Africa makes strides in rights

By Irman G. Lanti

JAKARTA (JP): The image of Africa that comes through the media has often been strongly colored by violence. The horrendous pictures of hundreds of bodies littering a river in Rwanda and Burundi, the body of an American serviceman being dragged down the streets of Mogadishu by angry Somalians all strengthened this image.

However, like in other continents, African people are not homogeneous. They have different cultural backgrounds, different colonizers, different religions, and sometimes different skin colors. Labeling Africa as a loss continent is a gross distortion of reality.

Africa actually contains many success stories. In the distant past, many centers of advanced civilization were African, such as pharaonic Egypt, Nubia (now Egypt and Sudan), and Abyssinia (now Ethiopia and Eritrea).

In the not so distant past, the continent was a hotbed in the process of decolonization that gave birth to many states like Egypt and Ghana with their great leaders Gamal Nasser (Egypt) and Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana).

They were succeeded by leaders who worked tirelessly to guarantee the survival of the new states like Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, and Sir Seretse Khama of Botswana. Unfortunately the world community seems to be more familiar with African tyrants such as Idi Amin of Uganda and Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Kingdom.

It is true that the continent also possesses many conflicts. Disrespect for democracy is also rife. Nigeria and Rwanda can serve as examples.

Nigeria has seen a string of coups launched by numerous factions of the military in recent years.

The Rwandan case marked a black page in the history of humanity. In a senseless civil war and genocide between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority, hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. More than two million Rwandans or two-thirds of the whole population fled the country into neighboring Zaire, Tanzania and Burundi, causing regional chaos.

The portentous violence has ruined most of Rwanda's infrastructure, including public facilities, schools and hospitals, as well as the flight of many educated Rwandans.

Observers say Rwanda can only survive on foreign humanitarian, economic and technical aid in the years to come.

More such dire cases in Africa, such as in Liberia and Somalia, leave us to question the future of the continent. However, in some parts of Africa human rights records are improving and there is a trend toward democracy.

These are most commonly found in the southern part of Sub- Saharan Africa. Botswana, for example, is widely acknowledged as among the first and most consistent democratic countries in the continent. This country is also recognized for upholding it citizen's rights and of doing so since its independence in 1966.

Zambia has ended its one-party rule which was practiced for two decades. In October 1991, Zambians went to polling booths to elect members of parliament and a president in a first multiparty election. Zambians elected out of office the founder of the nation, Kenneth Kaunda, who had been in power for about 20 years, and replaced him with Frederick Chiluba.

Likewise, in May 1994, Malawians ended a one-person, one-party rule that had been its system since its independence in 1964. President Dr. Kamuzu Banda who had previously been designated as president for life, was replaced by Bakili Muluzi. Banda was even charged with political murder and put under house arrest.

Namibia, Angola and Mozambique are countries that have been ravaged by civil wars. Much of the infrastructure in these nations was destroyed. The first half of this decade, however, has also witnessed an end to wars in these countries.

Namibia embarked on a peace process earlier than the other African nations. In November 1989, assisted by the UN, Namibia held its first free election following years of bitter conflict. This election was won by the South West Africa People's Organization lead by President Sam Nujoma. Since then, democratic practices are carried out in this former German colony. In December 1994, a second election was held and Nujoma's party maintained its victory.

Portugal left its two colonies in Southern Africa, Angola and Mozambique, in a condition of enormous uncertainty. There was no clarity of who should run the country after the colonial power left. As a result, fighting between factions erupted.

The superpower rivalry worsened this problem. Both the U.S. and Soviet Union had interests in this part of the world and engaged in supporting one faction fighting the other. The end of the Cold War ceased to make armed struggle as desirable an option.

In October 1992, Mozambique's warring factions, the FRELIMO and RENAMO, reached a General Peace Accord which ended the civil war and led to the holding of a first multiparty election. It was won by FRELIMO and its leader President Joaquim Chissano. Mozambique has since experienced peace and better human rights conditions.

Although the process seemed to be harder, Angola followed in Mozambique's footsteps when in November 1994, the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA rebels led by Jonas Savimbi signed a peace agreement known as the Lusaka Protocol.

After decades of apartheid, South Africa finally arrived at democracy during the first nonracial election in May 1994. Nelson Mandela was elected president. Mandela is quite a phenomenon in himself. He was imprisoned for 27 years, spending some of that term in solitary confinement and most of it doing forced labor.

He refused to break under such pressure, and instead built a strong sense of humanity. Rather than revenging his former oppression, he decided to set up a government of national unity, a multiparty, all-races government.

In an unprecedented move Mandela appointed his white predecessor, F.W. de Klerk as one of the state's two deputy presidents.

Media coverage on events in Africa has not been balanced. It is not that the media have fabricated facts but they tend to overlook positive development because dramatic events sell better.

Along with the continent's many problems there have been many encouraging developments for millions of Africans, in terms of political democracy and human rights.

The writer is a researcher at the Jakarta-based Center for Information and Development Studies who served as a volunteer in Botswana in the summer of 1995.