51 - The African Exception

When I am asked if I have seen evidence that conditions have improved in developing countries during the time I have worked in this field with the YMCA, I do have to qualify my answer by saying that it depends upon what you are looking at and how one defines “improvement.” But by and large, if one looks at the community level, then I would say that there has been an overall improvement in the quality of life for people in most developing countries. The exception, however, remains the nations of Sub-Sahara Africa, and this is an extremely important and significant exception. Because what has occurred in Africa demonstrates just how fragile any of these improvements can be.

Africans face many difficulties. There have been a number of self-serving governments and leaders in many African nations who have plundered the resources—and the aid received from more developed nations—for their own benefit, all too often with the support of Western governments. The list is a long and depressing one, including Idi Amin in Uganda, Mobuto Sese Seko in Zaire, Samuel Doe in Liberia, Sani Abacha in Nigeria, and Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, among others.

Parts of the continent are vulnerable to periodic drought which compromises its capacity for food self-sufficiency; inter-tribal violence still rages in many regions. Political and social instability are rife. Refugees from one part of the continent seek asylum in other parts, adding to social tensions. Religious fundamentalism is creating further divisions within nations like Nigeria.

But the most overwhelming problem Africans face is the uncontrolled spread of AIDS. This disease is crippling the continent. Two-thirds of all the individuals on the planet infected with HIV and AIDS are in Africa. The disease kills about 6000 Africans every day, more than wars, famine, and other natural disasters put together.

Elsewhere in the developing world, improved nutrition, improved health care for children, improved literacy have combined to contribute to an overall improvement in life-expectancy. In Africa, on the other hand, life expectancy is falling–and falling dramatically–from an average life expectancy of 60 years only a short time ago to an average of 43 now, a drop of nearly a third. In the five year period between 2000 and 2005, life expectancy in Lesotho fell by 24 years, in Swaziland and Botswana it fell by 28, and in Zimbabwe it fell by 35.

The continent has not benefited from the enormous amount of aid it has received for many reasons—political corruption is high on the list, inappropriate transfers of technology is another. All too often, the projects sponsored by “donor nations” appear to have been designed to benefit the donor more than the recipient. And, as has become evident throughout the planet, the movement from rural farming communities to the cities has resulted in a proliferation of urban slums, with the concomitant social problems common to such areas. A continent in which a 100 years ago almost all persons were engaged in food productivity in one way or another—farming, fisheries, cattle herding—has followed the path of other nations and become increasingly urban.