Sierra Faith

National Review Online’s David Frum has been writing about Africa:

The way Westerners respond to Africa is almost a cartoon of liberal piety at its most oozing. Generous souls like the people organizing the Live 8 concerts are eager to cudgel Western governments and corporations for not “doing more”–but only after catastrophe has struck. In advance of the catastrophe–when there is real action that might be taken and not just compassionate attitudes to be struck–those general souls are far less energetic, for the powerful reason that action then would require more truth than they are comfortable hearing.

Having traveled to Africa in 2000, I witnessed a continent full of Hope and evil.

The Hope in Jesus is infectious and abounding. My aunt, uncle, cousin and I visited churches associated with those founded by my grandfather over 75 years ago. We delighted in the privilege of staying with a church family for nearly a week, and I can attest that Christianity is alive and well in Africa, and people living in materialistic poverty (admittedly a poor measure) are rich in their love of their Lord and life.

When I toured Soweto, I remember my guide saying visitors either love Africa or hate it. I immediately fell in love. In love with the people and their rich and abundant lands. I remember the cafe in Soweto where the African food was a delight, the company and conversation something I will never forget. It was eerie to walk the streets where blood had flowed only too freely in battles between the races just years before.

Has evil been defeated in South Africa?

No. My tour of Jo’burg was first-hand confirmation of the crime wave that has flooded much of South Africa since the transition of power. My Zulu guide remembered days when he would bring his family downtown and enjoy the vibrancy that is South African culture, but shuddered at the thought of doing so in 2000. Cape Town, the metropolitan jewel of the continent, also suffers from crime that most Americans would find intolerable.

Can we have degrees of evil — can the evil of apartheid be distinguished from the evil of a government that cannot maintain order but enjoys the (again) materialistic benefits of corruption? Apartheid was a blight of ignorance and fear, and its demise is goodness, but I do not regret my opposition to the self-righteous disengagement policies of Western elites in the 1980’s. My opposition was motivated by the void that nature abhors and evil often fills.

Given American and European history, the evil of corruption was destined to be given a free pass as Frum notes:

Right now, and right before our eyes, the next African catastrophe is gathering in South Africa. South Africa is so advanced and rich that its ruin will take some time, but the direction on which the country is moving is obvious and ominous. Brave individual reporters like Andrew Kenny who contributes often to the UK Spectator have tried to sound the alarm in articles like this and this. But for the most part, discussion is silenced either by the hand hand of the South African government or by the heavier hand of political correctness and self-censorship.

For three decades, liberal opinion talked of South Africa as perhaps the single most important issue on planet earth. When I attended college in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were gigantic rallies every spring, cheered not just by the usual motley campus radicals but by just about about everyone, student and teacher, with a prudent regard for conventional opinion.

And then Nelson Mandela came to power and the issue just … faded away. It didn’t vanish quite: From time to time, Mandela would tour Europe or the US, and the world press would hail him as a combination of George Washington and St. Francis of Assisi. But the hard questions that might normally be asked about a new constitutional regime–who has gained power? how are they using it? for whose benefit? with what likely consequences?–these went unasked. And when answers emerged anyway, they were not just ignored, but suppressed.

The corruption that now infects South Africa has infected many other African countries for decades, and I fear the same may be true for South Africa for decades to come.

Frum shares thoughts from a Zimbabwean.

“This past week and the weeks ahead are likely to be dominated by discussion on the future of Africa and the role that aid, debt relief and trade reform can play in alleviating the devastating poverty in much of Africa. But I am afraid that this debate will miss the main obstacle to growth and development in Africa, which is weak and corrupt leadership. . . .

“Today Zimbabwe is a basket case – we cannot feed our people, we have destroyed over half the formal sector jobs in the economy, our industry is in tatters, all other sectors of the economy either shrinking or stagnant. Our social services are a mess and life expectancy has halved. We are poorer than we were 30 years ago and there is no sign of an end to the decline and all pervading despair.

“No amount of aid or debt relief or trade concessions are going to help this country get out of the hole it is in – only a radical change of direction and leadership will do that and I am afraid that this same analysis applies to many countries on the continent.

“People talk of a ‘Marshal Plan’ for Africa, failing to recognize that countries like Zimbabwe have been the recipients of more aid per capita than was applied to Europe in 1945. . . .

“Quite frankly until African leaders themselves put their own houses in order there should be no talk of assistance of any kind. It is ridiculous that Ethiopia with its rich agricultural resources has been supported by massive food aid for over 20 years. Just take a look at Nigeria – one of the oil giants of the world yet threatened with instability and rising poverty that belies its wealth and status.

“Development and poverty alleviation take discipline, honesty, openness and democracy in national political life. It takes hard work and commitment and the strict observance of the rule of law and the guarantee of investor rights and business contracts. If African leaders applied these principles to their own and their public lives they would bring prosperity and freedom to their countries.”

I pray that we do not do to Africa what we have done to our own schools and poor — throw money down a hole lined with bureaucrats and malcontents whose selfishness devolves into a political right and corruption. Time will tell of our efforts to help, but wisdom and honesty are watchwords.

Yes, there is evil in Africa — evil leaders who are destroying their continent and attempting to steal the dreams of their people.

Yet God’s Creation thrives in Africa, a land of plenty and beauty. One need only visit Table Mountain or the Cape of Good Hope or a game reserve to experience His Creation.

And, if you visit Africa, visit a church — a church that is alive with The Hope that transforms and has defeated Evil.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 at 1:36 AM and is filed under Faith, Public Square. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.