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Flying from Nairobi to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.

Kalahari desert, Namibia

Africa is better understood from above, particularly from the window of an airplane. We’ve travelled several times on this continent and we’ve always seen the same thing: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It seems impossible that human life started here. It doesn’t matter that the arid landscape we now see used to be the Garden of Eden. The cradle of humankind has become a desert that has determined the destiny of the millions of people that populate it. And this is not because of its harsh unforgiving climate but because its rough and rugged topography never allowed for the creation of great empires capable of unifying massive territories. Pharaohs, Abyssinians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, sultans, caliphs and all kinds of kings and races, while powerful at a certain point in time, never could gain control of the whole continent, not even the greater part of it. In Europe, the Romans first and the absolute monarchies afterwards, bequeathed us a heritage that united territories and blended languages, facilitating relations and commerce among the different nations. Nonetheless, in the 20th century we fought not only with our neighbors to the north and to the south, but also fraternally, against our very own brothers. If that happened on a continent where there are scores of nations, imagine what it would be like in Africa where not hundreds but thousands of tribes, clans or ethnic groups coexist. A real slaughter, one made even worse totally random delineation of borders by Western powers, straight lines that cover the continent, tracing parallels and underlining meridians. Sometimes they separated ethnic groups or villages that depended on each other; other times they joint tribes that were archenemies or simply didn’t know each other. This mostly was because of power relations, though sometimes it was merely because Kaiser Wilhelm envied his great aunt Queen Victoria’s possession of two mountains.

In very short periods of time, newly created countries, with no democratic traditions whatsoever, were thrown into elective processes to decide who was going to rule them once they achieved independence. But that was not the problem. The thing was that all those years of colonial exploitation had left them with the idea that the state was a mere instrument for personal acquisition of wealth. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, though in this case there was no reason to travel. In other words, the new rulers were too busy stuffing their and their families’ pockets to be bothered with the mundane business of managing the welfare of their people. Corruption reached such gigantic proportions that they stagger the European mind. In addition, one of the main consequences of this plundering was the annihilation of all opposition. Prosecution, torture and murder of individuals or masses, even entire regions, of any opponent, by word or in fact, was so routine that many Africans ended up believing it was inevitable. The political heirs of the colonies were ensuring their stay in power for decades. In most of cases they institutionalized the existence of a single party, their own, of course. These were known as the Big Men, a generation of politicians, generals and dictators, or all in one, who enthroned themselves at the pinnacle of government, confusing their own persona with the State, which resulted in some genuine cases of megalomania.

Tsamay kid, Ethiopia

Those who held power systematically gave their families and people belonging to their villages, tribes or ethnic group any job that was worthwhile or the holding of which made pilfering from State that much easier. Or else they were given public works contracts and permits or licenses for any activity, denying said contracts and permits or licenses to those who didn’t belong to their most intimate circle. This ethnic corruption in new states without any shared tradition or history, where the independence of the colonies translated into the substitution of white exploiters with black ones, was what triggered a long list of killings, genocides and revenge the mere enumeration of which is disgraceful.

International support, in many cases, only helped delay the standstill and prolong the death throes of regimes it would have been better to let die instead of helping them survive and become even richer thanks to humanitarian aid. Budget austerity, privatization of companies and opening of the markets were the requirements to be eligible for new aid. While some pretended to comply with these new agreements, in reality they only helped the same people as always bleed the State dry. Finally, in the 1990’s, the World Bank understood that the real problem lay in the lack of freedoms, not in the economic model. So the only solution was to force African politicians to establish real democracies, ones with a multiple party system and uncensored public opinion. Without that, continuing to provide financial aid simply didn’t make sense.

Again, the majority of the reforms were implemented halfheartedly, appeasingly, past dictators replaced by the Big Democratic Men, who were similar or in some cases worse than their predecessors. Africa entered the new century with a different driver but in the same taxi. Or even worse, now that AIDS and a fresh outbreak of malaria are decimating the population, consuming the little resources the State has and creating millions of orphans that will never have the choice of getting an education. But this is nothing compared to their biggest problem, the exhaustion of the First World, weary of seeing its efforts, great or little, to turn this desert we see from the window into a place where, at least, its inhabitants can live in peace, which is not too much to ask, end up being for naught.

Posted In: Round the World Trip RTW