Africa

With over 6.7 billion people inhabiting this earth, there stands to reason that the global community is riddled with conflict. The entire course of human history is rife with genocide, war, starvation, and injustice and the problems of today involve huge numbers of people. The real issue that never ceases to amaze me is the ongoing and rampant systematic killings of entire ethnic groups in Africa. Genocide, for that is the right word for it, has been repeated time and time again, and after each occurrence, we as responsible world citizens vow “Never Again”. A mere 10 years after the tragic and rapid mass murders of the Tutsis tribal members in Rwanda by the Hutu tribe, such killings are happening again in Darfur, an area in Sudan. In Somalia, just a few years after failed Western involvement, tensions between ethnic groups are again on the rise. War in the Congo, raging for almost 15 years, has already killed more people than WWII, and the death toll continues to rise. This turbulent atmosphere across practically the entire continent is largely unknown to many in America and the rest of the world, and it is from Western involvement in the “colonization” of Africa in the past that many of these conflicts have arisen.
I think it is important to examine some of the current conflicts ongoing in Africa, because to look at all the factors inherent in the fabric of warfare on the continent and all the past wars would take a very long time. Books have been written on tribal differences that have been responsible for literally thousands of years of warfare between certain ethnic groups, so I think it is more important for us, as responsible global citizens, to look towards resolution of current conflicts and try to help appease some of this ancient violence. Almost every single African nation has experienced warfare in some form within the past 100 years, often leading to heavy persecutions of civilians, assassinations of political figures, and unstable humanitarian conditions. Right now, there is violence in Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Nigeria, just to name a few. (Wikipedia.org, 2009) The decimation of tribesmen in Darfur in Sudan by government-backed militias has already led many nations to classify it as ”genocide” and it has left over 300,000 dead with millions more displaced. (BBC News, 2009) In Uganda, children are regularly pressed into military service, with violent indoctrination techniques and widespread drug and alcohol abuse used to incite young boys to kill. (Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2007) Nigeria has had very intense warfare over the five years, due to conflicts over natural resources; more specifically it’s vast oil reserves, and the incumbent wealth disparity among its people. (Al Jazeera, 2009) 45,000 people continue to die each month in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has involved seven other nations, vying to influence their own ideas into what the DRC could become. (Shah, 2008) This is only a short list of ongoing conflicts, and the unfortunate thing is that there are so many more that I have not listed. It is a sad fact that there are so many conflicts going on at the same time on the same continent and that they continue to get worse. If such violence was happening in Europe, it would be called World War III, and it certainly wouldn’t have lasted the decades that African hostilities have. It is impossible to estimate the amount of human casualties from this fighting but I’m sure it is in excess of the tens of millions, and that’s just on one single continent.
A few general factors that have contributed to this violent nature of a continent are such things like starvation, poverty, and tribal tensions. Also, with the advent of Western expansionism, European nations carved up Africa according to their divisions, and didn’t take into account the borders that had existed for millennia. Western nations attempted to exploit Africa for its natural resources, and to insure they got what they wanted, established countries set up puppet governments over their newly carved states. Poor management and corruption led many of these nations to crumble economically, which led to poverty, which almost always leads to conflict. With Europe weakened by WWII, it lost a lot of influence in Africa, and as the US and Soviet Union became the two biggest superpowers in the world, they too struggled for control of the continent. Also, in sub-Saharan Africa, there is religious conflict. There are Christians, Muslims, and countless other tribal and local beliefs, which is bound to create some trouble. When one group arms itself, another arms itself in response, and the US and other nations continue to supply weapons to the groups they back. (Shah, Conflicts in Africa - An Introduction, 2009)
However, even given its rocky past and present, the world community needs to embrace Africa, and the only way to do that is through knowledge and awareness. It is the cradle of civilization and has some of the most beautiful land in the world. It has literally hundreds of different cultures, languages, and tribes, which makes it the most interesting place anthropologically. I feel that Africa is a cause to fight for, no longer using violence, but through the knowledge by the general world of the atrocities committed on a daily basis. It affects the entire world, as Africa has become a haven for extremists and “terrorists”. Look at Somalia. Pirates regularly hijack ships, holding Westerners for ransom and funding further piracy through the plunder. This problem has to be addressed at its source, and by stabilizing governments and populations maybe peace can finally be achieved. It is up to us to turn the public eye back to Africa and pressure the international community to finally help.

Bibliography
Al Jazeera. (2009, June 9). Poor miss out on Nigerian oil riches. Retrieved October 29, 2009, from Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/06/200969602685686

BBC News. (2009, October 30). Africa backs Darfur crimes court. Retrieved October 30, 2009, from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8333531.stm

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. (2007). Some Facts. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from Child-Soldiers.org: http://www.child- soldiers.org/childsoldiers/some-facts

Shah, A. (2009, January 3). Conflicts in Africa - An Introduction. Retrieved Nov 1, 2009, from Global Issues: http://www.globalissues.org/article/84/conflicts- in-africa-introduction

Shah, A. (2008, March 27). The Democratic Republic of Congo. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from Global Issues: http://www.globalissues.org/article/87/the- democratic-republic-of-congo

Wikipedia.org. (2009, October 16). List of African Conflicts. Retrieved October 29, 2009, from Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Africa