A Cry from Zimbabwe by Steven Tennett (July 9,
2003)
Summary: On behalf of the Zimbabweans who desire to live as
human beings, free from the shackles of Mugabe's tyranny, I have a favor to
ask of you, America.
[www.CapitalismMagazine.com]
This week
President Bush comes to Africa. Though he is rightly not visiting President
Mugabe in Zimbabwe, I wish he could hear from ordinary Zimbabweans about the
terrible violations of our rights. I wish he could hear how Zimbabwe was
recently paralyzed by a week-long mass stayaway that saw the closure
throughout the country of some 98 percent of businesses--in spite of violence
and intimidation by Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, which attempted to force
businesses to reopen under threat of losing their trading licenses.
On
the last day of the stayaway, I was at Unity Square (the capital
Harare's main meeting place) to take part in the biggest march ever organized
by the opposition party. But around the fountain of the square were
arrayed--not peaceful demonstrators--but a gang of ruling party thugs wearing
white T-shirts with the message "No to Mass Action." These were Mugabe's
hired goons, disparagingly dubbed "Green Bombers" by civilians; terrorists
who beat, torture and murder civilians when instructed to do so by their
pay masters. The march was predictably a non-event, with the army and
police also blocking all major entrances to the city in an act of countrywide
mass repression that cost the government an estimated two billion Zimbabwe
tax dollars. This is just the latest example of the massive violation of
rights in this dying country. I have witnessed thousands of
others.
This week, sadly, the computer technician in my transport company
had to take leave from work to attend the funeral of his
brother-in-law--murdered by Zanu PF thugs. Even with his face smashed and his
teeth broken, this innocent twenty-six-year-old man might have lived, if only
Harare Central Hospital had the required expertise, drugs, medicines and
equipment to help him. But the ruling party's corruption and socialist
policies had already destroyed the country's health delivery system, and all
this critically injured man received was a drip.
His is not a lone
case. Since the 1980s thousands of individuals have been displaced from their
homes, beaten, tortured, raped or murdered. Recently, even Morgan Tsvangirai,
head of the country's largest opposition party, was languishing in jail on
charges of treason against the Zanu PF party, who are obliterating their
opposition with twists of the law to validate beatings and arrests.
A
commercial farmer in Zimbabwe could once make a fortune exporting coffee. But
now the case of Roy Bennet, a coffee farmer from Melsetter/Chimanimani, is
representative. He lost his farm to another group of Mugabe's thugs called
"war veterans," who evicted him under threat of death and took his farm over,
using the ruling party's "fast-track resettlement program." As I write, Mr.
Bennet's other leased farm in Ruwa is under invasion by a group of 200 war
veterans. To date, more than 3,000 commercial farmers have been evicted from
their farms, and at least seven have actually been murdered. Only 453
commercial farmers still operate fully in Zimbabwe--out of a total of 4,137
in 2000.
As a result, the country's maize production has fallen from
810,000 tons in 2000 to an estimated 80,000 tons today, while soybean
production has fallen from 162,000 tons to 30,000 tons. Close to 8 million
Zimbabweans are now facing starvation.
On behalf of the Zimbabweans
who desire to live as human beings, free from the shackles of Mugabe's
tyranny, I have a favor to ask of you, America.
No, it is not a request
for a check or some other handout. Nor is it a request to send over your 4th
Infantry division to liberate us. Our suffering does not give us a right to
your wealth or to the lives of your brave soldiers.
No, the favor I
have to ask is very different--and far simpler. America, stop apologizing for
your greatness.
Stand up and proudly champion the principles that have
enabled you to earn your wealth and power: capitalism and the individual's
inalienable rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness.
Condemn every form of tyranny and tell the world that the political system
created by your founders is the only noble system the world has ever seen.
Tell every individual across the globe that no matter if he is black, white
or Arab, the *only* path to freedom and prosperity is through the ideas
contained in your Constitution and Bill of Rights. To modify a saying from
one of your great founders, George Washington: Proclaim a standard to which
the wise and the just can repair.
To do so costs you nothing--and will
achieve much.
You will give hope and inspiration to any individual in
Zimbabwe, Iran, Hong Kong or elsewhere who is actually fighting for his
liberty. You will earn the respect of freedom- loving people the world
over--the only "world opinion" it could ever make sense to win. And by your
moral certainty you will strike fear in the hearts of your enemies--and any
tyrant who dares to violate the rights of the individual.
America,
when you refuse to speak out against evil--and worse, when you apologize for
your virtues--you discourage those who love liberty and give hope to the
Mugabes of the world. But when you proudly and guiltlessly stand up for the
good, you help move the world toward your ideals.
America, your moral
voice is at once your least costly and your most powerful weapon. A lonely
individual from Zimbabwe asks of you only this: Won't you please use that
voice?
About the Author: Steven Tennett, a computer manager
in Harare, Zimbabwe, is a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif.
The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged
and The Fountainhead.
Bush to Talk Zimbabwe and Business in South Africa Tue July 8,
2003 11:02 PM ET
By Randall Mikkelsen PRETORIA
(Reuters) - President Bush intends on Wednesday to encourage South Africa's
role as regional power and its trade ties with the United States, while
playing down differences over the war in Iraq.
Bush came to South Africa
from Senegal, where he told West African leaders he would help end Liberia's
civil war but said he had not yet decided whether to send peacekeeping troops
to a country founded by freed American slaves.
On the second leg of
his five-day African tour, Bush was also expected to urge South African
President Thabo Mbeki to step up efforts to promote free elections and
economic reforms in neighboring Zimbabwe.
The differences between
Washington and Pretoria over Zimbabwe are stark. The United States is pushing
the troubled southern African state's neighbors to put more pressure on
President Robert Mugabe to reform.
The United States and the European
Union criticized Mugabe's re-election last year as flawed.
Mbeki,
however, has chosen "quiet diplomacy" in dealing with Mugabe, a former
liberation fighter and old ally of Mbeki's ruling African National Congress
accused by critics of stifling opposition and running a once vibrant economy
into the ground.
In an interview with the South African Broadcasting
Corporation (SABC) on Tuesday, Mbeki said he would not have "anything new" to
tell Bush on Zimbabwe.
"....in our view a solution to the problems of
Zimbabwe must come from the leadership of Zimbabwe," he said. But he added
that despite their differences he had a very good relationship with Bush and
his administration.
In Harare on Tuesday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the
leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition movement, applauded Washington for its
tough stance while attacking Mbeki's approach.
"We want to thank the
aggressive approach taken by the American government. If that is going to
help resolve the crisis, then it is most welcome," Tsvangirai
said.
"Our nation is a pariah nation. Mbeki knows it, everyone on the
African continent knows it, but they choose to be in solidarity with
a dictatorship," he told a meeting.
IRAQ BONE OF
CONTENTION
Other bones of contention between Washington and Pretoria
include the U.S.-led war in Iraq and a number of groups, among them the ANC,
plan to hold protests against Bush's visit.
South African opposition
to the war has been expressed most bluntly by former South African President
Nelson Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who said Bush was wrong to lead a
war without U.N. approval.
Mandela, who has said he had little more to
say on Iraq to Bush, will be out of the country during his
visit.
Pretoria has also been rankled by a U.S. decision last week to
include South Africa in a list of 35 countries that will no longer receive
military aid because of its refusal to sign an agreement exempting U.S.
citizens from possible prosecution by the new International Criminal
Court.
Bush will dine with South African business leaders and Mbeki told
the SABC he hoped the U.S. president would use his influence to drum up more
American investment in South Africa.
Mbeki's government has pursued
market-friendly policies and fiscal prudence in a bid to woo foreign
investors.
Bush's Africa trip is aimed at promoting democracy and
economic development on the continent, and spotlighting U.S. initiatives to
fight AIDS and terrorism.
With an estimated 4.8 million people
believed to have the HIV virus that causes AIDS, South Africa has more
sufferers of the disease than any other country.
Bush will take a day
trip to Botswana on Thursday, then leave Pretoria on Friday for Uganda and
Nigeria. He wraps up his African trip in Nigeria and returns to Washington on
Saturday.
(Additional reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa in Harare)
Harare - The Zimbabwe government has offered dozens of white
farmers compensation for their farms acquired under its land reform
programme, but the amounts are unsatisfactory, a farming official told AFP on
Monday.
Two weeks ago the government published a list of 290 white
farmers it said had to report to the Ministry of Agriculture, but gave no
details.
An official with the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) who
requested anonymity said on Monday the government was "engaging them (the
farmers) in discussions about compensation for improvements to their
land."
However, he said "very few people are getting any satisfaction"
from the process or the sums offered by government officials.
"It
appears to be nothing much more than a publicity scam," he added.
The CFU
official claimed that the offers were not being made in writing, and were on
average less than 50% of anticipated compensation figures.
The Zimbabwe
government, which has been widely criticised for its seizure of around 11
million hectares of white-owned land for redistribution among new black
farmers, is eager to prove it is being fair to the white
farming community.
But it has ruled out paying for the seized land,
saying it will only pay for improvements because the land was grabbed from
blacks by white settlers in the 19th century.
Only 600 white farmers
are estimated to still be on their land since the launch of the land reform
programme three years ago.
International outcry
Britain has led an
international outcry against President Robert Mugabe's government over
controversial land reforms which have seen about 4 000 white farmers evicted
from their land.
Traditionally a food exporter, Zimbabwe has in recent
years been in the throes of economic recession and is now dealing with a
humanitarian emergency.
At least 7.2 million people - more than half
of the country's population of 11.6 million - including many of the new black
farmers and former farm workers, face hunger, according to UN
figures.
International agencies have blamed the famine on a drought and
the land reforms, while the government has camped on its position that the
famine is due solely to a drought.
Anomalies in the list of farmers
summoned to discuss compensation were "phenomenal", the CFU official said on
Monday.
He cited examples of some farmers on the list who have already
been paid compensation, while others were still challenging the acquisition
of their farms in court.
The CFU has expressed concern over the
continued eviction of farmers and the acquisition of farms even though the
government last year declared that land acquisition was over.
The
government recently hardened its stance against the white-dominated CFU and
its members, claiming the union is composed of "lawless
elements".
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo at the weekend accused
white farmers of supporting an opposition-led mass stay-away last month to
protest alleged poor governance.
And in the state-controlled Herald
newspaper on Monday, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made was reported as saying
the white farmers' union was irrelevant.
White farmers 'lawless': report 06/04/2003 13:07 -
(SA)
Harare - The Zimbabwe government has rounded on white farmers
here, accusing some of being "British-sponsored lawless elements" behind
recent mass action in the country, a newspaper said on Sunday.
In
comments carried by the state-controlled Sunday Mail Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo accused some white farmers of defying government
orders to leave their land.
The comments are likely to be seen as a
slap in the face for the white-dominated Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU)
which last year chose to drop most legal challenges against the government's
acquisition of their land in favour of dialogue.
Moyo also accused the
farmers of being "part of the brains" behind an opposition led job stay-away
last month that saw urban areas closed down across the country.
"The
time has come for them to be dealt with in terms of the full wrath of the
law. Their lawlessness will no longer be entertained," he said.
Relations
between the government of President Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe's 4 500 or so
white farmers have been testy since the controversial land reform programme
was launched three years ago.
The CFU has recently expressed its concern
over the continued eviction of farmers and the acquisition of farms even
though the government last year declared that land acquisition was
over.
Last week, the CFU claimed a farmer in the southern district of
Mwenezi was abducted and beaten by a group of around 200 "settlers" who
forced him to sign a document agreeing to leave his farm.
The union's
concerns were included in a letter recently sent to Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made, the Sunday Mail reported. The letter prompted an angry response
from the government, the paper said.
Moyo was quoted as saying that the
CFU no longer represents commercial farmers "but in fact now represents
unrepentant Rhodie (former white minority Rhodesian) farmers and other
lawless elements".
Around 11 million hectares of previously white-owned
land has so far been seized by the government for redistribution among new
black farmers. Only around 600 white farmers are reported to still be on
their farms.
Moyo accused the farmers' union of being behind the March
18-19 job stay-away called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) to protest alleged mis-governance.
The government has received
widespread criticism, including from the US government, for its alleged
crackdown on domestic opponents in the wake of the mass action. Hundreds of
opposition supporters were arrested. - Sapa-AFP
Harare - Zimbabwe's white farmers' union claimed on Tuesday that
attempts are still being made to evict remaining white farmers from their
land, disrupting the production of vital food crops.
In a statement,
the president of the white-run Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said the
attempts to seize farms had been made during the past two weeks in two prime
farming areas in northern and north western Zimbabwe.
"These illegal
evictions have disrupted production extensively, and several wheat crops, as
well as export flower crops and preparations for summer food crops, have been
affected," said Colin Cloete.
He added that some farmers were still
receiving government eviction notices, even on farms that did not qualify for
acquisition.
Three years ago the government embarked on the acquisition
of white-owned farms for redistribution to new black farmers.
Aid
agencies say the programme has contributed to severe food shortages in the
country, and estimate that 5.5 million people will be in need of emergency
food aid by early next year.
The government says its land reform
programme has been successful, with more than 200 000 black peasant farmers
and nearly 15 000 black commercial farmers said to have been allocated former
white-owned land.
The government blames the country's food shortages on
drought.
In April Cloete was reported to have said that only 1 000 of the
country's original 4&nbsdp;500 white farmers were still farming.
Mbeki surprised at Powell's criticism July 9,
2003
By John Battersby
President Mbeki had a crack at
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell last night over his criticism
of South Africa's posture on the crisis in Zimbabwe, but said he had high
expectations that the meeting with US President George W Bush in Pretoria
today would benefit Africa's development.
Mbeki, in an interview
with CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault, expressed surprise at the recent statement
by Powell on Zimbabwe which criticised South Africa for not doing enough to
end the political and economic crisis in that country.
"It came
as a bit of surprise," said Mbeki, adding that South Africa had been in
constant contact with Zimbabwe over the African initiative to secure a
peaceful transition in the country.
"They (the Americans) are
familiar with what we are doing," Mbeki said, adding that Foreign Minister
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had been in touch with her American counterpart who
had explained that he was articulating the US view.
"But I don't
think it was well-advised to give the impression of directing what South
Africa should do," Mbeki said.
Mbeki's put down for Powell fed
speculation that there are sharp differences between the White House and the
State Department over how to deal with Zimbabwe.
Mbeki said that
he was confident that the impasse in Zimbabwe would be resolved through talks
between the ruling Zanu-PF government and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
He welcomed the offer of the United States
government to provide economic assistance for the reconstruction of Zimbabwe
once the current problems had been solved. "We are agreed on that and many
other aspects," Mbeki said.
Mbeki played down sharp political
differences between the US and South Africa over Iraq, and said that he had a
good relationship with Bush on Africa.
"We may differ but that
does not mean that we go to war with each other," Mbeki said in an interview
with the SABC.
He said there had never been any tension over the
differences between the US and South Africa and the leadership had continued
a dialogue over matters of mutual interest.
"I haven't had a
sense of them (the Bush administration) coming at us as a big power . . . as
a big brother," Mbeki said in another interview with Vuyo Mvoko of SABC-TV
news last night.
Mbeki said that he had had a good relationship
with Bush ever since he visited him in Austin, Texas, in 2000 before he was
elected president.
He said that Bush had made commitments on that
occasion to Africa's development and had been consistent in wanting to carry
through his commitment.
Africa often overwhelms
the first-time visitor. President Bush will need to keep his impatience in
check, his attention focused on what he is not being told and his compassion
in judicious supply as he hopscotches across the continent this
week.
Africa's needs are so vast, its people so deserving and many of its
leaders so corrupt and uncaring that it is easy to zoom to extremes of
altruism or despair when directly confronting the continent's challenges. Or,
most frequently, to come to the latter through the former: to give up on
an entire region because initial, overly ambitious and emotional responses
do not work as planned.
Africa confounds foreign policy realists and
idealists in equal measure. It has absorbed and outlasted colonialists,
commissars and good Samaritans for centuries, burying their acts of human
exploitation, ideological competition and self-motivated kindness in its
jungles or desert sands. The continent is a graveyard for splashy but
unsustainable policy initiatives.
It is counterintuitive, but frequently
wise, to think small in Africa -- if you also think long. Time is Africa's
essential commodity and its most effective shield against foreign intruders
and foreign ways. Africa is thus a region in which chipping away at problems
offers more chance of success than do quick political fixes and urgent large
aid packages.
But such long-term efforts are frequently at odds with
Western political cycles and needs. A physical metaphor for this
disconnection was pointed out to me by a Liberian doctor nearly 30 years ago
during a tour of a gleaming new hospital built near Monrovia with U.S.
aid.
"We will never be able to staff this hospital and keep it supplied,"
I recall him saying. "We could have spent the same money on a dozen
rural health clinics that we could sustain. But then there would not have
been a big and well-publicized dedication ceremony attended by your
congressmen and high-level aid administrators, and by our
ministers."
George W. Bush's immediate agenda in Africa is a valid one.
The disappearance from power of tyrants like Liberia's Charles Taylor
and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe would improve those countries and the
world immeasurably. But what follows the sudden regime changes that Bush
is proposing needs to be thought through and crafted with care, and
with international partners, as the administration is learning in
Iraq.
The same is true of Bush's laudable effort to prod Congress into
providing billions of dollars to help fight the AIDS epidemic that is
devastating some of the continent's most potentially prosperous societies.
Fitting the Bush AIDS initiative into an overarching and detailed
international program that will last a decade or longer would improve its
chances of success.
Bush's chances of sustaining a long-term interest in
Africa may actually be better than they appear on the surface. He was at the
White House in 1991 when his father initiated America's most recent
experience with the altruism-to-despair syndrome in Africa by dispatching
U.S. troops to Somalia to reestablish order and get food aid to its starving
people.
But that mission -- blessed by the Pentagon in part to avoid U.S.
engagement in the Balkans -- was not sufficient to sustain an American
commitment through a change of administrations. When fighting in Mogadishu in
1993 cost the lives of 18 American soldiers, President Clinton precipitously
withdrew U.S. forces and left Somalia to sort out its fate.
This
sequence illustrates the danger of feel-good politics and policies that are
perceived to be detached from strategic interests. But there was
a double-whammy in the Somali experience that became apparent only on
Sept. 11, 2001.
George W. Bush is drawn to this African journey by the
overriding imperative that guides all of his post-9/11 foreign policy: to
avoid disaster wherever he can.
Africa's failed states offer platforms
for al Qaeda and other terror organizations to regroup and attack Americans.
Bush's presence this week shows that the United States has a vital stake in
preventing large swaths of Africa or other continents from becoming no-man's
land.
But no American leader can accomplish that task alone or overnight.
Bush will need to patiently coax Africa's leaders and citizens into
recognizing their own long-term stake in rolling back the forces of terror.
More superficial incentives will not accomplish much of a lasting
nature.
Bush's journey to Africa should be seen as a first step rather
than a quick stop that can be checked off and forgotten. This president has
recently shown a willingness to jump into raging political torrents abroad.
His task now is to show he can sustain and expand that engagement over
time.
President Bush Speaks at Goree Island in Senegal Remarks by the President on
Goree Island Goree Island, Senegal
11:47 A.M.
(Local)
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. President and Madam First Lady, distinguished
guests and residents of Goree Island, citizens of Senegal, I'm honored to
begin my visit to Africa in your beautiful country.
For hundreds of
years on this island peoples of different continents met in fear and cruelty.
Today we gather in respect and friendship, mindful of past wrongs and
dedicated to the advance of human liberty.
At this place, liberty and
life were stolen and sold. Human beings were delivered and sorted, and
weighed, and branded with the marks of commercial enterprises, and loaded as
cargo on a voyage without return. One of the largest migrations of history
was also one of the greatest crimes of history.
Below the decks, the
middle passage was a hot, narrow, sunless nightmare; weeks and months of
confinement and abuse and confusion on a strange and lonely sea. Some refused
to eat, preferring death to any future their captors might prepare for them.
Some who were sick were thrown over the side. Some rose up in violent
rebellion, delivering the closest thing to justice on a slave ship. Many acts
of defiance and bravery are recorded. Countless others, we will never
know.
Those who lived to see land again were displayed, examined, and
sold at auctions across nations in the Western Hemisphere. They entered
societies indifferent to their anguish and made prosperous by their unpaid
labor. There was a time in my country's history when one in every seven
human beings was the property of another. In law, they were regarded only
as articles of commerce, having no right to travel, or to marry, or to
own possessions. Because families were often separated, many denied even
the comfort of suffering together.
For 250 years the captives endured
an assault on their culture and their dignity. The spirit of Africans in
America did not break. Yet the spirit of their captors was corrupted. Small
men took on the powers and airs of tyrants and masters. Years of unpunished
brutality and bullying and rape produced a dullness and hardness of
conscience. Christian men and women became blind to the clearest commands of
their faith and added hypocrisy to injustice. A republic founded on equality
for all became a prison for millions. And yet in the words of the African
proverb, "no fist is big enough to hide the sky." All the generations of
oppression under the laws of man could not crush the hope of freedom and
defeat the purposes of God.
In America, enslaved Africans learned the
story of the exodus from Egypt and set their own hearts on a promised land of
freedom. Enslaved Africans discovered a suffering Savior and found he was
more like themselves than their masters. Enslaved Africans heard the ringing
promises of the Declaration of Independence and asked the self-evident
question, then why not me?
In the year of America's founding, a man
named Olaudah Equiano was taken in bondage to the New World. He witnessed all
of slavery's cruelties, the ruthless and the petty. He also saw beyond the
slave-holding piety of the time to a higher standard of humanity. "God tells
us," wrote Equiano, "that the oppressor and the oppressed are both in His
hands. And if these are not the poor, the broken-hearted, the blind, the
captive, the bruised which our Savior speaks of, who are they?"
Down
through the years, African Americans have upheld the ideals of America by
exposing laws and habits contradicting those ideals. The rights of African
Americans were not the gift of those in authority. Those rights were granted
by the Author of Life, and regained by the persistence and courage of African
Americans, themselves.
Among those Americans was Phyllis Wheatley, who
was dragged from her home here in West Africa in 1761, at the age of seven.
In my country, she became a poet, and the first noted black author in our
nation's history. Phyllis Wheatley said, "In every human breast, God has
implanted a principle which we call love of freedom. It is impatient of
oppression and pants for deliverance."
That deliverance was demanded
by escaped slaves named Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth, educators
named Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, and ministers of the Gospel
named Leon Sullivan and Martin Luther King, Jr. At every turn, the struggle
for equality was resisted by many of the powerful. And some have said we
should not judge their failures by the standards of a later time. Yet, in
every time, there were men and women who clearly saw this sin and called it
by name.
We can fairly judge the past by the standards of President John
Adams, who called slavery "an evil of callosal magnitude." We can discern
eternal standards in the deeds of William Wilberforce and John Quincy Adams,
and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Abraham Lincoln. These men and women, black
and white, burned with a zeal for freedom, and they left behind a different
and better nation. Their moral vision caused Americans to examine our hearts,
to correct our Constitution, and to teach our children the dignity and
equality of every person of every race. By a plan known only to Providence,
the stolen sons and daughters of Africa helped to awaken the conscience
of America. The very people traded into slavery helped to set America
free.
My nation's journey toward justice has not been easy and it is not
over. The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with
segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots in
the bitter experience of other times. But however long the journey, our
destination is set: liberty and justice for all.
In the struggle of
the centuries, America learned that freedom is not the possession of one
race. We know with equal certainty that freedom is not the possession of one
nation. This belief in the natural rights of man, this conviction that
justice should reach wherever the sun passes leads America into the
world.
With the power and resources given to us, the United States seeks
to bring peace where there is conflict, hope where there is suffering, and
liberty where there is tyranny. And these commitments bring me and
other distinguished leaders of my government across the Atlantic to
Africa.
African peoples are now writing your own story of liberty.
Africans have overcome the arrogance of colonial powers, overturned the
cruelties of apartheid, and made it clear that dictatorship is not the future
of any nation on this continent. In the process, Africa has produced heroes
of liberation -- leaders like Mandela, Senghor, Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Selassie
and Sadat. And many visionary African leaders, such as my friend, have
grasped the power of economic and political freedom to lift whole nations and
put forth bold plans for Africa's development.
Because Africans and
Americans share a belief in the values of liberty and dignity, we must share
in the labor of advancing those values. In a time of growing commerce across
the globe, we will ensure that the nations of Africa are full partners in the
trade and prosperity of the world. Against the waste and violence of civil
war, we will stand together for peace. Against the merciless terrorists who
threaten every nation, we will wage an unrelenting campaign of justice.
Confronted with desperate hunger, we will answer with human compassion and
the tools of human technology. In the face of spreading disease, we will join
with you in turning the tide against AIDS in Africa.
We know that
these challenges can be overcome, because history moves in the direction of
justice. The evils of slavery were accepted and unchanged for centuries. Yet,
eventually, the human heart would not abide them. There is a voice of
conscience and hope in every man and woman that will not be silenced -- what
Martin Luther King called a certain kind of fire that no water could put out.
That flame could not be extinguished at the Birmingham jail. It could not be
stamped out at Robben Island Prison. It was seen in the darkness here at
Goree Island, where no chain could bind the soul. This untamed fire of
justice continues to burn in the affairs of man, and it lights the way before
us.