Former ambassador sees hope for Africa

David Cogger

On Aug. 7, 1998, members of al-Qaida detonated two car bombs, one each outside American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The explosions killed 12 people and injured 85 others.

At the time of those terrorist attacks, Charles Stith was awaiting confirmation as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Tanzania. President Bill Clinton had nominated Stith, and like most things in Washington, D.C., political gamesmanship was slowing up the process.

According to Stith, then-Sen. Jesse Helms, a conservative Republican from North Carolina and head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had been stonewalling his confirmation.

“He was just jerking everybody around,” Stith said.

But Helms’ antics delayed Stith’s move to Tanzania by at least one month. Had the confirmation gone without a hitch, Stith easily could have been sitting at the ambassador’s desk in Dar es Salaam. As it was, he started on Sept. 11, 1998.

Some might say serendipity played a role in keeping Stith out of Dar es Salaam on that day. But Stith would disagree — he is a man of faith.

At age 30, he became the youngest head minister in the history of the Union United Methodist Church in Boston. And he believes his appointment to Tanzania and subsequent near miss with the al-Qaida-led bombing plot was providential.

“Because of the bombing,” Stith said, “I don’t think we could have sent anybody to Tanzania that was better prepared. Not only did you need to understand the policy, but also you needed to have a pastoral sense. The people at the embassy were traumatized. [Being] in the ministry was helpful.”

After completing two tours from 1998-2001 as ambassador to Tanzania, Stith founded the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University, where he is also a professor of international relations. He has served as the center’s director since its inception five years ago.

The research center occupies several floors of a stately red brick walk-up on Bay State Road. Stith’s office has high ceilings, a fireplace with a handcrafted mantel and a sweeping view of the Charles River.

Stith, 58, sits comfortably in an overstuffed chair, hands clasped behind his head and wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He yawns frequently, but becomes animated when the topic turns to the years of British occupation in Africa and his efforts to correct some of the wrongs of the past.

The major challenge in Africa, according to Stith, is the distribution of formerly occupied land.

“We are now [at] 50 years, this year, since Ghana became the first sub-Saharan country to be freed from colonial rule, but the issue of who controls the economy and the land has not been resolved,” he said.

Stith maintains that the land issue throughout Africa is complicated, but things in Zimbabwe have reached a particularly “tragic state.”

Inflation there has jumped from 32 percent in 1998 to close to 1,000 percent in 2006. In addition, Zimbabwe’s involvement in a war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1998-2002 drained hundreds of millions from the economy.

Current efforts at land reform have been characterized by chaos and violence, resulting in the decimation of the Zimbabwean farming industry. Where Zimbabwe once boasted a rich agricultural sector supporting more than 400,000 jobs, it is now a net importer of food products.

Stith says you would be hard-pressed to find anybody who would argue that life today in Zimbabwe is better than it was 10 years ago.

For Stith and many others, the eternal question in Africa is how to make citizens stakeholders in their own countries after years of colonial rule.

“For recorded history, there has been a global economy, and for much of that time, Africa has been central,” Stith said. “Over the last 600 years, Africa has not benefited substantially from its participation in the global economy.

“Antwerp is considered to be the diamond capital of the world — [but] not one diamond comes out of the ground in Antwerp, or any other place in Belgium. I think that just reflects dramatically on Africa’s centrality to the enrichment of the old world, and when you look at the United States and the development of the new world — it owes a substantial debt to the African economy.”

With leaders like Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, whose history includes accusations of widespread corruption, mass murder, vote rigging and intimidation during the 2002 elections, the problem can seem even more intractable.

For Stith, the modern muddle in sub-Saharan Africa stems from years of social stratification — first under British rule when whites held the majority of the land and power, and now with a combination of white and black elite landowners who have government and business connections.

“The two groups at the top can’t seem to make the economy work for everybody,” he said.

Not surprisingly, Stith is an apostle of private property and its “trickle-down” effect.

“I do know in the United States we have perfected this notion of private property — philosophically, institutionally and constitutionally. It motivates people to another level of productivity,” he said.

Former President Clinton and Stith became friends during Clinton’s tenure as governor of Arkansas. When Clinton was elected president, he called on Stith because of his understanding of under-capitalized communities and the expertise he had shown in Boston.

Recalling the actions of local workers he hired during his tour in Tanzania, Stith has seen firsthand what private ownership can mean.

“I noticed that a number of the workers would save to buy a plot of land, save more and build a foundation, save some more and put up some walls, then they’d save more and build a roof. Then came the finishing touches.

“This was all terribly inefficient.” Stith said. So he began advancing money to his employees, which was effective but still inefficient. But it showed him that people wanted to own property.

Stith said the people of Africa have seen the system work for whites, and now they would just like to see it work for them. He argues that you can’t grow an economy using an outdated agrarian model based on small family farms.

In Zimbabwe, Stith sees a need to change the dynamic by involving both the public and private sectors.

“Even if you decide you’re going to divvy up the land and give everybody their own plot, there still has to be a comprehensive policy agenda,” he said. “Everybody who wants land does not want to go to the farm. We must create mechanisms and jobs so people can have the money to buy the land.”

And therein lies the dilemma — systems created in the West that have caused so much misery in Africa have proven successful from an economic standpoint. And one of the ways for the countries of sub-Saharan Africa to successfully transition to democracy and free markets is to retain the Western leadership long enough to train a new generation of leaders in the budding democracies of the region.

“Folks need to come to the table to solve the problem. The British government has a responsibility to resolve the problem because they created it,” Stith said. “You’ve got to clean up your own mess.”

According to Stith, some solid leadership is in place in Africa to make the transition, but those leaders face increasing struggles in creating a broader political foundation for citizens to own property.

When asked which should come first, democracy or free markets, Stith says the issue is not that simple.

“I don’t think it’s a ‘the chicken or the egg’ thing,” he said. “There must be some kind of transparency that comes with democracy and makes things more attractive, but there is no perfect model.”

Today when Stith visits Africa, he sees a “terribly exciting time.” Of the 45 countries on the continent, 15 are working toward democracy. Even though that represents only one-third of the countries, they account for two-thirds of Africa’s population.

He sees an obvious vibrancy and a dynamic throughout much of the continent.

“Serious leadership is emerging that wants to see Africa stand with pride and dignity,” he said.

Under Clinton, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) came into being, allowing for more duty-free trade between Africa and the United States and bringing a “heft and robustness to the economies.”

Although no great fan of the current administration in Washington, Stith does praise the Bush presidency for embracing AGOA after Clinton and expanding it, both in the number of countries eligible and the amount of products available for duty-free trade.

Stith believes that the impact of free trade and economic equality between the West and Africa extends beyond filling the coffers of big business to things like global terrorism.

“Clearly, there is an ideological fault line that’s inarguable where terrorism is concerned. Having said that, most people who have looked at this recognize there is a clear connection to poverty,” he said.