtin University of Technology, describe a resurgence in the African mining industry in the 1990s after several lackluster decades. They assert that mineral and energy mining can make a positive contribution to economic development in Africa. Sunday Dare, a Nigerian journalist, describes how "much sorrow has flowed" from Africa's resource blessing. While Dare blames African leaders for corruption and resource mismanagement, he also implicates transnational corporations (TNCs) as key contributors to this problem. He states that TNCs have acted as economic predators that support repressive African leaders in order to garner uninterrupted access to resources. The result, Dare suggests, is that Africa's "raw materials are still being depleted without general development." ISSUE 9. Are Integrated Conservation and Development Programs a Potenti
al Solution to Conflicts Between Parks and Local People? YES: William D. Newmark and John L. Hough, from "Conserving Wildlife in Africa: Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and Beyond," BioScience (July 2000) NO: Roderick P. Neumann, from "Primitive Ideas: Protected Area Buffer Zones and the Politics of Land in Africa," Development and Change (July 1997) William D. Newmark, research curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah, and John L. Hough, global environment facility coordinator for biodiversity and international waters for the United Nations Development Programme, acknowledge the limited success of integrated conservation and development programs to date in Africa, but see great promise for success in the future. They call for more adaptive management in which activities are monitored, evaluated, and reformulated in an interactive fashion. Roderick P. Neumann, associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of International Relations at Florida International University, argues that protected area buffer zone programs have not lived up to their initial intent of greater participation and benefit sharing. Rather, these programs duplicate more coercive forms of conservation practice associated with parks and facilitate the expansion of state authority into remote rural areas. ISSUE 10. Is Sub-Saharan Africa Experiencing a Deforestation Crisis? YES: Kevin M. Cleaver and Goetz A. Schreiber, from Reversing the Spiral: The Population, Agriculture, and Environment Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa (The World Bank, 1994) NO: Thomas J. Bassett and Koli Bi Zueli, from "Environmental Discourses and the Ivorian Savanna," Annals of the Association of American Geographers (March 2000) World Bank economists Kevin M. Cleaver and Goetz A. Schreiber argue that Africa is engaged in a downward spiral of population growth, poor agricultural performance, and environmental degradation. Academic geographers Thomas J. Bassett and Koli Bi Zueli, counter that it is dominant perceptions of environmental change, rather than concrete evidence, that lie behind the widely held belief that Africa is engaged in an "environmental crisis of staggering proportions."PART 3. Social Issues ISSUE 11. Should Female Genital Cutting Be Accepted as a Cultural Practice? YES: Richard A. Shweder, from "What About 'Female Genital Mutilation'? And Why Understanding Culture Matters in the First Place," Daedalus (Fall 2000) NO: Liz Creel et al., from "Abandoning Female Genital Cutting: Prevalence, Attitudes, and Efforts to End the Practice," A Report of the Population Reference Bureau (August 2001) Richard A. Shweder, professor of human development at the University of Chicago, acknowledges the adverse reaction that most Westerners have to female genital cutting (FGC), but he also notes that women from certain African countries are repulsed by the idea of unmodified female genitals. He suggests, "We should be slow to judge the unfamiliar practice of female genital alterations, in part because the horrifying assertions by... activists concerning the consequences of the practice... are not well supported with credible scientific evidence." Liz Creel, senior policy analyst at the Population Reference Bureau, and her colleagues, argue that female genital cutting (FGC), while it must be dealt with in a culturally sensitive manner, is a practice that is detrimental to the health of girls and women, as well as a violation of human rights in most instances. Creel et al. recommend that African governments pass anti-FGC laws, and that programs be expanded to educate communities about FGC and human rights. ISSUE 12. Should International Drug Companies Provide HIV/AIDS Drugs to Africa Free of Charge? YES: Akin Jimoh, from "'Raise the Alarm Loudly': Africa Confronts the AIDS Pandemic," Dollars and Sense (May/June 2001) NO: Siddhartha Mukherjee, from "Take Your Medicine," The New Republic (July 24, 2000) Akin Jimoh, program director of Development Communications, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Lagos, Nigeria, argues that the AIDS epidemic in Africa is linked to a number of factors, including the high cost of drugs. He describes how some of the big drug companies, in the face of international protests, begrudgingly agreed to lower the price of anti-HIV medications in Africa. "The companies, however, remain steadfast about keeping their patent rights, which would leave ultimate control over prices and availability in their hands." Siddhartha Mukherjee, a resident in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School, asserts that the availability of cheap anti-HIV drugs in Africa, without adequate health care networks to monitor their distribution and use, is dangerous. If such medications are not taken consistently and over the prescribed length of time, new strains of HIV are likely to develop more quickly that are resistant to these drugs. He states that investment in health care infrastructure must accompany any distribution of cheap anti-HIV medications. ISSUE 13. Is "Overpopulation" a Major Cause of Poverty in Africa? YES: Partha S. Dasgupta, from "Population, Poverty, and the Local Environment," Scientific American (February 1995) NO: Bernard I. Logan, from "Overpopulation and Poverty in Africa: Rethinking the Traditional Relationship," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (1991) Partha S. Dasgupta, a professor of economics at the University of Cambridge, contends that many African families have too many children because the benefits of having an additional child outweigh the costs (especially since the expense of childrearing is subsidized by the greater community). According to Dasgupta, there is a vicious cycle in operation in which overpopulation leads to the depletion of community resources, creating greater poverty and leading individual families to have even more children in an attempt to reverse this poverty. Bernard I. Logan, a professor of geography at the University of Georgia, argues that Africa is not overpopulated when absolute population numbers are compared to the resource base. The problem is that the terms of exchange between Africa and its European trading partners are unfairly set, diminishing the returns that Africans see on their own resources. This leads to a situation where Africans are subsidizing European consumption at the expense of their own livelihoods. ISSUE 14. Is Sexual Promiscuity a Major Reason for the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Africa? YES: William A. Rushing, from The AIDS Epidemic: Social Dimensions of an Infectious Disease (Westview Press, 1995) NO: Joseph R. Oppong and Ezekiel Kalipeni, from "A Cross-Cultural Perspective on AIDS in Africa: A Response to Rushing," African Rural and Urban Studies (1996) William A. Rushing, late professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University, explains the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa in terms of how Africans express and give social meaning to sex. He argues that the confluence of a set of sex-related behavioral patterns and gender stratification explains the HIV/AIDS infection rate. According to Rushing, these behavioral patterns include polygamous marriage practices, weak conjugal bonds, the transactional nature of sexual relations, the centrality of sexual conquest to male identity, and sex-positive cultures. Joseph R. Oppong, associate professor of geography at the University of North Texas, and Ezekiel Kalipeni, associate professor of geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, take issue with Rushing's conclusions. They contend that his analysis is Americentric, suffers from overgeneralizations, and problematically depicts Africans as sex-positive (and by implication, promiscuous and immoral). They assert that Rushing's cultural stereotypes are far too general to provide any meaningful insight into the AIDS crisis in Africa. An understanding of historical and contemporary migration patterns, as well as associated phenomena, better explain the spread of the virus. ISSUE 15. Is the Use of European Languages as the Medium of Instruction in African Educational Institutions More Negative Than Positive? YES: Grace Bunyi, from "Rethinking the Place of African Indigenous Languages in African Education," International Journal of Educational Development (1999) NO: Veronique Wakerley, from "The Status of European Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of European Studies (June 1994) Grace Bunyi, a researcher at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya, argues that educating children in their own language is pedagogically more effective, and that mass education in indigenous African languages is the surest way to increase literacy rates and to further develop the human capital necessary for economic development. Veronique Wakerley, a professor of modern languages at the University of Zimbabwe, sees a role for local language instruction at the primary level, especially if the student is unlikely to go further in his or her studies. However, she asserts that instruction in a language such as English is more effective at higher levels because it allows access to the international community. ISSUE 16. Are Women in a Position to Challenge Male Power Structures in Africa? YES: Richard A. Schroeder, from Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politi
cs in The Gambia (University of California Press, 1999) NO: Human Rights Watch, from "Double Standards: Women's Property Rights Violations in Kenya," A Report of Human Rights Watch (March 2003) Richard A. Schroeder, an associate professor of geography at Rutgers University, presents a case study of a group of female gardeners in The Gambia who, because of their growing economic clout, began to challenge male power structures. Women, who were the traditional gardeners in the community studied, came to have greater income earning capacity than men as the urban market for garden produce grew. Furthermore, women could meet their needs and wants without recourse to their husbands because of this newly found economic power. Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization, describes how women in Kenya have property rights unequal to those of men, and how even these limited rights are frequently violated. It is further explained how women have little awareness of their rights, that those "who try to fight back are often beaten, raped, or ostracized," and how the Kenyan government has done little to address the situation.PART 4. Politics, Governance, and Conflict Resolution ISSUE 17. Are Multi-Party Democratic Traditions Taking Hold in Africa? YES: Michael Bratton and Robert Mattes, from "Support for Democracy in Africa: Intrinsic or Instrumental?" British Journal of Political Science (July 2001) NO: Joel D. Barkan, from "The Many Faces of Africa: Democracy Across a Varied Continent," Harvard International Review (Summer 2002) Michael Bratton, professor of political science at Michigan State University, and Robert Mattes, associate professor of political studies and director of the Democracy in Africa Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, find as much popular support for democracy in Zambia, South Africa, and Ghana as in other regions of the developing world, despite the fact that the citizens of these countries tend to be less satisfied with the economic performance of their elected governments. Joel D. Barkan, professor of political science at the University of Iowa and senior consultant on governance at the World Bank, takes a less sanguine view of the situation in Africa. He suggests that one can be cautiously optimistic about the situation in roughly one-third of the states on the African continent, nations he classifies as consolidated democracies and as aspiring democracies. He asserts that one must be realistic about the possibilities for the remainder of African nations, countries he classifies into three groups: stalled democracies, those that are not free, and those that are mired in civil war. ISSUE 18. Is Foreign Assistance Useful for Fostering Democracy in Africa? YES: Arthur A. Goldsmith, from "Donors, Dictators, and Democrats in Africa," The Journal of Modern African Studies (2001) NO: Julie Hearn, from "Aiding Democracy? Donors and Civil Society in South Africa," Third World Quarterly (2000) Arthur A. Goldsmith, professor of management at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, examines the relationship between the amount of development assistance given to sub-Saharan African countries in the 1990s and the evolution of their political systems. He suggests that there is a positive, but small, correlation between donor assistance and democratization during this period. He views aid as insurance to prevent countries from sliding back into one-party or military rule. Julie Hearn, lecturer in development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, investigates democracy assistance in South Africa. She critically examines the role assigned to civil society by donors, questioning the "emancipatory potential" of the kind of democracy being promoted. ISSUE 19. Are African Governments Inherently Disposed to Corruption? YES: Robert I. Rotberg, from "Africa's Mess, Mugabe's Mayhem," Foreign Affairs (September/October 2000) NO: Arthur A. Goldsmith, from "Risk, Rule, and Reason: Leadership in Africa," Public Administration and Development (2001) Robert I. Rotberg, director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, holds African leaders responsible for the plight of their continent. While he admits that Africa's failure to develop in the postcolonial period has many causes, he suggests that "the visible hand of individual leaders can also be discerned." Rotberg concludes that a large part of the problem is that absolute power corrupts, and that there are limited checks and balances to curb this tendency in Africa. In this regard, he states that "Mugabe's mayhem" was aided and abetted by an underdeveloped civil society and the fact that the rest of the world has failed to judge Zimbabwe's president more harshly. Arthur A. Goldsmith, professor of management at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, suggests that African leaders are not innately corrupt, but are responding rationally to incentives created by their environment. He argues that high levels of risk encourage leaders to pursue short-term, economically destructive policies. In countries where leaders face less risk, there is less perceived political corruption. ISSUE 20. Are International Peacekeeping Missions Critical to Resolving Ethnic Conflicts in African Countries? YES: John Stremlau, from "Ending Africa's Wars," Foreign Affairs (July/August 2000) NO: William Reno, from "The Failure of Peacekeeping in Sierra Leone," Current History (May 2001) John Stremlau, professor and head of the Department of International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, argues that far too little is being done to check conflict in Africa and that the United States needs to do more in this regard. According to Stremlau, "[w]hile preventing conflict in Africa is primarily a task for Africans... the 1990s showed that outside help is needed." William Reno, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, contends that no peacekeeping is better than bad peacekeeping. In his discussion of the failed Lome Peace Accords, a settlement negotiated between warring parties in Sierra Leone, he notes that "[m]any Sierra Leoneans regarded positions taken by the UN and foreign diplomats who stressed reconciliation as offensive." As opposed to the more bureaucratic peacekeeping approaches taken by the United States and the UN, he lauds the hands-on tactics of the British.