| The World Bank and Africa -- Communities Around the World A conversation with Poet Dennis Brutus interviewed by John Peterson When we speak of community we refer to our city, our neighborhood, or our extended group of friends and peers, but, as economic leaders so often say, we are affected by a global economy and what happens in one community has significance in another, even around the world. Poetry and poets have over the centuries take on social problems acting as a voice for the aspirations of people seeking a better "place in which we can live." Dennis Brutus is such a poet. I met Dennis in San Diego some years ago where he came for a conference and to read poetry. Dennis is a South African, an internationally renown poet, and a professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. We agreed to have a conversation on the effects of World Bank economic policies on Africa. This interview was slated to be published elsewhere and was not, I publish it here because I believe it has something to say about the world in which we live. We constantly see references to the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) as the effects of the global economy either assists or destroys peoples around the world. Though Africa is addressed here we see the same effect in Latin America and Asia, as well as Russia. Dennis was born in Zimbabwe, raised in South Africa and began protesting against South African apartheid from an early age. He was banned from South Africa in 1961, arrested in 1963, shot in the back while trying to escape, and imprisoned on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were imprisoned. Exiled in 1966, he fought constantly for the freedom of South Africans under apartheid and for other oppressed people throughout the world. His poetry (see letteR 5 poetry) attests to the passion with which he views the struggle for freedom. His recent books include Stubborn Hope and Still the Sirens. He has travels regularly to South Africa as the government of Nelson Mandela (this interview occurred during the time of Mandela Presidency and was published in 1999) deals with the effects of years of apartheid. Dennis: I want to start very topically if I can, and that's with a major statement by the World Bank and the UN in March 1996 on what's called the Special Initiative on African (SIA). Roughly what I'm interested in talking about is the significance of World Bank strategy in relation to Africa, but also globally, because I see it as a major threat to economic survival, and even survival of the planet. I'm interested in the environmental aspect of it, but of course mostly the economic aspect. The World Bank was created at the close of WWII by US and British private banking interests at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. It's purpose was to insure that private capital would be available for the large rebuilding effort that would occur with the ending of the War. US and other Western interests have always been paramount at the bank. The World Bank and it's counterpart, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are headquartered in Washington DC. Most people know little or nothing about this important, powerful, and mysterious international lending agency, kept mysterious by design. Dennis: People are beginning to argue that the way the World Bank has operated in the past has been, in Africa, only to fatten the elite and to strengthen the military dictatorships, but the condition of the masses of the people has not improved and, in fact, has actually become worse (with the involvement of the World Bank). "Fifty-four percent of the population (of Africa) is estimated to live in absolute poverty, and Africa is the only region in the world in which poverty is projected to increase over the next decade." "Twenty-two out of the 25 countries appearing in the...category of "low human development" countries are in Africa, and 33 out of 47 Least Developed Countries are also in Africa." Taken from the UN Special Initiative on Africa (SIA). Dennis: The UN estimates there are 220 million people living in poverty in Africa at the present time. Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) were designed by the World Bank and the IMF in the early 80s to force countries who found themselves in debt to northern hemisphere banks to make fundamental changes in their economic and political structures in order to repay the debts. SAPs forced them to give up power over their state controlled economies and open their markets to world capitalist interests by such policies as curtailing social services (health care and education), selling off state owned enterprises, and emphasizing exports over local consumption to raise money to service the debt. Dennis: SAPs, instead of benefiting these countries, have impoverished them so that the countries that were given loans by the World Bank have ended up unable to even pay the interest on the loans let alone the capital, steadily these countries have been bankrupt. This new initiative on Africa, by which $25 billion is going to be invested in Africa over the next 10 years will, instead of helping the people of Africa, be a way of further exploiting African people and African raw material to the extent, and this is my clincher, that what we are seeing is a program for the recolonization of Africa. From 1968 to the early 80s Robert McNamara, Lyndon Johnson's architect of the Vietnam War, was the president of the World Bank. McNamara reoriented the bank toward an anti-poverty loan program, sending billions of dollars in loans to southern hemisphere country. Many of the programs were ill thought out, had dubious purposes, and many of the loan dollars found there way to the private Swiss bank accounts of the loan recipients political elite. The Marcos regime in the Philippines comes to mind where million of dollars went to Marcos' accounts in Swiss banks but the World Bank insisted that the loans be repaid. The upshot was that many southern hemisphere country found themselves with huge debts as the Reagan 80s came and the new World Bank President, A.W. Clausen, former head of Bank of America, took over from McNamara. Dennis: Most of the development of the SAPs happened during the Reagan years. What is happening now is that African countries (and others) are still struggling to pay off those loans, and in fact what happens is they spend a large percentage of their GNP on simply repaying a portion of their interest so that they end up with an accumulating interest each year plus the inability to pay the capital. "Africa's total debt...stood at $313 billion in 1994. It is equivalent to 234 % of export income and 83 % of GNP. (SIA) And the implication is that as long as you repay that loan, or even a part of that loan, you are incapable of building schools, hospitals, roads, bridges--you know--the whole health system and the education system suffers. At least 1/3 of the total income for a given year is being devoted to repaying the debt. One of the curious things is that McNamara is seen as some kind of a hero. What he did was send in teams who would define what the World Bank thought the country needed and then say to the country you take this or else. Not what you request, but what we decide you need. One of the most striking examples of these policies was the instruction to Zimbabwe to grow tobacco instead of food. In Ethiopia they gave people money to develop cattle ranching in an area where the people were vegetarians. What this meant really, in the case of Zimbabwe, was the people stopped growing corn, and maze, and potatoes--they had been a food exporter in Africa to neighboring countries. They were told to switch to tobacco because it was a cash crop for which they could earn dollars, they would then be able to repay the loan. But what happened was a draught in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe was forced to import corn from South Africa at South African prices and that just gave the economy a tremendous blow. The infant mortality rate for Zimbabwe jumped 50% in one year. John: The end result was they didn't have the money to repay the debt, right? Dennis: Precisely, because they weren't in fact growing enough tobacco. John: So, over a period of time, the debt accumulates without the ability to repay it. Dennis: Decisions are made without recognizing the needs of the people locally. In implementing what have been called austerity programs, which have lead to the wholesale impoverishment of already poor populations, the populous has been forced to pay back debts that they had received no benefit from. The effect of SAPs on Mexico in the 80s has lead directly to the mass exodus of workers to the US in the 90s, as some economist had predicted. Dennis: The World Bank insists on what they call down sizing the government, cutting the fat, dismissing the bureaucrats etc. That's one way the country suffers, whether or not it should, they (the World Bank) make the decisions. Two, they insist on a devaluation of the currency, which increases the debt. And three, they insist on a massive cutting of government expenditures, this has been particularly true in the area of education where sometimes they've demanded a 50% cut in the budget for education. Dennis: It has become I think a very dangerous process, because, right now you can see a large proportion of the world is now pretty much under this particular economic system which in various ways we talk of as globalization. And the globalization process has to be understood as something that was being done by the World Bank and the IMF ever since the days of Bretton Woods. The impact of siphoning some $155 billion from southern hemisphere economies to northern capitalists during the years 1984 to 1990 has been devastating to poor people in countries as diverse as Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, sub-Saharan Africa, and many more. The return of cholera (a disease thought to be eradicated) in some Latin American countries, due to severe malnutrition, is directly traceable to the curtailing of health services. Unemployment and underemployment in Mexico is as high as 50%. Many African countries have had to curtail environmental programs in order to exploit natural resources to gain foreign exchange to pay mounting interest payments. The currant World Bank policies are meant to ensure that southern hemisphere countries will never again challenge northern capitalist by creating permanent poverty in these countries. This was in fact the intention of the Reagan presidency. From a global perspective the poverty created in these countries affects us all, a world interconnected can not get away from the effect. Material for this article was also drawn from 50 Years is Enough, edited by Kevin Danaher, Global Village Global Pillage by Jeremy Brecher and Faith and Credit by Susan George. To learn more and to find out what can be done contact 50 Years is Enough, a network of groups and individuals formed to respond to this issue. Contact them at 1025 Vermont Ave. N.W., Suite 300, Washington D.C. 20005, (202) 463-2265, E-mail: wb50years@igc.apc.org . For information on the Special Initiative on Africa write to the United Nation, NY, NY. |