South Africa

In this week’s New York Times Book Review, John Donnelly, who covers global health and the environment for The Boston Globe, has written a favorable review of Helen Epstein’s The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS. An important book on a vital topic, The Invisible Cure posits that the best solutions to the AIDS crisis in Africa will come from Africans, an argument put forth by many in the development community as well. Of course an Africa for Africans by Africans has been the cri de couer of the continent since independence. But the Pan African dream, the African Renaissance, a solution to the continent’s problems, will not come until good governance, transparency, and democratization are all priorities across the continent, and not just in a few scattered pockets.  

The International AIDS Society (IAS) conference, the biggest of its kind in the world, just closed in Australia. Its most significant conclusion is that the world must find a way to develop and deliver child-specific, side-effect-free (or limited) drugs to allow children with the disease to survive into adulthood (and perhaps to live to see a future in which the disease is eradicated).

Beyond hoary “children are the future” cliches, this proposal makes sense for a number of reasons. For one, call me a cynic, but the cliche is a great selling point. Finding a way to address in AIDS in children will inevitably capture hearts and imaginations in a way that simply addressing AIDS in Africa does not. But beyond the salesmanship, it seems logical to try to stanch the spread of a disease that has proven so fatal for children. Address the disease among its youngest victims while at the same time pushing for antiretroviral drugs geared toward adults and with side effects that can prove as dangerous to children as the disease they intend to attack. This is a strategy that seems both smart from a disease-combating perspective as well as from a marketing and political vantage point.

On Sunday former United Nations Secretary general Kofi Annan gave the fifth annual Nelson Mandela lecture at Madiba’s foundation. In his talk Annan entreated African leaders to promote democracy and good governance and to disavow tyranny.

It turns out that throughout much of the continent, Africans are already heeding the call for democracy and away from kleptocracy and dictatorship. In the newest issue of The Journal of Democracy Daniel N. Posner and Daniel J. Young have an article posing the argument that peaceful transitions of power may well already be underway, with force having given way to a general trend toward the rule of law.  In sum, that Africans are benefiting from the “institutionalization of political power.”

It doesn’t take much to tip the scales toward economic catastrophe for the people southern Africa. A poor harvest followed by a bitterly cold winter means that Swaziland is experiencing some of its worst economic conditions in recent years. Food and medical scarcities, inadequate shelter, and general economic vulnerability have created conditions for a miserable winter for South Africa’s tiny neighbor.   

In South Africa’s tiny neighbor, Swaziland, recent reports indicate that more people live in informal settlements than in formal neighborhoods, which has spurred the country to push to improve living conditions in urban areas. Officials have decided to upgrade the informal settlements (often called townships) rather than build new housing.

The United Nations Population Fund speculates that the urban population of Africa will more than double in the next quarter century. Obviously the ripple effects of this would be serious. It’s probably worth pointing out that dire population predictions have something of a mixed history, but the UNPF report indicates that 80% of the world’s population will live in the developing world by 2030 with huge ramificatioins for poerty, development, health, food supplies, and just about every other aspect of daily life.

Here is a quick roundup of news stories this morning:

For three different perspectives on the general strike in South Africa see this story in the Mail & Guardian,  this from Green Left, and this from The Sowetan. (Hat tip to Peter Limb at H-SAfrica.)  See also this story from All Africa. And for concerns about the effect the strike will have on tourism, see here.

On the latest from Zimbabwe see this account of the ruling party’s meeting with the Movement for Democratic Change. Color me skeptical. This Michael Gerson piece in The Washington Post helps explain why. As does this.

The ANC leadership succession race is heating up. For some analysis see here.

Foreign Policy has released its annual Failed State Index, and sadly, though not unexpectedly, it is pregnant with African countries. The Mail & Guardian has more here. Not surprisingly, Sudan tops the list. And plucky little Guinea-Bissau is making its own mark by staking its claim as Africa’s cocaine capital.

Madonna and Brangelina have been in the news for their adoptions of African babies. But ordinary folks (well, ordinary white folks with quite a bit of resources) are also adopting African children in increasing numbers. Ethiopia has become a popular source of these children, which is raising some concerns in that country. There is a fine line between altruism and exploitation. there is no doubt that across Africa there are children in desperate need of a new home. And yet at the same time, there is an element of this adoption trend that smacks of exploitation and opportunism.  The key is that there must be a legitimate and equal partnership with clearly established rules between the adopting couples and the legal systems of the countries in question. Hollywood should certainly not be the driving engine for the trendy accoutrement of an African adoption.  

A while back the Sunday New York Times had a front-page article (now archived, so you may need to pay to read it) on some remarkable successes that farmers in the Niger Delta have enjoyed. Chido Makunine of the African News Network provided a perceptive summary and assessment of the piece soon after it appeared. I particularly agree with Makunine’s emphasis on positive news coming from Africa. The Niger case provides a nice counter to the stream of bad news from the region that usually garners front-page treatment.

In our zeal to embrace alternative sources of energy, including biofuels, let’s keep in mind that there may be very real human costs. And not surprisingly those human costs will be felt by the most vulnerable. The most vulnerable often live in Africa. IRIN points out a recent report arguing:

The rush to produce biofuels, driven by the threat of global warming and higher oil prices, is exerting price pressure on staple foods in South Africa, according to a report by the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), a nongovernmental organisation that highlights food security concerns. 

My colleague Bill Hewitt at the FPA Climate Change Blog has a post with lots of great links in which he explores these same complexities. None of this is intended to disavow the importance of alternative fuel sources, but rather simply to explicate the realities that environmental change will not be easy and that the trickle down effect will deleteriously effect the most vulnerable in Africa and elsewhere.