Much of Africa is still paying the price of colonialism: in the late 19th century European imperialists carved up the continent without regard to natural tribal or political borders. “You have a bunch of land masses which were bounded for the expediency of European expansion,” says Makau Mutua, a Kenyan attorney and projects director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. “Almost none of these became viable states.” Using the divide-and-rule theory, colonial leaders often heightened ethnic tensions; after independence, violence exploded as tribes battled to retain – or seize – power. The most extreme examples are Rwanda and Burundi, where Belgians backed a Tutsi elite and subjugated the Hutu majority. In Nigeria, the northern Hausa and Fulani, favored by the British, have excluded southern tribes from government for decades while they milked the country’s oil wealth; northern rulers even annulled last year’s presidential election won by southerner Moshood Abiola, provoking demonstrations and strikes that continue to paralyze the economy. Western meddling after independence gave rise to some of the worst tribal atrocities. “In the really disintegrated countries like Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda and Zaire, you saw long-term dictatorships propped up by a superpower,” says Holly Burkhalter, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch/Africa. “During that period these regimes fostered and worsened ethnic tensions.” In Somalia and Liberia, U.S.-backed dictators packed the army and government with members of their own clans and attacked ethnic groups they perceived to be enemies. Both countries sank into tribal bloodbaths in 1990 after American support waned. And in Rwanda, the French armed the Hutu-dominated army and civilian militias against the Tutsi rebels, who had been completely excluded from the political process.
The cynicism of many African leaders has deepened tensions and poverty. “The state is seen as a vehicle for personal gain,” says Mutua. “There was never an understanding that the state must survive and is bigger than all of us.” Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, the juntas who run Nigeria – all created kleptocracies that siphoned resources from the crumbling infrastructure and instilled an ethos of corruption. Mobutu is reported to have stashed at least $5 billion in overseas banks.
Though Africa owes much of its current plight to Western meddling, the outside powers have worsened matters by turning their backs during the most desperate times. The United States and the United Nations stood by for months while 1 million died in Rwanda’s genocide and more than 2 million refugees fled the civil war. Fresh memories of the disastrous Somali intervention, the lack of a perceived national interest and bickering over logistics caused a paralysis of will that allowed the crisis to deepen. “We’ve moved from where he threat was easy to define – communism – to a new threat – chaos,” says Atwood. “We don’t yet have the machinery in place to deal with it.”
Frighteningly, the chaos in Rwanda threatens to spread even more instability and carnage across an already fragile region. In neighboring Burundi, which has the same combustible ethnic mix of Tutsis and Hutus, “all the elements are in place” for a repeat of Rwanda, Burkhalter says. Arms are flowing across the Zaire border to Hutu militias, and a clandestine radio station is beaming incendiary anti-Tutsi broadcasts across the country. And the presence of thousands of Rwandan soldiers and militiamen in Zaire could further destabilize that anarchic country – and restart Rwanda’s civil war. This time, the burden is on the West to roll in – not to serve its own purposes, but Africa’s.
title: “A Generation Of Failure” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-28” author: “Madeline Heatherington”
Much of Africa is still paying the price of colonialism: in the late 19th century European imperialists carved up the continent without regard to natural tribal or political borders. “You have a bunch of land masses which were bounded for the expediency of European expansion,” says Makau Mutua, a Kenyan attorney and projects director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. “Almost none of these became viable states.” Using the divide-and-rule theory, colonial leaders often heightened ethnic tensions; after independence, violence exploded as tribes battled to retain – or seize – power. The most extreme examples are Rwanda and Burundi, where Belgians backed a Tutsi elite and subjugated the Hutu majority. In Nigeria, the northern Hausa and Fulani, favored by the British, have excluded southern tribes from government for decades while they milked the country’s oil wealth; northern rulers even annulled last year’s presidential election won by southerner Moshood Abiola, provoking demonstrations and strikes that continue to paralyze the economy. Western meddling after independence gave rise to some of the worst tribal atrocities. “In the really disintegrated countries like Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda and Zaire, you saw long-term dictatorships propped up by a superpower,” says Holly Burkhalter, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch/Africa. “During that period these regimes fostered and worsened ethnic tensions.” In Somalia and Liberia, U.S.-backed dictators packed the army and government with members of their own clans and attacked ethnic groups they perceived to be enemies. Both countries sank into tribal bloodbaths in 1990 after American support waned. And in Rwanda, the French armed the Hutu-dominated army and civilian militias against the Tutsi rebels, who had been completely excluded from the political process.
The cynicism of many African leaders has deepened tensions and poverty. “The state is seen as a vehicle for personal gain,” says Mutua. “There was never an understanding that the state must survive and is bigger than all of us.” Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, the juntas who run Nigeria – all created kleptocracies that siphoned resources from the crumbling infrastructure and instilled an ethos of corruption. Mobutu is reported to have stashed at least $5 billion in overseas banks.
Though Africa owes much of its current plight to Western meddling, the outside powers have worsened matters by turning their backs during the most desperate times. The United States and the United Nations stood by for months while 1 million died in Rwanda’s genocide and more than 2 million refugees fled the civil war. Fresh memories of the disastrous Somali intervention, the lack of a perceived national interest and bickering over logistics caused a paralysis of will that allowed the crisis to deepen. “We’ve moved from where he threat was easy to define – communism – to a new threat – chaos,” says Atwood. “We don’t yet have the machinery in place to deal with it.”
Frighteningly, the chaos in Rwanda threatens to spread even more instability and carnage across an already fragile region. In neighboring Burundi, which has the same combustible ethnic mix of Tutsis and Hutus, “all the elements are in place” for a repeat of Rwanda, Burkhalter says. Arms are flowing across the Zaire border to Hutu militias, and a clandestine radio station is beaming incendiary anti-Tutsi broadcasts across the country. And the presence of thousands of Rwandan soldiers and militiamen in Zaire could further destabilize that anarchic country – and restart Rwanda’s civil war. This time, the burden is on the West to roll in – not to serve its own purposes, but Africa’s.
