Writing in this newspaper last Monday, Paul Cullen chronicled the wars taking place in Africa and the consequent suffering of its people. It was a characteristically erudite piece of journalism but one sensed a loss of hope on the part of the author.
In particular his concluding remarks - "Africa is a continent fast running out of excuses. The rest of the world has stopped listening and while that might not seem very fair, it might not be a bad thing. Only Africans can sort out the mess they have got themselves into" - run the risk of justifying the abandonment of Africa and, at the very least, require some serious qualification.
It is over 80 years since Churchill spoke of the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone and their quarrel being one of the few institutions unaltered by the first World War. We have no problem with external intervention in the case of Northern Ireland. We recognise that, in the final analysis, it is the people there who must solve this problem but we see a critical role for external facilitation, in the person of George Mitchell and President Clinton. There are even mutterings of joint authority in the event that this external facilitation does not bring a resolution. Why do we seek to apply different standards to Africa?
It is true, as Paul Cullen says, that Africans cannot blame colonisation for all their troubles. Indeed, one of the countries listed in his article, Ethiopia, was never colonised and yet remains one of the poorest countries on earth engaged in an inexplicable war with its neighbour Eritrea. But neither can the effects of colonisation be completely discounted. There are a number of reasons for saying this:
The settlement made by the European powers in 1895 created borders which had no basis other than the interests of the colonisers. This divided lands occupied by ethnic groups and made a post-colonial multi-party democratic structure almost impossible. The Caprivi Strip in northern Namibia is a case in point and it remains a location of discontent to this day.
Many of the colonising powers, such as Belgium and Portugal for example, pulled out without creating the conditions for a transition to a democracy.
The Cold War saw another realignment of great-power interest in Africa change again when the needs of the powers changed.
Expecting dramatic results in Africa in a matter of 30 years, against the background described, is perhaps being over-optimistic. It is as if the Renaissance, the Reformation, the scientific revolution, the French revolution and the industrial revolution, were all telescoped into a single lifetime.
The impact of the international arms trade must also be factored in. An AK47 assault rifle can be bought for as little as $14 in Burundi. The natural wealth of Angola in diamonds and oil is being traded internationally in order to finance the rearmament of UNITA and the MPLA government, which in turn is directly causing a famine in that country. This same international arms industry has made it possible for thousands of child soldiers in Sierra Leone and elsewhere to be recruited into armies committing unspeakable atrocities on the civilian population.
A less obvious effect of the phenomenon of child soldiers is the destruction of the African education system. Once a child of 11 or 12 gets a Kalashnikov into his hand the prospect of getting him behind a desk again is fairly remote.
On the economic front aid, trade, investment and debt relief are critical to development. The developing world is now in such a debilitated condition under nearly all of these headings that it is quite impossible for it to right itself.
All this is the case at the time when globalisation of the world economy is creating an enormous amount of wealth but globalisation also has the capacity to marginalise the poor even more at present. There is simply no possibility that Africans can correct this current imbalance on their own initiative.
The great political problem of mankind today is surely to combine three things - economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty - and the modern age has lost the correct balance between the three elements of this political equation. The common good of the state is but an echo of a wider common good of humanity. Every state has the right to exist and to determine the nature of its own development - but rich nations have a duty to help poor ones to do this, through aid which does not undermine national integrity - a condition which, alas, runs counter to the orthodoxy of the neo-liberal Marxist solutions imposed on poor nations by the West in the last 10 years.
None of this is by way of gainsaying the contention that Africa is rife with corruption and bad governance. For too long there has been a sort of political correctness inhibiting this fact being stated plainly, and Paul Cullen is right to call it as it is. Nevertheless, while his analysis is correct I do not believe he has reached the right conclusion. On the contrary, I see a compelling case for continued international engagement with Africa.
How external intervention can be most intelligently organised, both in the prevention of civil strife and for economic development, is a complex subject requiring more space than this article allows. But we must never lose sight of the individual people whose fate has left them with no influence on the events that shape their lives. African people are the same as people everywhere, desiring for the most part to live in peace.
The optimistic view of Africa was summed up by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, himself an African, when he presented a report on the causes of conflict and the promotion of peace and development in Africa in 1998 in these terms:
"With sufficient political will - on the part of Africa and on the part of the international community - peace and development can be given a new momentum. Africa is an ancient continent. Its lands are rich and fertile enough to provide a solid foundation for prosperity. Its people are proud and industrious enough to seize the opportunities that may be presented. I am confident that Africans will not be found wanting, in stamina, in determination, or in political will. Africa today is striving to make positive change, and in many places these efforts are beginning to bear fruit. In the carnage and tragedy that inflicts some parts of Africa, we must not forget the bright spots or overlook the achievements."
Those who care for Africa must take some encouragement and hope from this insight. In February next year, Concern proposes to host a major conference at which these issues bearing upon the future of Africa can be discussed in a bit more detail. No matter how bad the situation appears to be at present we must not abandon Africa.
David Begg is chief executive of Concern, the aid agency.