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USA: Africa Fund Consultation
USA: Africa Fund Consultation
Date distributed (ymd): 970426
Document reposted by APIC
AFRICA FUND
April 25, 1997
Contact: Richard Knight, The Africa Fund, 17 John Street - 12th Floor,
New York, NY 10038 Phone: (212) 962-1210 Fax: (212) 964-8570 E-mail: africafund@igc.org
State Legislators Meet on U.S. Africa Policy
State legislators from across the United States gathered in Washington
DC on April 18-19 to explore ways to strengthen U.S. aid, trade and investment
ties and support for human rights and democracy in Africa. The legislators,
including Tennessee Rep. Lois DeBerry, President of the National Black
Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), Arkansas Rep. Irma Hunter-Brown, Oregon
State Senator Avel Gordly, Mississippi State Senator Hillman Frazier, California
Rep. Diane Watson and Wisconsin Rep. Spencer Coggs, met with leading U.S.
and African political and human rights leaders, including California Congresswoman
Maxine Waters, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, South African Trade
and Industry Minister Alec Erwin and Carol Peasley, Acting Assistant Administrator
for Africa in the U.S. Agency for International Development. The meeting,
The National Consultation on U.S. Policy Toward Africa, was sponsored by
The Africa Fund with the support of the Carnegie Corporation.
Assessing U.S. policy towards Africa, Congresswoman Waters told the
legislators that it was time for the United States, and particularly African
American leaders, to break with African dictators such as Nigerian military
ruler Sani Abacha and Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko. Nigerian government
lobbyists, Waters noted, spend "tremendous amounts of money"
buying support in the African American community. "I am constantly
contacted by African American ministers, heads of organizations and business
people" on Abacha's behalf. "We are allowing them to advance
the wrong leaders, leaders that are not about democracy, leaders that are
starving people, leaders that are killing people." Abacha's apologists,
said Waters, argue that the regime "is doing for Nigeria what no one
else can do. And I almost always answer 'Yeah, in the name of dictatorship.'"
Creating American jobs and expanding trade and economic cooperation
with Africa was a major theme of the conference. Massachusetts State Senator
Mark Montigny described his state's relationship with South Africa's Eastern
Cape province and noted that a Massachusetts trade mission was in route
to South Africa to explore business opportunities. But he cautioned that
free trade must also be fair. "Friends of commerce cannot be our partners
if they are the enemies of justice. There can be no independence without
political liberation, and no political liberation without social and economic
liberation."
Connecticut Representative Reginald Beamon urged state legislators to
become more involved with U.S. economic policy towards Africa. "Four
years ago international trade was only a State Department issue. Now, with
investment portfolios and pension funds, state governments are involved
in trade policy." It was up to African American legislators in particular,
he said, to promote aid, trade and cultural exchanges with Africa. New
York State has a permanent trade office in South Africa, while Oregon recently
passed legislation to establish a similar African trade mission. Texas
Rep. Helen Giddings will host over 100 African business people and non-governmental
organizations in Dallas later this year.
Gugile Nkwinti, the Speaker of South Africa's Eastern Cape Provincial
legislature, applauded the growing state involvement in both economic development
and democratization. "Local authorities [in South Africa and the U.S.]
must hook up," he said. "Americans have experience with veterans,
with serious crime, many such experiences we can learn from."
South African trade minister Erwin, a former trade unionist and anti-apartheid
activist, told the conference that Africa was a continent of "massive
wealth" and opportunity. With a population of over 135 million and
vast natural resources, Erwin noted, the southern African region "is
the richest economic zone in the world." Stressing the importance
of development for the entire region, Minister Erwin added, "South
Africa cannot be healthy unless our neighbors grow. We will build and build
and build and not come begging to anyone. Soon the world will come to us."
The importance of the consultation for U.S. policy toward Africa, said
Africa Fund Executive Director Jennifer Davis, lay in the engagement of
elected officials outside of Washington. "We were fortunate to have
with us many of the state legislators who helped end U.S. support for apartheid
South Africa. Now we want to work in effective partnership with the new
democracies in southern Africa, keeping faith with African people in countries
like Nigeria who are struggling for democracy. To achieve these goals U.S.
policymaking must itself become more inclusive and more democratic. With
this consultation we have taken an important step in that direction."
The program of speakers at the National Consultation on U.S. Policy
Toward Africa included the following:
Africa in the 21st Century
Chair: Tilden LeMelle, Chair, The Africa Fund
Jennifer Davis, Executive Director, The Africa Fund - The Africa Fund
- Impacting in a New Age
Thelma M. Awori, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Policy and
Program Support, United Nations Development Program - Africa's Challenges,
Africa's Initiatives
Alec Erwin, Minister of Trade and Industry, South Africa - The SADC
Perspective
Representative Irma Hunter Brown (Arkansas), Chair, International Affairs
Committee, National Black Caucus of State Legislators - Why We Are Here
Aid, Trade and Investment Getting the Mix Right
Chair: Assemblyman Albert Vann (New York)
Carol Peasley, Acting Assistant Administrator, USAID - The Role of U.S.
Aid to Africa
Salih Booker, Senior Fellow, Africa Studies Program, Council on Foreign
Relations - U.S. Aid, Trade and Investment - Getting the Mix Right
Representative Reginald Beamon (Connecticut) - Legislative Respondent
Promoting Constructive Trade And Investment in Africa
Chair: Senator Mark Montigny (Massachusetts)
Mr. Gugile Nkwinti, Speaker of the Legislature of the Eastern Cape,
South Africa - Building Links Between South African Provinces and U.S.
States
Rosa Whitaker, for Representative Charles Rangel (New York) - The Africa
Trade Initiative
Frank McCoy, Business Editor, Our World News, former Senior Editor,
Black Enterprise Magazine - Promoting Progressive Investment in Africa
Mark Clack, OxFam America - Respondent
Luncheon Plenary
Chair: Jennifer Davis, Executive Director, The Africa Fund
Introduction: Representative Lois DeBerry (Tennessee), Speaker Pro Tem
and President, National Black Caucus of State Legislators
Speaker: Representative Maxine Waters (California), Chairwoman, Congressional
Black Caucus
Dialogue Sessions: Local Initiatives - National Impact
Group One
Chair: Senator Diane Watson (California)
Representative Helen Giddings (Texas) - The Texas Initiative
Senator Hillman Frazier (Mississippi) - Building Educational Links
Group Two
Chair: Representative Spencer Coggs (Wisconsin)
Senator Avel Gordly (Oregon) - Promoting Oregon Trade
Kenneth B. Sylvester, Director of Pension Policy, Office of the Comptroller,
City of New York - Socially Responsible New York City Policy for Investing
in Emerging Markets in Africa
Democracy and Human Rights in Africa
Chair: Senator Virgil Clark Smith (Michigan)
Gay McDougall, Executive Director, International Human Rights Law Group
- Democracy and Human Rights: Advances and Challenges
Dapo Olorunyomi, Fellow, Panos Institute, former editor, Concord and
Guardian newspapers, Nigeria - The Nigerian Case
Dr. Alice Palmer, University of Chicago - Respondent
State Legislators and U.S. Policy
Chair: Representative Laura Hall (Alabama)
Dumisani Kumalo, Director for U.S. Relations, Department of Foreign
Affairs, South Africa - Constituency Impact on Policy - Agenda for the
21st Century
Jennifer Davis, Executive Director, The Africa Fund - Concluding Remarks
and Thanks
RECEPTION AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN EMBASSY
Host: Ambassador Franklin and Mrs. Joan Sonn
Background Documents provided for participants included:
U.S.-South Africa Foreign Policy (Interhemispheric Resource Center and
Institute for Policy Studies, by Jennifer Davis)
Provincial Government in South Africa (Africa Fund)
Africa Policy Outlook 1997 (Africa Policy Information Center)
Mobil In Nigeria: Partner in Oppression (Africa Fund, by Michael Fleshman)
The Struggle for Freedom in Nigeria (Africa Fund, by Michael Fleshman)
Human Rights Activism in Africa: A Frog's Eye View (Codesria, by J.
Oloka-Onyango)
New Strategies for U.S. Foreign Aid to Africa (Africa Fund, by Jim Cason)
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the Africa
Policy Information Center (APIC), the educational affiliate of the Washington
Office on Africa. APIC's primary objective is to widen the policy debate
in the United States around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa,
by concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant information and
analysis usable by a wide range of groups and individuals.
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