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Bottle-Necks of Development in Africa

First Bottleneck:The absence of peace and security

Peace and security are required for substantial development, furthermore it is a human right anddesire to live a save and fearless life. In the following the reasons for the lack of these essentials aredivided in:

Africa during the Cold War

Oppressive governments

o Culture of fear and silence -> semblance of peace

Africa during the cold warIn times of the Cold War Africa was struggling between the superpowers fighting for economic andpolitical power. The results were fatal hot conflicts all over Africa. The oppression of thegovernments, which will be further described in the following, was being tolerated in favor of thepower struggle.

Oppressive governmentsThe dictators and totalitarian regimes that had been tolerated and in some cases even supported bythe superpowers of the Cold War, still hold on to their power, by creating a culture of fear andsilence. That means that they suppress their people and humiliate human rights, while issuing themself as modern, progressive, stable and peaceful states. The distressed calls of the people wereminimized against the massive civil wars raging in many African countries.

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Second Bottleneck; Part1:Historical reasons for destructive style of political and economic leadership

In times of colonial administration Africa was exploited by the western powers. The most importantpowers where France, Great Britain and Germany. They wanted the precious resources from Africato increase their own environmentally power and wealth. The colonial powers needed especiallygoods which werent available or rare in Europe, for instance: copper, cotton, tea and caoutchouc.They imported African resources to their countries, produced goods and sent them back to Africa tosell them there.

Another important point was the great international force western powers got by founding coloniesin Africa. They destroyed the traditional forms of self-governance and banned the African culture andreligion to impose western values and religion. The western powers took over the government inAfrica and the exploitation took its course. It's a matter of common knowledge that nearly no moneywas invested in Africa but in the navy to secure oversee trade routes.

Before the western powers granted Independence (after World War 2) they trained young Africansand gave them important positions in politics and economy, which were occupied by western peoplebefore. Most of these Africans where corroborators with the colonial administration and could bedescribed as nave and uninformed. Because of that they could be easily blinded by the westernpowers with material wealth and privileges. These African leaders developed to a small group of richelites that support the neo- colonialism.

Second Bottleneck; Part2:The situation today

Due to the totalitarian systems which can still be found in many African countries, the people of thecivil society dislike and mistrust officials and politicians because they're commonly perceived asegoistic, greedy and at last but not least corrupt. They revolt against their national state and fight forbetter rights. Regardless the public opinion, the governments don't even try to change it byapproaching one another or compromising.

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Example:

The citizens of Kenya have become prisoners and refugees within their own borders. (WangariMaathai)

They rather continue to terrorize them by refusing access to exact and independent information (e.g.independent radio and TV stations, internet sources, etc.) and disallowing people to speak infreedom, to move where and how they want to and to associate with somebody. In addition to thatthey spy on their own nations and scrutinize their civilians, e.g. by requiring them to always carryidentity cards which the police would randomly demand at gun-point.

Many African dictatorships argue that the Western influence will never work in Africa. In fact thesituation will probably not change if the civil society is continued to be kept within the currentrestrictions. Without access to the real information and external influence, the citizens won't beable to stop the powers.

Third Bottleneck:A Frustrated Democratization Process

Dr. Maathai explains in this part of her speech what the African population wants, namely justice,

equity, transparency, responsibility and accountability, () respect and human dignity. The dreams

of a decent life and an opportunity to feed, shelter and clothe their families through honest, hard

work, amongst with a strong civil society which can hold its leaders accountable and responsible

she names as the logic and satisfiable aims of each African country. All these values mentioned are

standards in Europe and North America. To achieve this, Africa needs to create such a climate of

creativity, innovativeness, self-confidence, persistence and progress in which the general security

of the nation is the most important thing.

Dr. Maathai brings a good example for her demand, mentioning Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who

told his people to create political freedom first, because without freedom neither of this aspired aims

could be reached. But in her speech Dr. Maathai demands to add liberty, equity, justice and peace

into that political freedom, as a secure foundation for all progresses.

Then she demands the world, to help Africa reaching democracy. She justifies this, saying whether

the traditional acquisition of absolute power and the control of national resources by the winner ,

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a system taught to the Africans by the Europeans during their Imperialism period, was one major

motivation for dictatorships in Africa.

Finally, Dr. Maathai gives the example of South Africa which was able to break out from this system

and achieved huge goals.

Example:

Here is another example to what happens to a country, whose democratization was wanted, but

then wasnt supported by the democratic states.

In 2011, as one of the consequences of the Arab Spring, Hosni Mubarak, the longtime potentate of

Egypt, was toppled over by his people. Mohamed Morsi was elected for next president in 2012.

During that year Morsi then tried to change the existing constitution, which caused an outcry of the

Egypt population which feared another dictatorship, when Morsi tried to eliminate the separation of

the powers. He was criticized in most northern countries for this; in Egypt itself also were

demonstrations. Nowadays the economy is massively deteriorated, the unemployment rate has

grown, in some parts of the country are riots.

This incident shows very good that it is the peoples desire to have a fair democratic system and

whether they want to live in peace and from their work. On the other hand, after 150 years under

dictatorship they simply dont have the knowledge and enough political importance to control what

is going on in their countries and to prevent bad things.

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First Bottleneck: The absence of peace and securityAfrica during the cold warOppressive governments

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