Should African Nations Help Ayiti (Haiti)?

Posted by the Ghetto Intellectual 2/1/2010 (NB: I have been trying to finish this post for over a week. But I have decided to send it out as is. GI)


Dig it!
 

2/5/2010 Update 1: The Christian Science Monitor asks if African countries can afford to help Haiti. (Dap @ Chinyere Osuji)

2/8/2010 Update 2: Ghana ranked the second most generous donor to Ayiti (Haiti). 

President John Atta Mills has followed up on his previous promise of support for the Ayiti (Haiti) Relief Effort. Ghanaian officials have announced that Ghana will donate $3 million. They have also promised a future donation of "relief items."  Ayitians in Ghana are sponsoring a concert, Helping Hands for Haiti. The proceeds will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (NB: I DO NOT endorse the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund. There are better options). The Caribbean Association of Ghana has pledged $500 dollars to the relief effort. I have seen numerous additional efforts in Ghana to support Ayiti.

Stepping up (this list is not exhaustive)

Currently, there is no coordinated response from the African Union, but more African nations are stepping up. Blogger Emeka Chiakwelu reports that Rwanda and Liberia have pledged $100,000 and $50, 000 respectively. President Ernest Koroma, has pledged $100,000 on behalf of Sierra Leone.
South Africa reportedly has 5,000 health professionals on the ground in Ayiti. Nigeria has a peace keeping contingent in Ayiti and Nigerian leaders have deliberated on sending 7.2 million naira (roughly $50,000 US, I think). Senegal's parliament has committed 500 million CFA ($1 million) to the relief effort. Even Somalian so-called pirates have offered to donate ransom money.

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has offered free land Haitians who want to emigrate to the home of their Ancestors. Some of my Senegalese and Gambian friends dismiss Wade's plan as the delusional ideas of a man who is either "old and senile" or "reactionary" or both.

My virtual friend, Kelechi, doesn't like Wade's land scheme either, but he offers this intriguing counter-proposal:

Senegal, as a 'senior' member of the African Union, could organize/encourage a continental, measurable effort on the part of the member nations toward the rebuilding of Haiti's Ouest Department. If each government contributed an average of $5 million, we would be talking about almost $300 million (roughly 5% of Haiti's GDP). An international body such as the UN could be called in as a consultant or independent observer to oversee the administration of funds for relief in the most pressing areas. It would be the hope that this would be matched by the European Union and the United States. (to date, the US has pledged $10million, while only a handful of European countries have pledged an average of $2 million).


I would also advocate for the relieving of duty of American 'peace keeping' forces by African Union troops, to provide security. American military can only operated in the mindset of war, and such is not the case in Haiti. African health professionals, who usually leave home seeking international experience, could also be deployed to Port-au-Prince to aid in the human recovery.

Repatriation?

I believe that repatriation is a moral right possessed by all descendants of the Middle Passage. Wade's offer should be commended. I don't imagine that many Ayitians would take up the offer. But Ayitians who do want to settle in Senegal should be provided with whatever support is necessary to do so. We must also be careful that the rights of the citizens of Senegal are equally protected. (Update: the African Union has announced that it will deliberate on Wade's proposal.)

***

Some of My Ghanaian friends and I have a running joke 


kzs: "I am looking forward to the day that I can live in Ghana permanently!"


Ghanaian friend: "Eeiii! Kwame. You Black Americans are constantly trying to return to Africa whilst we Africans are trying to get out of Africa! 


This is always said in jest, yet one can't deny the irony. 

(But the story is complicated. Even as people are now debating who the "real" American Americans are, Ghanaians who grew up abroad are returning to Ghana...)

Should Africa Help? Under what circumstances?

But back to the criticisms. Should cash strapped African nations who get a significant part of the budget from so-called donor nations donate to Ayiti? What about nations like the Congo (DRC) who are ensconced in a civil war? Congo has pledged 2.5 million to the relief effort. Is this action irresponsible? Some of my colleagues say yes, but I wonder if they are grasping the urgency of Haiti's plight?


Kwame Nkrumah, faced a similar barrage of naysayers when he loaned Guinea-Conakry 20 million and, later, when he sent troops to DRC to aide Patrice Lumumba. History has proven Nkrumah right and the naysayers wrong. Judging from some of the criticism leveled at Joseph Kabila, one would think that Kabila had ceded their entire budget to Haiti. 

There are folks in Ayiti who need help urgently. At this very moment a doctor is contemplating amputating a limb of a Haitian woman, man or child with no anesthesia. Sending a few million to Ayitians--many of whom are direct descendants of the Kongo Kingdom--who urgently need it is pan-African gesture that we should support. Indeed every African nation should donate something.

So what are your thoughts on the matter? Should African nations help Haiti? If so, should there be a criteria? If, for example, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan offered a financial contribution should it be accepted?  



tags: abdoulaye wade, african union, congo, earthquake, ghana, haiti, Liberia, patrice lumumba, repatriation, rwanda, Senegal, sierra leone, Somalia