COMMENT
Kathleen Agena
OUT OF AFRICA .
..
In recent months, bleak images of famine-struck Ethiopians
have gripped the world and prompted a flurry of emergency relief ef–
forts in the West. For the most part, drought has been singled out as
the culprit behind the tragedy. But this notion, widely disseminated
through the mass media, is both mistaken and harmful. First, by
obscuring the actual causes behind the widespread famine, it ob–
structs the enactment of genuine remedies to the crisis . Secondly, by
implying that the situation is a natural , rather than a manmade,
disaster, the exclusive focus on relief actions risks backfiring when,
despite the media hoopla and large outlays of relief aid, conditions
worsen when the drought ends (as it has now in Ethiopia).
Even at the United Nations, where rhetoric and reality are
usually at odds, the drought's part in provoking the crisis was
relegated to its rightful, i.e., marginal, role: "We all know," said
Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, "that climatic conditions ,
no matter how unfavorable, are not sufficient in themselves to ex–
plain the extent and intensity of the African crisis." In view of the
fact that the conditions now threatening two-thirds of the African
continent with massive and extended famine have been evident for
over a decade, the Secretary-General's speech was hardly news to
the diplomatic corps. It did, however, reflect an important political
shift. Rhetoric about "neocolonialism" and ideologically cooked up
dichotomies (rich nations versus poor nations, haves versus have
nots) were strikingly absent, even among the African diplomats'
speeches.
In fact, the African crisis has been brewing for two decades .
Average per capita income in the developing African nations has
been dropping steadily in the twenty years since most African states
gained independent status, according to World Bank statistics .
Growth rates (GNP) have been stagnant or, in recent years, nega–
tive . Export earnings have declined sharply, while imports (par–
ticularly offood), have climbed at a staggering rate. Moreover, basic
infrastructure (roads, railways sewage systems), formerly maintained
