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Africa is better understood from the air. In particular, from an airplane window. We took several flights over the continent and we have always seen the same thing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It seems impossible that human life began here, as much as this arid landscape that now look out then the Garden of Eden. The cradle of man has become a desert that has marked the destiny of millions of people who populate it.
And do not say its harsh climate, also. We refer to the hard and rugged terrain of this continent that never allowed the emergence of large empires that unify large areas. The Pharaohs, Abyssinians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Sultans, Caliphs and other areas controlled today correspond, at most, five or six countries, only a tenth of all Africa. Even the settlers for centuries is simply to conquer the coastal areas and little else. In Europe, however, the Romans first and then absolute monarchies left us a legacy that, on the one hand, cohesion territories and, secondly, to harmonize the language making and trade relations between us were possible and easier. Nevertheless, during the twentieth century we stuck all with all, with our next door neighbors and relatives from home. If that happened on a continent where there were only dozens of national consciousness, imagine what might have been in Africa where there were not hundreds but thousands of clans, tribes or ethnic units rarely had partners or simply contact them.
carnage. And even more so when the borders they drew the Western powers in Africa were totally arbitrary. Straight lines crossed (and still cross) crossing the continent and stressing parallel meridians, sometimes separating ethnic groups or villages that depended on each other, and joining other tribes that were eternal enemies or simply unknown. In very short time periods, countries new creation, with populations no democratic tradition, they were dumped to elective process to decide who and how he would govern from independence. But that was not the problem. The worst was that my years of colonial exploitation among the natives had consolidated the image of the state as a mere instrument for personal enrichment. Consequently, all the new rulers were always more concerned with filling their pockets and those of his own which to manage the welfare of their countries. This corruption reached such gigantic dimensions make it difficult to imagine a European mentality. In addition, one of the main destinations stolen funds was the annihilation of all opposition, using every resource available, including our own State. Persecution, torture and murder, individual or mass, even entire regions, any opponent, word or deed, was a daily activity as many Africans came to give it as inevitable. The political heirs of the colonies were ensuring their stay in power for decades, in most cases by law institutionalizing the existence of a single game, his course. These actors were known by the name of Big Men, a generation of politicians, military dictators, or all three at once, which be leveraged in government, confusing the state directly with his own person, developing even in a real case of megalomania diseases.
Those in power routinely delivered people from their families, villages, tribes or ethnic groups, any job worthwhile or from which you could steal, whether in government or administration and in the army or public enterprises and banks, where they are not directly awarded contracts for public works and any type of permit and license for the activity outside, denying the same thing to those who were not members of his inner circle. This corruption ethnic in newly created states with no tradition or history together, where the independence of the colonies had resulted in the substitution of some operators whites for blacks, was the trigger for such a long list of massacres, genocide and revenge that only gives enumerate shame.
International support, in many cases, only served to delay the collapse or prolong the agony of regimes that would be better that would have sunk by themselves rather than survive or even enriched by humanitarian funds. Fiscal austerity, privatization and open markets were the requirements to qualify for further aid. While some feigned respect these new agreements, in reality only served to finally settle the State for the benefit of the usual. Finally in the 90s, the World Bank felt that the real problem was the absence of freedoms, not the economic model, so the only solution was to force politicians to establish true democracies in Africa, with a multi-party system and uncensored public opinion. Without all this, there was no point wasting resources to continue support.
Again, most of the reforms were facing the gallery and the dictators of the early days were replaced by Democratic Big Men, same or worse than their predecessors. Africa entered the new century with a different driver but with the same taxi. Or even worse because now AIDS and the resurgence of malaria are decimating the population, consuming the limited resources of the state and creating millions of orphans that can never be eligible for an education. But all this is nothing next to his main problem. The exhaustion of the first world, tired of seeing their efforts, many or few, end up being useless to turn this desert we are seeing from our window at a site in which at least can live in peace. That's not asking much, I say.
And do not say its harsh climate, also. We refer to the hard and rugged terrain of this continent that never allowed the emergence of large empires that unify large areas. The Pharaohs, Abyssinians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Sultans, Caliphs and other areas controlled today correspond, at most, five or six countries, only a tenth of all Africa. Even the settlers for centuries is simply to conquer the coastal areas and little else. In Europe, however, the Romans first and then absolute monarchies left us a legacy that, on the one hand, cohesion territories and, secondly, to harmonize the language making and trade relations between us were possible and easier. Nevertheless, during the twentieth century we stuck all with all, with our next door neighbors and relatives from home. If that happened on a continent where there were only dozens of national consciousness, imagine what might have been in Africa where there were not hundreds but thousands of clans, tribes or ethnic units rarely had partners or simply contact them.
carnage. And even more so when the borders they drew the Western powers in Africa were totally arbitrary. Straight lines crossed (and still cross) crossing the continent and stressing parallel meridians, sometimes separating ethnic groups or villages that depended on each other, and joining other tribes that were eternal enemies or simply unknown. In very short time periods, countries new creation, with populations no democratic tradition, they were dumped to elective process to decide who and how he would govern from independence. But that was not the problem. The worst was that my years of colonial exploitation among the natives had consolidated the image of the state as a mere instrument for personal enrichment. Consequently, all the new rulers were always more concerned with filling their pockets and those of his own which to manage the welfare of their countries. This corruption reached such gigantic dimensions make it difficult to imagine a European mentality. In addition, one of the main destinations stolen funds was the annihilation of all opposition, using every resource available, including our own State. Persecution, torture and murder, individual or mass, even entire regions, any opponent, word or deed, was a daily activity as many Africans came to give it as inevitable. The political heirs of the colonies were ensuring their stay in power for decades, in most cases by law institutionalizing the existence of a single game, his course. These actors were known by the name of Big Men, a generation of politicians, military dictators, or all three at once, which be leveraged in government, confusing the state directly with his own person, developing even in a real case of megalomania diseases.
Those in power routinely delivered people from their families, villages, tribes or ethnic groups, any job worthwhile or from which you could steal, whether in government or administration and in the army or public enterprises and banks, where they are not directly awarded contracts for public works and any type of permit and license for the activity outside, denying the same thing to those who were not members of his inner circle. This corruption ethnic in newly created states with no tradition or history together, where the independence of the colonies had resulted in the substitution of some operators whites for blacks, was the trigger for such a long list of massacres, genocide and revenge that only gives enumerate shame.
International support, in many cases, only served to delay the collapse or prolong the agony of regimes that would be better that would have sunk by themselves rather than survive or even enriched by humanitarian funds. Fiscal austerity, privatization and open markets were the requirements to qualify for further aid. While some feigned respect these new agreements, in reality only served to finally settle the State for the benefit of the usual. Finally in the 90s, the World Bank felt that the real problem was the absence of freedoms, not the economic model, so the only solution was to force politicians to establish true democracies in Africa, with a multi-party system and uncensored public opinion. Without all this, there was no point wasting resources to continue support.
Again, most of the reforms were facing the gallery and the dictators of the early days were replaced by Democratic Big Men, same or worse than their predecessors. Africa entered the new century with a different driver but with the same taxi. Or even worse because now AIDS and the resurgence of malaria are decimating the population, consuming the limited resources of the state and creating millions of orphans that can never be eligible for an education. But all this is nothing next to his main problem. The exhaustion of the first world, tired of seeing their efforts, many or few, end up being useless to turn this desert we are seeing from our window at a site in which at least can live in peace. That's not asking much, I say.
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