TAKING SIDES: Clashing Views on African Issues, Second Edition
PART 1. Introduction and History
ISSUE 1. Are the Experts on Africa Part of the Problem?
YES: Gavin Kitching, from “Why I Gave Up African Studies,” African Studies Review and Newsletter (June 2000)
New! NO: Marc Epprecht, from “Why I Love African Studies,” African Studies Quarterly (2003)
Gavin Kitching, professor of political science at the University of New South Wales, left the field of African studies because he “found it depressing.” According to Kitching, Africanist scholars have failed to see Africa’s own ruling elites as the principal culprits for the continent’s dire predicament. He suggests that we “have to ask what it is about the history and culture of sub-Saharan Africa that has led to… its disastrous present.” Marc Epprecht, professor of history at Queens University, is more upbeat, noting a number of African countries that have made great strides. He accepts that African elites are responsible for the welfare of their populations, but also recognizes that they "are enormously, often fatally constrained by pressure from the outside." He argues that Africanist scholars have an important role to play by holding decision makers in the West accountable for policies that further marginalize Africa.
New! ISSUE 2. Did the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Underdevelop Africa?
New! YES: Paul E. Lovejoy, from “The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature,” Journal of African History (1989)
New! NO: John Thornton, from Africa and the Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680 (Cambridge University Press, 1992) v
Paul Lovejoy, professor of history at York University, argues that the trans-Atlantic slave trade significantly transformed African society. It led to an absolute loss of population on the continent and a large increase in the enslaved population that was retained in Africa. The economic advantages of exporting slaves did not offset the social and political costs of participation, there were disastrous demographic impacts, and Africa’s relative position in world trade declined. Lovejoy, therefore, supports the "transformation thesis," which holds that the external slave trade dramatically reshaped slavery and society in Africa. John Thornton, professor of history at Boston University, holds a very different view. He notes that slavery was widespread and indigenous in African society. Europeans simply worked with this existing market and African merchants, who were not dominated by Europeans, responded by providing more slaves. African leaders who allowed the slave trade to continue were neither forced to do so against their will, nor did they make irrational decisions. As such, the preexisting institution of slavery in Africa is as much responsible as any external force for the development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
New! ISSUE 3. Have the Contributions of Africans Been Recognized for Developing New World Agriculture?
New! YES: Duncan Clinch Heyward, from Seed from Madagascar (The University of North Carolina Press, 1937)
New! NO: Judith Carney, from “Agroenvironments and Slave Strategies in the Diffusion of Rice Culture to the Americas,” in Karl S. Zimmerer and Thomas J. Bassett, eds., Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies (The Guilford Press, 2003)
Duncan Heyward, a former Carolina rice planter writing in the middle of the last century, represents the mainstream view that Europeans were primarily responsible for developing South Carolina’s remarkable rice plantations in the eighteenth century. In his own accounting of the rise of rice cultivation in the Carolinas, Heyward suggests that the techniques and approaches must have been derived from those observed in China. Judith Carney, a professor of geography at UCLA, explains that slaves from rice-producing areas in West Africa have only recently been recognized for their intellectual contributions to the development of rice cultivation in the New World. Carney describes how her work, and that of others, challenged the view that slaves were mere field hands, "showing that they contributed agronomic expertise as well as skilled labor to the emergent plantation economy."
ISSUE 4. Did Colonialism Distort Contemporary African Development?
YES: Marcus Colchester, from “Slave and Enclave: Towards a Political Ecology of Equatorial Africa,” The Ecologist (September/October 1993)
NO: Robin M. Grier, from “Colonial Legacies and Economic Growth,” Public Choice (March 1999)
Marcus Colchester, director of the Forest Peoples Programme of the World Rainforest Movement, argues that rural communities in equatorial Africa are today on the point of collapse because they have been weakened by centuries of outside intervention. In Gabon, the Congo, and the Central African Republic, an enduring colonial legacy of the French are lands and forests controlled by state institutions that operate as patron-client networks to enrich indigenous elite and outside commercial interests. Robin M. Grier, assistant professor of economics at the University of Oklahoma, contends that African colonies that were held for longer periods of time tend to have performed better, on average, after independence. PART 2. Development
ISSUE 5. Have Structural Adjustment Policies Worked for Africa?
YES: Gerald Scott, from “Who Has Failed Africa? IMF Measures or the African Leadership?” Journal of Asian and African Studies (August 1998)
New! NO: Thandika Mkandawire, from “The Global Economic Context,” in Ben Wisner, Camilla Toulmin, and Rutendo Chitiga, eds., Towards a New Map of Africa (Earthscan, 2005)
Gerald Scott, an economist at Florida State University, argues that structural adjustment programs are the most promising option for promoting economic growth in Africa. He disputes the evidence used to suggest that these programs have a deleterious effect on economic growth in Africa. Thandika Mkandawire, director of the UN Research Institute for Social Development, counters that, while African governments have reshaped domestic policies to make their economies more open, growth has faltered. Mkandawire assesses structural adjustment from a developmental perspective, judging its effects on economic development and the eradication of poverty. He suggests that structural adjustment policies designed to integrate Africa into the global economy have failed because "they have completely sidestepped the developmental needs of the continent and the strategic questions on the form of integration appropriate to addressing these needs."
ISSUE 6. Are Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Effective at Facilitating Community Development?
New! YES: Bernard J. Lecomte and Anirudh Krishna, from “Six-S: Building Upon Traditional Social Organizations in Francophone West Africa,” in Anirudh Krishna, Norman Uphoff, and Milton J. Esman, eds., Reasons for Hope: Instructive Experiences in Rural Development (Kumarian Press, 1997)
NO: Giles Mohan, from “The Disappointments of Civil Society: The Politics of NGO Intervention in Northern Ghana,” Political Geography (2002)
Bernard Lecomte, co-founder of Six-S, and Anirudh Krishna, assistant professor of public policy studies and political science at Duke University, describe one of the most acclaimed NGO initiatives in Africa, the Six-S network in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. The network supports village groups’ efforts to combat drought and poverty. The goal of Six-S has been for "village groups to gain expertise and confidence and to establish themselves as viable, independent agencies for local development, with little residual support from Six-S." Giles Mohan, a lecturer in development studies at the Open University, presents a case study of NGO intervention in northern Ghana. His examination reveals that tensions exist between the northern NGO and its partners, that local NGOs create their own mini-empires of client villages, and that some NGO officers use their organizations for personal promotion.
ISSUE 7. Should Developed Countries Provide Debt Relief to the Poorest, Indebted African Nations?
YES: Dorothy Logie and Michael Rowson, from “Poverty and Health: Debt Relief Could Help Achieve Human Rights Objectives,” Health and Human Rights (1998)
NO: Robert Snyder, from “Proclaiming Jubilee—for Whom?” Christian Century (June 30–July 7, 1999)
Dorothy Logie, a general practitioner and active member of Medact, and Michael Rowson, assistant director of Medact, argue that debt is a human-rights issue because debt and related structural adjustment policies reduce the state’s ability to address discrimination, vulnerability, and inequality. Debt relief, if channeled in the right direction, could help reduce poverty and promote health. Robert Snyder, an associate professor of biology at Greenville College, counters that debt cancellation will only work if the factors that created debt in the first place are addressed. He uses a case study of Rwanda to demonstrate why political and social change must occur for debt forgiveness to work.
ISSUE 8. Are Abundant Mineral and Energy Resources a Catalyst for African Development?
YES: Oliver Maponga and Philip Maxwell, from “The Fall and Rise of African Mining,” Minerals and Energy (2001)
NO: Sunday Dare, from “A Continent in Crisis: Africa and Globalization,” Dollars and Sense (July/August 2001)
Oliver Maponga, chair of the Institute of Mining Research at the University of Zimbabwe, and Philip Maxwell, professor at the Western Australian School of Mines at Curtin University of Technology, describe a resurgence in the African mining industry in the 1990s after several lackluster decades. They assert that mineral and energy mining can make a positive contribution to economic development in Africa. Sunday Dare, a Nigerian journalist, describes how “much sorrow has flowed” from Africa’s resource blessing. While Dare blames African leaders for corruption and resource mismanagement, he also implicates transnational corporations (TNCs) as key contributors to this problem. He states that TNCs have acted as economic predators that support repressive African leaders in order to garner uninterrupted access to resources. The result, Dare suggests, is that Africa’s “raw materials are still being depleted without general development.” PART 3. Agriculture, Food, and the Environment
ISSUE 9. Will Biotech Solve Africa’s Food Problems?
New! YES: Jesse Machuka, from “Agricultural Biotechnology for Africa. African Scientists and Farmers Must Feed Their Own People,” Plant Physiology (May 2001)
NO: Brian Halweil, from “Biotech, African Corn, and the Vampire Weed,” World Watch (vol. 14, no. 5, 2002)
Jesse Machuka, a Kenyan scientist in the department of biochemistry and biotechnology at Kenyatta University, argues that agricultural biotechnology will substantially increase food production by rural resource-poor farmers. Machuka suggests that agricultural biotechnology will help address several constraints to crop production, including pests, diseases, weeds, environmental degradation, and soil nutrient depletion. He is particularly concerned that biotechnology research be undertaken by Africans for Africans. In a case study examining attempts to control the parasitic Striga weed, Brian Halweil, a research associate at the Worldwatch Institute, questions whether producing maize that is bio-engineered for herbicide resistance is really the best approach in the African context. He suggests that improved soil fertility management practices and mixed cropping are more appropriate and accessible strategies.
New! ISSUE 10. Is Food Production in Africa Capable of Keeping Up With Population Growth?
YES: Michael Mortimore and Mary Tiffen, from “Population and Environment in Time Perspective: The Machakos Story,” in Tony Binns, ed., People and Environment in Africa (John Wiley & Sons, 1995)
New! NO: John Murton, from “Population Growth and Poverty in Machakos District, Kenya,” The Geographical Journal (March 1999)
Michael Mortimore, a geographer, and Mary Tiffen, a historian and socioeconomist, both with Drylands Research, investigate population and food production trajectories in Machakos, Kenya. They determine that increasing population density has a positive influence on environmental management and crop production. Furthermore, they found that food production kept up with population growth from 1930 to 1987. John Murton, with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government, uses household-level data to show that the changes in Machakos described by Mortimore and Tiffen "have been accompanied by a polarization of land holdings, differential trends in agricultural productivity, and a decline in food self-sufficiency." As such, he argues that the "Machakos experience" of population growth and positive environmental transformation is neither homogenous nor fully unproblematic.
ISSUE 11. Are Integrated Conservation and Development Programs a Solution to Conflicts Between Parks and Local People?
YES: William D. Newmark and John L. Hough, from “Conserving Wildlife in Africa: Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and Beyond,” BioScience (July 2000)
NO: Roderick P. Neumann, from “Primitive Ideas: Protected Area Buffer Zones and the Politics of Land in Africa,” Development and Change (July 1997)
William D. Newmark, research curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah, and John L. Hough, global environment facility coordinator for biodiversity and international waters for the United Nations Development Programme, acknowledge the limited success of integrated conservation and development programs to date in Africa, but see great promise for success in the future. They call for more adaptive management in which activities are monitored, evaluated, and reformulated in an interactive fashion. Roderick P. Neumann, associate professor and director of graduate studies in the department of international relations at Florida International University, argues that protected area buffer zone programs have not lived up to their initial intent of greater participation and benefit sharing. Rather, these programs duplicate more coercive forms of conservation practice associated with parks and facilitate the expansion of state authority into remote rural areas.
ISSUE 12. Is Sub-Saharan Africa Experiencing a Deforestation Crisis?
YES: Kevin M. Cleaver and Götz A. Schreiber, from Reversing the Spiral: The Population, Agriculture, and Environment Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa (The World Bank, 1994)
NO: Thomas J. Bassett and Koli Bi Zuéli, from “Environmental Discourses and the Ivorian Savanna,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers (March 2000)
World Bank economists Kevin M. Cleaver and Götz A. Schreiber argue that Africa is engaged in a downward spiral of population growth, poor agricultural performance, and environmental degradation. Academic geographers Thomas J. Bassett and Koli Bi Zuéli, counter that it is dominant perceptions of environmental change, rather than concrete evidence, that lie behind the widely held belief that Africa is engaged in an “environmental crisis of staggering proportions.” PART 4. Social Issues
ISSUE 13. Should Female Genital Cutting Be Accepted as a Cultural Practice?
New! YES: Fuambai Ahmadu, from “Rites and Wrongs: Excision and Power among Kono Women of Sierra Leone,” in B. Shell-Duncan and Y. Hernlund, eds., Female ‘Circumcision’ Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change (Lynne Reiner, 2001)
NO: Liz Creel et al., from “Abandoning Female Genital Cutting: Prevalence, Attitudes, and Efforts to End the Practice,” A Report of the Population Reference Bureau (August 2001)
Fuambai Ahmadu, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics, finds it increasingly challenging to reconcile her own experiences with female initiation and circumcision and prevailing (largely negative) global discourses on these practices. Her main concern with most studies on female initiation is the insistence that the practice is necessarily harmful or that there is an urgent need to stop female genital mutilation in communities where it is done. She suggests that "the aversion of some writers to the practice of female circumcision has more to do with deeply imbedded western cultural assumptions regarding women’s bodies and their sexuality than with disputable health effects of genital operations on African women." Liz Creel, senior policy analyst at the Population Reference Bureau, and her colleagues argue that female genital cutting (FGC), while it must be dealt with in a culturally sensitive manner, is a practice that is detrimental to the health of girls and women, as well as a violation of human rights in most instances. Creel et al. recommend that African governments pass anti-FGC laws, and that programs be expanded to educate communities about FGC and human rights.
ISSUE 14. Are Women in a Position to Challenge Male Power Structures in Africa?
YES: Richard A. Schroeder, from Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in The Gambia (University of California Press, 1999)
NO: Human Rights Watch, from “Double Standards: Women’s Property Rights Violations in Kenya,” A Report of Human Rights Watch (March 2003)
Richard A. Schroeder, an associate professor of geography at Rutgers University, presents a case study of a group of female gardeners in The Gambia who, because of their growing economic clout, began to challenge male power structures. Women, who were the traditional gardeners in the community studied, came to have greater income earning capacity than men as the urban market for garden produce grew. Furthermore, women could meet their needs and wants without recourse to their husbands because of this newly found economic power. Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization, describes how women in Kenya have property rights unequal to those of men, and how even these limited rights are frequently violated. It is further explained how women have little awareness of their rights, that those “who try to fight back are often beaten, raped, or ostracized,” and how the Kenyan government has done little to address the situation.
ISSUE 15. Should International Drug Companies Provide HIV/AIDS Drugs to Africa Free of Charge?
YES: Akin Jimoh, from “‘Raise the Alarm Loudly’: Africa Confronts the AIDS Pandemic,” Dollars and Sense (May/June 2001)
NO: Siddhartha Mukherjee, from “Take Your Medicine,” The New Republic (July 24, 2000)
Akin Jimoh, program director of Development Communications, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Lagos, Nigeria, argues that the AIDS epidemic in Africa is linked to a number of factors, including the high cost of drugs. He describes how some of the big drug companies, in the face of international protests, begrudgingly agreed to lower the price of anti-HIV medications in Africa. “The companies, however, remain steadfast about keeping their patent rights, which would leave ultimate control over prices and availability in their hands.” Siddhartha Mukherjee, a resident in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School, asserts that the availability of cheap anti-HIV drugs in Africa, without adequate health care networks to monitor their distribution and use, is dangerous. If such medications are not taken consistently and over the prescribed length of time, new strains of HIV are likely to develop more quickly that are resistant to these drugs. He states that investment in health care infrastructure must accompany any distribution of cheap anti-HIV medications.
ISSUE 16. Is Sexual Promiscuity a Major Reason for the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Africa?
YES: William A. Rushing, from The AIDS Epidemic: Social Dimensions of an Infectious Disease (Westview Press, 1995)
NO: Joseph R. Oppong and Ezekiel Kalipeni, from “A Cross-Cultural Perspective on AIDS in Africa: A Response to Rushing,” African Rural and Urban Studies (1996)
William A. Rushing, late professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University, explains the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa in terms of how Africans express and give social meaning to sex. He argues that the confluence of a set of sex-related behavioral patterns and gender stratification explains the HIV/AIDS infection rate. According to Rushing, these behavioral patterns include polygamous marriage practices, weak conjugal bonds, the transactional nature of sexual relations, the centrality of sexual conquest to male identity, and sex-positive cultures. Joseph R. Oppong, associate professor of geography at the University of North Texas, and Ezekiel Kalipeni, associate professor of geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, take issue with Rushing’s conclusions. They contend that his analysis is Americentric, suffers from overgeneralizations, and problematically depicts Africans as sex-positive (and by implication, promiscuous and immoral). They assert that Rushing’s cultural stereotypes are far too general to provide any meaningful insight into the AIDS crisis in Africa. An understanding of historical and contemporary migration patterns, as well as associated phenomena, better explain the spread of the virus. PART 5. Politics, Governance, and Conflict Resolution
ISSUE 17. Is Multi-Party Democracy Taking Hold in Africa?
YES: Michael Bratton and Robert Mattes, from “Support for Democracy in Africa: Intrinsic or Instrumental?” British Journal of Political Science (July 2001)
NO: Joel D. Barkan, from “The Many Faces of Africa: Democracy Across a Varied Continent,” Harvard International Review (Summer 2002)
Michael Bratton, professor of political science at Michigan State University, and Robert Mattes, associate professor of political studies and director of the Democracy in Africa Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, find as much popular support for democracy in Zambia, South Africa, and Ghana as in other regions of the developing world, despite the fact that the citizens of these countries tend to be less satisfied with the economic performance of their elected governments. Joel D. Barkan, professor of political science at the University of Iowa and senior consultant on governance at the World Bank, takes a less sanguine view of the situation in Africa. He suggests that one can be cautiously optimistic about the situation in roughly one-third of the states on the African continent, nations he classifies as consolidated democracies and as aspiring democracies. He asserts that one must be realistic about the possibilities for the remainder of African nations, countries he classifies into three groups: stalled democracies, those that are not free, and those that are mired in civil war.
ISSUE 18. Is Foreign Assistance Useful for Fostering Democracy in Africa?
YES: Arthur A. Goldsmith, from “Donors, Dictators, and Democrats in Africa,” The Journal of Modern African Studies (2001)
NO: Julie Hearn, from “Aiding Democracy? Donors and Civil Society in South Africa,” Third World Quarterly (2000)
Arthur A. Goldsmith, professor of management at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, examines the relationship between the amount of development assistance given to sub-Saharan African countries in the 1990s and the evolution of their political systems. He suggests that there is a positive, but small, correlation between donor assistance and democratization during this period. He views aid as insurance to prevent countries from sliding back into one-party or military rule. Julie Hearn, with the department of politics and international relations at Lancaster University, investigates democracy assistance in South Africa. She critically examines the role assigned to civil society by donors, questioning the “emancipatory potential” of the kind of democracy being promoted.
ISSUE 19. Is Corruption the Result of Poor African Leadership?
New! YES: Robert I. Rotberg, from “The Roots of Africa’s Leadership Deficit,” Compass (2003)
NO: Arthur A. Goldsmith, from “Risk, Rule, and Reason: Leadership in Africa,” Public Administration and Development (2001)
Robert I. Rotberg, director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, holds African leaders responsible for the plight of their continent. He laments the large number corrupt African leaders, seeing South Africa’s Mandela and Botswana’s Khama as notable exceptions. According to Rotberg, the problem is that "African leaders and their followers largely believe that the people are there to serve their rulers, rather than the other way around." Arthur A. Goldsmith, professor of management at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, suggests that African leaders are not innately corrupt but are responding rationally to incentives created by their environment. He argues that high levels of risk encourage leaders to pursue short-term, economically destructive policies. In countries where leaders face less risk, there is less perceived political corruption.
ISSUE 20. Are International Peacekeeping Missions Critical to Resolving Ethnic Conflicts in African Countries?
New! YES: Tim Docking, from Peacekeeping in Africa (United States Institute of Peace, 2001)
NO: William Reno, from “The Failure of Peacekeeping in Sierra Leone,” Current History (May 2001)
Tim Docking, African Affairs Specialist at the United States Institute of Peace, presents the reactions of policymakers and academics to a report on UN peace operations. The group argues that the lack of political will by Western powers is the key impediment to successful UN peacekeeping. Furthermore, given the situation in Africa, the group implores the United States to re-engage with the United Nations and African affairs. William Reno, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, contends that no peacekeeping is better than bad peacekeeping. In his discussion of the failed Lomé Peace Accords, a settlement negotiated between warring parties in Sierra Leone, he notes that “many Sierra Leoneans regarded positions taken by the UN and foreign diplomats who stressed reconciliation as offensive.” As opposed to the more bureaucratic peacekeeping approaches taken by the United States and the UN, he lauds the hands-on tactics of the British.
