The history of Africa provides great insight to the complexities of development and poverty alleviation. In chapter 49, Reader explains a series of events that took place at the start of the 20th century. After 25 years of above average rain-fall, the continent entered a horrible drought. At the same time, a cattle plague known as the Rinderpest swept through the continent killing 90-95% of the continents cattle within a few years. Drought turned into famine and people began dying all across the continent. This was compounded by brutal colonial policies and resistance movements. The machine-gun was introduced and the people became completely powerless over their oppressors. If that weren't bad enough, the Tetse fly was able to thrive due to the lack of cattle grazing and killed millions of Africans with Trypanosomiasis.
What a crappy series of events! All the technology, economic policies, infrastructure investments, political stability, and good-will in the world could not prevent a similar event from happening today. If it won't rain, it won't rain. If all your cattle are infected with a rotten disease, they're going to die. If all the flies are giving you a disease, you're doomed! It just sucks. Development is extremely complex! And nature can have its way with you whenever it wants. There are so many reasons why poverty exists and some of them (like the weather) are completely out of our control.
The part I find most amusing about this series of unfortunate events is on page 592. After all the cattle are dead and much of the human population has starved, the wild animals take over the former villages and grazing lands. Do-gooder conservationists from the West then come along and turn the people's land into national parks and prohibit them from ever grazing again! "Believing that the plains and woodlands packed with animals were a manifestation of "natural" perfection, untouched by humanity, they [the conservationists] declared that they should be preserved from human depredation for evermore. Most are now tetse-infested game parks."
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It is interesting how the natural calamities proved to be invaluable to the colonial powers in gaining and maintaining control of the region (with but a thin white line). If you wanted to create the ideal environment for dominating millions of people and millions of square miles of land -- i.e. extract as much benefit as possible from the resources available while investing as few resources as possible to achieve the objectives (basically maximizing the return on investment) -- what would be your formula for success? Poor communication? Ignorance? Hardship that leads to a hope for a better life? Natural enemies and distrust? ...
ReplyDeleteA good starting point might be for the the people to be "more concerned with the day-to-day imperatives of life than with the grievances of their leaders" (pg. 586). It improves the prospect for success (and soothes the conscience) when one can enter on a white horse as the savior -- the builder of nations -- and offer a perceived "lifeline" to a better way.