What do we know about Africa? Raise your hand who believes that our knowledge of the great earth that gave rise to the human species is not few, confused and very seasoned with prejudices. Even a titled expert is aware of this, Joseph Mistretta, a diplomat who has spent the vast majority of his professional experience living and studying on the black continent, former ambassador to Angola and Ethiopia, after having served in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya, as well as in the US and Great Britain. Today he continues to deal with African affairs, holding the position of Director for the sub-Saharan area at the Foreign Ministry.
To erase stereotypes and false knowledge, he has written his latest book, the fifth dedicated to the great continent. A very useful book. The title is: "The ways of Africa - The future of the continent between Europe, Italy, China and new players"; is published by "Infinito editions", a publishing house that publishes a specific series called "Afriche". A precious book also because, as Romano Prodi writes in the introduction, "Africa's prospects concern all of us, especially us Europeans, and especially us Italians". All the chapters are interesting for those who want to deepen (or just begin to know) the history of the great continent: why has it never taken off? What should you expect in the near future? What are the most probable ways of development? And then the role of China, that of Europe, of Italy. And that of the other countries, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf States, India, Japan, the so-called new Actors, as they are defined.
But above all Mistretta, in addition to offering new information (and it does, by providing the most up-to-date news on life in African countries), tries to eliminate old and false information.
So let's start with stereotypes. And from what it doesn't look like at all: “We need a new Marshall Plan to move the continent forward”, how many times have you heard that? Even a little out of turn. Indeed, it could be said that by now a "Marshall" does not deny himself to anyone; in the sense that, if you really don't have anything else to offer, you throw it out there and it certainly has the effect of him. But let's get into it. For example: how much did the American plan cost (in Erp jargon, European Recovery Program) which helped, starting in 1947, to revive the European economy devastated by the Second World War? According to the latest calculations, 14 billion dollars for four years, only two more than the administration of President Truman and his Secretary of State, George Marshall, had budgeted. Over the past fifty years aid to the African continent - explains Mistretta - amounted, by default, to a trillion and a half dollars. More or less 20 billion a year, instead of the 3,5 allocated to Europe by the Marshall Plan. So it's not about the money, because they have never been missing. Even if this does not mean that the author embraces the thesis of those who, like the Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo ("The charity that kills", 2009), argued that it was precisely the aid, causing an endless chain of corruption, inefficiency and dependence, to stop the development of Africa.
What happened then? Why didn't Africa take off? If Mistretta asks and we ask ourselves.
Mistretta lists what he believes are the main problems that continue to nail the continent: “Political immaturity, corruption, application of socialist schemes in non-advanced economies, climate not always suitable for investments and business, wars and political tensions, predatory and short-sighted attitude of European colonialism".
1) THE YOUNG AGE OF AFRICAN STATES
Take political immaturity, for example. It is difficult to consider a matter as verifiable as a scientific experiment, but it is undoubtedly a solid basis from which to start in non-biased reasoning on the continent. We often forget that Europeans started building their own states in the 60th century, while Africans started at best XNUMX years ago. Mistretta reminds us of this, pointing out that the first sub-Saharan African state to achieve independence was Ghana, in 1957, the last was South Sudan, in 2011. “Between these two dates – continues the author – is the liberation from the colonial rule of the other countries in the area. Eritrea has been independent since 1993; Namibia since 1990; Mozambique and Angola have been since 1975”. So – is Mistretta's reasoning – “if the young age of African states it is not the only reason that explains the delay in continental development, it is however the fundamental one: history must be given time to develop its processes, and undoubtedly fifty or sixty years are not enough to stably affirm progress, well-being, democracy, peace and freedom".
2) THE THOUSAND FACES OF CORRUPTION
The second cause of the delayed development of Africa, on which Mistretta dwells, is the corruption and under this heading, in Africa as everywhere in the world, we must place the various nuances of the crime: from embezzlement to extortion, passing through extortion, clientelism, nepotism and various types of fraud.
And to give an idea Mistretta recalls how “Mobutu's personal treasury amounted to about $5 billion, embezzled from Zaire's coffers, the current Democratic Republic of Congo, during its 32-year dictatorship”. While that of the Libyan leader Gaddafi was valued at approx 60 billion dollars, never fully localized by the way. But even the former president of Angola, Eduardo Dos Santos, had set aside for better times the nice nest egg of 2 billion dollars, equal to the amount raised by the former president of South Africa Jacob Zuma, who ended up on trial for this . A meager amount, however, "only" one hundred million dollars in cash, was found in the apartments of the former president of Sudan, al-Bashir. Corruption obviously exists at all latitudes, but – believes Mistretta – in Africa it is the problem of problems, because "it is favored by widespread poverty, especially at the level of local administrators, who are more vulnerable as they are often underpaid, as well as poorly trained ; by the lack or inefficiency of the system of cross-checks between the institutions; from the belief, widespread in the establishments, that power almost naturally implies a certain degree of arbitrariness, such as to allow the hoarding of money and goods”.
Not that things aren't changing, mostly thanks to a new generation of heads of state which has made the fight against corruption the first of the battles for African rebirth. And Mistretta mentions some of them: Paul Kagame (president of Rwanda), Joao Laurenço (Angola), Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Abiy Ahmed (Ethiopia) and Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria). But it is a question that advanced countries must also face - argues Mistretta - because it is also in their interest to support the development of the continent. What can they do? Training, training, training: above all new levers of controllers, first of all the police, starting from the fiscal ones.
3) POST-COLONIAL POLITICS
Another reason why Africa has lagged behind in development - recalls Mistretta - is that of political choices practiced after decolonialization. The world was divided in two, we all remember that. And also Africa: some countries chose the Soviet route (Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ghana and Somalia); others the western one (Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ivory Coast and Gabon). In the end, none of the paths followed has brought about great progress in African countries, while in some of them the situation has been aggravated by civil wars (in Angola and Mozambique for example); or from traditional wars (between Somalia and Ethiopia, or between the latter and Eritrea, or again between Libya and Chad). Yet when the leaderships have shown themselves to be more prepared and efficient, the economic take-off has taken place despite wars of all kinds. This is the case in Rwanda, where one of the most brutal genocides in history took place in 1994, but which is now being cited as a model of Africa moving forward.
4) CHINESE HANDS ON AFRICA
Continuing to talk about approximate news that we have on Africa, one is undoubtedly the one that concerns “Chinese hands” on the mainland. Of course, Mistretta reminds us, China has built around 33 percent of African infrastructure works and financed 21 percent of them. And Beijing is conspicuously the most powerful individual investor in infrastructure in Africa and has a long-term vision, with more or less hidden political agendas. But looking at the numbers, Europe is Africa's biggest partner. If China makes direct investments for about 40 million euros, European ones are six times as much, i.e. over 220 billion euros. As far as import-export is concerned, trade between the EU and Africa amounts to 235 billion euros, double that with Beijing. In short, it is we Europeans who hold the African game in hand and not the Chinese. And our game, even the specifically Italian one, starts from historical and ideal reasons which lead us (in exchange for aid programs) to hold African partners to account for their behavior with regard to human and civil rights and social progress. Something that the Beijing government does not do for obvious reasons and which sometimes makes it easier for some African rulers to deal with.
5) ITALY AND AFRICA
Observation that leads to another stereotype to be eliminated and which concerns Italy's foreign policy in Africa. It's not all boats to sink or save depending on the color of the government: it has an ancient and solid tradition, which dates back to the post-war years and the first Republic. A tradition so appreciated that Italy is often called upon to act as interpreter of African needs within the group of 27 European members, Mistretta reminds us in the chapter concerning our country. We should only continue on this path with "more conviction and intensity", as Mistretta claims. “If all our competitors make no secret of having their own national agendas and strategies – he explains – there would be nothing wrong with also publicly claiming that our sphere of interests is the enlarged Mediterranean, which therefore comes to include the northern part of the 'Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf. All these scenarios are now closely linked and interconnected and find, for example, crossing points in the areas of the Sahel, in the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden, on which our country, not only for the migratory reasons that are immediately , can be considered involved”.
In short, it is objective that Italy is an important country in Europe and in the Mediterranean: we too should believe in it a little more, as our grandparents would have concluded. And as Giuseppe Mistretta fundamentally believes.
