Obama is Right: Africa Must Take Responsability for Itself

Since the early nineties, the West has traversed an era of great reconciliation marked by a certain political will to repair the crimes of the past. The Anglo-Saxon scientific literature qualifies (correctly) this moment of history in the relationship between the West and the rest of the world as “The age of apology.”

Notwithstanding the credibility of the demonstrated will to repair past damages and the visible commitment by Western governments to internalize all responsibility for their past errors, the prevailing image of the West in the ex-colonial territories of Africa is as yet unlikely to confer upon them the moral authority when it comes to governorship.

Therefore, it is always a delicate and risky proposition for any Western or plenipotentiary diplomat to speak to Africans about good governance. The fragility of such an address is due to the “quality of the times”: extra care must be taken not to awaken past demons. Even as these past misdeeds are well in the process of slowly being digested in Paris, Washington, Berlin or London, they are still perceived as the root causes of the sprawling misery that pervades the continent.

In the streets of Dakar (Senegal), of Duala (Cameroon) or Kinshasa (the Democratic Republic of Congo), a connection is rapidly made between the plunders of the past and the quality of life that troubles the women and men who populate the black continent today.

The risk, which cannot be overstated, is rooted in the danger that a speaker would be regarded as a patronizer, an interventionist, a colonialist… and even worse, a racist, if his skin color is white.

It’s not very surprising then, in such a cluttered context, that the institutions of Bretton Woods and other international organizations became the principal interlocutor of the poor states of Africa. With their iron safes securely held, they seek to impose upon the authorities of Yaounde (Cameroon), Libreville (Gabon) or Abuja (Nigeria) what Ottawa, Paris or Washington would like to see applied towards more normal governorship.

But for some time now, in spite of the muddy quality of the times, Western leaders increasingly venture to say aloud what diplomacy (inescapably hypocritical) has long frowned upon: that even if it causes displeasure in the capitals of Africa, the plain truth is that much of the responsibility for Africa’s descent into Hell rests on the shoulders of Africans themselves.

The French head of state Nicolas Sarkozy had said so in Dakar on July 26th, 2007 and was castigated for his explanation. In a quasi-systematic way, no attempt was made to sort out what was acceptable and what was to be rejected.

Broadly analyzed, the critique that followed Sarkozy’s speech in Dakar was summarily dismissed in accordance with an extremely simple formula: “You have no right to say this.” A bit like it was a logical truth that there were things that the plenipotentiary Westerner has no right o say about Africa or Africans.

On July 11th, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, not only deigned to mix with the “Africanites” at the time of his first official visit to the south of the Sahara; he has even kicked the anthill where sometimes the Africans are most concerned: their dignity.

Indeed, how else can we explain the indifference demonstrated by African leadership vis-à-vis such wretched poverty or vis-à-vis the never-ending civil wars? Therefore, do not raise your cudgels when Mr. Obama declares: “It is the death sentence of a society to force children to kill in wars. It is the ultimate mark of criminality and cowardice to condemn women to relentless and systemic rape. We must bear witness to the value of every child in Darfur and the dignity of every woman in the Congo. No faith or culture should condone the outrages against them. And all of us must strive for the peace and security necessary for progress.” Similarly, Mr. Obama does not mince words when he asserts: “But 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.”

On the state of human rights in the continent, the U.S. president does not attempt to soften the effect of his words. Indeed, how else can we understand the absolute insistence of the African powers that be and the executives of public finances on buying luxury cars and villas at the Cote d’ Azure with massive diversions of public money? And a surprise for Mr. Obama: how to understand the complaisance of the youth vis-à-vis the confiscation of its future by the septuagenarians? He challenges this youth (numerically representing the most important part of the population) in the following way: “The world will be what you make of it. You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people. You can serve in your communities and harness your energy and education to create new wealth and build new connections to the world. You can conquer disease and end conflicts and make change from the bottom up. You can do that. Yes you can …”

In other words: African youth, you help yourselves. Nobody will develop your continent for you, but you yourselves.

And what did Nicolas Sarkozy said in Dakar two years ago? “The renaissance that Africa needs, only you, the young of Africa, can achieve; because only you have the power to do it.” And then, the French head of state added: “African youth, you want democracy, freedom, justice, rights? It’s only you who decide. France will not decide for you.”

A question for the laymen of things African: Why were Barack Obama’s words applauded whereas Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech was literally lynched by the African media? Are there truths that a Westerner has no right to pronounce? An open and frank dialogue between the peoples of the West and of Africa will benefit from a diplomatic process fertilized by more new and dissenting practices, and by courageous voices making themselves heard without censure. Nothing displeases “democratically” elected monarchs and dictators of Africa more.

A Ph.D. in political science and a militant panafricanist, author of the book “Do Africans deserve respect? The truths that a White man has no right to say” (2009), “the Diaspora.” Publications.