‘Africa: A Moral Outrage’ – Tony Blair (Part 1)

‘Africa: A Moral Outrage’ – Tony Blair  (Part 1) by Yemi Ogunshola

The black Blues

“Europe is not a bad example of how things can change…Europe was at war; Europe was subject to the most terrible resignation…” Words very well put by Mr. Blair at a world press conference in 2005, to which Good Times International (GTI) was invited.

Europe’s is a history fraught over many centuries with uncertainty. It has endured wars, poverty, and pestilence. Britain has had its share of these, battling internal strife, two world wars, general discontent and hardship. More than once the country has experienced royal discontent as feuds rent apart members of the ruling families, for instance, during the period of the Plantagenets. Nor was the nation exempt from disasters: some 70,000 lost their lives to the famous plague. Then in 1666, as in Nero’s Rome, a great fire seared through the city of London, destroying buildings and sending terror into the hearts of inhabitants. It was, as one historian wrote, ‘…a place of fear and flames.’    

Yet, the people picked themselves up and rebuilt anew, as they did after the terrible destruction of World War II. 

“I think it’s possible to make a change,” said PM Blair. “Things can change…This (change in Europe) didn’t happen strictly by the efforts of each country on its own. There was a partnership there…” 

Over the years the picture painted of Africa to the richer nations of the world has been dire. It is too often a story of a tired people seen on television, too listless to lift their arms to swipe at flies as hunger rages in the wilderness. TV pictures present negative images of women and children displaced by war and civil strife as rampaging soldiers kill, loot and rape. Other images show ‘saving angels’, the Red Cross and members of  Western society appearing with food, drugs and clothing to ‘save’ the naked children.

But what is often not expressed is the wealth and diversity of Africa’s history. The cameras neglect to take shots of her beautiful streets, graceful ladies, harmonious dwellings, and rainy season flowers that bloom at some time in the year in most parts of the continent. It is from Africa, scientists say, that all mankind originated.

Western society is at last focusing on Africa, striving to find ways to assuage the guilt of a dark past that, some would argue, had been the cause of the continent’s dire straits. Africa, once strong and vibrant, now seems a shadow of that happier past. Victim of slavery, cruelty of ‘the middle passage’, battered by western colonization, discrimination, and seemingly afflicted by an inability to adopt patient thinking, her green fields which once fed millions are now changed in colour, brown and exhausted.     

Mr. Blair’s response was to set the Commission for Africa in 2004. Since then activities have gone into overdrive. Tony Blair’s comments to the world press after the third meeting of the Commission for Africa in 2005 were as strong as they were emotive. He recalled the Tsunami disaster earlier in the year that had claimed so many lives.    

“What has happened in Africa is roughly equivalent to that scale of disaster,” said the PM.

Interesting thoughts! But, unlike in the past, thoughts are now backed with serious action. And it was action of a different kind, as the PM set initiatives in motion, enabling the gathering of minds to brainstorm on the problem.  In Great Britain, the host country, the United States of America and also in the historic cities of Africa, they sought to find answers.

Tony Blair spoke further:   

“So, what we can try and do is to come together, commissioners from different parts of the world, different walks of life, (for) consultations, discussions with people of different countries. 93,000 people and organizations have contributed. We have received hundreds of written submissions. We’ve seen literally hundreds of foreign people (who) have participated to discuss the issue…We have to wait for the report to judge that properly. But I do say this is to set out a comprehensive plan with a very powerful position for a strong and prosperous Africa.”     

The report, produced after a long and tortuous process, was published in early spring, 2005, at the British Museum, London. With Mr. Blair as President, the Commission drew several people from Europe and other continents, including Chancellor Gordon Brown (UK), former Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldorf (Ireland), Fola Adeola (Nigeria), KY Amoako (Ghana), Nancy Baker (USA), Hilary Benn, Vice President (UK), Michael Camdessus (France), and Ralph Goodale (Canada).

Other members of the Commission are William Kalema (Uganda), Trevor Manuel (South Africa), Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania), Linah Mohohlo (Botswana), Ji Peiding (China), Tidjane Thiam (Cote d’Ivoire), Anna Tibaijuka (Tanzania), and Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister.    

The Commission held meetings, based on consultative fora across the continents. The final and conclusive meeting took place in the last week of February 2005. And GTI witnessed it all.    

Details of various brainstorming sessions in Africa and Britain are interesting to say the least. The mind-set suddenly seems to be shifting just a little. No longer do Africans at such discussions accept the traditional thinking. And maybe this will change the strangely poor perception held by non-Africans of the continent’s story being confined to the televised imagery of black, malnourished, unkempt, fly-infested men, women, and children with protruding tummies, with trembling hands clutching, and with tears in their eyes weeping for dear mercy.    

The often-fiery meetings of Africans gathered for discussion mostly asked for something else: RESPECT.    

The session organized in London, the host city, by the African Commission in conjunction with ADVAD and Afford, was an enlightening evening indeed. It was attended by individuals and groups representing almost every country in Africa. They spoke for ideas concerning HIV-AIDS, democracy, African development, publishing and reading culture (as espoused by groups like Executive Books/GTI) and other interest groupings.    

Discussions, perhaps short as a result of time constraint, focused mainly on five issues: Marginalisation, Migration, Remittances, Trade Debt and Development, and also the African Image. However, one could be forgiven for thinking that all sessions overlooked the importance of mind culture.

Each group’s submission seemed to express the old concern of not being taken seriously enough. Now, they’d love to see a move to the Promised Land. Some observed the pain and anguish of the African, even in Great Britain, where Africans often have the most menial jobs regardless of their levels of intelligence or the skills and high qualifications they’d acquired in Africa. That, in a nutshell, seemed the dilemma of the African. It is a story fired by the flames of pain and non-expression. Participants also wanted Western banks to stop accepting dubious wealth embezzled out of Africa.    

Some saw the African as a sad reflection of black Britain, a situation where opportunities are relatively few, jobs are hard to find, where children imbibe more of the drink and gun culture than school. Many also wondered why black people hardly ever rise to the very top in management and politics. They’d like to see more black people in white-collar jobs. Sadly, Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, recently even advocated the separation of black pupils from their white counterparts as a solution to the generally poor performance of Negro youngsters.    

Many argued that the Western world was to blame and would seek reparation for years of misery caused by their forbears in the slave fields of the Americas, and to a lesser extent in Europe. Yet others argued that Africans should quit looking to the past; that the vision for the future resides in new dreams.    

But dreams need the encouragement of hope. Many would argue that the stagnation in Africa is a result of the lack of sweet dreams, that state of calmness, which allows for aesthetics and creativity. Years ago, someone once wished that time could stop in Africa! That the busy minds of Africans could be still for once; that creativity could flourish; that the old African ideals of courage, cooperation, fairness, aesthetics and honesty would be back as in the old days of philosopher kings and that creative thinkers could once again have influence.

Yemi Ogunshola is a London-based writer/editor and critically acclaimed author

**Continued in Part 2...