First Democracy, Then Debt Relief?

Debt relief for Africa won't solve the problem of poverty in Africa. The fight against poverty will be futile unless the dictatorships in Africa are replaced with democratic governments. This is the core argument Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme's makes in a NYT op-ed piece, "All Rock, No Action," which dismisses Live 8 as "an insult both to us [Africans] and common sense."

Tonme's complaint that the Live 8 participants didn't "raise a cry for democracy in Africa" strikes me as valid. My hunch is that this strategy was deliberate. The organizers wanted to present the fight against poverty in Africa as a non-partisan cause that everyone, regardless of their ideological affiliations, could get behind. But of course this issue is as political as any other, which explains why we heard a chorus of right-wingers mocking the musicians for being pretentious and arrogant, etc. No need to rehearse their attacks here. Tonme's critique of Live 8, however, is worth considering.

The line of questioning that I wish Tonme had raised is this: what forces are working to keep oppressive rulers in place in courtries such as Uganda, Gabon, Cameroon, Chad, Togo, and the Central African republic? Is it not the case that Western countries have a history of backing (sometimes covertly) dictatorships in so-called developing nations in order to maintain stability? The rationale being that it is easier to do business with a single tyrant than with a coalition of democratically elected leaders, many of whom would likely reject the terms of trade agreements etc. that favor Western interests.