| Some of the challenges facing Africa in the 21st century |
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Although all the major countries in Africa have gained independence, a few small enclaves and islands remain under colonial administration. These include the French Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mayotte, and the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta in Morocco. The latter are likely to remain under Spanish rule unless Britain returns nearby Gibraltar to Spain, which seems unlikely in the near future. The inhabitants of Western Sahara, which is still under Moroccan control, are due to vote in a UN-organised independence referendum on the 31st July 2000.
Aids is certainly one of the major challenges that Africans will continue to face in the 21st century.
The 13th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2000) will be held in the South African port city of Durban in July 2000. An important item on the agenda will be research and vaccine development. To meet this challenge a group of leading South African scientists is putting together a 50 million rand project to develop a vaccine. The project is expected to receive funding from the private sector.
According to the World Health Organisation, polio can be eradicated internationally by the end of the year 2010. To meet this deadline it is targeting 10 countries that threaten to reinfect other nations already freed from the disease. Priority countries in Africa for vaccination campaigns are Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.
But conflict conditions in at least four of these countries are hampering such campaigns. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has pledged to negotiate temporary cease-fires in the Democratic Republic of Congo so health workers can reach children who need immunisations. The WHO said its strategies have been effective in completely eliminating polio - an infectious and incurable virus that can cause death and paralysis - from the Western hemisphere since the eradication effort began 10 years ago.
Telecommunications systems in Africa are slowly getting to grips with the onrush of the 21st century, according to communications experts. At a recent world telecommunications exhibition and forum hosted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva, delegates reached an accord on providing solutions to the challenges of universal access and rural connectivity in Africa.
In June 1999, South Africa announced the launch of a 15 000 kilometre submarine fibre optic cable funded by 40 nations. Other efforts include the US government's 15 million dollar initiative to provide Internet connectivity.
Africa remains the least connected continent with 100 Africans sharing a single telephone line against the 64 telephones for every 100 residents in the US. ITU secretary general Yoshio Utsumi says ‘it is essential not to create a new form of information gap between the world's richer and poorer countries’. (The ITU is a 189-member organisation that works towards the development of telecommunications and the harmonisation of national telecommunication policies.)
In Conclusion
At the dawn of the new millennium, Africa is at a cross-roads. Either the continent takes its destiny into its own hands or it leaves the shaping of its future to those outside the continent. But Africa does have a choice. On the one hand, it can allow the forces of implosion and ethnic warfare to become the masters of its fate, to the advantage of a few politicians lacking in vision or warlords with shifting alliances. If that happens, the problems of the 20th century would simply continue in the new millennium, with all the suffering that this would entail. Africa would remain enmeshed in debt, stripped of its wealth and left marginalised, adrift in the wake of history.
But Africa could just as well opt for another course. It can say ‘no’ to marginalisation and fully integrate itself into the great global village that the world has become, grounding its conduct on good governance, sound economics, respect for human rights, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. These are the foundations of a stable, inclusive and secure future and the pre-requisites for an African Renaissance. Africa needs to choose.
Will it make the right choice? |
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