What Africans want

An African columnist writes a New York Times op/ed stating that Africa doesn't need aid. Or, at least, it doesn't just need aid.

In the 1960's, many African economies were more advanced than South Korea's. The continent stagnated largely because corrupt dictatorships took over, and the areas that slid back to the medieval age did so mainly because of the ravages of war. To really change Africa, Mr. Bush needs to offer long-term leadership in two areas: ending the wars, and helping pro-democracy forces bring honest and effective government to African countries burdened by oppressive regimes, even if that means accepting antiterrorism laws that aren't as strict as he would like.

This ought to be music to a Republican's ears: developing nations asking for multiparty democracy, peaceful trade, and civil liberties! Communism has really been defeated when this is the sort of thing the African intelligentsia are looking for. Unfortunately, it's easier to throw a couple billion at AIDS than it is to, say, ease the ruling party out of power in Uganda, or mediate an end to ethnic violence in Burundi.

In fact, I don't think the U.S. can do it. The writer, Charles Onyango-Obbo, and others like him, need to affect change themselves in their own countries. This isn't pie in the sky: after 24 years under Daniel Arap Moi, Kenyans had a "peaceful revolution", in the words of one Kenyan Christian leader I heard speak in London. Pressure from within (supported by pressure from without) forced Moi to step down and allowed an opposition party to take the presidency for the first time since independence. Kenya's example is probably the best one for countries like Uganda and Rwanda, where democracy is the official system, but in practice elections still mean very little. While we can't manufacture change from the outside, let's be ready to assist pro-democracy forces whenever they need us, and not support dictators just because they agree to crack down on terrorism.