NAMIBIA: Peace On Whose Terms? Some changes are made one-on-one.

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•Oihe. fine Coors brands Herman Josephs. Hj Light Kilhansfleo Turbo 1000 Wimerlest «' 1989 Adolph Coors. Golden, Colorado 80401 • Brewer of Fine Quality Beers Sines 1873 MAY-JUNE 1989 AMERICA'S LEADING MAGAZINE VOLUME 34, NUMBER 3 ON AFRICA

A Publication of the RT African-American Institute

I-etters to the Kditor The Update African-American Institute Editor: Andre Astrow Chairman Namibia Maurice Tempelsman Peace on Pretoria's Terms? 13 Publisher By Mark Verbaan Frank E. Ferrari Mozambique An Army of Abductors 17 Editor-in-Chief By William Minter Margaret A Novicki Interview Managing Editor Alana Lee Maivelino Dos Santos: Opening New Fronts 21 By Margaret A. Novicki Assistant Editor Andre Astrow South Africa New Personality, Old Policies? 24 Editorial Assistant By Harald Pakendorf W. LaBier Jones Interview Contributing Editors David Webster: The Spirit is Unbroken 27 Michael Maren Andrew Meldrum By Daniel Riesenfeld Daphne Topouzis Angola Art Director A Question ol'Human Rights 31 Kennelh Jay Ross By Rakiya Omaar Advertising Office On the Road lo Recovery: Rehabilitating the Rails 34 212 949-5666, ext. 728 By Colleen Ij>we Morna Interns Kenamo Warfare Zimbabwe Marya Sophia Gilborn Page 17 Mugabe's Maneuvers 38 Kendahl L. Radcliffe By Andrew Meldrum Alison Volpe Harry West Economies Africa Report (ISSN 0001-9836). a A Joint Approach to Africa's Debt 42 non-profit magazine of African affairs, By Carol (Aticaster and Sergei Shatalov is published bimonthly and is sched- uled to appear at the beginning ot Alter Adjustment 46 each date period al 833 United Nations Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017. By Ernest Harsch Editorial correspondence and adver- tising inquiries should be addressed OAir to Africa Report, at the above address. Subscription rates: individ- St re lighten ing Africa's Voice 51 uals. USA $24, Canada $30, air rate By Sammy Kum Buo overseas $48. Institutions: USA $31 Canada $37. air rate overseas $55. Second-class postage paid at New Sudan York, N.Y and at additional mailing "Operation Lifeline" 55 offices. POSTMASTER: If this maga- Making Tracks zine is undeliverable, please send Page 31 By Joe Neff notice lo Africa Report at the above address. Telephone: (212) 949-5666. Interview Copyright •< 1989 by The African- American Institute, Inc. Baehir Mustapha Saved: Polisario's Policies For Peace 57 By Margaret A. Novicki

Photo Credits: Women The cover photos of scenes Promoting Safe Motherhood from Namibia were taken by By Daphne Topouzis iclockwise from upper right) Sam Lwin/United Nations; Eric "Protect the Widow" 65 Miller/Impact Visuals; John By Ruth Ansah Ayisi Liebenberg/NCCT; John Lie- benberg/NCCT; John Lieben- Culture berg/NCCT; Sarah-Jane Poole: John Ltebenberg NCCT: John African Cinema: A Market in the U.S.? 68 Liebenberg/NCCT; John Lie- By Marco Werman be n be rg/NCCT. Political Survivor Page 38 Letters to the Editor

To the Editor: vices to all its peoples, but to state that development in South Africa, as well as It is necessary to correct several the health services are grossly unequal Prof. S. Benatar's statistics published in major inaccuracies about hemophilia in is an exaggeration. The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. David Seftel's diatribe about AIDS Contrary to Dr. Seftel's statement South Africa's apartheid health care and apartheid and to take issue with that untrained South African army sol- advocates should know that blanket some of his statements ("AIDS and diers stitch the wounds of black patients, denials carry little weight in the demo- Apartheid: Double Trouble," Nov-Dec the medical orderlies of the South cratic world where adherence to interna- 1988). African Medical Services receive com- tional standards and independent peer Dr. Seflel feels there is good reason prehensive theoretical training in the review are absolute necessities. not to trust what he calls the "govern- basic medical subjects and practical The wholesale unreliability of South ment figure" of 96 confirmed cases of training in resuscitation and the treat- African government health statistics AIDS reported by the AIDS Advisory ment of minor injuries. During this peri- were clearly and carefully documented Council. My organization, which repre- od, they receive training on a rotational over a period of 10 years by Carnegie's sents the interests of all South African basis in the emergency departments of researchers. hemophiliacs, provides information several black and white hospitals, under Civilized international medical stan- about hemophiliacs lo the Council. We the strict supervision of a registered doc- dards preclude improperly trained per- have no reason to mistrust the published tor. sons from operating on humans. The dif- figures which are in no way censored by They are allowed to stitch only skin ferentiation of a minor laceration from a the state. lacerations. During this training period, tendon injury is not a simple matter. It Dr. Seftel makes the unworthy impli- the medical orderlies also assist in allevi- should be done only by a fully trained cation that respected physicians, virolo- ating staff shortages at these hospitals. and accredited physician. gisls, hemotologists, and transfusion ser- Incidentally, no member of the SADF, To claim that teenage soldier-order- vice directors who serve on the AIDS including Maj. II.H. Lawson, has ever lies are able to professionally manage Advisory Council are party to a cover-up instructed untrained soldiers to stitch wounded black civilians is a further and prepared to issue lying information patients as alleged. indictment of the callous and neo-Nazi about AIDS. South Africa does not in any way South African government health care Dr. Seftel states that 87% of South attempt to hide the figures relating to service. Basic humanity should motivate African hemophiliacs are AIDS-positive. AIDS. One of the important non-govern- them to stop defending this practice and presumably meaning HIV-positive. This mental groups concerned is the AIDS cease it at once. is untrue. There arc 78 HIV-positive Advisory Group, of which Prof. Jack —Dr. David Seftel hemophiliacs in the country, five of Metz is a representative. This group MB.Ch.B., BSE Witwatersrand whom have AIDS. Of our HIV-positive works in close association with the Cen- bleeders, the great majority are white. ters for Disease Control in Atlanta. hardly the picture of black victims of Probably the most disturbing feature apartheid medicine with which Dr. Seflel of the whole article is the portrayal of To theEditor: tries to smear those of us who care for the black people of South Africa. AIDS is It was interesting to read Catharine hemophiliacs. primarily a sexually transmitted disease Watson's article on the Burundi tragedy Dr. Seflel states that the South and therefore, once informed, the Uan-Feb 1989). although I disagree with African government has funded tracing individual must lake the final responsibil- her analysis of the Rwandan political sit- and counselling of all while hemophili- ity for avoiding contracting and spread- uation. It is not difficult to realize that acs who had tested HIV-positive. The ing the disease. Yet in the article, the the so-called "equilibre" policy is merely SAHF knows nothing of such funding. black people of South Africa are por- propaganda. Tutsis are in fact systemati- That no attempts were made to trace or trayed as spineless communities whose cally eliminated from any position of inform infected black hemophiliacs in moral norms and sexual behavior can be power simply because their ancestors South Africa and that their families and manipulated at a whim by the governing have ruled the country in the past. spouses were kept in the dark is a bla- authorities. Surely the ultimate insult! There is only one Tutsi in a govern- tant lie. Finally, if the conditions of the black ment of about 20 ministers, there are two I fear that much of Dr. Seftel's article people in South Africa were truly as bad Tutsis in the Rwandan parliament, there must be regarded as political polemic, as Dr. Seftel implies, why then is il nec- is only one Tutsi among the army offi- often based on outrageous lies and essary for Dr. Seftel to resort to distor- cers, and there are none among the unjustified insinuations about the ethics tions, untruths, and misrepresentations ambassadors and other diplomats. of respected physicians, rather than a of the facts? It is surprising to hear your reporter dispassionate scientific overview of the —Peter Viljoen support the fact thai Rwandan identity problem. South African Consul General cards show ethnicity. Is there any differ- —CD. Karabus New York. New York ence between that practice and the Popu- South African Hemophilia lation Registration Act of South Africa? Foundation Finally, according to the author, dis- Rondebosch. South Africa The author replies: crimination in Rwanda is justified My article is a broad review of volu- because Tutsis ruled the country for minous internationally published scien- centuries and Hulus still have an inferi- tific literature and mainstream press arti- ority complex. My view is that if Hulus To the Editor: cles. Specific repudiation of these belat- want to regain confidence and pride, The article by Dr. David Seftel (Nov- ed, emotional, and tragically blinkered they should understand that they are as Dec 1988) contains many undated and responses from apartheid physicians and able as the Tutsis and that they are the incorrect statistics, as well as selective the South African consulate can be found majority. Then they would remove ridicu- reporting leading lo a biased picture of in the 330 scientific papers prociuced by lous self-protecting and discriminatory the health situation in South Africa. scientists at 22 South African universities policies like "equilibre." South Africa certainly still has many for the final report of the Carnegie Cor- —Kanyarwanda Ngenzi problems in providing equal health ser- poration Inquiry into Poverty and Under- Montreal, Canada

AFRICA REPORT'March-April 1989 N THE NEWS Ghana Hit Hard by Ghanaian officials, together wild some ment greater discipline and data collec- of the agents hired under World Bank tion in government agencies. Shady deals of the auspices. Silviconsult. a consulting But much of the damage has already Timber Trade firm appointed by the World Bank, rec- been done. Millions of dollars have ommended thai a timber export devel- found their way into private pockets People often say that money doesn't opment board should be created to abroad with little chance of repatria- grow on trees, but in Ghana it really oversee a network of accredited agents tion, while deforestation continues to does, if one is to believe the recent to promote Ghanaian timber exports. grow at an alarming rate. It is now up findings of a government committee But in reality, many of these agents to the government to demonstrate that investigating the corrupt practices of consorted with timber merchants by its clean-up campaign can bring the the country's timber companies. accepting orders at low prices from sis- timber industry under control in hopes Only last year, members of the rul- ter front companies and overpricing of resuscitating one of the most impor- ing Provisional National Defense machinery and equipment paid for by tant sectors for Ghana's future. • Council (PNDC) considered timber as international loans—-all the time pre- one of the great success stories of its tending to be foreign manufacturers or Judge blames "Strange Economic Recovery Program, with suppliers. export revenue jumping from Si2 mil- Society" and Lets lion in 1982 to nearly $100 million last Mayekiso Off the Hook year. But following National Investiga- tions Committee (NIC) disclosures of In a landmark court ruling which is persistent corruption in the timber expected to broaden the perimeter of industry, a more sober view now pre- legal anti-apartheid activities in the vails within government circles. black townships. Moses Mayekiso, Despite ihc remarkable increase in general secretary of the National Union timber export earnings, the NIC esti- of Metalworkers of South Africa mates that this is still less than two- (Numsa), and four co-defendents were thirds of what should be accruing to acquitted of charges of subversion and Ghana. Having completed work on a sedition in late April after an lK-month total of 35 separate cases of fraud trial. involving more than $35 million of Mayekiso, who was arrested in June diverted revenue, the NIC has accused 1986 under security laws and emergen- timber merchants and companies of "a cy regulations, hailed the verdict as a massive siphoning off of foreign "victory against apartheid" and a tri- exchange" into private foreign umph for black South Africans fighting accounts, while Ghana suffers from the for a democratic society. "I wasted continued depletion of its forest two-and-a-half years of my time in jail, reserves. Two West Germans, four but I think it is going to have lots of Lebanese, and dozens of Ghanaians repercussions," noted Mayekiso. "it have been charged. proved that the freedom movement, the The NIC's report detailing gross i ' r • people s expression ot power, is not irregularities, including smuggling, tax illegal. We can go on boycotts and on evasion, fraudulent invoicing, and vio- Rawlings: Cracking down on Umber fraud any peaceful prolest without breaking lation of foreign currency regulations, In an effort to crack down on mal- the law." also draws attention to the common practices in the timber industry. Flt.-Lt. At a victory rally following his practice by businessmen of obtaining Jerry Raw]ings government has acquittal. Mayekiso told a group of huge timber concessions without hav- launched a clean-up campaign, order- enthusiastic supporters that he intended ing any intention of developing them. ing a review of all existing institutional to revive the kind of community orga- Instead, the concessions are sold to and operational arrangements. With nization that existed in Alexandra at other timber companies at a profit, bilateral and multilateral donors having the time of his arrest. Said Mayekiso, which frequently leads to logs being poured in more than $140 million in "We are back, and we must start where felled and then abandoned. loans for this key sector, the PNDC has we left off. I want to hear that the made it clear it intends to do everything Of course, many of these fraudulent street, yard, and block committees are possible to recover some of the illegal activities would have been impossible meeting tomorrow. The court said they profits owed the country, and to imple- without the consent and collusion of are not illejial."

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 Mayekiso and his fellow Lacte Shoots Himself in support for President Eyadema, and on activisls—Obed Bapela, Richard March 28, hundreds of people were Mdakane, Paul Tshabalala, and the Foot mobilized to take part in a rally called Mzwanele Mayckiso—hud been by the National Confederation of accused of establishing the Alexandra As a one-time soccer referee, Kpo- Togolese Workers (CNTT) to demon- Action Committee and of setting up tivi Tevi Dzidzogbe-Lacle knows the strate their solidarity with the govern- "organs of people's power" to over- rules of the game as well as anyone, ment. Only months earlier, Eyadema throw the state structures in Johannes- but now that he has been unceremoni- was rocked by another scandal involv- burg's large black township. In particu- ously booted out of government in the ing Minister of Commerce N'Souwod- lar, they were alleged to have formed wake of an unusual gambling scandal, ji Kawo Ehe and CNTT Secretary- unofficial tribunals called '"people's serious doubts exist whether he will General Nangbod Rarnabo. both of courts," waged a campaign of violence ever be able to make it back from the whom had to be removed from office against the police, and launched a rent sidelines in Lome. after it was discovered that they had strike and a boycott of white-owned Lacle. one of President Gnassingbe continued to draw their salaries as businesses. The state charged that this Eyadema's closest and most trusted managing directors of the Union of challenge to white authority during the colleagues, was sacked in March as Togolese Banks. general insurrection which overtook minister of justice and charged with As for Lacle, who was stripped of the townships between 1984 and 1986 attempted fraud lor his alleged involve- his official duties so that he could amounted to nothing less than treason appear in court as an ordinary citizen, and subversion. an indictment in the lottery fraud But to the surprise and delight of would represent a final humiliation. anti-apartheid activists throughout the Ahlonko Dovi, a lawyer for the once country. Justice P.J. van der Walt all-powerful interior minister, has ruled thai the state had failed to prove argued that his client should be granted its case. South Africa's advocate-gen- immunity from prosecution, claiming, eral told the court that the defendants "Lacle cannot be tried unless certain were not trying to replace the town- conditions are met, such as an autho- ship's council or to make the country rization by the head of state. There are, ungovernable by fomenting revolution. at present, no laws permitting him to be On the contrary, said van der Walt, brought to justice." However, the gen- their actions had been a reasonable eral prosecutor. Polo Aregba. has response 10 the intolerable living con- pointed out that Lacle did not act in his ditions in the townships. capacity as a government minister but Calling South Africa "a very strange as a private individual, and it appears and complex society." van der Walt that he will now be tried as such told the court that the black community —unless Eyadema intervenes on his had become "dissatisfied and devel- behalf. oped a lack of trust in authority" during This is unlikely, according to oppo- the township unrest, and that the sition sources in exile, who claim that Alexandra Action Committee had the president had been seeking to get I merely sought to represent blacks rid of Lacle for some time, particularly * "with grievances and aspirations because ol his poor handling of the I which, in most cases, were legitimate." alleged coup attempt in Lome by He went on to criticize the government Togolese dissidents in September 1986 for attempting to convict the Alexandra while he was minister of the interior. Five of treason, arguing that "most of ment in a racket to swindle Togolese In March 1987. Lacle was these citizens are just striving for a bet- gamblers who bet on the results of demoted—reportedly for health rea- ter South Africa." British soccer games in the Loto- sons—to the less demanding post of Considering his high rank in the sportif—known locally as the London justice minister, but io Eyadema's irri- South African judiciary, many black Pools. Five other people have been tation, he continued to operate his old activists believe van der Walt's candid charged in the $50,000 scam, including network of informers and to carry out comments will effectively undermine the minister's brother, Kovi Tevi Dzid- his duties as though he were still in the government's June 1986 emergency zogbe-Lacle, after suspicions arose charge of the interior ministry. laws which decreed that the creation of that they had placed their wagers only As a result, when the opportunity alternative structures in the townships once the results were already in. The presented itself and Lacle became is by definition an act of treason. But it principal defendant. Akomatsre implicated in the soccer scandal, remains to be seen whether the govern- Agbeyeye, quite conveniently ran a Eyadema did not hesitate to blow the ment will take van der Walt's view- betting shop in Lome. whistle and to expel his long-time asso- point seriously or whether, in future, it In an attempt to defuse public anger ciate from the government. No date has will simply use the extra-legal provi- over this latest case of high-level cor- yet been set for the trial, but if found sions of the emergency decree to over- ruption, Togolese authorities distribut- guilty. Lacle faces a 6-month to 3-year ride the court's decision. • ed petitions in the capital pledging their prison term. •

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 TANZANIA ZAMBIA MALAWI

An unprecedented number of anti- President Kenneth Kaunda has President-for-Life Hastings Kamuzu unionist opponents have been detained relieved Kebby Musokotwane of his Banda. long known for maintaining a in Pemba and Zanzibar since the begin- portfolio as prime minister, replacing tight lid on discontent, has launched a ning of the year as pan of a concerted him with former Home Affairs Minis- fierce attack against northerners which government effort to put down what ter Gen. Malimba Masheke in a major threatens to undermine his 25-year Julius Nyererc. chairman of the ruling cabinet reshuffle which promoted loyal campaign for national unity. During a Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has party supporters to key posts. Musokot- countrywide crop inspection tour in called a "smear campaign against the wane, who had served as prime minis- February. Banda accused northern civil party in the isles.*' More than a dozen ter for four years, was first demoted to servants of regionalism and condemned dissident islanders were arrested fol- minister of genera! education in mid- teachers from the area for allegedly lowing a visit to Zanzibar in March by March before being transferred to the backing a secessionist plot by former the former Tanzanian president, who foreign service "to meet his obligations Foreign Minister Kanyama Chiume. urged government and party officials to to the leadership code." Several northerners were subsequently use state powers, including detention, Officially, Kaunda said Musokot- arrested and a decree was issued pre- against "agitators and traitors" seeking wane's demotion was in line with his venting teachers from working outside to destroy national unity. policy to expose as many leaders as their own regions. Nyerere, who publicly criticized possible to the post of prime minister Banda's sudden clampdown on those campaigning for a referendum on so that Zambians can better elect his northerners was reportedly linked to the issue of the union, condemned for- successor. But it appears that Musokot- protests at the University of Malawi mer Zanziburi Chief Minister Seif wane fell out of favor following rumors where the entire student body boy- Shariff Hamad in particular for his that he had been questioned in connec- cotted classes for two days following reported mud-slinging campaign tion with an alleged plot to overthrow the suspension of four pupils, all from against the CCM since his expulsion Kaunda last October and will thus join the north. The four had written articles with six other senior members early a long list of former cabinet ministers in a student newsletter criticizing the last year for alleged anti-government to have been sent off as diplomats to new selection system based on quotas activities. Hamad is now said to be far-away places. for each district which will inevitably preparing a detailed reply to Nyerere's lead to the exclusion of many qualified accusations. POLITICAL northerners. POINTERS CHAD TUNISIA MOROCCO The Chadian government thwarted a In the country's first multi-party coup attempt against President Hissene Despite growing controversy sur- elections since the overthrow of Habib Habre and an apparent assassination rounding the construction of the Bourguiba in 19X7. President Zine el- plot against newly appointed External world's biggest mosque. Casablanca's Abidine Ben Ali's ruling Constitutional Affairs Minister Acheikh Ibn Oumar lavish new monument is still expected Democratic Rally (RCD) swept all 141 by arresting Interior Minister Ibrahim to be completed in time for King Has- National Assembly seats amid opposi- Mahamat Itno in early April. The other san II"s 60th birthday on July 9. Far tion party claims of widespread abuses coup leaders. Hassan Djamous, com- and away the most ambitious building and fraud. Ahmed Mestiri, leader of the mander-in-chief of the armed forces. project ever undertaken in Morocco, Social Democratic Movement (MDS), and Idris Deby, Habrc's presidential the 215.()()0-square-lbot mosque, with alleged that more than 1.3 million eligi- security adviser, fled to Sudan with a its towering 564-foot minaret, ble voters were purposefully left off the group of rebel soldiers. Djamous was hydraulic sliding roof, and earthquake- electoral roll and that his supporters reportedly captured during heavy fight- proof foundations, will easily accom- were physically harassed by police, ing with Chadian troops. modate some 20,000 Islamic worship- forcing the withdrawal of opposition The plot, which appears to have pers. party observers from all polling sta- been precipitated by Oumar's return to The Great Hassan II Mosque, which tions. Ndjamena and his subsequent govern- will have cost at least $300 million to Despite such irregularities, the Mus- ment appointment in March, indicates build, has been paid for in part by a lim fundamentalist Movement for that Habre's current policy of settling "voluntary" national fund-raising drive Rebirth won 13 percent of the vote, differences with former opponents may in which all 26 million Moroccans giving the RCD signals of a tougher be undermining his original power- were urged to contribute according to challenge in the future. By contrast, base among sections of the Chadian their ability. Many workers, however, none of the six secular opposition par- National Armed Forces (FANT). Many have reportedly been forced to pay as ties were able to muster more than 3 FANT members fought fierce battles much as the equivalent of a month's percent of the vote and they gave way against Oumar's 2.000-strong Revolu- salary by overzealous local officials. to Ben AM in the uncontesled presiden- tionary Democratic Council (CDR) in while peasants have had to sell part of tial election, arguing that he could best 1986 and 19K7 and now resent its inte- their livestock in order to make their "guarantee a wide degree of democracy gration into the army. "donations." in the country."

AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1989 AFRICAN OUTLOOK Ethnic time bomb explodes in Dakar and Nouakchott Border disputes between Senegal thousands of suddenly dispossessed or refugees with little more than the shirts and Mauritania are nothing new, as homeless citizens. Several nations, on their backs had to be repatriated to a serious economic problems afflicting including Fiance and Morocco, took homeland that many had never seen. both countries in recent years have pro- part in an international airlift between With relations between the two duced abundant fuel for social unrest. Dakar and Nouakchott, moving citizens countries at rock bottom, neither gov- But the latent racial tensions which from the two countries back across ernment has been willing to accept any suddenly boiled over in late April, their respective borders. Prior to the blame for the violence. In late April, causing up to 2(K) deaths in Mauritania unrest, an estimated 300.000 Maurita- Senegalese President Abdou Diouf and at least 50 deaths in Senegal, have nians had lived in Senegal and at least delivered a radio broadcast during left both governments in a state of 30,000 Senegalese had settled in Mau- which he said the anger of his people shock, searching for answers. ritania, but by the completion of the was quite understandable—thereby The latest outbursts of violence airlift in early May. more than 100,000 Continued on next page were sparked by a relatively common incident: an argument over grazing rights after cattle tended by Mauritani- an herdsmen apparently trampled land Embattled Ratsiraka digs in against cultivated by Senegalese farmers along the Senegal River. This time, however, Madagascar's mounting opposition two Senegalese villagers were report- edly killed by Maurilanian soldiers, and another 13 were said to have been When President Didier Ratsiraka Four of the seven parties within the taken hostage. Authorities in Nouak- greeted Pope John Paul II in Antana- legal opposition framework of the chott denied responsibility, claiming narivo in late April, it seemed as National Front for the Defense of the the two were killed with hunting rifles though he was receiving holy sanction Revol ution—a government-sponsored which are not used by Mauritanian bor- for his recent reelection to a third multi-party alliance headed by Ratsira- der guards. seven-year term us the country's head ka—formed the Democratic Alliance in After conflicting reports of the inci- of state. But anti-government rallies January so they could field a single dent filtered back to Dakar. Senegalese just prior to the papal visit, in which candidate to battle Ratsiraka at the mobs began looting many of the Mau- thousands of demonstrators calling for polls. The new grouping, however, ritanian-owned corner shops scattered the president's resignation clashed vio- failed to reach a common understand- around the capital. Ethnic violence lently with police in the streets of the ing in time for the election, leading to a quickly escalated out of control in capital, saw to it that Ratsiraka's presti- split in votes among the main opposi- Nouakchott, as Mauritanians retaliated gious guest would also hear the mes- tion parties. by systematically slaughtering Sene- sage of Madagascar's growing opposi- Manandafy Rakotonirina, leader of galese nationals, beating some 200 to tion. the left-wing Movement for Proletarian death within a few days. According to official figures, five Power, ran on a joint slate with VS- In turn, several do/en Mauritanians people died, 70 were wounded, and 64 MONIMA and won 20 percent of the were stoned to death in Dakar after people were arrested during demonstra- vote, while Jerome Marojama Razan- Senegalese refugees reached the city tions organized by several opposition abahiny, head of the Vonjy/VITM with reports of widespread clubbings parties to coincide with Ratsiraka's party, received 15 percent of the ballots and mutilations in Nouakchott. Thou- inauguration in mid-April. Anti-gov- cast. Monja Jaona. chairman of the sands of machete-wielding Senegalese ernment activists, alleging that the MON1MA-K party and veteran opposi- rampaged through the capital, hunting election results were fraudulent, tion leader, saw his support collapse to down Mauritanians with cries of demanded a fresh vote and vowed to a mere 3 percent after having gained 20 "Death to the Moors," and looting and continue their protests in an effort to percent in the country's last poll in burning their property along the way. force Ratsiraka's resignation. 1982. The country's security forces were then The presidential elections were orig- On election day. Ratsiraka amassed deployed on the streets of Dakar, where inally due to be held in December of almost 63 percent of the total vote even teargas was fired to disperse the rioters this year, but in a calculated move to though he failed to win a majority in and a curfew enforced to contain the throw the mounting opposition into Antananarivo or in any of the provin- unrest as violence spread to other disarray, Ratsiraka's ruling Arema cial capitals. Opposition parties alleged towns and cities. Party pushed through a constitutional that massive irregularities took place in Once the ethnic clashes were finally amendment to bring the poll forward the rural areas since outdated voting brought under control, each govern- by nine months. And to a large extent, lists were used which excluded many ment turned its attention to the tens of this strategy paid off. Continued on page 10

8 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 DAKAR,..continued leaving the door open for further attacks on Mauritanians—while his Pragmatism brings Maghreb together counterpart, President Maaouya Sid Ahmed Ould Taya. argued that "Mauri- After years of conflicts and divisions, the North African nations of Algeria. tania does not bear the slightest respon- Libya, Mauritania. Morocco, and Tunisia are expected to undergo major political sibility in the tragic events." Quite the and economic changes in the coming year following the creation of the Arab contrary, said Taya. Senegal should be Maghreb Union (AMU), a new economic bloc modeled along the lines of the blamed for the harassment of Maurita- European Community. Spurred largely by the prospect of a more unified Euro- nian herders, and he demanded com- pean trading market in 1992, the five North African heads of state have agreed to pensation for his people's property put aside their long-standing differences in a pragmatic move to enhance the seized or destroyed in Dakar. Farah region's political and economic future. Ndiaye, one of Diouf's personal advis- The union, signed on February 17 in the southern Moroccan city of Marrakesh. ers, characterized Taya"s accusations as will bring together the 62 million inhabitants of the five member-states—-stretch- '"irresponsible and in effect a declara- ing 3.000 miles from the eastern Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean—by abol- tion of w;ir." ishing the barriers to the free movement of people and products across national boundaries. The Maghreb nations, which currently send two-thirds of their exports to the 12 member-nations of the Economic Community, thereby hope to provide a sufficiently large and robust market for regionally based industries to survive prospects of tighter trade restrictions. Between them. AMU countries have vast supplies of oil. gas. phosphates, and iron ore that have yet to be fully devel- oped. The founding treaty of the AMU. which was initially discussed last June when the five heads of state met at the Zeralda summit in Algeria, comes into effect on August 17 and outlines each states' obligation to the union. The AMU will consist of a policy-making presidential council composed of each head of state, with the chairmanship rotating every six months, beginning with King Hassan II of Moroc- co: a council of foreign ministers to prepare the groundwork for the summits; a general secretariat with one member from each country to deal with day-to-day administrative problems; a consultative 50-member Maghreb Chamber; and a judicial body composed of two judges from each state to settle regional disputes. Although the idea of forming a Maghreb union is hardly a new idea and fits in with the wider goal of uniting all 22 Arab nations under one state, progress in this direction has long been hindered by decades of division. Apart from the difficul- ties of linking economies marked by heavy state intervention, like Algeria and Libya, with the more market-oriented systems of Morocco and Tunisia, political differences over issues like the Western Sahara have played a key role in the dis- unity that has prevailed since the 1 ^.SOs. Despite the renewed impetus behind the formation of a North African union, very real obstacles remain if the AMU is to get off the ground. While all heads of state are officially committed to the AMU. each leader has a very different idea as to what form such a union should take. In fact. Libya's Col. Muammar Qaddafy nearly refused to sign the treaty when his counterparts failed to endorse the creation of a single classless state within the AMU, which he envisages as a "stepping stone" toward an Arab union "from Marrakesh to Bahrain." The other Maghreb leaders also rejected Qaddafy's pro- Diouf: Ties with Nouakchott at rock bottom posal that Chad. Mali. Niger, and Sudan be included in the union, invoking the Nevertheless, despite the rift created need for greater economic pragmatism, although a compromise clause was added by the ethnic violence and the stating that AMU membership is open to other Arab and African nations provid- inevitable economic fallout for both ing that member-states unanimously approve. countries, renewed cooperation Nonetheless, the North Africa union does appear to have a greater chance of remains a key to the future of each success than previous unity endeavors, in large part because it relies on the con- government. Cohabitation has not cept of mutual economic benefit rather than on an abstract political ideal. The always been peaceful and the growing treaty is based upon the common language, culture, and religion of the five mem- number of border incidents suggest that ber-states, and includes among its goals the preservation of the teachings of Islam the climate of political fragility in and the safeguarding of the "Arabic national identity," but the driving force Dakar and Nouakchott will once again behind the union remains that of economic cooperation. As one North African be tested. But as the Senegalese daily, specialist put it, "This time there is the will to make it work. The cement this lime Le Soleil. pointed out recently, real is not so much political visionary behavior...but good pragmatism and good busi- answers need to be found because, ness sense. That's what will hold it together." quite simply, the two countries are "condemned to live together." •

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 MADAGASCAR...continued country's legislative elections on May wide slump in commodity prices. 28. Still, the World Bank is hopeful that youths. Ratsiraka's opponents also Ratsiraka's opponents all point to Madagascar will eventually experience claimed there was inadequate supervi- his decision to embrace the IMF's the same Indian Ocean phenomenon sion of voting procedures and ballot structural adjustment program of free- that brought a prosperous, made-for- collection in the remote parts of the market reforms as the primary reason export economy to neighboring Mauri- countryside where opposition groups for their strong showing in the presi- tius. Jose Bronfman, the World Bank's had neither the time nor the resources dential elections. Despite an injection representative in Antananarivo, to monitor the voting after the date of of $7Moscow AKFM- Belkaid, the new constitution "opens form their own parties. Such a decision KDRSM Party, Richard Andriamanja- the way to a new era," given that it will has been left up to the National Popular to, announced the birth of the AKFM- enable Algeria "to know more democ- Assembly, which could lead to the Renewal Party in late March to oppose racy, to assure public and individual eventual break-up of the FLN into sep- Ratsiraka's IMF-backed economic liberties, and to establish the sovereign- arate political groupings. reforms and to steer Madagascar back ty of the law." Although the fragmentation of the onto the path of "scientific socialism." An editorial published by the offi- FLN appears somewhat premature, the Andriamanjato, whose support comes cial news agency following the referen- results of the constitutional referendum mainly from the urban middle class, dum results emphasized just how far did confirm that Chadli's liberalization formed the AKFM-Renewal Party too the country's liberalization process has program has its share of critics, both late to contest the elections, but his gone, arguing that "Algerians are being within the ruling party and among sec- absence accounts in part for the abnor- given back their true places as citizens tions of the opposition. More than a mally high abstention rate in the and as decision-makers in society. The quarter of those who took part in the cities—particularly in Antananarivo individual man. the fundamental base referendum voted against the constitu- where 24 percent of the voters boy- element of society, is restored." Indeed, tion, while a fifth of the electorate cotted the election. The new party is whereas the outgoing 1976 National chose to abstain even though voting is expected to run against Arema in the Charter chose to describe socialism as mandatory under Algerian law.

10 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 In effect, many of the FLNs old guard opposed to Chadli's program of liberal reforms cast "no" ballots—the Mobutu teaches students a lesson highest negative vote in any referen- dum since independence. The anti- President Mobutu Sese Seko's well-orchestrated public relations campaign to re form ist diehards, led by recently dis- improve his country's human rights image suffered a serious setback recently missed FLN second-in-command when a series of clashes between student demonstrators and state security forces Mohamed Cherif Messaadia. argued left as many as 52 dead and opposition leader Etiennc Tshisekedi wa Mulumba for the continuation of a one-party cen- once again under house arrest. tralized state and made clear their sup- The latest wave of unrest began in Kinshasa after students took to the streets in port for the country's traditional social- early February to protest an 80 percent increase in the cost of public transport. ist policies. Kinshasa University students seized several buses in an attempt to get to classes Another 2 million Algerian voters because of the breakdown in the city's transport system, and battled with armed boycotted the referendum, following police when the government announced a doubling in the price of petrol at the calls by radical Islamic fundamentalist behest of the IMF. "Mobutu thief and "Mobutu go away" were some of the graf- groups demanding a constitution based fiti the students sprayed on the walls of the capital. on Sharia law. In some cases, masked Authorities in Kinshasa, warning students that "no violent actions nor unruly Islamic activists harassed people on assemblies will be tolerated.'" called on the security forces to silence a group of their way to vote and threatened them 200 demonstrators al the university, leading to 10 deaths and the arrests of 120 if they refused to turn back. people, according to opposition spokesmen. The government then closed the country's five institutions of higher learning and established a de facto state of martial law with the deployment of paratroopers and the Civil Guard throughout the capital. Mobutu did concede the need for better transport facilities—as Kin- shasa has only 100 buses in working order to serve a population of more than 4 million—and announced that he had put in a request to purchase 300 buses from Morocco and France, but it was too little too late. The demonstrations spread to Lubumbashi in Shaba Province, where the muti- lated body of a student leader was found outside a nearby military camp. Over 1,000 students protested with placards, paying tribute to Tshisekedi and the banned Union for Democracy and Social Progress lUDPS). before commandos arrived from Kinshasa and fired into the crowd. After two days of rioting. 52 peo- ple were killed and 300 protesters arrested, according to student spokesmen, although official sources claimed only one death and 37 wounded, including 12 soldiers. More than 200 of those arrested were reportedly flown to Lisala military camp, notorious for serving as a "Ye-education center" during periods of unrest in the late 1970s. Following this latest round of state brutalities, the Mobutu regime ran a public relations campaign on Capitol Hill by placing advertisements in The Washington Post and The Washington Times to refute charges of ongoing human rights abuses in Zaire. Appearing just prior to the start of House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa hearings in March, the newspaper ads drew attention to the UN Coin- mission on Human Rights' recent decision to remove Zaire from its list of offend- ers, having concluded that sufficient progress had been made in this direction. A spokesman for Amnesty International, however, challenged the Commission's Chadli: Leaving Algerian socialism behind findings, testifying before the House Subcommittee that gross human rights viola- In the wake of a new constitution, tions in Zaire continue to occur. an array of political groups—ranging Indeed, the public relations offensive certainly did not prevent Mobutu from from Trotskyite socialism to Islamic placing Tshisekedi under house arrest and arresting his wife and two other UDPS fundamentalism—have sprung up. hop- activists in an attempt to force the veteran opposition leader to lake the blame for ing to take advantage of Chadli's antic- "instigating the riots." Whether Mobutu once again succeeds in neutralizing sup- ipated parliamentary reforms. Among port for the UDPS remains to be seen, but judging from his resolve to use force them are the Rally for Culture and against the opposition, it appears highly unlikely that Zaire's human rights record Democracy (RCD). a social democratic is aboul to improve any time soon. party established in Tizi-Ouzo after a two-day meeting of the Berber Cultural Movement. The main purpose of the ous long-term challenge to the ruling indicated he will tolerate an Islamic new party is to defend the Berber lan- FLN. The FSI. established with the aim fundamentalist party as long as it guage, culture, and identity as a nation- of creating an Islamic state that refrains from using violence, but it al patrimony. enforces Sharia law. has unequivocally remains to be seen how far the FLN But it is the newly formed Islamic opposed a multi-party system, demand- leadership is willing to push through Salvation Front (FSI) led by Ali Bel ing that all non-Islamic political associ- the government's political and econom- Hadj which could pose the most seri- ations be banned. So far. Chadli has ic reforms. •

AFRICA REPORT • May June 1989 11 ALGERIA SUDAN UGANDA

President Chadli Benjedid and King In a renewed effort to force Chevron After a two-year delay, a $73.4 mil- Hassan II of Morocco have signed an back to work in war-torn southern lion rehabilitation project for the Owen unprecedented accord to build a mas- Sudan, Energy and Mining Minister Falls Dam hydroelectric power plant is sive 1,250-mile gas pipeline which Habib Sarnub Adam warned executives finally underway which will greatly could supply Spain with vast quantities of the U.S. oil company during recent improve energy services to millions of of natural gas by 1995. The proposed talks that the government might be Ugandans who have been affected by pipeline will run from the Algerian gas forced to "look for other alternatives." frequent power breakdowns. The pro- field of Hassi R'Met to the Moroccan Chevron, which has invested SI billion ject, involving the repair of generation, border town of Oujda, and then on to in oil exploration since it began opera- transmission, and distribution equip- Tangiers, before reaching the Spanish tions in 1974. resumed work in western ment at the country's sole hydroelectric mainland under the Straits of Gibraltar. Sudan late last year but has steadfastly power station in Jinja, had been the The grandiose project is to be man- refused to return to the rich southern subject of taxation policy conflicts aged by a joint company in which the oilfields of Bentiu because of the high between the government and the World two governments will have an equal security risks. Bank, the scheme's main financial stake, with Morocco siphoning off In the meantime. Prime Minister backer, before Kampala reluctantly some 2 billion cubic meters a year Sadiq al-Mahdi's government has been agreed to grant tax exemptions to the from a total output of 10 billion cubic desperately looking for ways to obtain contractors. meters. Gulf Interstate, a Houston- foreign oil today in return for promises While power generation at Owen based engineering company, has of future heavy crude when production Falls will rise from 150 to 180 already been approached to cany out a in Bentiu resumes. So far there have megawatts, Uganda's energy produc- feasibility study. The accord, which been no takers, however, forcing the tion will surge should the government underlines the improved relations government to make a recent deal with go ahead with its ambitious program to between the two countries since the Libya for the 1989 importation of construct a $400 million power plant at renewal of diplomatic ties in May crude oil worth $150 million—a major the world-famous Murchison Falls. 1988, is expected to play a key role in expense the country can ill afford. With a generating capacity of 480 the development of a Maghreb eco- megawatts, this second power station nomic union along the lines of the will enable Uganda to meet its energy European Community. needs until the year 2020.

NIGERIA NIGER SOUTH AFRICA President Ibrahim Babangida's pro- Drought in the Sahel has forced gram to achieve national self-sufficien- West Germany has supplanted Japan thousands of Tuareg nomads to seek a cy in wheatproduction has come under as South Africa's top trading partner living mining uranium, but with the fire following a harvest shortfall which and appears set to maintain strong busi- precipitous fall in the price of "yellow has sent the price of grain soaring and ness links with the apartheid regime in cake" on the world market, a growing forced the government to take emer- years to come. Trade between Bonn number are being turned away. As a gency action to alleviate bread short- and Pretoria jumped 33.2 percent to result, the northwest town of Arlit is ages. In mid-February, the Babangida $5.06 billion in 1988, while Japan's becoming a center for refugees, leading administration imposed a total ban on actually declined by 3.5 percent to to growing tensions and interracial vio- the export of foodstuffs and ordered the $3.95 billion in the wake of interna- lence between Tuaregs and the local release of stockpiles held by state gov- tional criticism of its economic ties Fulani majority who resent having to ernments at affordable prices, but these with South Africa. Tokyo's trade cut- share their dwindling resources with a measures did little to ease the problem back, however, ran counter to the dom- people whom they have traditionally given that most storage depots were inant trend in other major industrialized feared and mistrusted. virtually empty. countries. Uranium—which accounts for SO The Agriculture Development Pro- In spite of renewed calls for sanc- percent of the country's export earn- gram, introduced in 1987 to bolster tions and boycott pressures, virtually ings—is suffering from a glutted mar- domestic production and to save for- all Western nations reported a substan- ket, causing production to fall from eign exchange, has thus drawn the criti- tial growth in their business links with 4,500 tons in 1980 to only 2,960 tons cism of agricultural experts who con- Pretoria last year, including Great last year. France, the largest buyer of tend that this year's poor harvest Britain, whose trade shot up 26.2 per- Nigerien uranium, has offered to pur- demonstrates that it is unrealistic for cent to $3.35 billion, and the U.S., chase additional "yellow cake" on con- Nigeria to grow crops for which the cli- which saw its trade flourish by 22 per- dition that one of the Arlit mines be mate is unsuitable. Indeed. Nigeria still cent to $3.28 billion. In rand terms, the closed, but Mining Minister Adamou produces less than 2 percent of its figures were even more promising for Souna has so far rejected the proposal, wheat requirements—and at a cost Pretoria following the 20 percent fearing that it would only aggravate the higher than that of importing from devaluation of its currency against the country's economic and social malaise. abroad. dollar last year.

12 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 NAMIBIA PEACE ON PRETORIA'S TERMS?

SyMARK VERBAAN

The April 1 movement of Swapo fighters from bases in Angola into northern Namibia has raised questions regarding the role of UNTAG, as well as providing Pretoria with justifications to delay the peace process. In this Africa Report exclusive, our correspondent provides an analysis of the mood inside the territory, where intimidation and violence continue to jeopardize prospects for Namibia's independence.

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 13 y May 15, observers of the Finnish Martti Ahtisaari, gave his strength when resolution 435 was Namibian peace process were approval for South African troops to implemented. And although there B expressing fears that South be released from their bases to were less than 1,000 out of 4,650 UN Africa was engaging in more delay- "combat" the presence of Swapo troops in Namibia when the fighting ing tactics to stall or disrupt the guerrillas. This action drew wide broke out. there were a mere hand- implementation of the decade-old condemnation both locally and ful deployed in northern Namibia at United Nations independence plan abroad, and especially from leaders the time. for the territory. of Swapo, which is widely tipped to Eyewitness accounts indicated These fears came in the wake of a win the elections scheduled for that Swapo fighters had entered marathon session of talks between November. Namibia hours after the peace plan representatives of Angola. Cuba, and For nearly two weeks, fierce bat- and a ceasefire had come into effect, South Africa at Ruacana on the tles were fought along a 60-mile under the impression that UN per- Angola-Namibia border, which last- stretch of border, and within days. sonnel would be waiting to confine ed for close to 18 hours. Journalists them to bases in Namibia, as the who had been kept waiting in a mili- South African troops were. Reports tary base several miles from the site revealed that South African soldiers of the talks, which took place a few hunted down the guerrillas who hundred yards inside Angolan terri- were waiting for UN troops to turn tory, were told in the early hours of up, and opened fire on them first. the morning by the chief of the Some combatants were eating their South African Defence Force, Gen. lunch when they were attacked, Jannie Geldenhuys, that the parties reported residents who witnessed had agreed to report back to their the first clash. respective governments and meet The feeling among most Namib- again on Friday, May 19. ians at the time was that the Swapo Setting a second unscheduled day fighters, being Namibians them- of talks without doubt implied that « selves, had more of a right to be con- not all was going well between Pre-J fined to bases in their own country toria, Havana, and Luanda. Specula- p than the South African troops. How- tion was rife that South Africa ^ ever, Pretoria was not prepared to remained adamant that guerrillas of f consider this point. the military wing of the South West £ An emergency meeting between Africa People's Organization (Swa- Angolan, Cuban, and South African First four Swapo soldiers handing them- po), which has fought an armed selves over to IINTAG at Oshikango: representatives, with Soviet and struggle against South African occu- "Less than a dozen combatants made use American observers, was held on a pation of Namibia for 23 years, were of the assembly points" farm near Windhoek. The resultant still present in northern Namibia. more than 300 PLAN combatants Mount Etjo Declaration provided for What the South African govern- had been shot dead by the South UN assembly points to be erected in ment described as an "incursion" by African-led security forces. Pretoria northern Namibia and along the bor- combatants of the People's Libera- claimed to have lost around 30 men. der, to which PLAN fighters could tion Army of Namibia (PLAN), "in The United Nations Transition report and be disarmed before being breach of agreements" on April 1, Assistance Group (UNTAG) was escorted by UN officials across the the day the UN Security Council's attacked by progressive organiza- border and to camps some 90 miles resolution 435 was implemented, led tions inside the country for having inside Angola. The South African to a demand by Pretoria that the failed to prevent the bloodshed. It forces were reconfined to bases for a fighters withdraw from Namibia and emerged that Ahtisaari had been 60-hour period to allow Swapo guer- be confined to bases north of the warned on March 31 by South rillas a chance to reach the assembly 16th parallel in Angola if the inde- African Foreign Affairs Minister Pik points. pendence process was to continue. Botha of a large presence of Swapo However, this operation was a fail- Under pressure from the South fighters poisetl on the border ready ure. Less than a dozen combatants African government, UN Special to cross into northern Namibia. made use of the points, with hun- Representative and head of the Many felt that if immediate action dreds more believing the scheme to peace-keeping operations, the had been taken by Ahtisaari, the be a South African trap. The fighters' killing could have been avoided. caution was entrenched when Preto- Mark Verbaan is presently director of the Another factor which caused ria's administrator-general of the ter- Namibian News Service, a press agency estab- lished three years ago on The Namibian, pri- Namibians to turn against the UN ritory, Ivouis Pienaar, announced that marily as an effort to generate public interest was the fact that the peace-keeping PIAN members handing themselves in the Namibian story. He has been a journal- ist in Namibia for four years. force was at less than a quarter over at the assembly points would be

14 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 interrogated, finger-printed, and already been delayed a week. Swapo achieve this, it will be able to write photographed. He later retracted leaders in Namibia have announced the constitution for an independent that statement. that up to 50 members of the organi- Namibia without interference. Less Under instructions from the orga- zation's election committee, headed than a two-thirds majority will result nization's leader, Sam Nujoma, the by central committee members who in a constitution being negotiated, vast majority of Swapo guerrillas in have been in exile for more than 20 which means that actual indepen- Namibia chose to cross the border years, will be returning to Namibia dence could be delayed for months of their own accord and head north within two weeks. It has also been or even years after the elections. to the Kith parallel. And this was one reported that President Sam Nujoma South African troops and Namib- of the main [joints on the agenda of will arrive in Windhoek at the begin- ian soldiers with the SADF's local the May 15 Joint Commission meet- ning of July. army here, the South West Africa ing at Ruacana—the verification of Now that the actual fighting in the Territory Force (SWATF), have the withdrawal of all Swapo forces. north seems to have come to an end, been attempting to promote the DTA UNTAG's Angolan team inspected a political leaders in Namibia are particularly in the northern regions parade of more than 5,000 PLAN beginning to make serious prepara- where most of Swapo's electorate fighters on the weekend of May 13 tions for the UN-supervised elec- live. However, in their attempts to at the southern Angolan town of tions in less than seven months' swing popular support away from Chibemba, some 11 miles north of lime. Swapo's main opponent al the Swapo, brutal methods are often the 16th parallel. used. At the same time, Swapo Secre- The word "intimidation" is on tary for Information and Publicity everyone's lips these days. Intimida- Hidipo Hamutenya said from Luanda tion and harassment of a political that all Swapo forces were now out T he mountain nature is nothing new in Africa's last of Namibia and that there was no colony, but with just a few weeks of reason for South Africa not to begin of intimidation the peace process having passed, it withdrawing its own troops from the complaints received has reached an ugly peak. Chief UN territory. Swapo estimates that there by the UN, rather spokesman in Namibia Cedric are currently between 10,000 and Thornberry finds "dismaying" the 60,000 South African soldiers still in than showing the number and nature of intimidation Namibia. The LIN plan states that by effectiveness of cases which he concedes involve this stage, there should only be security force members. In the space 12,000 SADF troops remaining in the operation, of two weeks, he has received more the country. The further reduction demonstrates the than 50 allegations of intimida- of South African forces to 1,500 men tion—all of which UNTAG will have is to be completed by June 30. scale of bullying to investigate. The fact that the South African going on in the The intimidation campaign troop withdrawal is so far behind country. claimed a life on May 9, that of a 26- schedule could possibly be another year-old Swapo supporter, David aspect relating to the near break- Indongo. Indongo was in a van-load down in the Joint Commission talks. of fellow Swapo supporters traveling It is also in Angola's interests to see home from a rally in Windhoek Pretoria's troops—who have invaded polls will be the Democratic Turn- when they were shot at by two while Angolan territory so many times in halle Alliance (DTA), a group which men driving a luxury Mercedes the past—return to South Africa as participated in the South African- Henz near the northern town of soon as possible. If, for whatever appointed interim government that Tsumeb. Six people were injured in motives, South Africa wants to keep "ruled" Namibia for nearly four the shooting, Indongo dying of his its forces in Namibia for as long as it years against the wishes of the vast wounds six weeks later. can, this would create a certain majority of the population. Believed A murder investigation has been amount of tension at any negotia- to be financed by South Africa to the launched, in which two policemen tions involving representatives from tune of more than $12 million, the from the northern town of Oshakati Luanda and Havana. DTA has already begun a desperate are chief suspects. In the same week While resolution 435"s countdown campaign to woo voters away from Indongo died, an attempt was made from April 1 is theoretically still in the Swapo camp. to assassinate two freelance journal- effect, time is running short. An esti- Like every other pro-South ists, John Liebenberg and Heidi von mated 60,000 Namibian refugees African party in Namibia, the unspo- Egidi. Liebenberg, renowned for his and exiles are waiting to return ken intention is to prevent Swapo photographs documenting the rav- home, and the repatriation process, from winning a two-thirds majority ages of South Africa's occupation of due to have begun on May 15, had in the election. If Swapo does Namibia, received an anonymous

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 15 phone call telling him there had atrocities committed against civilians plaints of "killings in northern been a bomb explosion in Wind- in the war zone. These complaints Namibia." Many Namibians are of hoek's Katutura township. The pho- ranged from thefts of property and the opinion that the results of tographer, together with his free- livestock to murder and rape. Many UNTAG investigations should be lance colleague, were on the high- human rights abuses were carried made public, as it is the people them- way to the township when a out in an attempt to gain information selves who are lodging the com- speeding car drew up alongside and from civilians about the movement plaints. gunmen opened fire. of Swapo fighters in the region. Now The mountain of intimidation "We heard the shots and ducked the Ovambo administration, along complaints received by the UN, without looking to see what hap- with the country's 10 other local rather than showing the effective- pened," says von Egidi. "The car authorities, is in the process of being ness of the operation, demonstrates came from nowhere and the shoot- dismantled under the provisions of the scale of bullying going on in the ing was almost at point-blank range." resolution 435. country. Many civilians are reluctant As it turned out, there had been Within six days, the following to report incidents because UN mis- no bomb explosion in the township cases of intimidation—typical of sions are based in the very buildings and having examined Liebenberg's those happening throughout the and camps of the security forces bullet-riddled car, the police had lit- country—were reported to have against whom they wish to complain. tle choice but to open a docket of taken place in and around the north- The fear of retribution is too deeply attempted murder. eastern town of Rundu: ingrained to ignore. A local headman at Ombalantu •Two civilians were beaten up by Under the world body's plan, the reported recently that Koevoet soldiers. local police force remains responsi- members driving in eight armored •A van-load of armed soldiers ble for keeping "law and order" dur- Casspir vehicles opened fire on two tried to disrupt a Swapo meeting, ing the transition period. The admin- boys riding their bicycles. Joseph only to be stopped by UN monitors istrator-general, who is responsible Nenghama, 16, was fatally wounded. who were called to the scene. for the police, maintains that the Intimidation, particularly of the •A soldier waded into the crowd force will conduct its duties in an progressive media, has been a fea- at a May Day rally threatening to "impartial" manner. However, as one ture of life here for many years. Dur- open fire with his rifle. He was observer commented: "How can you ing the past three years, the offices restrained and disarmed by mem- possibly expect policemen who have of a pro-independence newspaper. bers of the crowd. dedicated most of their careers to The Namibian, were fire-bombed, •The same day, three soldiers crushing Swapo's 'communist shot at, and tear-gassed. The staff assaulted a young man for wearing a onslaught" to change their ways and its editor, Gwen Lister, have Swapo tee-shirt. overnight?" The recent appointment received numerous death threats, • Two policemen arrived at a of the founder of the notoriously have been detained, had their cars church mission where they interro- brutal and anti-Swapo police Koevoet sabotaged and shot at with rubber gated first a nun and then a priest, counter-insurgency unit, Brigadier bullets fired by police. accusing the latter of supporting Hans Dreyer, as police commission- Prior to the most recent shooting, Swapo. The same policemen, actual- er in northern Namibia is an omi- freelancer Liebenberg had received ly claiming to be members of nous example. death threats, including one from a UNTAG, then carried out similar There are many vital things which policeman who showed the photog- treatment to teachers at a nearby must still be accomplished if Namib- rapher five live bullets and said: school. ia is to witness free and fair elec- These are for your face." None of The monitoring by UNTAG per- tions. All political prisoners must be these cases have resulted in an sonnel particularly of trade union freed; the military's dusk-to-dawn arrest or conviction. and Swapo rallies has acted as a curfew in the north must be lifted; For those living in the northern brake on the security forces, which South Africa must begin withdraw- Namibia war zone, who make up regularly turn out in force and heavi- ing its troops; all discriminatory and more than half of the territory's 1.4 ly armed at such events. In terms of repressive legislation must be abol- million population, intimidation, par- the UN plan. UNTAG has the power ished; the UN force must be brought ticularly by members of the security to insist that members of the securi- up to its full complement; the forces, has been a part of everyday ty forces be dismissed for "improper refugees must be allowed to return life for decades. This continues to be conduct." safely to participate in the electoral the case, in spite of the presence of The findings of UNTAG investiga- process. UNTAG peace-keepers. tions into misconduct are kept secret There will undoubtedly be many The offices of the Ovambo local and offenders remain anonymous, more Namibian lives lost before the authority in the northern town of but at least one senior South West country is eventually able to take its Ongwediva received an average of African Police officer has been dis- rightful place among the nations of 15 complaints a day of security force missed after UNTAG received com- the world. O

16 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 MOZAMBIQUE Mozambican recruited by South Africans to join Renamo: I AN ARMY OF ABDUCTORS

By WILLIAM MINTER

Little is known about the motives and methods of Renamo, which has been fighting a destructive and brutal war against Mozambique for over a decade. Recent interviews with ex-Renamo fighters, however, paint a picture of an army composed primarily of kidnapped Mozambicans, fighting not from commitment to an ideology but out of fear for their lives.

Captured Renamo weapons: ".Arms, ammunition, and medicines came primarily from outside the country"

1\ orge Mabunda (a pseudonym), being kidnapped at work in their feared being killed if they refused. an unemployed auto mechanic fields, on the way to an uncle's These interviews were the first J in the small Mozambican bor- house, in their hut at home. Several systematic effort to seek information der town of Namaacha. was out said they were captured by Renamo from ex-Renamo fighters themselves drinking late one night in February in large attacks, such as Antonio on this notorious but shadowy orga- 1984. He was walking back to a (pseudonym), who was taken with nization, which, for over a decade, friend's house on the edge of town 80 other plantation workers from the has been the principal agent of a with two of his drinking companions Sena Sugar Estates. destructive war against independent when they met a group of armed Such consistent testimony sur- Mozambique. Its founding by the men. The gang ordered Mabunda prised me, although I had visited Rhodesian government in the mid- and his friends to carry their knap- Mozambique before and followed 1970s is well-documented, as is the sacks, then marched them five the war closely over the years. I had transfer of sponsorship to the South hours through the night to a base in heard credible second-hand stories African military after white Rhodesia the bush. of forced recruitment, but assumed became independent Zimbabwe in Suspecting him of being a mem- that such cases were only a fraction 1980. ber of the government's militia, they of the guerrilla force. A guerrilla In recent years, the results of the tortured and almost killed him with army of 20,000 or more must be war have attracted increasing atten- a bayonet. But then the commander motivated by some ideology or eth- tion from the international communi- decided to spare his life. A South nic loyalty, one would think. ty. The report by consultant Robert African military doctor who came by Or, as I hypothesized before my Gersony for the U.S. State Depart- helicopter treated his wounds, and trip, a society as poor, famine-strick- ment's Bureau of Refugee Affairs in after some months of military train- en, and disrupted as Mozambique April 1988 documented, on the basis ing, he became a soldier in the would surely produce enough of interviews with refugees and dis- Mozambican National Resistance marginalized young men to be placed persons, a systematic pattern (Renamo). recruited voluntarily by offering a of human rights abuses overwhelm- 1 interviewed Mabunda late last gun and the prospect of food and ingly attributed to Renamo, includ- year in Maputo, several months after booty. ing the killings of over 100,000 civil- his escape from the Renamo base. In convincing detail, the men I ians. He turned out to be typical of almost interviewed told a different story. In Renamo itself, however, has 30 others I talked to, in Mozam- separate private interviews in differ- remained an enigma. Its president, bique's capital, Maputo, in Chimoio ent parts of the country, one ex- Afonso Dhlakama, has rarely met in central Mozambique, and in Que- guerrilla after another told me of journalists. The exiles and non- limane in the north. Others told of being kidnapped and that all those Mozambicans who represent Ren- William Minter, author of Kinjj Solomon's who trained with them—or almost amo in Lisbon, Washington, and Mines Revisited and other works on southern all—had also been recruited to the other capitals seem to have little Africa, interviewed ex-Renamo participants in Mozambique in November and December rebel group at the point of a gun. direct contact with the situation on 1988. His results were described in detail in a They had fought, most said, not for the ground in Mozambique. The March report to the Ford Foundation and the Swedish International Development Agency. ideology or loyalty, but because they motives of the Renamo fighters and the extent of South African involve- ment in recent years have been shrouded in mystery and specula- tion. Some observers believe that Ren- amo has become a collection of dis- persed bands of armed men, thriving in the chaotic and desperate condi- tions of the Mozambican country- side. Many acknowledge the likeli- hood of continuing South African involvement, but say nevertheless that the group now has a momentum making it largely self-sustaining. The data from my informants does not support such speculation. Instead, it shows Renamo to be a hierarchically structured and profes-

Burnt-out shop in Manjacaze after Ren- amo attack: "The principal agent of a destructive war against independent Mozambique" sionally competent military organi- camp) were told zation. Both recruitment and inter- by South African nal discipline depend on brutally authorities that effective control mechanisms, they had to join including the threat of execution for either Unita or the attempted desertion. And the South African involvement of South African special army. He joined forces, in training, supply, and com- the army, and munications, shows a consistent pat- made his career in tern from its beginning in 1980 the special forces. through the time of my interviews in All the other late 1988. men, that is all The 32 individuals I interviewed, those who had 16 of them prisoners in Mozambique been involved as and 16 who had accepted the Renamo combat- Mozambican government's amnesty, ants inside Moz- had spent an average of 37 months ambique, said they in the Renamo forces, ranging from had been recruit- late 1978 through late 1988. They ed by force. The were interviewed privately, out of word used was sight and hearing of Mozambican raptado, meaning government officials. I deliberately "abducted" or "kid- refrained from asking loaded or napped." The only incriminatory questions, focusing on common factor what they heard and saw, not on which seems to what they did. have determined Almost all spoke freely and fluent- their entry into ly. Their willingness to answer ques- Renamo was the tions with "No," "I don't know," or "I bad fortune of Children attacked quent with the amnesty program being in an area with an axi* by heard about that, but didn't see it Kcnamo in Vitan- widely publicized by the government myself gave confidence that their vulnerable to culos: "A system- in 1988 and continuing this year. information was genuine. attack, not any atic pattern of hu- Over 3.000 combatants accepted the Conducted in Maputo, Chimoio, commonality in man rights abuses amnesty in 1988. But access to infor- ideology, class overwhelmingly and Quelimane, the interviews attributed to Ken- mal ion within Renamo ranks is limit- included Mozambieans with experi- position, ethnic amo" ed, and il is likely that many still ence in southern, central, and north- group, or political believe their commanders' warnings. ern Mozambique, as well as two who attitude. Yet another impediment to escape had worked in Renamo's external They stayed for training and then is a systematic process of transfer- offices and an Angolan who was a fought, they said, essentially ring recruits away from their home member of the South African special because they had no choice. All said areas, and mixing soldiers from dif- forces unit responsible for Renamo. that attempts to escape were severe- ferent areas in the same unit. This is ly punished. Thirteen said they had particularly effective in the northern A Kidnapped Army personal knowledge of the execution part of the country, where there is Of the men I interviewed, only of Renamo combatants who tried to little tradition of migration. A peas- three cited ideological reasons for escape, and they believed this was ant moved 60 miles away from his their involvement. One was a conser- the normal punishment. home may have little knowledge of vative Australian missionary who Most also said they were told that the local geography or even the lan- had served as a Renamo courier; the if they did succeed in escaping, gov- guage. other two had been officials in Ren- ernment troops would kill them. Those who enforce this discipline amo's Lisbon office. One Mozambi- Mozambican government officials and run the Renamo military can—an illegal immigrant in the confirmed to me that in earlier years machine are those who have sur- eastern Transvaal—had been arrest- there had been a number of cases of vived this process and climbed the ed and then offered a job as inter- mob violence against Renamo sol- ranks. The nucleus are the so-called preter for South African military diers or summary executions by "veterans" recruited in the period of intelligence. The Angolan had been local commanders. Rhodesian sponsorship, who may a teenager in a refugee camp in Non-government as well as gov- include a larger proportion of men northern Namibia in 1976 when he ernment sources agreed that such motivated by ideological or personal (and other young males in the incidents became much less ire- hostility lo the Frelimo government.

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 19 Several interviewees spoke of spe- amnesty in February in Manica Renamo's radio operations in South cial Grupos Limpas ("Clean-up province that there had been two Africa in 1983-84 and closely Squads") of these men, who they white and three black South African observed the command structure, said were responsible for most of the soldiers in his base when he left. noted that it was South African offi- large-scale atrocities. Some observers still argue that cers who exercised the greatest South African assertions of non-sup- influence. Renamo's external wing of South Africa's Role port for Renamo should be believed exiles and non-Mozambicans in Lis- According to my informants, Ren- because no recent "smoking gun" bon, Nairobi, and Washington have amo relied on forced contributions evidence has been uncovered. But minimal direct involvement in run- and raids for food and to some Mozambique's size and coastline is ning the war. extent for clothing and other goods. roughly equivalent to the entire U.S. The core of commanders around But arms, ammunition, and me- south, from Louisiana through South Renamo leader Dhlakama certainly dicines came primarily from outside Carolina. By comparison, given the has accumulated military expertise. the country. The pattern was coher- considerable number of small air- They would probably be able to keep ent. None said lhat captured wea- craft and ships that escape detection going for some time with existing pons were the major source of sup- or capture by U.S. drug enforcement arms stores and captured weapons. ply, or cited any provider other than agencies, it is likely that a smaller But if they were deprived of a regu- the South Africans. number of deliveries could elude lar flow of ammunition and particu- What they actually witnessed var- Mozambican authorities. larly of communications equipment, ied, but together they cited deliver- The author's interviews and and were convinced that their ies over land borders, by parachute Mozambican eyewitness reports patrons in the South African military drops, by landings of Dakota DC-3 make it difficult to accept South had genuinely abandoned them, the aircraft, and by sea, as well as exten- African denials as credible, unless combination of the government sive transport by head porterage one gives greater credence to a gov- amnesty and military actions could within and even between provinces. ernment with a proven record for probably reduce the Renamo threat Specific deliveries cited in the inter- deception than to numerous inde- very substantially within a year. views included porterage and heli- pendent accounts by rural Mozambi- Most observers are convinced copter landings in a base near the cans. U.S. officials agree that South that some South African officials South African border as recently as Africa still supplies Renamo [see, would be willing to abandon the mili- mid-1988, airplane landings in Zam- most recently, the statement by tary option that Renamo represents, bezia in April 1987 and April 1988, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State opting instead to depend on econom- and sea deliveries in Zambezia and for Africa Alison Rosenberg, The ic and diplomatic influence with Sofala provinces in 1987 and 1988. Independent, March 11. 1989]. Mozambique. What is unclear is Ex-combatants speaking to Mozam- what faction is dominant within bican journalists gave similar South Africa's State Security Coun- detailed accounts, including airplane Who's Calling the Shots? cil, and whether the missing ingredi- landings in March, June. October, Some speculate, however, that ent is the will or the capacity to and November 1988. even if outside aid was stopped, Ren- impose a ban on this covert military The presence of South African amo would be largely self-sustaining. operation. personnel was episodic rather than An anonymous "senior U.S. official," Given the forthcoming transition constant, according to the inter- quoted in the Christian Science Mon- from President Botha's leadership, views. The largest scale involvement itor, thus argued that "a negotiated and the current focus on the other was during the Renamo Zambezi val- solution is probably required." and side of the subcontinent, it is unlike- ley offensive of 1986, when one played down the need for additional ly that the aid to Renamo will be cut interviewee was in a base in the pressure on the South Africans. off without significantly increased Lugela area with at least 10 white Of course, no one can be sure international pressure. The State South Africans and an entire battal- how long Renamo would sustain its Department has refused to accept ion of black South African soldiers. activities without outside aid until South Africa's implausible denials. The usual pattern, however, such aid is actually cut off. But it is and suggested that Pretoria keep its according to the Angolan who was in unlikely that the war could be word by stopping any aid to Renamo, the South African special forces, was stopped without dealing with the whether official, covert, or ostensi- a five-man team, normally including central role of the South African mili- bly private. But unless such criticism two white officers and three blacks, tary. is expressed more forcefully by generally of different nationalities. The historical record makes clear higher officials, and accompanied by The most recent reference to such a that the initiative for Renamo's oper- credible threats of sanctions for non- team is from an ex-combatant named ations, and the delineation of strate- compliance, it is unlikely to have any Moises Macaxaze, who told Radio gy, came from Rhodesia and then decisive effect on the internal Mozambique after accepting the South Africa. Paulo Oliveira, who ran debates in Pretoria. O

20 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 T R V W Marcelino dos Santos. OPENING NEW FRONTS

fly MARGARET A. NOVICKI

One of the founding fathers of the Mozambican independence struggle, Marcelino dos Santos, president of the People's Assembly, speaks with Africa Report about the evolution of political and economic ties with the United States. Explaining the government's strategies vis-a-vis Renamo, he also outlines current military needs.

Africa Report: What is the purpose of your visit to the Unit- exchange views: one, on developing economic relations with ed States? the U.S., and two, on what actions the U.S. intends to under- dos Santos: I am here in the United States in my capacity as take regarding the problem of the armed bandits [Renamo]. president of the People's Assembly to continue to develop our We hove already been in Washington and New York, and relations with the U.S. and in the Framework of these relations, will continue to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and to find out what contributions our two bodies—the People's Boston. Assembly and the U.S. Congress—con make to the well-being Africa Report: Over the last several years, there has been a of our people. We already have relations between our govern- positive evolution in American policy toward Mozambique. ments and between several institutions and we feel that there What is your government's view of the relationship? must be some possibilities for the People's Assembly to cooper- dos Santos: No doubt that the evolution of relations ate with the U.S. Congress. Some delegations of senators and between the U.S. and Mozambique has been very positive members of the House of Representatives have come to over the past few years. For several years, relations were quite Mozambique on fact-finding and cooperation missions, but cold—and I must say not because the Mozambicans didn't perhaps we can institutionalize relations between our two bod- want to have relations with the U.S., but what could we do? ies. We became independent and immediately we were put on the But naturally to develop our relations, we have to look at black list! I hope that that time is definitely in the past. Now the problems that we are facing. So we are coming to the U.S. has better knowledge of Mozambique and of Frelimo,

AFRICA REPORT • May June 1989 21 Joaquim Chissano with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at Nyanga border camp: "We maintain that we have to fight on all fronts—on the military, but also on the economic and diplomatic fronts" and better understands the tion in the diplomatic actions undertaken by the field, exchanging views Mozambican government. You "ALTHOUGH IT TOOK SOME TIME FOR on security issues in south- have your own history, we ern Africa and naturally have ours, so it is normal that OUR VIEWS TO BE SHARED BY THE on the question of the we present to each other very U.S., I THINK THEY ARE CLOSER THAN armed bandits. different aspects. But our per- We have spoken to our sonalities should not be based IN THE PAST AND SUFFICIENTLY NEAR American friends to show on denying the personality of them that the armed ban- others. It is the responsibility TO ENABLE US TO TAKE STRONG STEPS dits are really terrorists. of our governments to take all IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT PEACE Although it took some steps to enable our peoples to time for our views to be understand each other better. AND PROMOTE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL shared by the U.S., I think We have cooperation with they are now closer than the U.S. in the emergency pro- DEVELOPMENT." in the past and sufficiently gram, for example, to help the near to enable us to take victims of the armed bandits, strong steps in order to as well of the drought and famine. We have bilateral coopera- bring about peace and promote economic and social develop- tion mainly in the railways and also in agriculture, in spite of ment. Here, I want to mention what Charles Freeman [deputy the fact that the U.S. thinks it should help only the private sec- assistant secretary of state] said concerning the situation in tor! But it is OK! One day, the U.S. will understand that the Mozambique. After his last visit to southern Africa, he went to state sector and the cooperative sector are realities in Mozam- Brazil, where he said that the difficulties that Mozambicans bique and there can be cooperation in that area as well. We are facing are not the responsibility of its government, but also cooperate through the Southern African Development rather a result of the aggression from the armed bandits. As he Coordination Conference on projects that serve the different was speaking in Brazil, he also said that the Brazilian govern- member countries of the organization. And we have coopera- ment has the moral duty to persuade those Portuguese that live

22 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 in Brazil to stop their support to the armed bandits. This was a Coming to Pik Botha's proposal, some people feel that all very important statement which brings near our views. situations can be considered the same. But it is clear that the Now we think it is very important for the U.S. to really, defi- situation in Mozambique is not the same as in Angola. So we nitely state that the Renamo people are armed bandits—terror- have to explain it to Mr. Botha. He makes a proposal to bring ists—and secondly that this organization must be destroyed. together the United States, the Soviet Union, Mozambique, These forces are there jusf to destroy, without any social and and South Africa, but to do what? What is the meaning of economic aim that is acceptable to the people. This position this? One is forced to think this is an effort to convince the must be clearly stated and at the same time, economic cooper- world that apartheid is no more! The successful development ation must be developed because it is through this that we will of the situation in Angola is not due to the fact that apartheid be able to establish a long-term relationship—if the U.S. has changed its nature. Not at all! It is because the Angolans finances more economic and social development projects. won militarily! This is the reason why there were changes. So If we all agree that the armed bandits are terrorists and the we can't allow ourselves to be fooled. Apartheid hasn't organization must be dismantled, we have to go a further step changed its spots. and see what military relations we can develop. To face the The armed bandits are not a political alternative. They are armed bandits, we need military equipment that is suited for terrorists and thus have to be dismantled. So what kind of counter-guerrilla action. During the struggle for our liberation, mediation or talks can be arranged? What role can the United we were waging a guerrilla war and the Portuguese were States play? For example, it can tell the armed bandits that waging a counter-guerrilla war. The people were with us. there is an amnesty law that was promulgated and that all of Now the armed bandits have started a guerrilla war, but them can be reintegrated into Mozambican society. Then we they don't have the people with them. We have to react with will see what they will do. If they want to go and work in agri- counter-guerrilla warfare. For this, we need military equip- culture, or if they want to be reintegrated in the army, they ment, but what kind? We have to be able to undertake quick must follow the normal channels. But amnesty means amnesty. actions. We have to use equipment like helicopters, for Everybody is reintegrated. So one role is to tell them that they instance. If you go by foot to reach one base, the armed ban- have this possibility. I think everybody understood that some- dits will know before you arrive and will run away. So we thing was not right in Pik Botha's proposal. need this equipment. And we need light weapons to enable Africa Report: Is South Africa still playing a role in support- our people to defend themselves from the aggression of the ing Renamo? armed bandits in all parts of the country. dos Santos: Yes, we say that to them every time. But they We have been developing this with several countries. In always ask: Where is the proof? Naturally if one plane comes our projects, there is a military component, some finance for during the night and drops ammunition or weapons, it is not the training of forces to defend the economic projects. We easy for the Mozambicans to prove that the plane came. Then have it with the French in the Nampula corridor to build the when we showed them the parachutes, they were forced to railways, with the Italians, for example, in the construction of accept it. But every time we bring proof, they say it is not the Pequeno Libombo dam, and with Britain in the Limpopo corri- government, it is someone else. But if this someone is doing it dor. It is in all our interests to defend ourselves against the once, twice, thrice, five, ten times and those who have the armed bandits and to act effectively to destroy them complete- power—the government—don't do anything, what do you ly! It is important now that the U.S. take a step forward and want me to believe? We have to say this is just a bluff. So the say the organization must be dismantled—let us support fact is that they are still supporting the armed bandits. Mozambique in the military field. They entered into the Nkomati agreement, etc., etc., but Africa Report: But there is a ban in Congress on military this is their form of diplomacy. We say that South Africa is sup- assistance to Mozambique. Is there more support developing porting the armed bandits, but we will not say it is somebody now for supplying such assistance? here and there. Let them be the ones to say that those who are dos Santos: Frankly speaking, although I found more com- supporting the armed bandits are not the government. Let them prehension than before, for the time being, President Bush's make these statements. administration is not able to tell us exactly what its position Africa Report: There must be an effective way of stopping will be. But we will continue to try to reach this aim. We met South African support. What role could the U.S. play in this with some senators and representatives and their understand- regard? ing of the Mozambican reality was quite good. dos Santos: There are two ways to stop South African sup- Africa Report: A few months ago, the South African foreign port. We can act against the racist regime of apartheid, or minister suggested there should be an international initiative, directly against the armed bandits. To act against the armed involving the U.S. and Soviet Union, to end the war. What is bandits, we have to face them militarily. But the international your government's view of this proposal and do you see any community has already conceived instruments that could force diplomatic rote for the U.S. to play toward ending the war, or apartheid to change. If we want to stop things peacefully, is a military solution the only answer? applying sanctions could have this impact. Sanctions are an dos Santos: We always maintain that we have to fight on all instrument that the international community has already fronts—on the military front, but also on the economic and devised to avoid going to a full war. diplomatic fronts. Everything is linked. I told you how we When Senator Paul Simon went to South Africa, he said developed economic projects with France, Italy, and Britain, there are two ways to finish with apartheid. One is to apply and also have military cooperation—equipment for the sol- sanctions and the other is to accept a full war in the region. diers, uniforms, boots, weapons, provided by these countries. Everyone has to assume his own responsibility vis-a-vis history. The military component is there. In the diplomatic field, we We will have to answer tomorrow for what we hove done have been working together in trying to show the world the today. If we don't want to apply sanctions, we have to accept reality of the armed bandits. what could happen—the possibility of a full war. 3

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 23 NEW PERSONALITY, OLD POLICIES?

ByHARALDPAKENDORF Can any major changes in apartheid be expected when F.W. de Klerk takes over from P.W. Botha as president later this year? gh analysts have characterized de Klerk as a reformist, a look re*5Qj}|s a solid National Party man, withMeanings to the rl£ht of the political spectrum. fter the coming general elec- tion in September. South A Africa will have a new state president. Gone will be authoritari- an, finger-wagging, prescriptive, yet reformist PW. Botha. His place will be taken by F.W. de Klerk, who is about to be officially nominated as the ruling National Party's candi- date. Botha, 72, became prime minister in September 1978 when the late John Vorster resigned. When the new constitution came into being in 1984—which initialed the tricameral parliament, with separate houses for whites, Coloureds, and Indians and none for blacks—he became execu- tive head of state. In January, he had a stroke. Botha surprised his party in Febru- ary by asking it to elect a new party leader, but to allow him to continue as head of state. 'Hie National Party caucus duly elected F.W. de Klerk. The National Party has a federal structure and de Klerk leads the "Gone will be the fin- biggest province, Transvaal, one of ger-wagging, prescrip- tive, yet reformist the four comprising the Republic of P.W. Botha" South Africa. After a wrangle, during which P.W. Botha appalled his party mem- between 1954 and 1958. His father, result that it has probably peaked in bers by insisting that he would stay Jan, was a long-serving cabinet min- influence. It will obviously remain on, the National Party said in very ister. Brother Willem, the former enormously strong, but de Klerk's clear terms that it had turned its editor of the Afrikaans Sunday paper. instinct is rather to go to the civil back on Botha, insisting that de Rapport, was fired for being too administrators and his party men Klerk take over as state president enlightened. than the securocrats, as they have after the general election in Septem- Willem is now also closely con- been dubbed locally. ber. Botha will automatically cease nected to the newly established Moreover, de Klerk is a man who to be head of state, and the National Democratic Parly, which has univer- tends to look to compromise rather Party, which is expected to win the sal adult suffrage as its main guiding than to prescriptions. Added to this election quite comfortably, albeit principle. is a keen intellect—he gave up a law with a slightly reduced majority, can F.W.—like Botha, he is called by professorship to become an nominate de Klerk. his initials, which stand for Frederik MP—and his style will be totally dif- Ever since his elections as party Willem—remains a solid National ferent from Botha. He is comfortable leader, de Klerk has been signalling Party man. At the time of the split in speaking English, handles television that he intends to push ahead with the party in 1982, which led to the with ease, and gets on well with the political reform. As a result, local birth of the more right-wing Conser- media, all of which makes him a and overseas media have left the vative Party, de Klerk fought valiant- much easier man to be around than impression that major changes in ly to keep the party together. After Botha. South Africa may be afoot. the split, he just as valiantly fought De Klerk comes from the most But is this true and who is F.W. de against the CP and his former conservative and smallest of the Klerk? His history is very solidly friends. three Dutch Reformed Churches in within the National Party. His uncle, This is an important character South Africa—the Gereforemeerde J.G. Strijdom, was prime minister trait. His tendency is to work Kerk and its university at Potchef- through the party, its caucus, and stroom. a small town in the Western Harold Pakendnrf, former political editor of Die Vaderhmtl. is director of Harold Pakendorf Parliament. Botha tended to rely on Transvaal. Informa in Johannesburg. the security establishment, with the It should be noted that his church

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 25 is conservative in a social sense—it by one similar act, an act which National Party, which had developed frowns on dancing, for ex- would do two things: It would still in Botha's last years, and to begin to ample—but is enlightened on politi- define people by law into specific pave the way for the establishment cal matters. Thus, it consistently groups, both racial and ethnic, but of a National Council. fought the Mixed Marriages Act would have an option for those who The latter is also old NP policy, when it was still mainstream Nation- do not want to be defined who could intended to be a forum for negotia- al Party thinking that black and then live in areas specially set aside tions about a future all-inclusive con- white should live separately, and for them. stitution. It has failed so far because most certainly not be allowed to As he sees it, this means that the the government has tried to get it off marry. right of association and of disassocia- the ground by excluding blacks who De Klerk, 53, radically dis- has always been agree with it, seen as a conser- such as the Unit- vative man, be- A Democratic Alternative ed Democratic longing to the Front and the middle of the African Na-tional National Party. If outh Africa's next leader, sident National Party support- Congress. he had leanings F.W. de Klerk, will not ers; and the National Democrat- How much only have to contend ic Movement of former NP at all, they were S will come of all with a party to his right, the member of Parliament Wynand seen to be to the Conservatives, but a new one to Malan, based mostly on this cannot be right. his left, the Democratic Party. Afrikaners who have turned predicted now. It But suddenly Formed in April, the DP is their backs on the National is clear, though, he is being tout- remarkable because it is the first Party. that de Klerk is ed as reformist. political party in South Africa De Klerk's reformist signals signalling that he This impression sitting in the white House of may seriously threaten at least is a man of re- is based on Assembly which openly says it the short-term growth potential form who in- speeches this believes in universal adult fran- of the DP—opinion polls give it tends to pick up chise, which has more Afrikan- year opening up as much as 23 percent of white from where Bo- ers as leaders than English- the discussion, support. But it is not yet a coher- tha stopped. speaking South Africans, and ent whole, still tends to squab- again, about en- which is being taken seriously ble publicly over policy, and as Nevertheless, forced racial seg- even in extra-parliamentary, a compromise, is headed by the he came into Par- regation in hous- radical circles. leaders of all three former par- liament and later ing (the Group The Democratic Party is a ties. the cabinet at the Areas Act), the fusion of three existing parties: Presently, there is great time of the de- legal definition of the Progressive Federal Party, enthusiasm for it, and its pubLc mise of old-style people into racial long-established, mostly English meetings are well-attended, but apartheid, unlike and ethnic in support but with little influ- its birth pangs are still evident. PW. Botha, who groups (Popula- ence; the Independent Party, That, plus de Klerk's possible helped to estab- tion Registration led by former ambassador in reformist moves, is causing a lish apartheid. London, Dr. Denis Worrall, good deal of possible support to Act), and en- Psychologically, whose base is mainly among sit and wait. • it should thus be forcement of sep- members of the disbanded New arate public a- easier for him to Republican Party and some dis- —H.P. menities for non- continue its stea- whites. dy dismantling. But what was Also, the gen- missed by com- eral trend in mentators was that what he said was lion is thus brought in. But note, he South Africa is away from racism merely a repetition of his own pub- is not veering away from the basic and any change must be in that licly held views, representing what National Party tenet, namely that of direction. De Klerk's different style the party itself also says. It con- a group-based approach. may very well bring in its wake a tained nothing new, because what de He has also begun negotiations speeding up of reform, even faster Klerk was saying was that present behind closed doors with the than he may intend. approaches to these questions are Coloured I-abour Party, which sits in F.W. de Klerk will bring a more unworkable and are a cause for Parliament, but also with some open approach and will undoubtedly strife. homeland leaders, notably Gatsha push reform much faster than Botha He was suggesting that these bits Buthelezi, the Zulu leader. These did in his last year—but he is still a of legislation be scrapped—possibly discussions are aimed at defusing strong party man. This will dictate scrapped—but only to be replaced the tension between them and the how far he can go. O

26 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 T R V w David Webster: THE SPIRIT IS UNBROKEN

By DANIEL RIESENFELD

On May 1, David Webster, a well-known anti-apartheid activist, was assassinated out- side his home in a Johannesburg suburb by unknown assailants firing a shotgun blast from a passing car. A senior lecturer in social anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Webster, 44, was a key figure in the Detainees' Parents Support Committee (DPSC), a human rights organization that monitored the plight of the thousands of detainees jailed without trial over the past several years until it was banned in 1988. Webster was also a founder-member of the Five Freedoms Forum, an organization of white South Africans in support of fundamental human freedoms, as well as the UDF- affiliated Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee. In December last year, Webster spoke with Africa Report about the history of the DPSC, as well as the methods of intimidation utilized by the South African security police against political activists. We publish excerpts of the interview in tribute to the life and work of David Webster.

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 27 Africa Report: What led to the formation of the Detainees' The DPSC began in a very tentative and low-key way, purely a Parents Support Committee? care and welfare organization to provide some comforts and Webster: In 1981, there was a wave of detentions focusing necessities for people in detention. We tried to supply food around a political activist named Barbara Hogan. On Septem- parcels, warm clothing, some reading materials when they ber 21, 1981, there was a major police swoop in which 21 allowed it. people were taken, and over the next month or two, another After a short while, we began to realize that we were hav- 40 people. It ended up that 67 people were detained at that ing just a tiny little impact. And we had no way of stopping, time. The DPSC was a spontaneous response by friends and for example, the abuse of detainees. So we began to raise our family members, who gathered around the families to assist profile. We decided that publicity was the only method by them to come to terms with the detention of their relatives. which we could make some impacf on the security police. We Africa Report: From there, it seems to have grown enor- tried all sorts of methods in the beginning. We gathered infor- mously. mation about torture and then we sent a quiet delegation to Webster: Correct. It snowballed because of a number of the Minister of Law and Order and the Minister of Justice, to things. First, it became clear to us that the conditions of deten- draw their attention to the fact that torture was taking place. tion were dreadful. Torture was endemic, and I think probably And instead of taking our complaints seriously, they turned still is. A number of people were having a very, very bad time. it around against us and threatened us with prosecution under And you'll remember the death of Neil Aggett on February 5, the Police Act. So we realized then that to play it by some meaningful set of rules wasn't going to work. We decided that publicity should be the next phase of our activity, to raise the political price that the police pays for either detention or tor- ture. Then we went public with our allegations and we attempt- "SOUTH AFRICAN SECURITY POLICE ed to mount public meetings, write letters to the newspapers, and eventually we secured a regular column in the Star news- OPERATE IN A CLASS AND RACE- paper. And we started issuing a monthly report in which we STRUCTURED WAY, SO A WHITE documented the full range of deaths in detention. Gradually our political profile began to rise and we gained MIDDLE-CLASS PERSON LIKE quite a reputation for both accuracy of reporting and also for political courage, in terms of confronting the security police MYSELF IS UNDER MUCH LESS and the system with our activities. And that's really the period DANGER THAN A BLACK PERSON." that gave rise to our subsequent banning. With the state of emergency in 1985, in an eight-month period, something like 8,000 people got detained. Then that emergency lapsed and in June 1986, they reimposed another emergency, which is the one still in force. And suddenly in that one, there were something like 15,000 detained, more than 1,000 per month. 1982. We'd been going for only about two to three months as The scale of things escalated OL( of our control completely. an organization when we heard about his death. During his And it became very difficult for us to monitor it as we had inquest some months later, it slowly unravelled that he had been up until then. So what we then did was open up an been very, very badly tortured with electric shocks, enforced advice office where we could in some way process all the exercise, and beatings. I believe what drove him to suicide material that was coming through, and also provide real finally was that he simply couldn't put up with the treatment aid—legal aid to the families of detainees, as well as monitor- that he was receiving. So that gave us an added impetus. ing and providing welfare. We realized that when the security police came to detain We ourselves adjusted to the emergency by expanding our you, they really did mean business. So it made us all the more operation, and starting to employ people full-time. That was a determined then that our organization shouldn't just be a tem- major change. But at the same time, our political profile rose porary thing. We didn't understand anything then about the dramatically. We worked very closely with the organizations system of detention, but it became clear to us over time that under threat at the time, the United Democratic Front [UDF] in this was an endemic system, how the government kept itself in particular. Our links with those organizations and our raising power, by detaining and intimidating its political opponents. of the public awareness, both internationally and locally, of And rather than disbanding once our particular friends and the full scale and effects of detention were what gave rise to relatives had been released from detention, this organization our banning. needed to exist for everybody in South Africa. So it carried on One has to strike a very delicate balance in South Africa from that small beginning into an organization which, until it when dealing with human rights abuses, and especially the got banned in February 1988, had something like 56 different system of detention and repression. Detention is just one wing branches around the country, having begun with just a handful of repression in South Africa. For example, the government of people in central Johannesburg in 198 1. has an array of security legislation where ordinary democratic Africa Report: Was there any change in focus in what activity can be construed as terrorism or treason. The recent DPSC was doing with the introduction of the emergency regu- Delmas trial is an example. lations? A second and much more widely used form of repression is Webster: Yes, I think you have to cast it back a little further. detention. Then there's a whole range of other activities, mov- ing into a grayer area—vigilantes, death squads, which are Daniel Riesenfeld is producer-director for Nightingale Productions in New York. unquestionably pro-apartheid. The government and police

28 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 seem unable or unwilling to prosecute such people. You don't Things that we used to deal with and do very clearly and see trials of people who wipe out large numbers of UDF or openly have also been taken away from us. A clear example: Cosotu supporters, for example. We run tea parties for the families of detainees. The main pur- So a young political activist from a township has to realize pose is to bring together the families to show them that they're that he's letting himself in for a whole range of potential not alone. And they get quite a lot of strength and solidarity actions against him—one definite possibility being death. And from these activities. From our point of view, the tea parties giving interviews to press people, if you're a black political are very important. We gather a lot of information about activist, raises your political profile to a level where all sorts of what's happening in detention and people come forward with dreadful things may happen to you. stories of harassment, abuse, torture, and we then refer these A case in point is a young worker for the DPSC called Sice- cases to lawyers. lo Dlomo, a school-boy at Pace College, who was detained We held a tea party in Alexandra township, which has and badly treated during that period. We assisted his mother been absolutely devastated by police and army action, and and when he was released from detention, he joined the the tea party just couldn't take place. We were surrounded by DPSC as a volunteer. He was interviewed by a number of TV the army. The security police arrived, having completely sur- crews, detailing the kind of things that were done to him in rounded the church in which we were operating. No one detention. He alleged torture and so on, and was called in by allowed to enter or leave. Security police lined everybody up the security police. They captured him at the DPSC office and against one wall and then processed us one by one, taking took him away for about eight our photos, our names, and organizations that we belong to. hours, in which he was A thorough act of intimidation. And they then declared this tea interrogated about his party an illegal gathering under the state of emergency and appearance on these TV dispersed us. programs. And 48 hours Where before we had quite a high political profile, that later, near his home in Soweto, he was taken off by a group of people and assas- sinated. That murder's never been solved, like a whole range of other political murders in South Africa, clearly done by pro- apartheid death squads. I would link his death directly to his partici- pation in those programs. As an orga- nization which works in this field, we have to be very, very cautious about peo- ple doing interviews for fear for their lives. Of course, South African security police operate in a class and race-structured way, so a white middle-class person like myself is under much less danger than a black person. A black person in a township has no protec- tion at oil—he's at the sharp end of repression in South Africa—whereas those of us who operate from a central city, Johannesburg for instance, have a lot more political space in which to operate. Africa Report: Was the banning of the DPSC a form of cen- sorship? Webster: Yes, certainly. But the government doesn't see it in quite those terms. From their perspective, it's not so much that they want to silence an uncomfortable voice, although that's a major part of what they are doing, but they're trying to take control of a particular kind of political opposition, and chan- nel it, control it, contain it in some kind of way. And censor- ship is one part of that process. But a major part of their meth- ods is really straight intimidatory practice. They close down all avenues of operation that one may have and make it more and more difficult to do the kinds of things one used to do. And so as an organization for example, we've discovered that the political space we had three or four years ago before the states of emergency has been closed down dramatically.

"If you are a black political activist in the township, the possi- ble consequence you face is anything from detention, torture, intimidation, petrol-bombing to death"

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 has diminished dramatically, with the banning of the DPSC in rethink about the kind of politics you can engage in. It is not February. And the other organizations which still carry on the possible now as a member of the UDF to hold a mass public work are finding it more and more difficult to get newspaper meeting. In the 1983-85 period, mass meetings with crowds space or into the electronic media at all- And now even the of 2,000 in a hall were very common. Rallies in big stadiums welfare work is being made virtually impossible. So the politi- were huge and popularly attended. Those days are long cal space is being closed down to an absolutely minuscule gone. So what's actually happened is a much more sober amount at the moment. realignment in politics, a move away from what the township The government has followed what's called the Brazilian people called microphone politics, mass meeting politics, to method—allowing some reform while increasing repression. grass roots level organization. So with each piece of reform that gets introduced, so too does So street committees, area committees, block committees, an intensification of repression. The government is afraid to let are much more seriously organized—actually a more healthy go of the reins too far because by so doing, they would be form of politics in some way. You just don't rely on charismatic allowing political expectations to rise in black communities leaders to give you guidance. Here people are making their and genuine political leaders to gain a larger measure of sup- own decisions at local levels, actually a consolidation phase, port. So, it's very important for them that they allow a certain but you do need the charismatic leader and the mass meetings measure of reform, but ensure that the kind of people who to make your organizations popular and viable as well. So take advantage of that reform within the black community are that side of things has been very severely crippled. I would the stooges and the Uncle Toms, the people who really don't say that there's been a lot more realism in recent years, a lot have credibility. more understanding of the hard slog that lies ahead. Africa Report: Could you explain the banning of the DPSC? In 1984, people believed that independence and freedom Webster: At a certain point in its history, the DPSC realized was coming within five years. The slogan was "Freedom in that it had to align itself with the democratic movement, that our lifetime." You had education slogans like "Liberation first, just to be a free-floating welfare organization was not going to education after." People are understanding now that that's not be enough- With the formation of the UDF in 1983, the DPSC viable. Freedom is going to take 10, 15, 20 years maybe, decided that it should join. And so it became a UDF affiliate, and a lot of hard, on-the-ground organization has to take and overnight, the character of the organization changed. place. Suddenly it had credibility in the townships and black people It's not exactly pessimism. There's gloom around, no doubt were streaming to join our township-based branches. And about it. We're in a very dark phase of South African politics. from a small group of white people in central Johannesburg, And for the moment at least, the security forces have achieved we became a mass-based organization. Every city and small at least a stalemate. They were def nitely on the defensive and town began to have its own detainees' movement. That raised on the retreat in the 1983-84 period. In 1985, the tide began our political profile in communities, but more importantly in the to turn, and in the 1986-88 period, the security forces have at eyes of the security police. We became more and more called least established equilibrium, and at certain times have been upon by progressive organizations to take a political stand on in the ascendency. And at the moment, I would say there's a issues. And we were happy to do that. stalemate or standoff where both sides are reassessing their Come February 1 988, the security police was asked by the tactics, looking to see what lies ahead. government to produce a hit list of those organizations that it The inevitability of freedom for South Africa is there. It's deemed to be effective in the townships. It's the other side of going to happen. What we are talking about is the renegotia- the coin of detaining the individuals, you ban their organiza- tion of the time schedule. The forces of democracy are obvi- tions. So we appeared on a final list of 1 7 or 18 organiza- ously going to win. But it's not nearly as soon as people tions ranging from Cosatu, the UDF, the National Education thought it would be. People in the townships are bruised, but Crisis Committee—a whole range of other education, civic, they're determined. And at our most recent tea party for exam- political organizations—with a restriction order saying you ple, where there was an enormous presence of police and mil- may not undertake any activities whatsoever, crippling the itary, the chairman of the meeting informed people that the organization in effect. It's part of that dual process of reform security police were now present, they were coming to film, and repression. and that people were more or less being held in this meeting. Around the country, detainee organizations by now have The meeting was phenomenal, the youth in particular leapt had something like 63 of their serious activists and members to their feet. There's a famous song in South Africa, "Are you detained. We had five killed in mysterious murders which afraid?" and there's a reply chant, "No we're not afraid!" have never been solved. Three of our offices around the coun- And these guys got to their feet as one, sang the song at the try have been petrol-bombed, and burned to the ground. If security police, telling them to get out of the hall. That sponta- you are a black political activist in the township, the possible neous courage, that spontaneous strength is there, and it's consequence you face is anything from detention, torture, unbreakable. That for me was one of the remarkable things intimidation, petrol-bombing to death, whereas white middle- about that meeting. There was this power, this unwillingness to class people face personal harassment, threatening phone be daunted and defeated by what is enormous repressive calls, car tires being slashed, paint stripper being poured on power. And for me, that is a hopeful sign. That spirit is not your car, maybe your pet cat being killed and hung from the going to be broken by anything. The security police were real- front door of your house. They don't begin to measure up ly taken aback. They were full of self-confidence. They thought, against what working class people have to face. "We've handled these people." But they were met with a wall Africa Report: How would you describe the mood of the of anger and fury. So from that point of view, there's a lot of people in the democratic movement at this point? hope for the country. But in order for that anger to be chan- Webster: It's not easy to tell. Since the state of emergency nelled correctly, to be politically organized, there's an enor- came into existence, there's been a major realignment, a mous road still to go. O

30 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 ANGOLA

A QUESTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

By RAKIYA OMAAR According to Africa Watch, Jonas Savimbi's Unita movement has systematically committed gross violations of the human rights of Angolan civilians, with the objective of intimidating them into supporting the rebel movement. Forced conscription, starvation, sabotage, and murder are among its tactics—abuses which should be examined by American policy-makers who support it with military aid.

By RAKIYA OMAAR of the civilian population, especially was born in Jimba and lived in a in rural areas. nearby village. Jimba was occupied In a recent report, "Violations of by Unita in 1983. He said that Unita here is one thing all observers the Laws of War by Both Sides," Africa told the people to go to Zambia, of Angola agree upon: Watch found that Unita has system- Zaire, or to the bush with Unita. The T Angolans, victimized by war, atically committed gross abuses of villagers were told that no one could want peace. Peace has not had a human rights that no conception of stay in the town. "We'll kill you when chance. Starting with the struggle military necessity could possibly jus- we come back, if you're still here. If against the Portuguese, war has tify. The report is based on testi- the people stay and farm, Fapla [the been the norm for the last 20 years. monies of refugees who had recently Angolan armed forces] lives well and Now in its 13th year, the current fled Angola and were living in rural has food." conflict between the government regions of Zaire and Zambia that Unita's strategy of encircling and and the U.S.-supported guerrilla border the country. "strangling" larger villages is intend- movement, Unita. has been particu- Africa Watch found that Unila's ed to starve civilians and has forced larly brutal. There are many ways to objective is to intimidate civilians them to flee into the bush and later count the cost: the world's largest into supporting it or to punish them seek refuge in Zaire or Zambia. Star- number of civilian casualties from for assisting government forces. In vation is also a means of "softening land mines, a high rate of infant mor- eastern Angola, many of Unita's tac- up" a town in preparation for a mili- tality and malnutrition, a huge dis- tics are designed to starve civilians. tary attack. placed and refugee population, a dis- It plants land mines in the footpaths Chinda, 49, a Luvale, came from a turbing number of war orphans, and to the fields and at the sources of village a mile from Kavungo. Even a severe shortage of manpower. The water; it has ambushed and sabo- after leaving Kavungo in 1985, Unita war has also destroyed the economy, taged vehicles transporting food sup- still maintained a presence outside, in spile of Angola's wealth in oil and plies. Nor has Unita hesitated to kill according to another refugee. This minerals and extremely fertile soil. or capture peasants tending their made it difficult to farm. It was dan- In Angola, as in Afghanistan, Kl fields so as to discourage people gerous to tend the fields far from the Salvador, and many other parts of from planting and harvesting crops, village, because Unita would attack the world where governments are which they claim will be used to feed or capture the farmers it happened fighting guerrilla movements, a wide government soldiers. In addition, to find. The fields close to the village range of military problems displaces refugees complained frequently that became depleted. There was enough and threatens the lives and security Unita stole food from villagers. food in and around Kavungo until Rakiya Omaar is executive director of Africa We received many first-hand 1986, when Unita started to steal Watch, an organization that monitors human crops from the fields. It also started rights abuses and promotes respect for interna- reports that described Unita's tac- tionally recognized standards. tics. Joaquim, an old Bemba man, to mine the fields and kill farmers

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 31 tending their crops. People began to and attacked medical facilities. Unita political support of Unita is military be afraid to work and reduced their has attacked the artificial limb cen- aid to the tune of $15 million since farming. ter in Huambo four times. 1986. Playing upon the anti-commu- Unita prides itself on its efforts to Unita does not resort to these tac- nist message of the Reagan years, promote agricultural self-sufficiency tics on occasion, or only under Savimbi's rhetoric called for the for- for its troops and civilian supporters. exceptional circumstances, but as a malities of a democratic sys- In order to achieve this goal, howev- deliberate strategy. Nor is there a tem—free and fair elections and a er, it has resorted to the forcible con- prospect that this will change. Unita mixed economy. These declarations scription of individuals or whole vil- is committed to pursuing these poli- have been cited as proof of Unita's lages as a pool of unpaid labor for its cies in order to achieve its two prin- commitment to a democratic Angola. agricultural schemes or as combat- cipal objectives: first, to prove its mil- However, recent accounts in the ants. Many villagers complained of itary superiority over Fapla, and sec- international press suggest that it is having been forcibly marched to ond, to create so much havoc that important to question, or at least remote areas of Angola from which the Angolan government will be treat with caution, reports about Sav- escape is difficult and dangerous. forced, on its own or under external imbi's human rights credentials. "Even if the men did not want to pressure, to negotiate with Unita. Former supporters have accused work on the Unita fields," one In this context, the interests of Savimbi of murdering and torturing refugee commented, "they had no defenseless civilians are irrelevant. critics within his movement. In par- choice. They had the arms and we ticular, in September 1983, he is did not." reported to have burned to death Unita has deliberately attacked several people accused of witchcraft and killed civilians, often as they I n spite of but whose real 'crime' was to criti- were fleeing the fightingtha t result- Unita's efforts to cize Savimbi. He is accused of tortur- ed from Unita attacks on govern- ing and detaining in Jamba Tito ment forces. portray itself as a Chingungi, Unita's former represen- Africa Watch gathered a number movement commit- tative in Washington, D.C., and to of testimonies which show that such have killed some of his relatives. attacks were not limited to military ted to winning the The American government has barracks, but extended to civilians hearts and minds of been quick to deny these charges, and their homes. Gomes, a Luvale claiming that it has no evidence to refugee in his 30s, said that Unita civilians, it has in substantiate them. At a minimum, attacked Kavungo in October 1988 at fact shown a callous however, an independent investiga- dawn with bombs and bullets. The disregard for their tion should be undertaken. These attack lasted until about 8 or 9 a.m. allegations should at least cause the Fapla withdrew from the town and welfare. administration and Unita's support- Unita entered. ers in Congress to be more attentive Two civilians were wounded and In spite of its efforts to portray itself to actual human rights practices two killed by mortar fire. One was a as a movement committed to win- within Unita, rather than its promis- woman running from her house; she ning the hearts and minds of civil- es about future performance. was hit on her left side by shrapnel. ians, it has in fact shown a callous The Bu&h administration has Also killed at the same time was a disregard for their welfare. shown every intention of continuing male relative of hers. He saw them Unita's antagonism toward the to support Unita, defending it as the fall to the ground, and saw another government in Luanda has been "Contras" of southern Africa. Unita person fall, who was wounded but used by the American government was not a party to the recent region- not killed. to justify its support for the rebel al settlement involving a Cuban with- Gomes made it safely to the bush movement. Choosing to minimize drawal from Angola and indepen- and from there lo Zaire with a group Unita's human rights abuses and to dence for Namibia, and there are of seven people. Unita had attacked overlook its dependence on South fears among its friends in Congress many times, he said, entering the Africa—which has made it a political that Unita, a close ally, has been town, capturing people, and robbing outcast in Africa and else- "abandoned." Consequently, there houses. where—Unita's leader, Jonas Savim- are reports that U.S. assistance will Many people have also died from bi, was instead championed as a be increased from the current esti- Unita's failure to take necessary pre- "democrat," leading a group of "free- mated $30 million to compensate for cautions to distinguish civilians from dom fighters" in a war of liberation. the cut in South African assistance. combatants. In urban areas, it has The conflict in Angola has been The Bush administration and used time bombs which have killed used as a proxy war, an opportunity Congress could draw a few lessons and injured many civilians. It has to contain Soviet and Cuban influ- from the failure of Reagan's policies also burned the homes of civilians ence in southern Africa. Backing its in Nicaragua. Neither the political

32 AFRICA REPORT • May June 1989 and economic policies of the Luanda government, nor its unacceptable AFRICAN STUDIES counter-insurgency strategy can jus- tify U.S. support for Unita's murder- from Ohio! ous policies. Continued U.S. support for Unita will only strengthen those FACING THE STORM within the Angolan government who Portraits of Black Lives in Rural South Africa advocate a tough military policy. Edited by Tim Keegan Their intransigence will appear to be A work of outstanding scholarship and popular history, this volume brings alive vindicated by the continued abuses the experiences of a handful of mostly obscure black South Africans living on the highveld during the course of the present century. of Unita. June 192 pp. cloih $22.95 paper $12.95 We urge the administration to SIAYA cease funding for Unita. By doing so, The Historical Anthropology of an African Landscape we are not seeking to minimize David William Cohen and E.S. Atieno Odkiambo either the scope or gravity of viola- Shedding much-needed light on a landscape and a people, the authors merge tions by the Angolan government. the findings of modern ethnographers with the perceptions of the native Luo Each side has a responsibility to pro- population to describe the people and the culture of this district in Kenya. tect citizens, no matter how egre- Eastern African Studies 1989 192pp. cloth $25.95 paper$12.95 gious the atrocities committed by their military antagonists. The dif- From Ravan . . . ference, however, is that the U.S. BECAUSE THEY CHOSE THE PLAN OF GOD has a direct responsibility for Unita's The Story of the Bulhoek Massacre abuses, as it funds its military Robert Edgar efforts. With words and photographs, this book tells the moving story of the events leading to the Bulhoek Massacre, explaining the economic, social, and political Clearly, the ultimate resolution of backgrounds of each group involved. human rights problems in Angola History Workshop Topic Series 1 depends on a solution to the under- 1988 41pp. UIus. paper $8.95 lying political conflict. In this con- BREWERS, BEERHALLS AND BOYCOTTS text, the agreement for the with- A History of Liquor in Africa drawal of Cuban and South African Paul la Hausse troops from Angola offers an oppor- This book tells some of the stories about the complex role alcohol has played tunity for the U.S. to reassess its role in South African history from early industrial times to the present and vividly in Angola. Internationally, there is a illuminates the making of industrial South Africa in the process. better climate for U.S.-Soviet cooper- History Workshop Topic Series 2 ation on regional initiatives. There is 1988 76 pp. Mm. paper $9.95 Soviet and Cuban pressure on the From the Center for International Studies . . . MPLA to negotiate with Unita to A HORSE OF WHITE CLOUDS bring the war to an end. The U.S. Poems from Lusophone Africa cannot hope to play a useful role Selected and Translated by Don Burness until it is prepared to confront and A sampling of poetry from five African countries colonized by Portugal, this act decisively on Unita's dismal volume spans generations and represents a wide variety of cultures, themes, record on human rights. and attitudes. July WO pp. MIS Africa Series #55 paper $10.00 In this bleak picture, there are some encouraging signs. Some con- SUCCESSION OF HIGH OFFICE IN BOTSWANA gressmen, in particular Howard Three Case Studies Wolpe, chairman of the House of Michael Crowder, Jack Parson, and Neil Parsons Representatives Subcommittee on Edited by Jack Parson Africa, are challenging the wisdom Through actual case studies, the authors explore the conditions under which of U.S. policy towards Unita, espe- political institutions and those who head them are able to claim the allegiance and loyalty of the populations they rule. cially the failure to investigate its August 250 pp. MIS Africa Series #54 paper $14.00 human rights abuses. It is to be Ravan Press books and Monographs in International Studies from the hoped that before more defenseless Center for International Studies are distributed by Ohio University Press. Angolans are killed, starved, maimed, and abducted by Unita, the U.S. will cease to fund and champion OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS an organization that has contributed DEPT. AR - SCOTT QUADRANGLE - ATHENS, OH 45701 so much toward Angola's devasta- Or call toll-free- tion. O Orders onlv: 1 (800)666-2211

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 33 r%*«*** »

EROA . TO RECOVER REHABILITATE "THE RAILS'"

By COLLEEN LOWE MORN* -

o international attacks, the Benguela Railway, part of one of SADCC's five tra port corridors, is attracting new interest. While security remai. problem hampering the line's reconstruction, Western donors have pledged support to Lobito, southern Africa's only Atlantic Ocean port, and are taking a fresh loo1" ~A ^ 1% * *—'* ANGOLA

hen a group of donors visit- railway has long been highlighted by Cuba, Angola, and South Africa ed the Angolan port of the Southern African Development wound up just before the due date, W I^obito earlier this year, few Coordination Conference (SADCC), with Angola agreeing to the with- could fathom why the trip had been the nine-member group which aims drawal of Cuban troops in exchange planned to span two days. Putting up to ease the region's economic depen- for South Africa's pulling out of the 90-odd visitors in the war-impov- dence on South Africa, with trans- southern Angola and making way for erished Angolan capital, Luanda, port the centerpiece of its $6.4 bil- Namibia's independence. seemed enough of a business, with- lion "program of action." Capitalizing on the general upbeat out having to cater for them in the Apart from the domestic impor- mood in the region, Transport Min- forlorn port town as well. tance of the Benguela, which slices ister Carlos Fernandes noted in an But by the morning of the second through the center of Angola, Lobito opening address that there is now "a day, the hosts' reasoning became once served as the primary outlet real possibility that one of the ten- apparent. Apart from wanting the for the copper mined in Zambia and sion spots most dangerous to world donors to tour the port and city, southern Zaire. It is not the closest peace will be eliminated." Angolan officials were determined port for any other southern African Although Unita still poses an that their visitors take a ride on the country, but as the only regional internal threat, he added, "we cannot Benguela railway line, which has port on the west coast outside South wait until absolute peace is guaran- been closed to international traffic Africa, Lobito is the shortest link to teed to begin a project of such funda- for the past 13 years as a result of Europe and the United mental importance for the attacks by the UniUi rebels. States—major trading partners for economies of the region." Even on the largely symbolic 18- most countries in the region. To be realistic, Fernandes went mile ride from Lobilo to Benguela, As such, along with its efforts to on, SADCC had reordered the origi- the Angolan town after which the rehabilitate the access routes lead- nal $113.6 million emergency phase 808-mile-long railway line is named, ing to, and the ports of Dar es of the SADCC ten-year plan into a the train wagons were preceded by Salaam, Nacala, Beira, and Maputo, $93.8 million "preparatory" phase, two trucks of sand—old-fashioned SADCC prepared a $600 million, ten- which dropped projects likely to be mine sweepers. On every inch of the year development plan for the Ix>bito security-sensitive—such as feasibili- journey, which attracted consider- transport corridor, as it is known in ty studies along certain portions of able curiosity among local inhabi- SADCC parlance. the track—and added other "soft" tants, donors had to be accompanied But repeated efforts to attract projects from later phases, like wel- by a security escort. donor interest and get a donor con- fare projects and office facilities. Yet, judging from the jovial mood ference off the ground came to noth- Stressing that support for the in the archaic rail cars, the idea of ing. The war in Angola, with its inter- reopening of the line at this stage is reopening southern Africa's fifth national dimensions, seemed too largely a political statement in favor major transport corridor and its only complex. To the extent that Western of Angola's peace efforts, the EEC. link to the Atlantic Ocean had cap- donors took any interest in the more Belgium, Portugal, Italy, the African tured the imagination of the interna- troubled corners of the region, Development Bank, UNDP, Norway, tional community. Mozambique commanded the most Spain, the Arab Bank for African Although numerous obstacles, attention. Economic Development, France, including security and complications A coincidence of events finally Sweden, Unctad, and the European over the ownership of the line, helped to bring Angola into the spot- Investment Bank expressed con- remain to be overcome, donors have light. First, in line with its principle crete interest in $61 million worth of now given their first nod of approval of rotating conference venues, projects. to a $93.8 million "preparatory" SADCC chose Luanda to host its Denmark, Finland, and Canada, phase for the re-opening of the annual consultative conference this which are heavily involved in reha- Benguela railway, which before had year, providing a good opportunity bilitation efforts in Mozambique, hardly seemed possible. to hold a mini-conference on the said they might be able to offer The strategic importance of the Lobito corridor. assistance in the future, while Colleen Lowe Morna is a Zimbabwean free- Quite by chance, the long drawn- Britain said it was "in principle inter- lance journalist based in Harare. out tripartite peace talks between ested in the rehabilitation of the

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 35 Bengucla railway line." Linking Southern Africa: Prominent at the deliberations were officials of both the World SADCC's Transport Corridors Bank and the U.S. Agency for Inter- national Development (AID), neither espite considerable odds, the southern African regional of which have formal relations with group, SADCC, is gradually winning the war against Angola at the moment. D South Africa's transport hegemony. Some 63 percent of Bank officials said they expect the region's traffic passed through its own ports in 1987, com- Angola to become a member of the pared to under half in the earlier part of the decade. IMF and subsequently the World The figures for 1988 are likely to be slightly higher, and if Bank in the next few months, at rehabilitation work continues unhindered, the region could easi- which time the Bank would be inter- ly handle all its own cargo within the next three to five years. ested in coordinating donor financ- Security remains the main variable. ing for the Benguela rehabilitation As any map of southern Africa will show, the ports of Tanza- effort. nia, Mozambique, and Angola are geographically closest for all Meanwhile, the Harare-based six of southern Africa's land-locked countries except Lesotho deputy director of AID's SADCC pro- (whose overseas trade is minimal) and Botswana (though not in gram, Fred Zobrist, said he had all cases, depending on which city in the country you start come to "study, learn and be ready, from). in the event we are able to offer Over the past decade, however, four out of the five main assistance. We are thinking ahead in transport systems (Maputo, Nacala, Beira, and Lobito) have our aid program, to a time when and been severely dislocated by South African and—in the case of if change comes about." Angola—U.S.-sponsored rebel activity. Meanwhile, SADCC's Both AID and World Bank offi- only "safe" port, Dar es Salaam, suffered from considerable mis- cials appeared to enjoy themselves management. All this made South Africa a logical, if more immensely during the day trip expensive and politically unacceptable alternative. around Lobito, which included lunch But, vowing that "without the establishment of an adequate at the quaint, beach-front railway regional transport and communications system, other areas of hotel (recently patched up after a cooperation become impractical," SADCC has raised close to Unita attack), and a sundown cruise half of the nearly $3 billion it has been seeking to reverse this around the port's magnificent natu- trend. ral harbor. Where security has been assured, the results have been Donors expressed amazement at impressive. Over the last three years. Dar es Salaam's through- how well the port has been main- put has increased from 1.73 million tons to 2.2 million tons, and tained, despite the fact that through- the aim is to increase capacity to 4 million tons. put is down to less than one-quarter Meanwhile, thanks to the protection provided by the Zimbab- of its former 2 million ton peak. wean army, work has progressed steadily along the access A technical official who went routes to, and the port of Beira, which also handled 2.2 million through the port facilities in detail tons last year, compared to 1.3 million tons three years ago. stressed that this could not all have When work is complete in the early 1990s, the port should be been put on just for the visitors. able to handle 4 to 5 million tons of cargo. Machines had been properly cov- Despite security problems, rehabilitation work has com- ered and equipment meticulously menced on the access routes leading to, and the ports of Nacala stored, the official said. "From what (one of Africa's best natural harbors) and Maputo (SADCC's best- I have seen, and considering the developed port, with a potential carrying capacity of 13 million conditions in this country, it is an tons per annum). With the new focus on Angola, the Lobito incredibly well-maintained port," the transport corridor, theoretically capable of handling 3 to 4 mil- somewhat surprised official told lion tons of cargo, should soon be added to this list. Africa Report. All told, even allowing for technical hitches and bureaucratic An evening gymnastics display at delays, it is not far-fetched to project forward to a time in the the railway sports club and the train near future when SADCC ports are able to handle more than the ride from Lobito to Benguela con- region's total overseas trade of just over 10 million tons per cluded a light-hearted, yet eye-open- annum. Whether or not that capacity is put to use will hinge ing weekend for the group of mostly largely on genuine peace being restored in Angola and Western donors—probably the Mozambique. • largest ever to visit Angola. —C.L.M. Major challenges, however, still lie ahead. Security is perhaps the

36 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 most obvious. At present, trains are if the Angolan government agreed to SGB, Zaire, Zambia, and Angola only running regularly between power-sharing talks. would have shares to manage its Lobito and Benguela, and less regu- This condition, however, is unlike- day-to-day affairs. larly to Huambo at the 229-mile peg. ly to be acceptable to Luanda, which Angolans stress that they do not Since the signing of the December is especially sensitive about any have the manpower to operate the 22 peace accord, government forces negotiations involving Savimbi him- line and want private sector involve- have captured a few of the towns self. Instead, the government has ment, while donors like the idea of between Kuito, at the 350-mile peg, instituted an amnesty aimed at lur- an infrastructural project owned by and Luena, at the 595-mile peg. But ing some Unita heavyweights into its the government, but run by busi- trains are still not running in this fold, thus weakening the movement. nessmen. In principle, SGB repre- area, on which information is sparse Despite the hopes raised by the sentatives are favorably disposed to and largely speculative. December 22 peace accord, an inter- the idea. Apart from the railway, the Before the peace accord, it had nal settlement may still be far off, SGB owns shipping lines and freight been hoped that the U.S. would bro- according to diplomats in Luanda. agencies, and has considerable min- ker an agreement with Unita to Not surprisingly, at the pledging ing interests in Zaire. The company conference, donors showed most would thus be happy to maintain a interest in the port projects, which foothold in the Benguela. are most secure. All projects select- The tricky point now is to come udging from ed by the ErX"—which is taking a up with a mutually agreed sum for the jovial mood in lead role in rallying Western support the termination of the old agree- for Angola generally—were in the ment, which, experts say, could take the archaic rail cars, port sector, which has already been some time. Another complicating the idea of boosted from $15.3 million in the factor could be the current poor emergency phase to $24.4 million in state of relations between Belgium reopening southern the preparatory phase. and Zaire, which may reduce SGB's Africa's only link to On the other hand, railway pro- interest in the area, and lead to the jects were scaled down from $53.2 company taking a tougher line. the Atlantic Ocean million in the emergency phase to Once work seriously gets going, had captured the $33.9 million in the preparatory a host of technical problems will also phase, and even then, interest was need to be sorted out. imagination of the only shown in about half of these. international It is likely that at least in the community. short-term, Angola will end up with 11 is likely that at a snazzy port (already in fairly good least in the short- working condition) and no railway to cease hostilities on the line. Now, go with it—or a head without a body, term, Angola will the reopening of the line hinges on a as some cynics put it. end up with a national rapprochement being Unlike SADCC's other transport achieved. corridors which are government- snazzy port and no Despite Zobrist's presence at the owned, the rehabilitation of the railway to go with Lobito donor conference, AID offi- Benguela railway is also consider- cials attending the main SADCC con- ably complicated by the historical it—or a head ference stressed that American poli- agreement which led to Societe without a body, as cy toward Unita, which is believed to Generale de Belgique, through its have received $30 million in U.S. London-based subsidiary, Tanks, some cynics put it. funding last year, had not changed. owning 90 percent of the company Some covert South African sponsor- under a concession due to expire in Much of the line has not been ship is also more than likely to con- 2002. properly surveyed, and some consul- tinue. Because donors cannot fund a pri- tants believe that because of the Running through a part of Angola vately owned venture, Angola has to years of neglect, the entire rail bed where Unita leader Jonas Savimbi find a way of repossessing the line may have to be replaced, making the claims some genuine support, the before then, but to do so in such a rehabilitation exercise more com- Benguela railway has become a way that the move does not smack in plex than it may at first appear. They favorite rebel target. Savimbi also any way of expropriation. The com- caution that despite the welcome evidently sees it as a useful promise proposed by Angola is to enthusiasm, it could take consider- bargaining chip. The Unita chief was form two companies: one wholly ably more than 10 years to get trains recently quoted as saying that he Angolan-owned to control the physi- going the full length of the Benguela would let up pressure on the railway cal assets; and another, in which railway again.. O

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 37 dgar Tekere solidified his headed by Justice Wilson Sandura. image as the "bad boy" of Zim- ZIMBABWE The public hearings were packed E babwean politics by launching daily with hundreds of Zimbab- a new political party in Harare in typ- weans, who thoroughly enjoyed ically outrageous and outspoken watching one cabinet minister after fashion. another contradict himself in the wit- Robert Mugabe's former right- ness box. Those who couldn't fit into hand man lashed out with bitter the courtroom read about the pro- attacks on the Zimbabwean presi- Mugabe's ceedings in front-page articles in dent and his ruling Zimbabwe Harare's Herald newspaper and Bul- African National Union (ZANU). awayo's Chronicle. "Zimbabwe's national leadership Maneuvers The end result was that five of in government is already so thor- Mugabe's cabinet ministers and oughly decayed by corruption that three other top officials resigned in we are very close to the point of total By ANDREW MELDRUM disgrace because of evidence of their collapse of the executive," said involvement in the car-selling Tekere at a press conference in May Zimbabwe's political scheme. One of them, Maurice to announce the new party. landscape has been Nyagumbo, who had been number- "The ruling party is vigorously altered by the three in Mugabe's party and the gov- advocating the conversion of Zim- ernment's senior minister of political babwe into a one-party state and launching of a new affairs, felt so dishonored that he thereby seeking to entrench its eter- party, the corruption committed suicide in late April by nally undemocratic self as a state scandal which cost drinking a strong insecticide. dictatorship," declared Tekere. "I'm eight top officials their Far from weakening Mugabe's in for a war against the ruling party." jobs, and the recent government, the scandal and resul- With that, Tekere announced the tant resignations appear to have formation of the Zimbabwe Unity introduction of strengthened the president's hand in Movement (ZUM, pronounced economic reforms. cleaning up corruption. Last Septem- zoom), the first new political party to President Mugabe's ber, widespread grumblings about be formed in Zimbabwe since the adept handling of the high-level corruption erupted in two country became independent in challenges facing the days of violent protests at the Uni- 1980. ZUM's platform is anti-corrup- versity of Zimbabwe. But Mugabe tion, anti-one party state, and pro- nation has strength- adroitly achieved a public relations economic growth. ened his hand, taking coup by ordering the public inquiry Mugabe quickly dismissed the the sting out of critics' into the car-selling deals—dubbed new party as "the joke of the year," attacks. "Willowgate,'' as it involved the state- but Tekere's attacks on his govern- owned Willowvale vehicle assembly ment have created a flurry of excite- many people are discussing Tekere's plant. Once the level of involvement ment among Zimbabweans, black pronouncements about corruption, of top ministers was made clear to an and white alike. the economy, and Mugabe's ZANU. avid public, Mugabe only had to wait These are heady days in Zimbab- "A few years ago, nobody would for the resignations to roll in, there- we. Not since the early years of inde- say anything about ZANU," he said. by avoiding the messy task of axeing pendence has the political scene "But now, people are not happy and the ministers himself. appeared so open, with issues and everybody is talking about ZANU, in In the wake of the resignations, alliances being debated at length pri- the beer halls, in bus queues, every- Mugabe has empowered the judicial vately and increasingly in public where." commission to investigate Zimbab- fora. Tekere has astutely tapped cor- we's two other motor vehicle assem- "Tekere is saying what people ruption as the main point of discon- bly plants, and has ordered an inves- want to hear," said a Harare clerical tent among the Zimbabwean public. tigation into the finances of Zidco, a worker. "We know about this corrup- In February and March, the growing holding company worth $50 million, tion and we don't want it." suspicions of widespread high-level owned by his ZANU party, which The grey-haired office worker, corruption were confirmed in the was implicated in the scandal. who is currently trying to find jobs public's eye. Prompted by the Mugabe has won praise from Zim- for two sons who have recently fin- expose of an illegal car-selling racket babweans and from diplomatic ished secondary school, said that in a series of articles by The Chroni- observers here for deftly beginning cle daily newspaper in the southern to do what few African leaders have Andrew Meldrum, contributing editor to Africa city of Bulawayo, Mugabe appointed Report, is an American journalist who has successfully accomplished: tackling been based in Zimbabwe for eight years. a judicial commission of inquiry corruption from the top.

38 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 So, while Edgar Tekere has picked a popular issue, corruption, on which to base his new party, Mugabe has already taken a good deal of the air out of the opposition balloon by dealing with the corrup- tion issue head on. Tekere stated that his party aims to attract membership from all the country's racial and ethnic groups. The colorful politician, 52, said he would seek support from the largely white business community, the trade unions, university students, and vet- erans from the war against white - ^ * a minority Rhodesian rule. But it is telling that none of those potential supporters have stepped forward publicly, suggesting that many of Tekere's backers are afraid to come out of the closet in what is very near- ly a one-party state. Tekere also has to battle his intemperate and volatile reputation. At his party's launching, he flippant- ly responded to hostile questions about his trial for ordering the 1980 killing of a white farmer. Grinning broadly, Tekere said he was acquit- ted of the murder, but the reporters pointed out that acquittal was on a technicality. Tekere has had a long tumble from ZANU's graces. He was a founder-member of ZANU and his escape with Robert Mugabe from Rhodesia across to Mozambique is one of the legends of the majority rule struggle. At independence, Tekere was secretary-general of ZANU, the second highest post behind Mugabe, and he served as cabinet minister. But he lost both posts following the damaging mur- der trial. His maverick political actions in his home region of Zimbabwe's east- ern Manicaland province did not please those in Harare. Tekere was / stripped of his post as ZANU's Mani- caland provincial chairman. In 1988, he was expelled from Mugabe's party for publicly criticizing the goal of a one-party state. On corruption,

"Far from weakening Mugabe's govern- ment, the scandal and resultant resigna- tions appear to have strengthened the president's hand" he attacked Mugabe as "the defend- job-holders in the country out of a ize the economy. But it now appears er of the offenders." population of 9 million, and 1.25 mil- that domestic political and economic For his leftist criticism of the now lion people seeking work. It is esti- pressures have brought the govern- well-established ZANU government mated that unemployment is run- ment to the realization that action on the grounds that it was perpetuat- ning at 50 percent of those on the must be taken. ing the economic status quo, Tekere urban job market. then won the allegiance of Universi- Those figures are to get worse ty of Zimbabwe students. But while every year as thousands of sec- courting student and trade union ondary school graduates begin seek- support for his new party, Tekere is ing work and economists say there also seeking support from Zimbab- is only job for every six graduates. we's right-wing side of the political This is a particularly worrying prob- spectrum. lem, as there are high expectations Tekere has met with the white among graduates and their parents, Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe who had firmly believed that the (CAZ, formerly Rhodesian Prime education made available to them Minister Ian Smith's Rhodesian following independence would Front party), and publicly called for improve their standards of living, not support from the United African just their literacy. National Congress (UANC), former- Once again, the Mugabe govern- ly led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, ment announced new action just in and the splinter ZANU-Ndonga, led time to stave off concerted opposi- by the self-exiled Rev. Ndabaningi tion. On May 8, Finance Minister Sithole. That has proven to be con- Bernard Chidzero announced a new troversial, as The Herald published investment code to promote both information indicating that Rev. Sit- local and foreign investment in Zim- hole, currently living in Washington, babwe. Although the investment "Bernard Chidzero now appears to have D.C. and recently using the offices the firm backing of Mugabe and ZANU to guarantees themselves are fairly thoroughly re-make Zimbabwe's econo- of the Heritage Foundation, had moderate, Chidzero described the my" signed a friendship treaty with investment package as the first of a The effective measures that Mozambique's Renamo rebels. series of fundamental changes that Robert Mugabe used to turn around would reshape the Zimbabwean the corruption issue—so that he is economy to promote growth and to viewed as the scourge of corruption create new jobs. rather than its protector—and the While the immediate response to process underway to reform the the investment code has not been country's economy, have resulted in overwhelming, economists in the ZANU leader cannily taking the Harare say the program of gradual sting out of Tekere's attacks. The economic liberalization will have far- main point that Tekere has left to reaching positive effects over the campaign on is opposition to a one- next five years. party state. Kor years, Mugabe and Well respected internationally for ZANU have laid the constitutional his years at the United Nations, and political groundwork to estab- Edgar Tekere at launching of new politi- Chidzero now appears to have the lish a one-party state and it seems cal party: "ZUM's platform is anti-cor- ruption, anti-one-party state, and pro- firm backing of Mugabe and ZANU unlikely that even Edgar Tekere will economic growth" to thoroughly re-make Zimbabwe's deter them from that course. The result is that many university economy. Chidzero describes his A spell-binding speaker, Tekere students are questioning if they can plans as measures to make Zimbab- has widespread support in the east- support Tekere for his radical image we's economy more market- and ern Manicaland province, as well as while he is currying favor with the export-oriented, while maintaining enthusiastic followings in Harare far right. the government's socialist policies to and Bulawayo. But it is not clear if A stand for new policies to stimu- improve the standards of living of his fiery image is enough upon late economic growth is another ges- the country's majority. which to build a national party. It ture of Tekere's ZUM. The economy Almost since independence, the remains to be seen if his charisma is too has become a hot topic of debate Mugabe government has resisted a match for Robert Mugabe's strate- throughout the country as unem- Western pressure, including that gic intellect, particularly in the ployment is burgeoning into a from the World Bank and the Inter- impending national general elections national crisis. There are 1 million national Monetary Fund, to liberal- in 1990. O

40 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 A New Economic Order? imbabwe began shifting from its creation 01 a one-stop investment center socialist economic orientation with which will approve investment proposals May's announcement of a new code within 90 days, a major improvement from toZ attract foreign and domestic investment, the 18-month or longer wait investors have in hopes of reducing the country's raging faced in the past. unemployment. Chidzero said the code will be followed by The new investment code was quickly a relaxation of rigid wage and price controls attacked as "Zimbabwe's Satanic Verses" by and an announcement on that is expected leftist university students and trade unionists soon. President Mugabe said that collective who see the move as a reversal of the bargaining would be established for workers, Mugabe government's socialist principles. within parameters based on the annual prof- On the other hand, the local business com- its a firm earns. munity complains that the code does not Further economic changes include a loos- give them enough incentives. ening of Zimbabwe's current tight restrictions Zimbabwe's economic helmsman, on the movement of hard currency in and Finance Minister Bernard Chidzero, argued out of the country. There could be a gradual that the government "remained dedicated to trade liberalization expected to begin in 1990 the transformation of the social system so and take about five to seven years. that the poorest can be included. The direc- Another important measure to come is the tion toward socialism is clear. There is no reduction of the country's budget deficit, cur- inherent contradiction between socialism rently at $ 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars and market forces." He said, 'There are (U.S.$500 million) out of an overall govern- many different types of socialism and we ment expenditure of Z$5 billion (U.S.$2.5 bil- intend to develop one suited to Zimbabwe's lion). At ten percent of the current gross unique situation," domestic product of Z$10 billion (U.S.$5 bil- The investment code itself, which guaran- lion), the budget deficit is viewed by both tees new investors they will be able to remit local and foreign economists as unsustain- from 50 to 100 percent of their after-tax prof- ably large. its in foreign currency, is not a shocking Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe's change and only brings Zimbabwe's policies foreign investment has been limited to about in line with those in neighboring majority- U.S.$50 million and the lack of investor guar- ruled countries. But as Chidzero pointed out, antees has been cited as a reason that figure the unveiling of the new investment guide- has been so low. Chidzero said he hopes the lines "is not an event but the beginning of a economic change of heart will bring in new process." investments worth up to $250 million. Such a That process is a gradual liberalization of target is not far-fetched, as Zimbabwe's high- Zimbabwe's highly closed and regulated ly developed infrastructure, wealth in miner- economy—one that could see Zimbabwe als, and agricultural production make the charting a new economic path somewhere economy one of the most productive in between doctrinaire socialist planning and Africa, the wide-open monetarist policies pushed by Zimbabwe's rampant unemployment, esti- the World Bank and IMF. mated to be more than 1 million of the coun- "This is the first concrete sign of the gov- try's 9 million population, or 50 percent of the ernment's intentions to move away from an potential workforce, has become a pressing economic policy imposed from the top down political issue that must be addressed. Wide- to a more market-oriented policy, responsive ly regarded as an able economic strategist to both foreign and domestic investors," said but not a political fighter, Finance Minister an economist for a multinational bank in Chidzero, 61, has never had enough clout in Harare. "It could be the start of Zimbabwe Mugabe's ruling ZANU party to push his moving to an outward-looking, yet self-deter- moderate policies through. mined economy that would be unique in : But the unemployment crisis, the stagnant Africa and spark international interest." economy, the political aftermath of the coun- The new package also includes the sign- try's "Willowgate" cabinet scandal, and the ing of the World Bank's Multilateral Invest- challenge created by a new economic ment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), as well as growth party formed by Edgar Tekere have negotiations to sign the U.S. Overseas Private combined to strengthen Chidzero's hand to Investment Corporation (OPIC) agreement begin thoroughly revamping the nation's and similar British and West German bilater- economy. • al investment codes. Another incentive is the —A.M.

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 41 ECONOMIES •I A JOINT APPROACH TO AFRICA'S DEBT

he external debt of sub-Saha- countries through the establishment prospects for being implemented. ran Africa is currently the of two new lending programs: the Finally there is a menu of debt T focus of much discussion and Structural Adjustment Facility relief measures for middle-income concern, not only on the part of (SAF), set up in 1986, and the countries, including debt-equity Africans, but also of Soviet and U.S. Enhanced Structural Adjustment swaps, debt for conservation, the development and financial experts. Facility (ESAF), established in 1988 sale of debl in secondary markets, Its large external debt, together with to provide concessional loans to low- and repurchases by governments of its other economic afflictions, repre- income "prolonged users" (largely their debts at discounted prices. sents an obstacle to economic recov- Africans). The World Bank has initi- While some African debtors, like ery and growth. ated its own refinancing program, Nigeria or Zambia, have engaged in Africa's debt is nearly all owed to offering concessional loans to low- a variety of these schemes to reduce official lenders—foreign govern- income countries to refinance earlier their debt, for most of low income ments and international financial World Bank loans under harder Africa, these measures promise little institutions. As of 1986, of the $55.3 terms. relief since the private sector inter- billion in external debt of low- The 1988 Toronto Economic Sum- est in the debtor country implied by income Africa, $14.4 billion was mit endorsed a "menu" approach to many of them is lacking. owed to multilateral institutions concessional debt relief for Africa. In (mainly the IBRD, IDA, and the negotiating the terms of debt African Development Bank and reschedulings, creditors can now The Soviet Perspective Fund) and $25.5 owed to bilateral choose one of the following arrange- Sub-Saharan Africa's debt to the creditors (just over half in the form ments: They can cancel one-third of Soviet Union constitutes only a small of concessional loans and the rest in the stock and debt service payments fraction of its total indebtedness. the form of non-concessional export owed; they can provide subsidies on Data on its debt to the USSR is frag- credits). the interest rates charged on mentary or estimated, but by any Of the remainder, $6 billion was rescheduled debts; or they can measure, it is less than 15 percent of owed to private creditors, $5 billion lengthen the debt repayment period the total, with under one-fifth of its to the IMF and $4 billion was in to 25 years. volume in the form of commercial short-term credits. Low-income Another debt relief proposal is the claims. The debt is heavily concen- African countries were scheduled to "securitization" scheme, developed trated, with three top debtors (Ango- pay out an average of more than 30 by the African Development Bank, la, Ethiopia, and Mozambique, in percent of their annual export earn- whereby the public and private debt decreasing order) accounting for at ings to service their debt. of individual countries (except that least two-thirds of Soviet claims on In recent years, a number of mod- owed "preferred lenders" like the the continent. est changes have been made in the World Bank or IMF) would be con- Most credit arrangements be- management of Africa's debt prob- solidated into 20-year, single premi- tween the Soviet Union and African lems. A few creditors have turned um bonds offered to creditors at countries include the option of debt- concessional loans into grants—in agreed interest rates. The debtor servicing not only in convertible cur- effect, canceling some of the debts would make annual payments into a rencies, but also through exports of owed them. The grace and repay- "redemption fund" which would be goods to the Soviet Union. During ment periods in debt rescheduling managed by creditors and interna- the early stages of the debt crisis, negotiations have been lengthened tional financial institutions, which this led to unfounded optimism that from an original period of five years would periodically review the eco- the special nature of Soviet-African to up to 25 years at present. nomic performance of the debtor. At credit relationships would provide The IMF has sought to ease the the end of the 20-year period, the an adequate shelter against debtors' repayment burden on low-income funds in the redemption fund would unilateral refusal to repay their Carol iMticaster is director of the African Stud- pay off the debt. This proposal has debts. Yet reality proved to be more ies Program at Georgetown University. Sergei met with resistance from creditors, complicated. As financial pressures Shatalov is a research fellow at The Institute for African Studies, USSR Academy of Sci- particularly from the U.S.. and at on African debtors to increase their ences, in Moscow. present, appears to have few hard currency exports mounted.

42 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 With recent economic reforms in the Soviet Union and a new era in U.S.-Soviet relations, there are opportunities for cooperation in addressing the debt crisis plaguing many African countries. Although the U.S. and the Soviet Union are not Africa's major creditors, coordination of debt relief strategies could provide some measure of assistance. By CAROL LANCASTER and SERGEI SHATALOV some of them diverted part of those providing loans. The Committee's Western and socialist. The Soviet exports previously earmarked for major success criterion was the total debt initiative aims at strengthening servicing their debt to the USSR. cost of development projects execut- existing arrangements to address Despite these problems, no com- ed—to ensure their profitability was new challenges, with the IMF and prehensive debt management policy not its task. the World Hank remaining the lead- emerged in Moscow. Rescheduling If the option of covering debt with ing institutions dealing with debt was implemented on a case-by-case exports of tropical goods was open, issues. basis. Reliable estimates put the there emerged another problem: the The USSR has already indicated amounts of sub-Saharan Africa's Committee was not empowered to its readiness to establish technical debt rescheduled, refinanced, and enter into such agreements. The cooperation with both institutions. written off by the USSR from 1982 to Ministry for Foreign Trade, on the The establishment of such coopera- 1988 at $5 billion. This approach other hand, preferred to make its tion serves the central aim of eco- proved to be self-defeating. It failed purchases through major interna- nomic reform in the USSR—to quali- to stop tensions from developing in tional commodities exchanges, tatively upgrade the country's Soviet-African economic relations though the same goods could be involvement in the global economy. under the pressure of debt crisis, delivered by the debtor country as The list of institutions with which nor did it prevent significant losses part of the debt-servicing deal at a such interaction is desirable in- to Soviet credit institutions. significant discount. cludes the Development Assistance The Soviet aid program has suf- There is another issue which lim- Committee of the OECD, the Paris fered from the conflicting interests its the Soviet Union's freedom of Club, and the Bank for International of different organizations and institu- choice with respect to the debt cri- Settlements, as well as regional tions which are directly responsible sis. The USSR does not participate in development banks. Full member- for the specific development pro- the activities of leading international ship in most of these institutions is, jects. Often, departmental ambitions bodies involved in debt reschedul- of course, the optima) solution, and have overtaken ihe broad interests ing. African debtors usually negoti- there has recently been a positive of development cooperation. ate with the Paris Club and/or the reaction from some OKCD countries Thus, a number of grandiose IMF, and only then approach Soviet on this point. "white elephant" projects, poorly organizations, expecting treatment The Soviet position on the debt integrated into the recipient coun- on the terms comparable to those issue must also address longer-term try's economic structure, were provided by the Paris Club. tasks, in particular the extensive implemented. As these projects The first shifts in Soviet debt poli- restructuring of the entire Soviet involved significant outlays in local cies appeared in 1985, and recently development assistance program. currency, they also distorted credit the debt problem has been upgraded This task is urgent not only because markets in recipient countries. The to the status of a major issue in Sovi- debt service arrears to the USSR are projects were not always thoroughly et external economic policy. A new significant, but also because the prepared, with forecasts of future approach was described in General turnover of Soviet-African trade is trends (exchange rates, prices, etc.) Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's declining. rare, leading to miscalculations. speech at the UN on December 7, Reform of the whole structure of There is no concise data on their 1988. This debt initiative, as well as Soviet external economic ties is cur- overall efficiency, but estimates put the Toronto decisions, is targeted at rently underway. In this area, as in the share of unprofitable entities at the group of poorest debt-distressed other sectors of the economy, this 10 to 20 percent of all Soviet projects African countries. means, above all, further deregula- in Africa. The Soviet initiative stresses the tion and decentralization. Character- The Soviet aid agency, the State need for solutions balanced and flex- istic of this present stage of reform Committee for Economic Coopera- ible enough to make adjustment sus- is the appearance of new entities in tion, merged in 1987 with the Min- tainable. Grand schemes of debt the foreign economic sphere. The istry for Foreign Trade, was respon- reform have little chance of being Soviet Law on State Enterprise sible for specific development pro- realized, due to budgetary concerns (Association), which laid the founda- jects, with the Ministry of Finance in leading creditor countries, both tion for the reforms, came into effect

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 43 on January 1, 1988, specifying that African countries. In 1988, the U.S. of what its implications would be for enterprises must have the ability to relented in its opposition to other the federal budget or for foreign aid pay their own way on a self-financing creditors providing interest rate sub- appropriations. Thus, whether and basis. Since April 1 this year, cooper- sidies, but maintained its opposition how this legislation will be imple- atives also obtained the right to to any subsidies itself or to any form mented remains unclear. engage in external trade and con- of debt cancellation. As part of the vertible currency transactions. Toronto Summit agreement, howev- This reform is bound to have a er, the U.S. has supported a length- Remaining Problems profound impact on the nature of ening in the repayment of debt by and Opportunities Soviet credit relationships with sub- low-income countries to 25 years. Despite the modest debt relief Saharan Africa. Decentralization of There are a number of reasons measures already available for low- external economic ties means above why the U.S. has been the least income African countries, the cur- all that the state will no longer forthcoming among Western gov- rent system of dealing with the debt assume the credit risk of most eco- ernments on debt relief for low- problems through periodic nomic entities involved in foreign income Africa. First, it is possible reschedulings creates a number of transactions. In this situation, the that Congress would require that the problems. First, it is extremely time- importance of precise guidelines for value of any debt cancelled be cov- consuming, especially for that small foreign lending is paramount. ered by new appropriations on the number of top-level economic man- The traditional blurring of bor- grounds that canceled debt repre- agers in African countries. The min- ders between different forms of sents a loss of an asset owned and ister of finance and the governor of credit must be terminated. Foreign revenue due the U.S. government. the central bank must spend a great lending must be provided in three Any such appropriations would deal of their time preparing for and strictly separate forms: development likely come out of foreign aid, reduc- negotiating reschedulings. While assistance as such, financed directly ing the amounts of new aid available. they are negotiating debt reschedul- from the budget; bank lending As a result, the value of debt can- ings, they are not managing their (including export and import cred- celled could be offset by an equal economies. its) with the responsibility fully laid reduction in foreign aid, leaving Second, the need to negotiate fre- on the banking system; and com- developing countries no better off. quent reschedulings can inject a mercial lending from the resources Second, there is a fear in Wash- degree of uncertainty into economic of enterprises which have the right ington that debt relief, even in the planning and increase the costs of of access to the foreign markets. form of interest rate subsidies, imports. Arrears on unpaid debts The state will no longer assume any would be claimed as a precedent, not typically build up while negotiations direct responsibility for the latter only by the large Latin American are planned and underway. Such two forms of lending. debtors, but by Americans—farmers arrears can threaten the availability or students—who owe the U.S. gov- of short-term trade financing and ernment money. Other debtors result in exporters charging premi- The U.S. Perspective could well demand equal treatment um prices to African importers. Like the USSR, the United States and domestic groups could back up Third, the way debts have been is not a major creditor to sub-Saha- those claims with political clout, ulti- rescheduled in the past has greatly ran Africa. Long-term debt owed the mately costing the government sub- increased the stock of debt. Unpaid U.S. government by sub-Saharan stantial sums in lost revenues. interest has been combined with Africa totalled $3.2 billion at the end Despite these problems, the chal- unpaid capital to create a new, much of 1987. (This figure includes princi- lenge of providing relief to African larger loan to the rescheduling coun- pal only. When interest owed is debtors would not be insurmount- try, which is then charged market added, the total debt rises to $4.5 bil- able by an administration and rates of interest. The capitalization of lion.) Of the $3.2 billion owed to the Congress with sufficient political will interest payments has added more U.S. government, $2.4 billion is and creativity. One recent legislative to the stock of African debt than new owed by low income, debt-distressed change already provides an opportu- borrowing in recent years and has countries of sub-Saharan Africa. nity. In the foreign aid appropriations increased future debt-servicing bur- Between 1984 and 1987, the U.S. bill passed in 1988, Congress autho- dens. rescheduled $921 million in sub- rized the president to accept pay- Fourth, the existing stock of debt Saharan African debt, $860 million of ment of debts to the U.S. in local cur- still represents a heavy mortgage on which was debt owed by the low- rencies or to waive repayments the future of many African countries. income countries. entirely from those low-income Indeed, in a number of countries, it Despite the relatively small countries with an IMF program in is already so large that no one realis- amounts of debt involved, the U.S. place. tically expects it to be fully paid. It has been a reluctant participant in This legislation, to take effect in likely acts as a disincentive to offi- initiatives involving debt relief for 1990, did not include any indication cials to undertake and sustain the

44 AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1989 difficult policy reforms necessary to relief should be withheld. exports of such companies as debt restore their countries to growth. In evolving a debt policy for low- service payments. Exploratory work Why suffer the pain and risk of such income Africa, there is an opportuni- is already underway in the USSR to changes today if much of the gain ty for cooperative action involving set up joint ventures in Ethiopia, from growth tomorrow will simply the USSR. First, there is an opportu- Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and go to service a virtually limitless nity to exchange information and some other African countries. debt? coordinate activities in the area of In August 1988, a specialized Future debt relief for low-income resource transfers. financial company/'Sovfintrade," was Africa should address three prob- The now-reformed Soviet devel- created, which can organize both lems: It should be coherent and opment cooperation strategy is debt-for-equity swaps and debt con- equitable; it should be efficient; and focusing increased attention on agri- versions into bonds. This company it should reduce debt-servicing and cultural projects and the need to could serve as the Soviet agent in the stock of debt to levels which are shift from mega-projects to smaller starting such trilateral ventures. The manageable and consistent with ones which more easily fit into the number of Soviet state-run and coop- long-term growth. Creditors (includ- recipient economy. Special attention erative entities, including small and ing the U.S. and the USSR) should to the social groups benefiting from medium-sized ones, which now can agree on a coherent framework for development projects is another cen- participate in such arrangements is debt relief—perhaps involving a ceil- tral point. These areas can provide quite significant. Another idea is ing on debt-servicing based on the common ground for aid coordination being discussed now—the option of amount of export earnings, import with DAC member countries. selling credit claims on African coun- prices, and other relevant economic Successful aid coordination could tries to independent economic variables. lead to some form of joint financing agents in the USSR. The ceiling would be tailored to of projects, either on a bilateral Bridging the information gap also what individual debtors could realis- basis, or in conjunction with the requires cooperative action. As of tically pay and would be adjustable international financial institu- now, data on Soviet aid programs to changes (improvement or deterio- tions—the World Bank and regional and the structure of its claims on for- ration) in their economic conditions. development banks. Taking into eign countries is fragmentary. Obvi- The stock of debt should be brought account current budget constraints ously, research on aid and debt prob- down, where appropriate, to levels in all donor countries, this is an lems requires comprehensive infor- consistent with the debtors' likely attractive option. mation, yet this remains inaccessible future ability to pay. At the very Among specific measures, the to the general public in the USSR. least, creditors should refrain from option of debt forgiveness was tradi- Publication of this data will strength- adding to the stock through tionally considered unacceptable as en the prestige of the Soviet Union rescheduling arrangements. And an across-the-board solution. Howev- and the outside world's perception of consolidation periods should be er, writing off even the whole ODA the present economic reform as an extended beyond the 12 to 18-month debt of the poorest African countries irreversible process. periods typical today. The reason for entails small losses to the creditors, Here too, positive trends are these short periods is to keep Western or Soviet. This initiative apparent. Work is now under way in debtors on a "short leash," to lever must, of course, take into account the Soviet Union to harmonize or force them to maintain reform legal constraints in some creditor national accounting practices with programs acceptable to the IMF, or countries. Corresponding amounts UN methodology. In 1987 for the to return to the Fund for such pro- of grants can be provided, or a 99- first time, (1NP figures were pub- grams where they have broken year moratorium on ODA debt of the lished both according to the UN down. poorest African countries can be methodology and in the traditional Creditors have every right to announced. manner. We can soon expect publica- expect effective reform programs Second, there may be opportuni- tion of data on the Soviet balance of from debtors who are benefiting ties for coordinated approaches to payments, official development assis- from debt reschedulings or relief. debt relief combined with new com- tance, and the structure of overseas But there are other means of ensur- mitments. Creative use of debt liabilities and claims. In this respect, ing leverage which are less demand- swaps is one possibility, now accept- possibilities should be explored for ing on scarce human resources. ed throughout Africa as a way to dialogue between the Soviet central Conditioning aid disbursements on revive the flow of foreign investment statistical bodies and the corre- annual or semi-annual reviews of to the continent. New investments sponding units of the DAC, the economic performance would exert involving trilateral arrangements World Bank, and the IMF. This plenty of leverage. And for those between the debtor government. would fit quite logically in the con- governments which sign IMF stand- Western governments or companies, text of "glasnost" and would serve in bys and Paris Club agreements with and the USSR could involve provid- itself as a significant confidence- little intention of fulfilling them, debt ing the capital and absorbing part of building measure. O

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 45 ECONOMIES AFTER ADJUSTMENT By ERNEST HARSCH Are African economies really better off after having adopted structural adjustment programs promoted by the World Bank and the IMF? Controversy has been raging between proponents of reform, in particular the World Bank, and the Economic Commission for Africa, which finds little improvement in Africa's overall growth and rate of development.

s this decade of unprecedent- international community more effec- Africa (ECA) found little of cheer. ed economic and social crisis tively support them? Do the struc- True, 1988 signaled a marked A in Africa draws to a close, tural adjustment programs currently improvement in Africa's growth many within the continent and with- promoted by the IMF and World rates over the previous year, particu- out are asking whether the 1990s Bank hold the answers? larly in agriculture. But this could be need bring more of (he same. As could be expected, views on attributed largely to exceptionally How can Africa break away from such questions vary widely. To an good weather, itself a sign of weak- its image of widespread hunger, suf- extent, the discussions on Africa's ness and vulnerability. fering, and decay? What can Africans prospects and options appear linked Even this good fortune, noted the themselves do, and how can the to different readings of the situation ECA's Economic Report on Africa, Ernest Harsch is a freelance journalist based today. 1989, was not enough to pull overall in New York who has written extensively on In a report issued in April, the economic growth above Africa's rate African political and economic developments for over a decade. UN's Economic Commission for of population increase. So while the

46 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 continent's gross domestic product somewhat differently than usual, the ply made a mess of it since the grew 2.3 percent last year, in per report perceives "signs of a departure of the colonial governors. capita terms, it fell 0.7 percent, con- turnaround" in Africa, with countries "Africa's problems are largely of tinuing the decline that has been that have adopted strong structural its own making," an article in the underway for most of this decade. programs doing markedly better London Economist recently pro- Africa's economic performance overall. claimed, "and so must be the solu- has been seriously hampered by "Recovery has begun," the World tions." unfavorable external constraints, the Bank's vice president for Africa, Africans take issue with such an ECA report emphasized. The com- Edward Jaycox, told a Washington apportioning of blame, pointing to mission's executive secretary, Ade- news conference on March 8, the unfavorable terms of trade, rising bayo Adedeji, recently observed that day the report was issued. protectionism in the U.S. and West- unless the "unbearable albatross" of One of the motivations behind the ern Europe, and high interest rates debilitating debt burdens, low World Bank report appears to be an on external loans as major con- export prices, and a net outflow of effort to induce international donors straints on Africa's development. But resources is lifted, "recovery and to provide more funding for Africa. many nevertheless agree that development will continue to elude By placing an accent on the positive, Africans must shoulder the prime Africa." it seeks to dispel the notion that responsibility for finding a way out of In an effort to convey what this Africa is a hopeless case. the crisis. During a special 1986 UN economic crisis means in human Adedeji, however, does not agree session, African states collectively terms, the ECA report devoted a that this can be effective, arguing vowed to carry out sweeping major section to Africa's social situa- that "it is only by appreciating the reforms to cope with the challenge. tion. It is grim reading. Incomes, reality—sometimes the bitter reali- Many were already in the process employment, nutrition, and health ty—that the rest of the international of doing so. There is now hardly an and educational levels have all community can continue to rally African state that has not introduced declined, with a fall in average living round with support." It is wrong, he some economic reform measure, be standards of one-fifth since 1980. says, "to portray the economic situa- it an adjustment in fiscal or trade pol- In its latest State of the World's tion currently prevailing in Africa in icy, an increase in agricultural pro- Children survey, Unicef similarly rosy terms, to minimize the impact ducer prices, a streamlining of the focused on the social consequences of an adverse external environment, public sector, programs to safeguard of the economic crisis. There were a and to depict the effects of structural the environment, or enhanced sup- few bright spots, such as the adjustment programs as having been port for cooperatives and small-scale strengthening of primary health always positive." enterprises. care and improved immunization Some within the World Bank itself Some 'M) African countries have programs. view Africa's situation more soberly. adopted formal structural adjust- But in the 37 poorest countries 'There's no room for complacency ment programs supported by the (most of which are in Africa), per or excessive confidence among any IMF and World Bank. Others have capital spending on health has fallen of the major actors on Africa," stated programs that differ in some by half over the last few years, and Dr. Ramgopal Agarwala in February. respects, or have implemented spe- on education by a quarter. Malnutri- He said that it is "time to recognize cific measures not usually associated tion is rising in Burundi, Gambia, that we've all failed" and that new with structural adjustment packages. Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Nigeria, and strategies for African development Zimbabwe, which lacks the full other African countries. Some are desperately needed. Agarwala. IMF/World Bank stamp of approval, 350.000 more African children died who heads up the special economic has achieved remarkable results in last year due to reduced health bud- office of the Bank's Africa Technical agriculture. Increased producer gels, deteriorating sanitation, and Department, is currently drafting a prices, the introduction of a more the lack of foreign exchange to major World Hank report that will efficient marketing system, and import even basic medicines. "Chil- explore such strategies. Beyond assistance to farmers' cooperatives dren in debt" is the dramatic phrase Adjustment is the working title. have encouraged small-scale African Unicef used to capture this reality. farmers to quadruple their maize One recent World Bank report output since independence in 1980. sees Africa's situation in a cheerier It remains fashionable among Under the late Thomas Sankara, light. Entitled Africa's Adjustment Western government officials, Burkina Faso pursued energetic and Growth in the 1980s, and issued bankers, economists, and editors to rural development programs that in conjunction with the UN Develop- deny that their own countries' eco- saw new schools, primary health ment Programme (UNDP), it argues nomic policies have much to do with posts, and other facilities built in that "the statistics commonly report- Africa's current difficulties. They practically every village, with gen- ed mask a more complex, less dis- suggest that the fault must lie with uine grassroots participation. Some mal picture." Stacking the numbers Africans themselves, who have sim- 2 million children were vaccinated

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 47 against three major childhood dis- grams have often been pushed growth, strong GDP growth, and eases in just a two-week period, win- through hastily, without adequate larger investment" than do other ning Burkina international recogni- attention to the specifics of individu- countries. Appropriate tables and tion for this feat and serving as a al countries or the impact on living graphs are included to make the model for similar campaigns that standards and production patterns. case. Unicef is projecting elsewhere in Public criticism and opposition On closer examination, key parts Africa. has flared across the continent, usu- of this statistical presentation appear For several years, Ethiopia, with ally in response to sudden price shaky. From a sample of 19 coun- assistance for the World Food Pro- increases or severe cutbacks in pub- tries with strong programs and 12 gramme and other donor agencies, lic expenditures. Morocco, Tunisia, without, the report finds that from has been carrying out one of Africa's and Nigeria have seen street rioting. 1985 through 1987, the former had most ambitious soil conservation Sudan's Gaafar al-Nimeiry was top- average annual GDP growth rates of programs—an especially high priori- pled in 1985 after an IMF-approved 2.8 percent, and the latter of 2.7 per- ty for a country so vulnerable to peri- reform program sparked an urban cent. Hardly a compelling differ- odic drought and famine. insurrection. Zambia's Kenneth ence. There are other such "success Kaunda did not wait to test his fate; But then the report weeds out of stories" on the continent, underlin- after rioting swept the copperbelt, he each grouping countries that are ing the potential for development replaced an orthodox structural said to have suffered strong external that exists even under today's diffi- adjustment program with a more shocks. The result is a much sharper cult circumstances. Some of these acceptable home-grown variety. spread in the figures, with an aver- efforts, by their nature, are not well African manufacturers have like- age growth rate of 3.8 percent for reflected in the customary statistics wise complained bitterly about the countries with strong programs and on economic growth. But they are scrapping of protectionist safeguards 1.5 percent for the other category. nevertheless attracting growing on their infant industries. Is such selective comparison sta- interest among development ex- "Draconian" was the way Mali's tistically meaningful? The sizes of perts, donors, government officials, then prime minister, Mamadou the country samples are reduced and some within the World Bank Dembele, described the solutions of considerably (to 14 and 8, respec- and IMF as well. the IMF and World Bank in March tively), thus weakening the signifi- Thus far, however, it has been the 1988. "There is in these measures a cance of any results. Nowhere in the structural adjustment programs that great social component that calls for report are "strong external shocks" have been dominant. Their slant is some prudence." clearly defined, so it is impossible to largely monetarist: a focus on (some Some countries with structural tell by what criteria some countries would say preoccupation with) mar- adjustment programs have fared bet- are eliminated and others not. ket-determined exchange rates and ter than others. Despite serious Zimbabwe, grouped among the price levels, budget balancing, tax social difficulties, both Ghana and countries with "weak" reform pro- reform, trade liberalization, and gen- Senegal have experienced re- grams, is inexplicably removed, erally, an energetic policy of cutting spectable economic recoveries, with although it has been doing very well domestic demand. average annual real growth rates overall. Nor is it clear why Zambia is Adoption of these programs has from 1985 through 1988 of 5.1 per- included among the "weak" reform- not been entirely voluntary. More cent and 4.2 percent, respectively. ers, since for most the period cov- and more, the IMF, World Bank, For most of the others, the payoff ered, 1985-87, it had an adjustment Western governments, commercial has been more elusive. program that was highly praised by banks, and donor agencies are insist- the World Bank. ing that an approved structural Economic data from Africa is adjustment program be in place The World Bank report, Africa's notoriously unreliable and fragmen- before debts can be rescheduled or Adjustment and Growth in the 1980s, tary, and can lend itself to a wide new loans extended. The recent acknowledges that uneven perfor- range of interpretations. This is evi- World Bank report found that in the mance, structural rigidities, the time dent in reading another recent period from 1985 through 1987, required for reforms to bear fruit, World Bank study, Adjustment Lend- African countries with "strong" and other factors make it difficult to ing: An Evaluation of Ten Years of structural adjustment programs net- draw general conclusions about the Experience, which found no evidence ted an 18.7 percent average annual effectiveness of adjustment pro- that adjusting countries in Africa are increase in foreign aid; those with- grams. performing better. In fact, an evalua- out were clearly penalized, with the Nevertheless, it attempts to do tion of 15 such countries in sub- amounts they received declining an just that, concluding that countries Saharan Africa revealed that average average of 4.7 percent a year. with strong structural adjustment annual GDP growth rates had fallen Partly as a result of such pres- programs demonstrate "higher agri- from 2.7 percent before the begin- sures, structural adjustment pro- cultural growth, faster export ning of the adjustment programs to

48 AFRICA REPORT-May-June 1989 1.8 percent after. It also found some- aggravated by structural adjust- ate, the International Development what worse investment and inflation ment," the report said. Real per capi- Association. Ghana has perhaps the rates and debt service ratios. ta health spending has fallen 20 per- most ambitious program, known as Even if some real improvement cent since 1981. Peasant farmers suf- FAMSCA1), which includes a wide could be shown for countries with fered from a precipitate dismantling range of measures such as job such programs, a further question of state rural development institu- retraining and placement for laid-off would have to be asked: How much tions, bringing diminishing yields of workers, credit schemes for small- of the better performance comes groundnuts, the main cash crop. scale farmers, public works projects, from structural adjustment itself, and improvement of health, sanita- and how much from these countries' tion, and nutrition. Funding has greater access to external financing? come from the World Bank, U.S. The greater inflow of foreign aid and AID, Japan, Austria, and other other funding would by itself give donors. their economies some extra buoyan- A mong the Hopes have been expressed that cy. more fundamental such "adjustment with a human There is a further—and highly face" will bring at least some relief to controversial—side to structural criticisms of those most seriously hit—and to adjustment: its immediate social orthodox structural African governments facing mount- impact. Any attempt to evaluate such ing public discontent and unrest. programs solely on the basis of adjustment is macro-economic indicators would that it is not fail to take this aspect into account. The difficulties associated with Though it is sometimes argued really structural. structural adjustment and the that incomes and living standards absence thus far of any clear trend would have fallen anyway, there is toward economic recovery are now broad acknowledgement that Madagascar, which has a "strong" spurring some deeper thinking structural adjustment can have a adjustment program according to about Africa's development strate- detrimental effect on the more vul- the World Bank, is an especially glar- gies. An increasing number of nerable sectors of society, such as ing case. It has seen a doubling of its African and non-African analysis are women, children, and the aged. infant mortality rate since the begin- concluding that the problems do not Unicef, the KCA, the International ning of the decade. An estimated just stem from temporary economic Labour Organization, and the IMF 150,000 people died in a malaria imbalances, but are rooted in the and World Bank themselves have epidemic last year, which went large- very structures of Africa's conducted a variety of studies docu- ly unchecked because of a lack of economies. menting serious deterioration in medicines: Madagascar's medicine Looking at structural adjustment, social services, wages, and employ- purchases are just one-fifth what they ask: How appropriate are poli- ment levels associated with struc- they were 10 years ago. Health cies that revolve mainly around tural adjustment. workers report rising malnutrition. prices and monetary supply for "Structural adjustment policies A UN-organized conference in countries with such weak markets, naturally produce gainers and Khartoum on the human dimension where links between one economic losers," noted the World Bank study of Africa's recovery efforts conclud- sector and another are minimal at on adjustment lending. "Scattered ed in March 1988 that "adjustment best? How much of an incentive is a and anecdotal evidence suggests measures have been implemented at higher producer price for the aver- that stabilization elements of pro- high human costs and sacrifices" age African food farmer, whose out- grams have often hurt welfare." and are "rending the fabric of put is largely for domestic consump- A staff study on Senegal and African society." tion, not the market, and who in any Ghana issued this March by the U.S. World Bank and IMF officials case lacks access to consumer goods House of Representatives Africa Sub- have acknowledged these criticisms or agricultural inputs worth buying? committee reported a worsening of and are showing somewhat more How can the lifting of all trade con- social inequities and poverty among sensitivity toward social factors. Sev- trols strengthen fledgling indige- some sectors, despite impressive eral African countries now have spe- nous industries when they are imme- economic growth in both countries. cial programs to soften the burdens diately inundated and overwhelmed It strongly criticized the standard of adjustment on those who are by floods of cheap import goods? adjustment formula for "producing more vulnerable. Among the more fundamental little enduring poverty alleviation." Madagascar, for example, has just criticisms of orthodox structural "Among urban Senegalese introduced a modest social action adjustment is that it is not really —about 35 percent of the popula- program funded by the World structural. According to Adedeji, tion—poverty has clearly been Bank's concessionary lending affili- Africa's basic difficulty lies in the

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 49 "neo-colonial monostructural pro- in a sufficiently "creative" direction programs and to better mobilize duction system" that makes its remains to be seen. local human resources. economies highly dependent on But within Africa itself, there are • Increasing collective self- export earnings from one or two pri- already greater signs of creativity, as reliance through more effective mary commodities. community associations, private vol- regional cooperation and integration. Inherited from the days of colo- untary organizations, local represen- Some of these ideas have been nial rule, this extreme export orien- tatives of donor agencies, and some around for a while, with little practi- tation—which is more pronounced governments demonstrate more cal impact so far. Others are already in Africa than in other developing openness toward new solutions and being implemented. Some aspects of regions—makes the continent espe- alternatives. The failures of the top- the African alternative draw on spe- cially vulnerable to fluctuations in a down development strategies of the cific policies included in existing world market over which it has no past are being increasingly recog- structural adjustment programs. On real control. With just a few excep- nized and there is growing apprecia- those points at least, an element of tions, the prices that Africa receives tion for newer, innovative initiatives consensus thus exists between for its main exports have been on a that stress equity, reliance on local African governments and the inter- downswing for most of this decade. resources, environmental protection, national financialinstitutions . This problem of commodity and grassroots participation. "Sus- This consensus could well prices has stirred sharp reactions tainable development" is the com- increase further. The preliminary from virtually every African govern- mon term for these approaches. draft of the World Bank's Beyond ment, of whatever political persua- Meeting in Addis Ababa this Adjustment report calls for a drastic sion, whether it has an adjustment April, African finance and planning reorientation of development strate- program or not. ministers adopted an ECA-proposed gy in Africa. It incorporates major "It cannot be overemphasized that "African alternative" to standard elements of the recent thinking on our difficulties stem from the insuffi- structural adjustment programs. "sustainable development" and some cient remuneration received from "Africa has to adjust," the finance of the policy suggestions put forth the sale of our raw materials," stated ministers conceded. But they insist- by the ECA and African finance min- Ivorian President Felix Houphouet- ed that this must be "adjustment isters. Boigny in his December fi indepen- with transformation" and that One of the initial aims was pre- dence day address. "As long as the African countries themselves must cisely to find some common ground; spirit of speculation continues to play the central role in the design Dr. Agarwala and his team spent a reign over transactions between and formulation of adjustment pro- year soliciting suggestions, ideas, developed and developing countries, grams. and criticisms from more than 300 we will wait in vain for the advent of Highlights of their alternative African economists and development a new world economic order based include: experts, as well as from the ECA, on justice." •Maintenance of social expendi- African Development Bank, and This fall in export earnings has tures and "human resource develo])- other African institutions. done much to aggravate Africa's for- ment," in part through reductions in The Addis Ababa meeting of eign debt, now standing at some military and other non-essential pub- finance ministers expressed the $230 billion and rising at a faster rate lic spending. hope that a broad consensus could than in any other region of the •Channeling of investments be built around the African alterna- world. For the 34 least developed toward production, in particular agri- tive, one that will actively involve sub-Saharan countries, the ratio of culture, and the provision of effec- Africa's bilateral and multilateral debt to annual export earnings tive incentives to both farmers and donors. exceeds 500 percent. domestic manufacturers. Whatever the case, there seems Some modest steps are underway •Diversification of exports, to be a greater determination among internationally to bring at least a strengthening of the domestic mar- Africans to demonstrate that they measure of debt relief to the hardest ket, and greater use of local inputs can develop their own strategies, hit African countries. Yet, states instead of imported ones. and do not simply have to follow poli- African Development Bank presi- •Flexible trade and exchange cies dictated from abroad. dent Babacar N'Diaye, "Debt rate policies that introduce some lib- "We must not be afraid to stick rescheduling, or even its partial can- eralization while maintaining ade- our necks out and put forward our cellation, doesn't attack the heart of quate protection for consumers and own proposals," Adedeji told the the problem. Everyone knows that producers. opening session in Addis Ababa. we haven't found a real solution to •Improved efficiency of the pub- "Let us show to an increasingly the debt problem and that we need lic sector. skeptical world that, poor as we may to show more creativity." •Broad popular participation in be, we are Africans first and last, and Whether Africa's creditors, decision-making, both to ensure that we will forever defend its vital donors, and trade partners will move public support for economic interests.''^)

50 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 Salim Ahmed Salim: "The personality, vision, and experience OAU needed to begin to revitalize the OAli" STRENGTHENING By SAMMY KUM BUO AFRICA'S VOICE

Created to maximize the continent's influence in the international arena, the OAU has seen its authority eroded by the growing involvement of foreign powers in Africa's political and economic crises. Revitalizing the organization and maximizing Africa's voice Ide Oumarou, OAU secre- on the world scene should tary-gen oral: "Working according to the existing, be paramount in choosing albeit restrictive rules of a new secretary-general. the game" Belly Pro;,:, he Tanzanian government is campaign appears sound and credi- from center-stage, from the frontline basing its campaign for the ble, for the consequence of the of decisive action on these issues of T election of one of its best- growing internationalization of paramount importance to its mem- known citizens. Deputy Prime Minis- African problems and of the expand- bers. ter and Minister of Defense Salim ing role of non-African actors in the Nearly three decades after most Ahmed Salim, to replace Niger's Ide search for solutions has clearly been African states attained their indepen- Oumarou as secretary-general of the the steady side-lining of Africa's role dence and over 25 years since the Organization of African Unity and African views. creation of the OAU, the contin- (OAU), on the need to revitalize and Indeed, the critical decisions of ued—indeed increased—depen- enhance the role of the organization the day on pressing African issues of dence of African countries on for- and reverse the current trend peace and security in southern eign powers and institutions to toward the marginalization of Africa, the Horn of Africa, southern resolve African problems has African issues and Africa's role in Sudan, and Western Sahara, as well become a source of growing frustra- the world. as on the debilitating debt burden, tion, humiliation, and anxiety to Thus, in recent campaign visits to the worsening problem of commodi- many Africans. Not only does such Abidjan, I^agos, and Yaounde, among ty prices, and the overall economic dependence contradict and under- other African capitals, Tanzanian crisis, are not being taken in Africa, mine African states' assertion of Foreign Minister Benjamin Mkapa but elsewhere and by others. their independence and sovereignty, has almost completely side-stepped Thus, for instance, as the United but it also more ominously con- the issue of the personalities Nations struggles to lead Namibia to tributes to turning Africa into a bat- involved in the OAU election, con- independence and to resolve the tleground for competing foreign ide- centrating instead on the vision Western Sahara imbroglio, as the ologies more concerned about which his government projects for United States, Soviet Union, and advancing their own interests and Africa's oldest and most important Cuba work to bring peace to Angola, claims, often at the cost of African inter-governmental organization. and as the World Bank, IMF, UNC- lives and property. Tanzania's approach to the OAU TAD, and GAIT are grappling with In an increasingly interdependent the problems of Africa's poverty, world where the concept of absolute Sammy Kum Huo, a specialist on African debt, and raw materials, the OAU is sovereignty is largely meaningless, political and security affairs, is currently writ- ing a book on that subject. most conspicuous by its absence inter-state cooperation, whether at

AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1989 51 the sub-regional, regional, or inter- of African governments to paper cal personality on the world stage. national level, is essential. This is over their differences in order to To many Africans, however, one particularly pertinent in Africa save the organization and preserve should not be content with the mere where the small and weak countries the appearances of African unity. survival of the OAU. While the sym- saw the creation of the OAU not only Thus, although African states bolic value of its existence and of its as a way of maximizing their influ- were badly divided in the early 1980s annual ministerial and summit con- ence collectively on the international over the admission of the Sahrawi ferences should not be underesti- scene, but also as a more realistic Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) mated, the OAU's real importance and appropriate approach to dealing as a full OAU member-state (Moroc- and credibility derive principally effectively with their common prob- co withdrew and Zaire, which has from the effectiveness of its contri- lems. since rejoined, suspended its partici- bution to the promotion, realization, The establishment of the OAU pation), the organization managed to and maintenance of peace, freedom, has also proved valuable to non- survive perhaps its most serious and progress for the people of Africans, in particular as a forum for threat of disintegration. Africa. Thus, greater efforts need to gauging African views on a variety of To many Africans, the OAU has be made to enhance the organiza- issues. When Africa's position on a become a sacred cow—to be pre- tion's authority and influence—upon particular issue is sought, it is easier served, even if in practice, it is which its credibility, both within and to consult the OAU than each of ignored. A generation of Africans outside the region, ultimately Africa's 50 independent states, espe- have grown up with the OAU and no depends. cially since such individual consulta- African country, especially one from Clearly, when member-states dis- tions would probably produce 50 dif- south of the Sahara, would feel com- regard or violate agreements, deci- ferent, even opposing positions on pletely legitimate unless it gained sions, or resolutions adopted by the same subject. admission to the organization. The them by consensus at OAU meet- One of the most remarkable fea- survival of the OAU is therefore an ings, such attitudes only tend to tures of regional diplomacy within emotional issue to many Africans, undermine the credibility and effec- the OAU—and a major source of largely because of its symbolic value tiveness of the organization. Further- strength for the organization and for as the embodiment and the concrete more, when African countries appear its survival prospects—is the ability assertion of Africa's collective politi- to honor their commitments to inter-

11:45 p.m. Homard Thermidor 11:15 p.m. Champagne—Laurent Perrier

11:28 p.m. Caviar frais 12:18 a.m. Piece de boeufpoele au jus national organizations, including the plaints of ineffectiveness. Although it actions on matters of regional inter- payment of their assessed financial could have performed better in est. It depends on inter-state collabo- contributions, more readily than many of these cases, it should be ration on the basis of voluntary polit- they do to the OAU, this also tends recognized that African govern- ical will. Its resolutions and deci- to erode the OAU's effectiveness, ments have not given the OAU the sions are not binding and are merely especially in its interaction with requisite tools with which to carry recommendatory. those international organizations. out such delicate and expensive mis- Furthermore, its secretariat is The primary objective of the OAU sions. hampered by grossly inadequate was to help realize the total libera- Although the OAU Charter pro- resources—a very small budget and tion of Africa from colonial rule. The vides for a commission on media- staff, and very limited and largely second major objective, was to tion, arbitration, and conciliation to administrative powers for the secre- defend the independence, territorial resolve inter-state disputes by peace- tary-general. These restrictive cir- integrity, and sovereignty of its ful means—an organ which has cumstances have contributed signifi- members. The OAU has largely remained moribund since the OAU's cantly to the steady marginalization been successful with regard to its inception—the OAU's involvement of the OAU's, and hence Africa's, col- two principal objectives, as decolo- in regional peace-making and peace- lective role in major operations, such nization nears completion in the con- keeping efforts constitute a chal- as the ongoing peace-keeping efforts tinent and as the independence and lenge on a scale far greater than that to lead Namibia to independence or sovereignty of its members have originally envisaged for the organiza- to resolve the Western Sahara con- generally been respected. tion under its charter and surpassing flict. But it is through its involvement its present capacities. It is frequently argued, even by its in peace-making and peace-keeping The OAU does not have supra- well-wishers, that the OAU should activities in an effort to prevent and national enforcement powers such leave peace-keeping operations to resolve conflicts between and within as those given to the UN through the United Nations which, despite African states that the OAU has gen- the Security Council. It is not a for- the shaky and faltering start of the erated the greatest notoriety and mal security or defense alliance, but Namibia operations and the unend- controversy. The OAU's very limited rather a forum for the harmonization ing controversy over the Congo mis- success in this field has led to com- and coordination of policies and sion of the 1960s, has acquired the

1:00 a.m. Petits Jours sees. Perrier Grand Siecle. Delicieux 12:41 a.m. Plateau dejromages A delectablejirst class menu available on everyjlight. Call your travel agent or local Air AJrique/Air France office or 1-800-237-2747Jor information and reservations. most experience and expertise—and require, above all, the concrete ing black African and Arab-African can muster the necessary expression of the political will of interests within the OAU and to resources—for such operations. African states toward that end. At articulate a vision and a strategy that The OAU should, nevertheless, the same time, the personality of the carefully balances African interests be actively involved in peace-making OAU secretary-general and the qual- north and south of the Sahara. and peace-keeping activities in the ity of performance of the secretariat Furthermore, as former ambas- continent, especially since, in certain as a whole can make a major differ- sador to the People's Republic of cases, a regional approach is more ence. That is why at this critical China and to the United Nations, appropriate than resorting to inter- stage in Africa's history, many among others, and having served as national mechanisms where extrane- Africans believe it is important to his country's foreign minister and ous considerations could be injected pay closer attention to the issue of prime minister as well as his current into the picture and further compli- the election of the OAU secretary- positions, Salim has handled bilater- cate the efforts to resolve the con- general. al relations, multilateral diplomacy, flicts concerned. Although his/her powers are lim- and faced the awesome challenges of In this connection, for example, ited, the secretary-general, even domestic leadership in a developing Zimbabwean President Robert more than the chairman of the OAU country. Mugabe has revived Kwame who is rotated annually, personifies Salim, his supporters point out, is Nkrumah's idea for the establish- the organization. The office-holder's known and respected in internation- ment of an African military high personality and contribution can al circles, which could be helpful in command by calling upon the OAU impact in one way or another on the bringing the OAU's views to the to create a united African military OAU's image and effectiveness and attention of influential circles world- force to defend the frontline states thus can make a difference between wide. Critics charge that Salim against South African aggression the organization's success or failure. intends to use the OAU secretary- and other acts of violence. For, The current secretary-general, Ide generalship as a platform from though the frontline states may Oumarou, Niger's former ambas- which to launch another campaign bleed alone, it is Africa as a whole sador to the United Nations and later for the post of UN secretary-general. that is attacked. An effective multina- foreign minister, has, according to While denying that that is Salim's tional African force under the OAU's his supporters, successfully dis- objective or strategy, his supporters aegis, sent to defend the territorial charged his mandate, working stress that it could bt> a positive integrity of an OAU member-state according to the existing, albeit development and an honor to Africa victimized by armed aggression, restrictive rules of the game. He has, if a former OAU secretary-general would receive the support of the they contend, performed as well as were to be elected secretary-general international community and under- anyone could under the circum- of the United Nations. cut efforts by the aggressor and its stances. It would therefore be unfair An OAU secretary-general with supporters to justify their actions. and baseless, they stress, to place such a high profile, especially if he The OAU's current weaknesses the blame for the OAU's current proceeds to institute the reforms are particularly discomforting malaise and ineffectiveness on the which the OAU, particularly the sec- because the need for an effective secretary-general. retariat, needs to enhance its effec- inter-governmental institution to Rather, it is pointed out, it is the tiveness, might generate a new and deal with the increasing range of 50 member-states, and in particular more dynamic concept of the organi- pan-African or trans-national prob- the 50 heads of state concerned, zation. Some member-states, which lems requiring collective inter-gov- who constitute the OAU's highest prefer a low-key, almost passive ernmental solutions is more urgent and final decision-making authority. OAU, might resist that, but clearly and relevant today than ever. The secretary-general has little free- this is the choice before African lead- Problems of war and peace have dom of action and even the appoint- ers as we approach the 21st century contributed to giving Africa three ment of his senior aides in the secre- in an increasingly complex and com- dubious international distinc- tariat must be approved, through a petitive world. tions—the most conflict-ridden con- vote, by member-states. Time is fast running, and the tinent, with the largest number of To his supporters, the candidacy imminent emergence of a "mega- ongoing armed conflicts; the region of Salim Ahmed Salim presents Europe" in 1992, when the European with the largest number of refugees; Africa with an excellent opportunity Community's economic integration and the poorest and least developed to elect someone with the personali- plan takes effect, should sound a region. These challenges demand ty, vision, and experience needed to loud alarm for African countries on collective action at the regional level begin to revitalize the OAU. An Afro- the need to enhance regional coop- as a whole. Arab from the Zanzibari region of eration among themselves in order Efforts to revitalize the OAU to the United Republic of Tanzania, to enable the continent to compete enable Africa to meet the challenges Salim appears well-placed to deal more effectively with other areas of of the new world order would with the sensitive issue of harmoniz- the world. O

54 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 SUDAN OPERATION LIFELINE

fly JOE NEFF The people of southern Sudan are facing another famine this year created by the civil war between the Khartoum government and the SPLA. The United Nations has launched a major relief effort, however, there are no assurances that the 100,000 tons of emergency food will reach their destination in the remote, war-torn region.

y the middle of May, seasonal James Grant, on April 26 in New the UN had "pre-positioned" 37,000 rains have turned the roads of York. "We are clearly going to fall tons of food in centrally located B southern Sudan into impene- short of that target, but we certainly warehouses. Relief workers in place trable muck, virtually cutting off can get more tonnage in." at 18 stations throughout the south large areas of this famine-stricken Last year, very little food reached guarantee the UN greater control region from relief efforts. southern Sudan. The UN estimated than last year, when relief agencies The United Nations "Operation that 250,000 people died from sat in the capital, Khartoum, and out- Lifeline Sudan" is struggling against hunger in a famine created by civil side the country, relying on a trickle the clock to ship food into the area war. Food has been a major weapon of reports of famine from the war- by train, plane, barge, and truck, but in the war between the southern- torn areas. a seemingly endless chain of obsta- based Sudan People's Liberation Even so, the UN's crash food cles twice pushed the UN to lower Army (SPLA) and the northern- delivery program has come under its original goal of moving 119,000 based government. Both sides have heavy criticism for reacting too late tons of food in the month of April. destroyed crops and cattle, and have and too bureaucratically. "Our hopes had been to get blocked the flow of food to civilians Norwegian People's Aid, the most 100,000 tons in before the rains," caught on both sides of the war. experienced relief agency operating said the head of Operation Lifeline, There will be suffering and star- in southern Sudan, claimed that the Joe Neff is a freelance writer in New York who vation again this year, but not on the UN rejected earlier appeals to help reports on the United Nations. scale of last year. By the end of April, because the political timing was not

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 55 right, even though other agencies Yet the problems of raising cess, by Lloyds of London standards, had been working in the area for money and mobilizing media atten- are not very good." several years. tion pale beside the tasks facing aid The swampy southern Sudan is UN officials respond that they workers in war-torn Sudan. one of the logistically most remote could not operate in the south before The corridors of tranquility do not places on earth, and rain is already reaching an agreement with Khar- constitute a ceasefire; fighting con- beginning to fall. Sudan's infrastruc- toum and the SPLA, which took tinues along and around those ture is crumbling, and is nearly non- months to obtain and was only final- routes. The SPLA has captured a existent in the south. Roads in the ized on March 2?>. string of outposts recently and is on area are primitive at best, especially In this truce, the Sudanese gov- the verge of taking some major gar- those leading from Uganda and ernment and the rebels have agreed rison towns. Ethiopia. The chronic shortage of jet to respect eight "corridors of tran- Both sides have sabotaged efforts fuel keeps planes grounded. There is quility" through which unarmed con- at getting relief to those starving in no telephone contact from the south voys will move food into famine- the countryside. The fragile coalition to the rest of the country. stricken areas. Half of the food is to government in Khartoum, led by Even if the entire 100,000 tons go to government-held towns, and Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, has reaches the south, questions remain half to SPlJVheld areas. The SPLA cloistered relief workers in the capi- if it will reach remote areas where now controls virtually all the coun- tal and evicted those who protested, many of the victims are. As much as tryside in the Texas-sized southern including UN officials. possible, relief workers want to provinces, while government troops Instability and factional fighting avoid creating massive refugee hold on to a dwindling string of gar- have paralyzed the government. In camps that become centers of dis- rison towns. February, the supplies-starved army ease and dependency. The exodus of "We are on a tightrope Ibetween threatened to topple the government villagers has begun much earlier this warring factions) and have to walk unless Khartoum started peace talk year than last, as refugees abandon very carefully," said Ulf Kristoffers- with the rebels. all and begin to trek toward central son, chief of emergency operations In the countryside, the govern- food stores, as much as roads and at Unicef. ment has armed Arab tribal militias rain permit. The truce itself was a major to fight the SPLA. Instead of fighting At least 3 million people are dis- breakthrough, UN officials point the rebels, however, the militias placed in Sudan, with 1.5 million out, in that the government has have become a rogue element, around Khartoum, and perhaps 2 agreed to let the UN operate deep increasing the chaos by attacking, million in the south. In addition, inside rebel areas. This never hap- robbing, and killing African villagers price-gouging and profiteering have pened in other war-induced famines with a vengeance. been common in prior famines, in Ethiopia, Angola, or Mozambique. For its part, the SPLA has blown diverting scarce food resources from Others have criticized the intense up convoys and threatened to shoot famine victims. Some Sudanese mer- public relations blitz accompanying down planes carrying relief aid to chants have made small fortunes by the $133 million operation. Aid agen- government-held towns. As a result, swiping food aid and selling it in the cies are annoyed that the UN has barge, train, and truck convoys open market. diminished the ability of other orga- stood idle on the ground in April Even if Operation Lifeline reaches nizations to raise donor funds. Oth- because workers were unwilling to its goals, safe passage of food aid ers have charged the UN with rais- traverse dangerous territory. Trans- this season will not address the polit- ing expectations beyond its ability to port workers have demanded life ical roots of the Sudanese famine. deliver. insurance, which the UN has provid- "Food is not going to save Sudan," Yet propaganda is an integral but ed, and barges and trains should said a UN official formerly stationed touchy part of famine relief strategy. begin moving once the SPLA broad- in Sudan. "It will alleviate the suffer- "You have to give the impression casts guarantees of safe passage to ing of thousands of people, but it is you're doing huge things so that the unarmed convoys on its radio. Khar- only a palliative. A political settle- combatants are afraid to break up toum has been insisting that armed ment is needed." the operations and look like the bad personnel accompany the food ship- Though a long-term political set- guys," explained one official. ments, pressure which the UN has tlement appears remote at this time, Second, a snowball effect is want- resisted so far. observers stress the urgency of ed. More support drums up more War aside, the logistics of Opera- pushing ahead with Operation Life- publicity and heightens public tion Lifeline are daunting. "Never line. Troubled by the specter of rain awareness, which in turn draws in before has a relief operation attempt- on the horizon, Special Representa- more money. With their dollars on ed so much over so difficult terrain tive Grant was clear about the imme- the line, major donors will ratchet up in so little time, and this apart from diate goals of the mission. "If we pressure on the two combatants to the civil war," said Grant, who also don't try, we face the equivalent of a respect the agreement. heads Unicef. "The chances of suc- Hiroshima on our hands." O

56 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 T R V W

Bachir Mustapha Sayed: POLISARIO'S POLICIES FOR PEACE

By MARGARET A. NOVICKI

Diplomatic efforts to end the war in the Western Sahara have accelerated this year thanks to the efforts of the UN and the OAU. However, the dialogue begun in January between Moroccan King Hassan and Polisario has run aground for the moment, according to the head of the movement's external relations committee, and renewed efforts are required to bring the peace process back on track.

Africa Report: You led Polisario's delegation in the first face- have been undertaking which resulted in the first direct negoti- to-face discussions with King Hassan of Morocco and are here ations between Morocco and Polisario. Second, the Polisario in New York !o meet with the UN secretary-general. What is Front regards the direct dialogue, to which Morocco was the state of the peace process in the Western Sahara? opposed for years, as in line with UN's efforts, and not a par- Sayed: I came to transmit a message containing some impor- allel effort. I came to tell the secretary-general that the UN- tant points to the UN secretary-general: first, the commitment OAU peace process should not have to suffer from the ups of the Polisario Front to the continuation of the peace process and downs in the dialogue between Polisario and Morocco. undertaken jointly by the secretary-general and the OAU Africa Report: You characterized the discussions with [Organization of African Unity] chairman, and thus to ask for Morocco as a dialogue rather than negotiations. the acceleration and intensification of the laudable efforts they Sayed: I said dialogue not because there is a precise distinc-

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 57 tron between dialogue and negotiations, but to suit the King favor of Sahrawi independence? who very much likes to use this term. In reality, there is no real Sayed: The King had various motivations. His first concern is difference between dialogue and negotiations—it is an to ensure the succession of the monarchy. He feels the need to exchange of ideas, an effort to find common ground and resolve this conflict before his son can succeed him, before the understanding, as well as ways and means to peacefully time of the succession question. Then there was political pres- resolve this conflict. sure from all of the international community, especially after Africa Report: What was the spirit of the meeting with King the return of Egypt to the Arab fold and the start of a U.S.- Hassan? Palestinian dialogue. Morocco's importance in the Middle East Sayed: At the beginning, it was cordial, and by the end, con- is thus lessened. Also in this climate of detente, Morocco is fident. The King showed himself as a man of dialogue, of polit- less important to the U.S. as far as the granting of military ical realism, and of peace. He said many important things: bases, etc. But in particular, Morocco's financial supporters first, that he had concluded from the many years of war are tired and are not giving as generously as before. There is against the Sahrawi people that this conflict cannot have a mil- also the cycle of popular discontent resulting from the continu- itary outcome. Second, even if one wanted to continue this ous deterioration of the social and economic situation. Finally, war, the Moroccan economy can no longer meet its increasing Morocco is trying to take advantage of a new situation in the cost. Third, even if Morocco had succeeded in annexing most region to regain its strength and a little of its lost ground. All of the territory, it didn't succeed in winning over a single these are real motivations. However, if Morocco is realistic, its Sahrawi heart and mind. primary motivation should be based on the fact that a military The King committed himself to continue this dialogue with solution is not possible, that Morocco cannot break down the us and said that we should work more than ever before to Sahrawi people's resistance. bridge the gulf between the Moroccan and Sahrawi people Will Morocco respect the outcome of the referendum? It caused by 14 years of a war of destruction. He asked us to cannot be otherwise. But will Morocco allow the holding of an help so that there will be no more more orphans on either honest, free, and fair referendum on self-determination? I

"WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR IS TO CREATE THE NEEDED CONDITIONS—FREEDOM AND IMPARTIALITY—To HOLD THE REFERENDUM, AND SEE TO IT ALSO THAT THIS REFERENDUM WILL TAKE PLACE IN A SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN MOROCCO AND THE POLISARIO FRONT."

side. Thus, it was a very cordial meeting, of good spirit, and doubt it very much. Is it in the monarchy's interest to withdraw provided grounds for optimism. Unfortunately, immediately from this conflict? After all, this conflict has been created artifi- after the meeting, he made some statements contrary to the cially, for domestic, internal reasons, to isolate the army and spirit of Marrakesh, and then he denied declarations made by divert Moroccan public opinion. Whether or not it is in the us concerning the scheduling of a second meeting. All this interest of the monarchy to withdraw from the Western Sahara recreated a certain mistrust, instead of preserving the positive at this particular juncture is a very difficult question to answer. climate born out of the first meeting. Africa Report: After the January discussions, the next stage Africa Report: Did he promise to hold a second meeting, was to have another meeting. Since no meeting has taken which did not materialize? place, is it a stalemate? Or is the UN involved in trying to Sayed: Yes, and this created a mistrust that didn't need to break the impasse? have been created, because the establishment of a basis of Sayed: There was recently a UN-OAU delegation visiting trust is a major accomplishment, and it is a grave responsibili- Morocco to discuss aspects of the administration of the Sahara ty to maintain it. and military issues, seeking to remove the obstacles that still Africa Report: You proclaimed a truce for the February. impede the holding of the referendum. That delegation will Sayed: Yes, to contribute to the success of the Maghrebi con- soon submit its work to the UN secretary-general, who has ference and also to help create and prolong a climate of confi- committed himself to work to reinvigorate the peace talks and dence and peace for continuation of the dialogue with Moroc- even go to the region, to meet us and the Moroccans. Further- co. Unfortunately, the month of February ended without any more, our direct dialogue with Morocco could resume at any new meeting and the results of the Maghrebi conference were time. interpreted unilaterally by Morocco, presenting the formation Africa Report: What obstacles remain in organizing the ref- of a Maghrebi union as a means of encircling the Polisario erendum? Front and limiting the actions of the Sahrawi peoples to secure Sayed: The obstacles that have been removed are the elec- their national rights. toral rolls—who will have the rigfr to vote. Sahrawis who are Africa Report: What do you think was King Hassan's moti- 18 at the time of the referendum, and who were included in vation in meeting with you? Should the UN organize the refer- the 1974 Spanish census are eligible. The second problem endum, do you expect him to respect the outcome if it is in which was resolved was the question to be asked during the

58 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 "The King should himself as a man of dialogue, of political real Captured Moroccan equipim.nl: "liven if one wanted to continue this ism, and of peace" war, the Moroccan economy can no longer meet its increasing cost"

"Even if Morocco had succeeded in annexing most of the territory, it didn't succeed in win- ning over a single Sahrawi heart and mind"

1 I r r •

Gerard Sebag/Syg^a referendum, ll will be: Do you want independence or integra- that necessitate a closer relationshp after independence? tion with Morocco? Sayed: Algeria's support was always unconditional. It is nat- Still to be dealt with are issues linked to the Moroccan pres- ural that we will continue our relations with Algeria. The Alge- ence in the territory. It is not known how many Moroccan mili- rians, yes, have helped a lot, but without asking anything in tary will stay in the Western Sahara until the outcome of the return, whereas Morocco from the beginning wanted to annex referendum. Second, the status of Moroccan administration in the Western Sahara for its resources and geo-strategic posi- the interim period thai will prepare for the referendum has not tion. been resolved. Then there is also the problem of the Moroccan Africa Report: What role has Algeria played in helping to population that was introduced into the Sahara during the bring about the referendum? Green March, which has been growing over time with the Sayed: From 1975 to now, Algeria has supported the SADR Moroccan occupation. Then there is the question of what laws and Polisario in practically all fields. At this stage, it is seeking will govern the territory during the transitional period. through cooperation with Morocco to help the Sahrawi people Africa Report: Given these unresolved issues, is it likely that resolve the conflict peacefully. the referendum can be organized this year? Africa Report: What role has the U.S. played? Sayed: I don't know. I am not sure if the referendum can Sayed: In 1974, the U.S. helped Spain so that the Western actually be held this year. There is a lot to do, we have to tem- Sahara was divided between Morocco and Mauritania. Then porize the euphoria, The King is trying to gain time, to lessen it observed strict neutrality in the conflict until the end of the international pressure, and he is vacillating. Hence, we must Carter administration, until 1980. From 1980 to 1985, the stay vigilant. U.S. increased all kinds of support to Morocco and against Africa Report: Would Polisario accept anything short of a the Sahrawi people. Since 1986, the U.S. has maintained its referendum on independence? level of the support, while calling for a peaceful solution to the Sayed: I con only say that the Sahrawi people want their conflict. Since 1 986, we believe that the U.S. has put pressure independence and sovereignty. The logic of history regarding on the King so that he will change little by little his policy on all decolonization questions is that the result will be sovereign- the Western Sahara. In times as difficult as when the American ty and independence. The question to be resolved, whether by plane was shot down in the Western Sahara, the U.S. has a referendum or negotiations, is how to ensure that Morocco comported itself in a very acceptable, even friendly manner withdraws from the territory, and we can help Morocco in the toward the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi people. process. Africa Report: Do you expect o more favorable policy from the Bush administration? But there is no third alternative between slavery and liberty. One is either free or a slave. The question that will be posed Sayed: It is what I hope. President Bush knows the region during the referendum has practically resolved this very well, and in 1987, he personally asked certain European problem—independence or integration? The King himself rec- heads of state to do something so that the King would acceler- ognized that it is not in his interest to integrate a population ate the process of a referendum. Of course, the U.S. has a that has gone through our experience, which is a symbol of globalist policy and thus the conflict in the Western Sahara is resistance, and which will cause a lot of problems for Moroc- part of an overall regional policy. But we have no prejudices co. I think that in the final analysis, there will be a referendum. against President Bush and his administration. What we are looking for is to create the needed Africa Report: Are you satisfied with the role now played conditions—freedom and impartiality—to hold the referendum, by the UN? Is it giving sufficient attention to this issue? and see to it also that this referendum will take place in a spirit Sayed: The UN secretary-general has not spared any efforts of friendship between Morocco and the Polisario Front. But in in order to see to it that there are possibilities for peace. He any case, there will be a referendum, because there is no merits being called a man of peace. One has to also say that other way. it is a great opportunity for him. that the willingness of the Africa Report: Won't an independent SADR be highly superpowers gave more vigor, efficacy, and weight to the dependent on the Moroccan economy, given the amount that office that the secretary-general is occupying and to the presti- Morocco has invested in developing the territory to try and gious organization of the United Nations. Thus, two elements win support? merged: the availability and the will of the secretary-general Sayed: Sure. Morocco is our big neighbor, because of its and an international climate favorable to the role of the UN. size and because of the borders which link us, and also His special representative, Gross Espiel, is a man of integri- because of the need we will have for its assistance and coop- ty and experience, and is very attached to the success of the eration. We have already told the King that we want to be important responsibility that the secretary-general has con- neutral with regard to the problems of the region. We want to ferred on him. So I am satisfied and optimistic regarding the be equidistant from Algeria and Morocco. We commit our- role of the United Nations, the secretary-general, and his spe- selves against forming treaties or alliances with countries or cial representative. groups of countries hostile to Morocco and that no aggres- Africa Report: Anything else you would like to convey to sions against Morocco will be permitted from our territory. our readers? With regard to the economy, we commit ourselves to put Sayed: I thank you for giving me this opportunity to address our resources at the benefit of the Sahrawi people, of course, your readers directly. Because they choose to read your maga- but also to open the most cooperative relations with Morocco zine, it shows they already have a position on the tragedy of on the economic front as possible. We want to profit from our peoples and have already chosen to sympathize with the Morocco's experiences in building its economy, and we can peoples of Africa who just now are starting to overcome the also help Morocco with its unemployment problem. effects of foreign occupation and who are suffering from Africa Report: Given the amount of support Algeria has underdevelopment, famine, and illiteracy. We need your sup- given you over the years in your war against Morocco, won't port, assistance, and understanding. O

60 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 WOMEN PROMOTING SAFE MOTHERHOOD

By DAPHNE TOPOUZIS African women suffer from unnecessarily high rates of mortality in childbirth, as well as from a host of pregnancy-related health impairments. At a recent conference in Niamey, international health experts, government officials, and donors examined ways to reduce the hazards associated with giving birth, calling for a new focus on safe motherhood in Africa.

J regnancy is a gamble and giv- The tragedy of maternal mortality of maternal mortality and morbidity ing birth is a life and death is further compounded by high fig- and assess their socio-economic P struggle," runs an ancient ures of morbidity: For every mater- ramifications; and to assist country Bambara proverb. Today, this bleak nal death in sub-Saharan Africa, teams in identifying concrete plans and poignant truism continues to another IS women become handi- of action that are practical, relatively epitomize the lives of many African capped or crippled by incontinence, moderate in cost, and readily appli- women across the continent. uterine prolapse, and infertility due cable. The joint participation of According to recent epidemiologi- to pregnancy or childbirth-related health ministers was intended to cal studies, every African woman of causes. It has been estimated that ensure that the adopted action plans childbearing age has a one in 20 between 2 and 3 million women are are integrated into national strate- chance of dying in childbirth, in left handicapped or crippled from gies. sharp contrast to a woman in an obstetric complications each year. The significance of the concept of industrialized country who has a one The dramatically high toll of safe motherhood was underscored in 2,000 chance. In global terms. maternal mortality and morbidity in by Edward Jaycox, vice president for Africa has the highest maternal mor- Africa and the urgency of mobilizing Africa of the World Bank, who indi- tality rate (annual number of deaths concerted action to curtail it were cated that maternal health is of women from pregnancy-related addressed at a recent conference on inextricably linked to the continent's causes per 100,000 live births), with safe motherhood, held in Niger's economic development: "Safe moth- over 150,000 deaths per year. capital, Niamey, from January 31 to erhood, child spacing, and the role Over half of these deaths are a February 3. Co-sponsored by the of women are not just optional extras, bui essential links in the development mix. Yet, this area remains an area of weakness for both donors and African govern- ments in their development strate- gies." At present, approximately half of all deliveries in Africa do not benefit from any medical assistance, while only 34 percent of women give birth with the supervision of a properly trained staff. Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are fre- quent, in view of the fact that 55 per- cent of women marry in adoles- cence, while a third bear children before they turn 18. In Niger, for instance, women marry on average at age 15, and there are 700 deaths for every 100,000 live births. Some women have their first child as early as 12 or 13 years of age, while others contin- ue to bear children well into their 40s, thereby further risking their g "Every African woman of childbearing age has a one in 20 chance of dying in child- chances of surviving the delivery. | birth" While there are no figures available 1 direct result of easily preventable World Health Organization (WHO), for the number of births by young | causes, including obstructed labor, Unicef, United Nations Fund for adolescents, in Senegal, 17 percent excessive bleeding, severe infection Population Activities (UNFPA), of births are attributed to women (sepsis), toxemia during pregnancy, UNDP, and the World Bank, the con- over 35 years of age. and unsafe abortion. Such complica- ference gathered over 200 physi- Benin and Nigeria have among tions are in turn linked to overwork, cians, midwives, health workers, the highest recorded maternal mor- chronic anemia, malnutrition, and ministers, and development profes- tality rates on the continent, with malaria, which can have a devastat- sionals from 22 francophone coun- 1,680 and 1,500 deaths per year per ing effect on pregnant women. tries. 100,000 live births respectively, The objective of the conference according to Unicef s State of the Daphne Topouzis is a contributing editor to Africa Report. was two-fold: to examine the causes World's Children.

62 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 The dominant theme of the Niamey conference was that women should avoid pregnancies "too early, too late, too many, too close togeth- er." In her opening address to the conference, Dr. Nafis Sadik, execu- tive director of UNFPA, argued: "The key role played by the proper timing and spacing of births for both maternal health and that of the infant has to be stressed. Ensuring that childbearing is not started too early in a woman's life and that each pregnancy is well-spaced, as well as ending childbearing at age 35, will contribute significantly to reduce maternal mortality and improve infant health." Physicians and health experts at the conference indicated that the ages between 18 and 22 were safest for women to begin bearing chil- dren; two to three years was ear- marked as the ideal spacing between births; four to five children was des- "Measures which can have an immediate impact on maternal mortality and morbidity ignated as the desirable number of include supervised delivery, pre- and post-natal care, and properly equipped and children per woman; and 35 to 40 trained staffs in primary health care" years of age was set as the limit for er medical attention is not adminis- has been recently created. During a childbearing. tered. visit to the hospital, a handful of The rate of maternal mortality is But the most tragic and debilitat- young mothers suffering from fistu- one of many indicators of unsafe ing form of maternal morbidity is the lae were anxiously waiting for a Chi- motherhood in Africa. Another development of fistulae. Fistulae are nese woman gynecologist to per- equally important factor is morbidi- openings that develop between the form reparative surgery that would ty. Not all women who survive the vagina and the rectum or the blad- enable them to return to their fami- delivery resume normal lives. For der as a result of prolonged obstruct- lies. the 2 to 3 million women across the ed labor or infection. The fistuleuses, This is reportedly a new develop- continent who become disabled or as women with the condition are fre- ment, for the majority of fistuleuses incapacitated each year, the condi- quently referred to, suffer from have had little or no support from tion is often permanent, seriously incontinence and bear a strong odor the community in the past. Accord- affecting the quality of their lives of stale excreta. It is not uncommon ing to the resident gynecologist, the and those of their families. for these women to become ostra- critical point is that it is not an irre- Infertility is one of several afflic- cized from their families and com- versible disability. Reconstructive tions caused by complications from munities for the rest of their lives. surgery has been very successful, childbirth. It affects 15 to 20 percent Adolescents are more prone to and most of the women that are of all women in Africa and is often developing this disability, as they operated on are able to resume nor- irreversible. Infertility can result become pregnant before their bod- mal lives. However, one midwife from pelvic inflammation following ies are adequately developed. indicated that more wards are need- childbirth and is brought about by The fact that the highly sensitive ed, as well as more qualified doctors the use of medical instruments that issue of the fistuleuses was raised to treat women suffering from this have not been sterilized or else by with compassion at the Niamey con- condition, not only in the capital unclean hands. ference by none other than the cities, but especially in the rural Women who survive the delivery health minister of Niger, Capt. Mai areas. can become chronically ill and even- Manga Oumara, was signalled as an While the tragedy of maternal tually die from indirectly related con- important first step toward tackling a mortality and morbidity in Africa has ditions such as diabetes, heart dis- grave problem which affects a sub- been occurring for centuries, it is ease, and infectious hepatitis. These stantial number of women in Africa. only recently that the extent of the illnesses can be adversely affected At a maternity hospital in Niamey, problem has been fully appreciated by pregnancy and childbirth if prop- a new special ward for the fistuleuses by African governments and the

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 63 international community. Until WHO referring to the fact that the conti- nal mortality by 50 percent by the conducted the first studies that led nent's population will double over year 2000—a goal frequently reiter- to the development of the safe moth- the next 22 years. ated at the Niamey conference—is erhood concept, maternal mortality Jaycox also urged for additional becoming a formidable challenge for and ill health had been neglected in research into Africa's high fertility African policy-makers and Western development programs and fared rate, as well as integration of popula- donors alike. low on the priority list of the interna- tion issues into policy dialogue with According to WHO figures, tional donor community, while African governments, and family African governments currently maternal death rates had been planning education. Critics of the spend on average 4 percent of their absent from the quality of life and World Bank, however, maintain that budgets (or between $8 and $10 per quality of health indices. a far more serious problem than head per year) on health, when, it is The Safe Motherhood Initiative overpopulation is the abject condi- argued, they should be devoting at was elaborated in detail at the Nairo- tion of African women, which is dete- least 9 percent. The World Bank bi international conference held in riorating further under the strain of maintains that the recommendations February 1987, which dealt with the on-going economic crisis, and adopted at the conference should maternal mortality and morbidity in particularly under the austerity of cost no more than about $2 per head English-speaking Africa. The World structural adjustment policies. per year to be implemented. Bank and UNDP, co-sponsors of the The improvement of the overall Jaycox argued, "Even in this era conference, pledged $1 million each status of women was deemed essen- of constrained resources, I believe toward the establishment of a Safe tial for the promotion of safe mother- we can find the money to do this. Motherhood Fund to support opera- hood by conference participants in Indeed, I would say that we cannot tional reasearch. In addition, Barber Niamey. The conference workshops afford not to do this." He further Conable announced that the World dealt extensively with women's maintained that despite financial Bank's lending for health, popula- restricted access to proper health constraints, a reallocation of existing tion, and nutrition projects would care, nutrition, education and finan- resources is necessary to finance, at double over the next decade. At pre- cial resources. It was noted that the least in part, the proposed plans of sent, the World Bank allocates average African woman works 2,490 action. between 1 to 2 percent of its total hours a year without pay, while the The question of how the Safe budget on health care projects, African man works 1,400 hours with Motherhood Initiative would be ade- which are administered by a health pay. This discrimination was pointed quately financed was repeatedly division created in 1980. out as one of many instances where brought up by the health minister of According to World Bank experts, women's contributions to socio-eco- Cote d'lvoire, Alphonse Djedje an integral component of the Safe nomic development have been con- Mady, who launched an attack on Motherhood Initiative is the link sistently undervalued. The need to the World Bank's structural adjust- between maternal mortality, popula- alleviate the workload of women in ment policies and underscored their tion growth, and underdevelopment. the home was earmarked as a priori- adverse effect on social services. "Africa has the choice of filling its ty and was incorporated in the con- Mady urged conference participants spaces quickly with many relatively ference call to action. to support him in his demand for ill-fed, unhealthy, uneducated, The Safe Motherhood Initiative is "grants not loans," and requested a under-employed people," Jaycox premised on measures which can debate on the impact of structural indicated, "or of spacing its children have an immediate impact on mater- adjustment on the health sector. so that both they and the society as a nal mortality and morbidity, such as Even though his attempts failed, whole have a better chance of a supervised delivery, pre- and post- the conference call to action incorpo- much better life." natal care, family planning, and prop- rated a clause on the need to revise He thus pointed to the urgency of erly equipped and trained staffs in a the criteria applied by the donor reducing the total fertility rate in system of primary health care. Jay- community in the allocation of finan- Africa by 50 percent by the year cox argued that health care, better cial assistance to francophone Africa, 2015 as a means of reducing mater- referral facilities, and an "alarm" and in view of the current economic cri- nal and infant mortality, as well as transport system to transport sis. checking the pace of population women with high-risk pregnancies While the conference made an growth. "Population growth is run- can and should be adopted without important contribution to the prob- ning ahead of economic growth," he further delay. lem of maternal mortality and mor- said, and "Africa's population growth However, as health budgets of bidity and adopted efficient, low-cost rate is the highest seen anywhere, most African countries continue to strategies to reduce it, without sus- anytime in human history. No region shrink, cost-sharing of medical fees tained financial support, the pro- of the world has ever managed to is being introduced, and infant mor- posed measures are unlikely to achieve economic development with tality rates are on the rise, the UN reverse the tragedy of maternal this rate of population growth," target of reducing child and mater- death in the continent. O

64 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 WOMEN PROTECT THE WIDOW

By RUTH ANSAH AYISI

Nora Mutnba and her sons: "Her in laws took most of the posses- sions she and Stanley had bought together" In southern Africa, women are often caught in a conflict between tradition and modernity, with widows in particular the victims of customary practices which deprive them of their assets. Legal efforts to protect women's rights must be supported, along with attempts to change cultural attitudes.

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 65 ora Mumba had not been pre- urban lifestyles. Perhaps it is most as part of custom, but as "pure pared for what she describes evident in Zambia, where almost half greed." She told her in-laws: "Any- Nas "the most traumatic time of of the country's 8 million people live thing you take out of this house, my life." She had enjoyed a relatively in urban areas. But even in Zimbab- you're stealing." high standard of living with her we, southern Africa's youngest Despite her double loss, Mumba, three children and Stanley, her hus- nation, extended families are broken a university librarian, realized that band of nine years, until one night up and norms and customs are erod- her experience was by no means the three years ago. ed as more people flock to towns in worst. It was this realization that Mumba had been particularly search of jobs. made her mount her own campaign exhausted that night as she lay her Traditionally, if a member of the both to make Parliament pass legis- head on Stanley's chest, who she family was wronged, other members lation to protect widows and also to thought had finally fallen asleep. But would advise what was the best raise people's awareness about the a few minutes later, a nurse woke recourse. Today, more women are problem. her up to tell her that Stanley had isolated. "Perhaps one day Zambia will died. "Everything was blurred. I had To take legal action is a complicat- enter the 20th century," concluded no real sensation," said Mumba. "I ed procedure because in southern Mumba in a letter to the Times of never expected him to die, I had Africa there are two legal systems, Zambia on June 21,1986. always kept hoping." customary and general law, a legacy The letter made Nora Mumba a She had nursed Stanley for over a of the colonial era. Most women's public figure. The Zambia Associa- year and had seen him change from lives in the region have been gov- tion for Research and Development a healthy 196-pound man who loved erned by customary law. Under cus- (ZARD), an organization established boxing and squash to a mere 112 tomary law, if a man dies without in 1986 to look into the position of pounds, a man who barely had making a will, his wife cannot be the women, traced the letter to Mumba. enough energy to climb a flight of legal heir to his property. ZARD had also been campaigning stairs. Stanley, a law lecturer at Zam- Among most ethnic groups in against "property grabbing," as it is bia's national university who had Zambia and Zimbabwe, the commonly called. But it wanted a gained his Ph.D. in England, had deceased's eldest male relative widow who had experienced it to suffered from a series of infections. inherits the home and property and speak out publicly. Over 200 people A combination of tuberculosis, can marry the widow and take her attended a meeting organized by leukemia, and a serious ear infection children into his house so they are ZARD in March 1987 on the inheri- eventually killed him, leaving not destitute. But today, as an tance problem. Mumba came out Mumba a widow at the age of 30 increasing number of women live in openly to tell Zambians about her with three children under the age of urban areas, have a more indepen- experience. "They gave me five min- 10 to support. dent life from their extended family, utes to talk," she said, "but I talked Yet, another shock was in store and have bought their own posses- for 20." for Nora Mumba. Just a few days sions, the custom has little rele- Mumba was given another oppor- later, her in-laws took most of the vance. tunity to talk again last December, possessions that she and Stanley The director of the Catholic when she addressed a public meet- had bought together. They took the church's Justice and Peace Commis- ing organized for the Ecumenical car, the refrigerator that Mumba had sion in Zimbabwe, Nicholas Nde- Decade of Churches. President Ken- shipped from England, a camera bele, says part of the problem is that neth Kaunda, who was also on the with film containing the last picture the traditional concept of family and panel of speakers, was so moved that of Stanley alive playing with his chil- its legal definition differ dramatical- he promised Mumba personally that dren, a hi-fi system and their ly. "There is a conflict between tradi- a bill would be introduced in Parlia- records, Stanley's clothes, including tional values and new laws. In West- ment this year to protect widows. his graduation gown which Mumba ern culture, a man and his wife are The bill was introduced at the end of had hoped their children would one an entity, but in African tradition, my March this year. A crowd of over 50 day wear, and even their suitcases. family marries my wife's family. women of all ages, wearing "Protect "When we had to leave the house, We're an extended family. If a the Widow" tee-shirts, bustled their we had to pack in sacks," she said. woman's husband dies, a wife should way into Parliament to hear the They had almost stripped the house be accommodated in the family. But debate. clean." if she refuses, she is voluntarily Under the new law, the Mumba's experience is a stark refusing to be part of that family." deceased's property will be divided example of problems women face in But for many women like Nora up, giving 20 percent to the widow or southern Africa—caught in a trap Mumba, moving into the country- widower, 50 percent to the children, between traditional practices and side to be supported by her hus- 20 percent to the deceased's parents, band's family is out of the question. and 10 percent to other dependants. Ruth Ansah Ayisi is a freelance journalist based in southern Africa. She does not see her in-laws' actions But like other women campaign-

66 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 ers, Mumba is aware that this law be tiresome. "The bureaucracy can rights, Zimbabwean Ester Murwira, alone will not solve the problem. She take up to five years, at the time you unlike Nora Mumba. accepted her would have liked the children to need it most, it's not there," said new circumstances without protest- receive more than 50 percent. She Viola Sambe of the Citizen's Advice ing. Three years ago, her husband, also realized that many women will Bureau in Harare. "Women go to the George, fell off his bicycle on the not take advantage of the new legis- magistrate court only to find their way to work and was crushed under lation. "It gives us something to file has been lost. Then by the time the wheels of a bus. Three days work on," she said. that they have found it, the father of later, while Murwira was still trying Now she plans to continue talking the child has left his job and the to come to terms with losing her in public meetings whenever she woman can't trace him." husband of 22 years, her stepson, has the opportunity, to lobby MPs Possibly one of the most far- Sebastian, piled all her possessions about possible amendments to the reaching and controversial acts onto the verandah of her small new law when it comes into effect, passed to uplift women's status in house. "Now after the burial of our and she would also like to set up a Zimbabwe is the 1982 Legal Age of father you must no longer slay widows' association, so that widows Majority Act, which recognizes here," she said Sebastian, 45, told have the chance to share their prob- her. "We [the sons] are the right lems and give each other advice. people lo live here." Mumba is also seeking a publish- Murwira was shocked. "I had got er for a book she has written on her T hree days this house with George when we experiences. "Initially, I decided to were married, but I could do noth- write the book because I felt as if the later, while Murwira ing. Sebastian was so violent when world had turned against me. I need- was still trying to he said this, I couldn't resist. I had to ed an outlet," she said. "But now 1 keep myself quiet, otherwise I knew feel that it might be comforting lor come to terms with he would assault me," said the 46- other widows to know what I have losing her husband year-old market vendor. been through." Changing the law is of 22 years, her Sebastian had not been living in the first step, said Mumba, but the house, but now that his father changing attitudes and increasing stepson piled all her had died, he believed he had the support for widows is just as impor- possessions onto right to move back in. He also went tant. to his father's work place and Unlike in Zambia, Zimbabwean the verandah of her demanded that he receive George's President Robert Mugabe's govern- small home. pension fund. But the employers ment passed a series of laws after refused to give it to Sebastian and independence in 1980 to uplift instead kept it for Murwira. women's status. Although "we've women as majors along with men at Three years later, Sebastian lives come a long way since indepen- the age of 18. Before, women lived with his wife and three children in dence," said Amy Tsanga, a lawyer, as dependants of their fathers or Murwira's home. She now sleeps in "laws have run ahead of the way peo- husbands. Now a woman can open a the kitchen and for that she pays ple see things. People are particular- bank account, lake her own court Sebastian $10 a month. ly slow to change their attitudes action, and if she is the eldest family "Before my husband died, his about family-related matters." member, be a legal heir to her children were very friendly, but now Among the most contentious fam- father's property. they have changed," she said. "They ily-related laws passed by the gov- But while legislation has helped even cook and eat separately. Sebas- ernment is the 1987 Maintenance some women, many are not aware of tian is frightened I will poison them." Amendment Act. Women's rights to their rights or do not have the eco- Sebastian is still very angry about maintenance have become a major nomic power to carry them out. not receiving his father's pension campaigning issue in southern Before independence in Zimbabwe, money of about $82 per month. Africa. Men have written angry let- black women under Ian Smith's Sometimes he comes home drunk ters to Zimbabwe's daily newspapers white minority government had lim- and shouts, "What are you doing, accusing women of making a busi- ited access to education. Most you parasite?" ness out of maintenance claims. stayed in the rural areas, working in Murwira wants to seek legal They say that women are able to buy the "Tribal Trust Lands." Now pri- advice but she does not know how expensive clothes and cars out of mary education is free for all, an to, and her friends warn her against maintenance claims. important gain, but a large number it. "They say that as a Christian I But most women only receive of women still are unemployed or shouldn't quarrel with Sebastian," about $20 per month for each child, only earn the minimum wage (about she said. "But I feel very oppressed. barely enough to cover food. And $60) a month or less. I would like my home back. I now the process of making the claim can Being poor and unaware of her live like a captive." O

AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 67 CULTURE AFRICAN CINEMA: A MARKET IN THE U.S.?

By MARCO WERMAN

Africa's considerable cinematic talent was showcased at this year's Fespaco film festival. But whereas African films are finding a growing audience in Europe, they are virtually unknown in the United States. Reviewing Fespaco's prize- winning films, our correspondent investigates what can be done to open the American market to African film-makers.

he themes present- apartments by film-makers who, ed in African cine- for various reasons, have never T ma are timely and bitten at the Hollywood bait. provide a unique outlet to Says London-based, self- learn about a continent exiled South African film-maker that is often referred to as Lionel N'Gakane, "We are not forgotten. So why is interested in making exploitative American participation in Hollywood-type movies." the evolution of African African cinema is traditionally cinema so low-key? The a militant one and most African 1989 edition of the Pan- film-makers wrestle constantly African Film Festival in with this reputation. "It doesn't Ouagadougou (Fespaco) have to be militant and it boasted a surfeit of tal- shouldn't be," claims N'Gakane. ent, demanding that this And if African cinema intends to question be dealt with. carve out a market in the U.S., it European foundations almost may be obliged to mel- and cultural cooperation low out that reputation, since programs are financing overtly militant cinema has never African film-makers. proven to be a big box-office Things African are draw. making waves in Europe Indeed, the African films that these days. The plastic have begun to affect Western arts, literature, music, box office receipts—"Yeelen" by and history are turning Souleymane Cisse and "La vie heads primarily because esf oelle" by Zairian Mweeze Europe is the doorstep for N'Gangura—are those that are many African immigrants. breaking away from that stereo- African cinema does type, not escape the European This year's Grand Prize win- craving for a healthy, ner at Fespaco, "Heri-tag- chic dose of Third World culture, falling "The Pan-African Film Festival in Oua- e...Africa" by Ghanaian Kwaw Ansah, gadougou boasted a surfeit of talent" not surprisingly into the category of could be described as mildly militant. It what is considered "branche," the doxal, because, according to Burkinabe follows a pith-helmeted Ghanaian who French term for "cool." film-maker Idrissa Ouedraogo, the has risen to a high post in the British The African wave is comparatively maker of "Yam Daabo" ("The Choice") colonial administration. mute in the United States. It's making and "Yaaba" ("Grandmother"), of all the Born Kwesi Atta Bosomefi and re- squeaks in New York, Washington, different film styles in the world, African named Quhcy Arthur Bosomfield, the Atlanta, and Los Angeles, but even less cinema probably has most in common protagonist has styled himself more noise elsewhere. This is especially para- with American independent film—the 16 English than even the English them- Marco Werman is a Ouagadougou-based free- mm productions made on shoe-string selves. He recites Shakespeare, is a lance journalist. budgets, edited in small New York devout Christian, and goes so far as to

68 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1989 give away his family fetish to the British governor as a symbol of his pride for having been given the opportunity to be on obedient servant to the Common- wealth. By the end of the movie, Bosomfield realizes that he has cut himself off com- pletely from his own cultural identity. The character of young Kwame Nkrumah Monument to film- hovers over the action of the film, a sort makers, Oua- of Banquo's ghost guiding the inevitable gadougou: "African events. cinema is tradition- ally a militant one When "Heritage...Africa" premiered and most African last year in London, Ansah said that he film-makers wrestle constantly with this planned to bring the 1 20-minute reel reputation" time down by a quarter. At Fespaco, it remained uncut. Otherwise, technically speaking, "Heritage," like most of the films presented at this year's Fespaco, are competitive on an international scale. Must African cinema therefore com- pete internationally? Many African film- makers define African cinema simply as good films made by Africans about Africa for Africans. The question should then be asked whether foreigners even have a role in African film production. Europeans have almost automatically, especially francophone Europeans. Like many developmental endeavors, assist- ing film productions both technically and financially is part of the job of "taking care" of the former colonies. If African film-makers are going to make good movies, help must come from some- where. Since the beginning of time, all artists, regardless of race or nationality, have found themselves in this position. The goal of ihe Pan-African Film-mak- ers' Federation (Fepaci), according to its secretary-general, Burkinabe film-maker Gaston Kabore, is to "develop African cinema as an art, industry, and mass media that can aid the African people in their full social, cultural, and political lib- eration." However, the majority of Africans live in rural areas. And with a handful of exceptions, the few movie theaters in Africa are located in cities. These theaters present what Burkin- abe film critic Patrick llboudo calls "cul- tural toxic waste:" karate flicks, Indian musical love stories, grade-C Hollywood war pictures, cop stories, 90-minute chase scenes, and chainsaw massacres. They create fast profits for the theater owners who invariably are not African. A priori, African film-makers must find way of expanding their foreign mar- kets. The other possibility—building movie theaters in the countryside, creat- ing mobile theater units, revamping the just as distinct as other foreign films. casting's affiliates such as Channel 1 3 in distribution system, dubbing films into Japanese, French, and Italian films are New York, whose associate director for umpteen different local languages, gen- all first "profiled" by interested movie- program acquisition, Andrea Traubner, erating the income so that villagers can goers before they can attract larger also happens to be vice-president of the afford an evening at the movies, audiences. non-profit, New York-based Third World etc.—can be considered too logistically So far, no film has been technically Television Exchange. complicated to be harnessed for the time up to snuff to even permit the "African "If a film gets sold to Channel 13," being. cinemas" (Burkinabe film-maker Idrissa remarked M.ueller, "the Rockefeller Foun- But finding foreign markets other than Ouedraogo always puts the term in the dation, for instance, would be con- Europe may be equally difficult. "We plural since there are so many different vinced of its value." don't know what the United States has styles and forms} to be profiled. Mueller Film festivals specializing in alterna- to offer," explains the soft-spoken assis- cited "Yeelen" and explained that it tive cinema are other springboards for tant secretary-general of Fepaci, Ras- might be the beginning of an African African filmmakers to have their works mane Ouedraogo. "It's a problem of film profile in the U.S. exposed in the U.S. The Black Light Festi- communication, we don't know what is "Yeelen" is one of 2 1 African feature val in Detroit, the Washington Interna- there." films currently in distribution in the U.S. tional Film Festival, the New York Third If the Fepaci representatives know lit- through companies such as Cinecom World Screening Days, and the Third tle about the American film market and (one title), New Yorker Films (10 titles}, World Film Festival in Atlanta are all distribution network, this journalist knew and the Washington, D.C.-based reputed proving grounds for hot talent. even less. Myphedu Films, Inc. (10 titles). However, American participants al the A discussion with Claus Mueller, Aside from these distributors, there 1989 Fespcco often remarked that lack director of the graduate social research are also the competing "fluid distribu- of informa"ion about these festivals program at Hunter College in New York tors," dealing mostly with fee-based shrouds their importance for African film- and a specialist in the area of the screenings, specialty festivals, one-time makers who are invited to them. African film market in the U.S., served bookings, and community screenings. For those on both sides of the as an eye-opener. Mueller attended the These reach a smaller audience than Atlantic, the bottom line is quite simple if 1989 Fespaco to present a paper he commercial screenings, but as Mueller African cinema is going to make some wrote entitled, "The Distribution of explained, "the 'fluids' represent a cru- headway in the U.S. African film-makers African Feature Films in the United cial link to the U.S. media market by fur- must establish contacts with the film festi- States: Problems and Prospects." ther profiling the African feature film in vals and the movers in such places "Before entering the U.S. media mar- the mind of the American audience." where one can be seen. And at the ket," explained Mueller, "one must Between the various distributors, the same time, they must be extremely judi- understand that it is extremely complex." share of feature films from developing cious about to whom they sell rights and African films have a potential market in countries presently occupies 10.4 per- copies of their works. three areas in the U.S.: the black and cent of the imported titles in 1 987. Theo- The credibility of fluid distributors can Puerto Rican studies programs at 5,000 retically, this figure should be growing, be checked out through a simple review colleges and universities; upscale cable especially for films coming from Africa. of credentials: What other titles have networks—Discovery Channel, Arts & One stumbling block appears to be a they handled? Do they have the neces- Entertainment, and Bravo currently occu- dominant laissez-faire attitude among sary communication infrastructure for py 60-70 percent of their programming African cinematographers regarding the handling such a business, i.e. telex and with material from abroad, most of it funding arrangements that have been telefax? What press coverage has the British—and standard theatrical distribu- created between them and their French, "fluid" received in Variety and Box tion, which includes 17,000 theaters, German, Swiss, and Dutch television co- Office for the titles it has handled? 300 of them being specialty theaters producers. When Europe finances an And though it ultimately comes back located mostly in New York City. African film, it also handles distribution. to the distribution question, American "There has been a tremendous Why go to the States when the package money should open its eyes to what decline in commercially viable feature is complete on the European continent? movies are presently being produced in films over the past year," pointed out One answer is that "Yeelen" opened Africa. As one American visitor to Fes- Mueller. Of 157 independent films on the U.S. west coast in February and paco remarked, one could blame the selected at the last Independent Film netted $14,000 in four days and lack of American interest in African cine- Market in New York, only one was $18,000 in one week in another the- ma on the heavy-handed super-structure picked up for commercial use. "The con- ater. "La vie est belle" pulled in of monopoly capitalism. But that would sensus is that there just isn't enough $12,000 in two weeks in one theater. mean that American money has given good stuff around," said Mueller, "and The money does not sound as impressive African cinema a chance already and there seems to be a void of original con- as Variety magazine's weekly track decided it wasn't worth it. But African ceptions." record for a new Eddie Murphy release, cinemas haven't even made a ripple in This observation, of course, opens but for a softly publicized African picture the ocean of the U.S. media. the door for African films which offer in the States, it is commendable. New films like Idrissa Ouedraogo's nothing but new ideas for the thirsty Commercial distribution is not the "Yaaba" (Burkina Faso) and "Bal Pous- American movie-goers. only way for African film-makers to gain siere" (Cote d'lvoire) by Henri Duparc One thing African film-makers must coverage. The ultimate foot-in-the-Ameri- may contain some pleasant surprises for realize about the curiously fickle Ameri- can-door for an African film-maker American financiers on the hunt for pro- can film market is that their works are would be a sale to one of public broad- fessional and fresh material. O

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