A Longing For Liberty

It was a week of ferment below the Sahara. In the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, a protest against one-party rule ended in looting and at least 20 deaths. From Somalia came reports of government troops opening fire in a soccer stadium after fans stoned the president; 66 people were confirmed dead. Liberian ruler Samuel K. Doe was under rebel siege in his seafront mansion. Meanwhile, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, African heads of state ended the annual Organization of African Unity summit by pledging full democratization. The leaders were forced to acknowledge a new reality in sub-Saharan Africa. Inspired by the revolutions in Eastern Europe and angry at chronic corruption and economic mismanagement, their people are calling for an end to the authoritarian regimes that have ruled them, in many cases, since independence.

When the Berlin wall came down last fall, 38 of the 46 sub-Saharan states were led by one-party or military governments. Now some of the old-line leaders are breaking ranks. First was Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, who helped invent "African socialism." In February he told his impoverished countrymen that the one-party system is not necessarily "God's wish." The regime quickly accepted a gradual transition to pluralism. Since then there has been an epidemic of such promises, often accompanied by mass protest. Even before last week's OAU summit, Benin, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Zaire had announced plans for multiparty systems. Nigeria's military government promises to cede power to civilians in 1992. Violent protests have broken out in Cameroon, Niger, Mali, Guinea and the Central African Republic. In Zambia, a failed coup on July 1 followed five days of rioting over food-price increases; students also demanded a Western-style democracy. Finally came the upheaval in Kenya, where President Daniel was vowing last week to resist pressure for a multiparty system (page 28).

Pressure was building even before last year's changes in Europe. During the 1980s, economic collapse left 30 African governments wards of Western lending institutions. The price of loans was "structural adjustment"--the dismantling of catastrophic central-planning systems to let real markets grow. Now the lenders are also attaching political strings to their aid. "Democracy is being presented as this season's fashion," complained Chadian President Hissene Habre. French President Francois Mitterrand warned last month that he will be "more lukewarm" to countries that fail to observe democratic principles; British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd issued a similar warning. The World Bank, which controls about $12 billion of the $15 billion in aid Africa receives annually, calls for increased support but also seeks political reform. "We can look at Africa with hope that they have learned a lesson," said Herman Cohen, the State Department's top Africanist. "Now is the time to help."

Obscene response:

But aiding Africa is hard to sell. The United States has cut its bilateral aid to Africa in half since 1985, to about $1 billion in 1990, even though the continent contains the world's poorest nations. Poles and Hungarians will receive 10 times as much aid per capita from Europe and Central Americans 34 times as much from the United States, notes Cohen's predecessor, Chester Crocker, adding: "Africans could end up paying for the expanding frontiers of freedom everywhere else. That would be an obscene response to the African crisis." And private investment dwindled from a peak of $2.3 billion in 1982 to $600 million in 1986. "When a building is on fire, you don't ask someone to buy an apartment," explained Jean-Pierre Prouteau of the Council of French Investors in Black Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa's own vital statistics are unremittingly bleak. With a population of 450 million, the region has a total gross domestic product of $135 billion--no more than that of Belgium, with only 10 million people. The real income of the average African has declined since 1970. Nor is there the prospect of improvement. The region is burdened by a mountain of debt--$135 billion in 1988, equal to 100 percent of its gross domestic product. Of the roughly $15 billion in foreign aid Africa receives annually, an average of $9 billion goes to service debt. Meanwhile, exports are declining. World commodity prices are the lowest in decades, and Africa's market share has declined sharply. While Africa remains rich in minerals, its production has fallen by a steady 2 percent a year.