My 30 Years in Africa: Still Searching for Answers
Given Africa's huge bounty of resources, and the billions of dollars
expended since independence on thousands of development projects,
why aren't the lives of most Africans better? Here is a former FSO's analysis.
By Mark G. Wentling

When I first arrived in Togo on Sept. 20, 1970, I planned to do a single stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in the village of Agu, and then return to my university studies in the States. But it did not take long for me to realize that while I had been born a white man in Kansas, Africa was my true home. In 1972, I married a woman I met in Agu, with whom I had three children before we divorced 20 years later, and I later lived with a Kenyan woman before starting a new family with a woman from Zambia.

This full course in African family and village life was duly noted when I joined the Foreign Service in 1977 serving throughout Africa intil my retirement from the Foreign Service in 1996.

My various assignments doing development and humanitarian assistance work all over the continent for the Peace Corps, USAID and as an independent consultant have enabled me to meet national leaders such as Ethiopian President Zenawi Meles, who helped us hammer out agreements among Somali factions -- and (years before) the man he had ousted, Mengistu Haile Mariam, whom I once saw parading incongruously down Halie Selassie Avenue in Nairobi with Kenyan President Daniel Moi. And not long after I arrived in Togo, I saw another parade with Congolese (then Zairian) President Mobutu Sese Seko helping Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema kick off a bizarre "authenticity" campaign.

I've also observed some moving moments in African history, including Sao Tome's first Independence Day celebration and South Africa before and after apartheid. I've served as an election observer in Benin and Zanzibar, been evacuated to Kenya from several different countries, experienced the chaos of Lagos, observed the beginnings of the post-Kaunda era in Zambia and the post-Banda period in Malawi, visited teeming refugee camps in Tanzania, and been chased out of eastern Congo (formerly Zaire) by troops fleeing the first round of rebel attacks. Recently, I had the pleasure of shaking hands with President Joaquim Chissano, who continues to lead the rebuilding of war-torn Mozambique.

My profession has also brought me in close contact with all the organizations, large and small, on the development and humanitarian assistance scene in Africa, as well as hundreds of diplomats, missionaries, scholars, writers, foreign businessmen and travelers.

But it is the thousands of individual Africans from all over the continent who have made the deepest impression upon me.

As I have lived among Africans and tried to help improve their lives, I keep returning to one fundamental question: Given Africa's astonishing bounty of resources, and the billions of dollars expended since independence on thousands of development projects across the continent, why aren't the lives of most Africans better? Indeed, the average African is poorer today than he or she was 30 years ago, something true almost nowhere else on the planet.

Start with the obvious: Much -- too much -- of Africa's history has been accidental. The national boundaries carved into the continent by competing colonial powers appear to have been the work of a madman. Most of sub-Saharan Africa's 43 countries are not nations according to any meaningful definition of that term, thereby rendering the very concept of national sovereignty ludicrous. Yet there has been well-nigh universal insistence over the past 40 years on the inviolability of these borders, despite abundant evidence that they have only compounded Africa's problems. There is a great need for a new map that reflects the realities of the continent's natural divides and potential lines of solidarity.

Yet the colonial legacy, terrible as it was (and continues to be) in many ways, can no longer serve as the principal explanation for Africa's problems. And that is the very reason, it seems to me, that many of the continent's political and economic afflictions have not been amenable to the remedies I and so many others have tried to implement.

Family Values

Instead of blaming outsiders for their problems, Africans (and their international friends) need to face some hard truths about their own attitudes and behaviors. Chief among these is the widespread emphasis on the extended family unit, which may be a sound strategy when times are bad, but more often is self-defeating. Many Africans live a complicated life of trying to provide for their many relatives while keeping them at arm's length to avoid becoming totally impoverished themselves. These additional demands on Africa's statistically few breadwinners make it hard to accumulate the wealth needed for productive investment.

This pressure on the successful to support so many others also discourages many Africans from attempting more lucrative vocations, thereby stifling innovation and preventing the kind of competitive effort needed to make a free-enterprise system work well. In general, it may be that many Africans are not disposed culturally to take full advantage of the kind of economic and political schemes that made the high-income countries what they are today. This apparent lack of a natural inclination toward such initiatives needs to be taken much more into account by those offering assistance to Africa.

A corollary of this emphasis on family is Africa's multitude of social divisions. Although the high level of tolerance demonstrated by diverse ethnic groups which co-exist peacefully (sometimes in very close quarters) is often striking, there is no doubt that the hundreds of clashes, many violent, along tribal, regional, caste, clan and religious lines frustrate progress in Africa. The formidable divide between agriculturists and pastoralists, for example, represents one of Africa's most notable conflict zones. Other social barriers include those between those who descended from former slaves and those who did not, and those who descended from so-called royal blood and the general population. Many Africans are condemned at birth to suffer a lifetime of discrimination that limits forever their potential.

All these divisions, as well as struggles over valuable natural resources, have beset Africa with one violent confrontation after another. There were hopes that the end of the Cold War would mean the end of many of these conflicts, but all too many African countries are still wasting away as they suffer from armed rebellions. Apparently, almost no African nation is immune to armed insurrection: almost half the countries in Africa have been devastated by war at some point since independence. The shocking record of atrocities committed by Africans against Africans is appalling even today.

In addition, a number of traditional practices persist that are unhelpful to social and economic progress. Central to these is the sway invisible forces have over the average African's life. This entails the massive recourse to paying for the services offered by a variety of local witch doctors and sorcerers. It is not unusual for an African family to pay more for these services than they do for the education and health of their children. These practices, as well as the excessive alcoholic consumption found in many parts of Africa, work against the advancement of Africans.

Military regimes and the dictators they have backed represent another major obstacle to progress, as they not only put the wrong people in power but foster corruption and block the involvement of better elements of society. Even though democratization is finally gaining momentum in much of Africa, strongmen still hold on to power in all too many countries, frustrating efforts to instill respect for the rule of law.

As long as political elites and the wealthy can do as they please without fearing any kind of legal sanctions, the huge and growing gap between the great mass of people who have little and the small percentage of the population who possess much will grow. Corruption is endemic throughout the continent and at virtually all levels of society. In fact, sometimes Africans who defraud the government or private firms to enhance the status of their family are looked upon more as role models than criminals. Justice is often very much lacking: small-time thieves who steal food for themselves or their families are severely punished while big government officials who embezzle millions from the state treasury and live grossly opulent lives are applauded.

Africa lacks the kind of stability that facilitates more rapid economic growth and the prevailing disorder is hard to correct because the livelihoods of so many vested interests depend on perpetuating this disorder and the high degree of corruption that characterizes it. This, in turn, hinders the development of a vibrant civil society and keeps most Africans effectively powerless over their destiny. There are many people of goodwill in Africa who would gladly volunteer their time and efforts to help their communities, but such initiative has been stifled by years of authoritarian government. Conditions need to be created to reward individual behavior that benefits the community.

The low priority given to education, especially for females, also stymies even the best-laid development plans. How can any country expect to develop if most of its adult population has not completed primary school? And, even for that minority of Africans who were able to go to school, the quality of education is usually so low as to negate the sacrifices they made to do so. The resulting high level of illiteracy in Africa, particularly among rural populations, places severe limits on many kinds of development efforts - and makes much more difficult the task of slowing the spread of AIDS, an unprecedented calamity that is nullifying precious development gains throughout the continent. Indeed, a careful examination of why some African countries have the highest HIV infection rates in the world speaks volumes about the factors contributing to Africa's development ills.

But perhaps the most damaging strike against Africa is the degree to which women lack power. No female has ever been a head of state in post-colonial Africa. The harsh socialization process girls are subjected to and the extraordinary dominance of men in most African societies have kept Africa from benefiting fully from the enormous potential of half its population. Progress will continue to be limited in Africa as long as women are relegated to such an inferior status and conditions do not exist for them to offer the full measure of their potential.

How Outsiders Can Help

Most foreign assistance programs in Africa, whether bilateral or multilateral, since independence may have actually worsened the continent's problems by supporting dictators and politicizing assistance programs. A good amount of this wrongheaded diplomacy was motivated by the Cold War, which gave countless corrupt and bloodthirsty leaders the means to oppress their own people and solidify their hold on power.

With the end of the Cold War, it should have been easier for the West to concentrate on providing meaningful humanitarian assistance, but instead it has become all too clear that very few outsiders really care about Africa. Thus, most diplomatic missions have continued to conduct business as usual, or even pull out altogether, while Africa sinks deeper into an almost irreversible morass of poverty and chaos. The resulting decline in assistance to Africa over the past decade shows how little strategic interest the continent has for the U.S. or almost any donor countries these days, and makes a mockery of the high-sounding declarations we hear about helping Africa more.

What is most needed is a consistent and aggressive "tough love" diplomacy that refuses to deal with leaders who have blood on their hands and fortunes stashed away in foreign bank accounts, and steps up support for legitimate, non-violent opposition groups. At the same time, while we work to isolate and castigate corrupt, oppressive leaders, diplomatic efforts should not allow the acts of these leaders to block assistance that is truly needed by the people. More aid should be channeled through non-governmental organizations that work at the community level.

The main objective should be to build local capacities. Huge and expensive USAID missions are not always required. Take the example of Niger. For legislative reasons, USAID was obliged in 1996 to close its mission in this very poor country. Yet some significant USAID-funded activities continue to be conducted in Niger by U.S. NGOs.

Making matters worse, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions have pursued their own brand of neo-colonialism while providing little benefit for the average African. The loan repayment rate by Africa today to the IMF and World Bank is higher than the total value of new loans, giving Africa the highest debt ratio in the world. This adds to the negative capital flight that most African countries have known for years. Recent debt relief actions are welcome but, so far, IMF and World Bank debt cannot be rescheduled.

Over 30 years of development failure by the multilateral and bilateral assistance agencies should be telling somebody something. Yet most of these well-endowed agencies have not really learned how to bring the benefits of assistance down to the community level. And, even those that have made a good-faith effort to do so, are often stymied by the ruin left after decades of neglect and abuse by local and national officials. (The failure to maintain well the infrastructure that has gobbled up so much of Africa's resources is particularly lamentable, since such spending has created most of the continent's high debt load.) Making up lost ground in Africa is in itself a daunting challenge.

At this stage, therefore, the dictum of "do no harm" should be the first prerequisite of any assistance provided Africa, whether bilateral or multilateral. As the record since independence demonstrates, sometimes no aid can be better than too much aid of the wrong kind.

To supplement and eventually replace direct aid, the U.S. has emphasized the role of trade in stimulating African economies. Yet lacking sufficient goods to trade profitably in world markets and suffering from poor management of its resources, Africa may suffer even more in a "globalized" world. Yes, trade is better than aid, but trade alone makes no sense if a country has nothing or very little to offer. In addition, many African countries with something to trade are finding that their traditional exports are garnering less income now per unit than they did 20 years ago. These dismal terms of trade suffice to justify the most favorable trade arrangements with Africa, whose share of world trade is unbelievably miniscule. Yet the self-interests of many richer nations continue to conspire to limit the few opportunities Africa may have to increase its exports.

Protecting existing assets in Africa's resource-poor countries, where the vast majority of the population depends on subsistence agriculture -- much less creating and sustaining even low levels of widespread wealth -- is increasingly a losing battle. Rising standards of living simply cannot be constructed on falling levels of soil fertility, one of Africa's great economic constraints. Even more fundamentally, the scarcity of fertile, cultivable land throughout much of the continent exacerbates the declining per capita food-production trend, with its many negative ramifications.

Our shrinking, highly competitive world requires every country to run very fast just to stay in the same place. Africa, as a whole, has already fallen far behind and, to catch up, it must run as twice as fast as any other area of the world. To do so, it needs wise debt forgiveness, much higher levels of external assistance and, most important, large increases in private investment. But none of this will do any good if conditions on the ground are not conducive to the optimum use of this increased assistance and long-term predictions for a stable and attractive investment environment are not convincing. Assistance should be provided only where it is merited and can be used wisely both in the short- and long-term sense. Without the practice of good governance and a solid record of fiscal responsibility, assistance directly to governments should be avoided.

In addition, given the high cost and risk of doing business in Africa has to be remedied if Africa is going to be able to attract the private investment capital it needs to develop on a sustainable basis.

In particular, the high cost and erratic supply of electricity both need addressing, as do weak or non-existent communication and transport links. The countless road checkpoints around all of Africa need to be demolished and cross-border formalities need to be greatly eased. High security costs also discourage business creation, as a large portion of operating budgets has to be devoted to protecting property. Increasingly, living well in Africa means living with all the security arrangements of a prison.

The most discouraging thing about Africa's future is that even under a best-case scenario, it will take a monumental, sustained effort over decades to realize the level of economic growth needed to reduce widely poverty. Even if Africa's best-performing and most prosperous countries could achieve a five percent GDP growth per annum on an unfailing basis, it would still take 50 years for them to graduate from the status of low-income countries. Nonetheless, the race is on, and all African countries need to get started and hold the course until the next century. It will be a great failure for humanity if at the end of this century the gap between Africa and most of the rest of the world is not considerably narrowed.

Thanks in no small part to its so-called benefactors, Africa has essentially lost several decades of productivity. Thus, it is imperative to move quickly ahead with the rebuilding of an improved foundation for a new and better start. There are no quick fixes for doing this and it cannot be done on the cheap. It will take the best leadership, and the highest general commitment and discipline that Africa's people have to offer over a generation or more, to correct the failings of the past and put Africa on a better development footing. Yet, I fully believe that if peace and stability can be made to prevail, and the African people are given the chance to engage themselves behind trusted and competent leaders, then by the end of the century Africa, with its abundance of natural resources, can be well positioned to be the continent of the 22nd century.

So the urgent task at hand now is to lay the groundwork for getting Africa back on a better track and understand actions that restore hope to the African people for a better future. All possible steps should be taken to unleash in a constructive fashion all the enormous talents and energies of the African people. Toard that end, Africans need to stop failing themselves and placing too much blame on others for their failures. Ultimately, only Africans can ensure that the children born in this generation will have better lives than their parents had. Although much help will be needed from Africa's friends, most of the choice about the quality of their future -- as cruel and hard as some of the options may be -- is up to the Africans themselves.

Mark Wentling spent nine years with the Peace Corps before joining USAID in 1977. As an FSO, he served in Niamey, Conakry, Lome, Mogadishu, Dar Es Salaam and Washington. He retired from the Senior Foreign Service in 1996 and is now program director for CARE International in Maputo, Mozambique.