Spotlight: Sub-Saharan Africa in a New Era

▪ 1996

      The momentum for democratization continued to sweep sub-Saharan Africa, but with varying degrees of success. The outlook for economic recovery, however, remained unpromising.

      Although 41 of the 48 governments in the region had committed themselves to establishing multiparty parliamentary systems, by year's end only 9 could be judged to have met the criteria for pluralism in an open society; another 21 qualified as "semidemocratic" or transitional democracies. The number of single-party or military regimes shrank to 9 from about 36 in the previous year. With the end of the civil wars in Angola and Mozambique, the number of serious armed conflicts had dropped to just five—Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and, again, Liberia, where the civil war seemed to be finding renewed vigour at year's end. There was also a significant decline in the number of successful military coups—only one (The Gambia). The mass killings of Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 were the most horrific in the continent's postcolonial experience. South Africa continued to be the flagship of the region's democratic transformation.

      The prolonged civil war in The Sudan between the Islamic fundamentalist military regime and rebel groups in the non-Muslim southern region spilled across the borders. Four of The Sudan's neighbours—Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya—agreed on a strategy to bring down the government in Khartoum. The two precipitating causes of this unprecedented decision were the abortive attempt to assassinate the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, when he went to attend the summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Eth., and allegations that the Sudanese National Islamic Front was engaged in spreading Islamic fundamentalism to Eritrea and Ethiopia. The defeated Rwandan government accused Uganda of arming the successful Rwandan Patriotic Front.

      The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War opened up a new chapter in black Africa's relations with Western Europe and North America. In the absence of Cold War politics, African concerns were what came to be described as the "marginalization" of the continent—i.e., that Western interest in the continent would decline and, at the same time, economic aid would dwindle as more economic support was provided to Russia and Eastern Europe. Regional governments, with the exception of South Africa, had entered into agreements with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in support of structural adjustment programs. Despite some criticism, many prominent Africans—especially those opposed to their governments—welcomed the terms imposed by donor countries, making the provision of aid conditional upon good governance and respect for human rights. Fears that the European Union would not renew the favourable terms under the Lomé Convention proved to be unjustified when a new agreement was signed in November.

      The peace process in the Middle East also contributed to ending the difficult choice between siding with Israel or the Arab world. By year's end almost all regional governments had restored their diplomatic and economic ties with Israel. Moreover, almost all the governments in the region maintained close links with the Commonwealth of Nations, the Francophone community, or a Lusophone (Portuguese) grouping. Japan became one of the largest aid-donor countries and, with the two Koreas, substantially expanded trade relations.

      The OAU, revivified by its secretary-general, Salim Ahmed Salim, was beginning to play a more active role in mediation and peacekeeping operations. At its 1995 summit in Addis Ababa, a decision was made to set up specialized military units in member countries to be available for either UN or OAU operations in dealing with conflicts in the continent. The summit also diluted its previous policy of nonintervention in the internal conflicts of member states. A proposal submitted by the United Kingdom and Nigeria, reflecting the consensus of 15 United Nations members, outlined the kind of help the international community should offer to strengthen the OAU's capability for peacekeeping.

      The outbreak of an Ebola epidemic in Zaire early in the year caused widespread concern because of the mystery of its cause and the high fatality rate among its victims. The virus claimed 244 lives out of 315 reported cases. The outbreak ended as suddenly as it began, with little more known about the virus than was known before its latest occurrence. Both the Ebola virus and HIV helped focus attention on the paucity of health services in Zaire and other African countries. Between 1985 and 1995, the number of persons infected with HIV rose from 1.5 million to more than 10 million; more than 1% of the 15-49-year age group was HIV-positive, and an estimated one million more were expected to contract the virus in each of the years following 1995. More than half the region's population of about 560 million had no access to public health services, and almost two-thirds had no safe drinking water.

      Sub-Saharan Africa's population constituted 10% of the world's total, but the region produced only slightly more than 1% of the world's gross domestic product. In the region's 24 better-off countries, average income in 1989 was less than $400 per person, while in the remaining 23 countries the average was even lower. The level of poverty continued to decline, with average incomes falling by 15% in the 1980s. Despite the support of international finance institutions, a survey of its impact showed little evidence of improvement in the first half of the decade. According to the United Nations, economic growth remained blocked despite considerable improvements in a few of the better-off countries. The World Bank forecast that sub-Saharan Africa's exports would grow only 3% a year to the year 2000, which was below the growth of population. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimated that in the coming years the average annual growth in aid funds was unlikely to exceed the modest performance of 2%, whereas the World Bank warned that unless this figure was doubled, the financial gap in the region was set to widen even further. Foreign debt in sub-Saharan Africa tripled from $56 billion to $173 billion between 1980 and 1990, and although debt relief for some of the poorest countries eased their debt-repayment burden to some extent, the total debt in fact increased to $176 billion by 1991 and was still increasing.

      Colin Legum is the editor of Third World Reports and consulting editor of the Africa Contemporary Record.

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