Chaos in the CAR: an African mess gets messier

Sub-Saharan Africa is a mess. Don't let articles written by lamestream journalists wearing rose-coloured specs fool you. Walt's agents are everywhere (especially in southern Africa) and they send us the real news. With the exception of one or two countries, Africa and its people are in worse shape today than during the much-reviled colonial era.

One of the countries which is not an exception to the rule that Africans are demonstrably unfit to govern themselves is the Central African Republic. Walt has written about it before: "
"Pray for Syria" (has a map) and ""Christians attacked every day in Mid-East, Africa and Asia

The CAR used to be a French colony, called Ubangi-Chari, later part of French Equatorial Africa.

Some of the people used to wear huge lip plates as ornaments, to the delight of such as P.T. Barnum who brought them to America to exhibit as freaks. (Before you laugh, check your mirror for tattoos and piercings!)

We'll skip over the post-colonial episode of the Central African Empire, ruled by the Emperor Bokassa 1st who used to keep chunks of his enemies' bodies in the palace freezer so he could eat them later. Bokassa was overthrown with the connivance of the French -- because he was an embarrassment -- and the CAR hasn't had a stable government since.

One of the reasons for the CAR's instability is that it is one of those countries which is torn between the Musilm north and the Christian/animist south, like Mali, Nigeria and the Sudan. As I write, Islamic extremists, supported by invaders from Chad (another basket case), Mali and Libya, are invading the CAR's capital, Bangui. The customary raping, looting and pillage has ensued. Chaos reigns.

The French (embarrassed again) have put 1500 pairs of military boots (and counting) on the ground to combat the Muslim terrorists, but are far from clearing the area. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 refugees are thronging the cathedral and the airport, clamouring for protection from the savages.

Speaking of "savages", here's a quote from Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914, by Max Hastings (William Collins 2013):

Lucien Laby was in charge of an escort taking fourteen German prisoners to the rear, when their little column was suddenly beset by Senegalese troops determined to cut off the Germans' ears. After a violent scuffle, the colonial soldiers were driven back.

One big Senegalese saluted Laby and said wistfully, "O my lieutenant, you might have let me cut off two ears -- just two ears!"

A French army chaplain, while applauding the terror that such colonial infantry inspired among the Germans, deplored the difficulties of dealing with their wounded patients at his hospital: "The blacks from North Africa are almost as civilised as their Berber or Arab compatriots...[but] there are others from West Africa and the French Congo...who are very primitive indeed".

That was 99 years ago. As the French say, plus ça change...

Haiti: what is to be done?

A reader e-mails (walt.whiteman@yahoo.com) to suggest that rather than waxing pessimistic about Haiti (see yesterday's post), Walt should offer some kind of solution. Let's look at that idea in the light of history and sociology.

Haiti has been independent, in name at least, since 1804, when it threw off the yoke of French colonialism. The population of Haiti, predominantly slaves imported from Africa, defeated French troops, ending a long fight for independence and emancipation. Haiti became only the second independent republic in the western hemisphere, the first being the USA.

The slave rebellion resulted in the death of 100,000 blacks and 24,000 of 40,000 white colonists. Significantly, the revolution unleashed a massive multiracial exodus. French and Créole colonists fled along with the slaves they still held, as did numerous free coloured people, some of whom were also slaveholders who took their slaves with them.

That left Haiti an essentially African country which just happens to be on the wrong side of the Atlantic. In its 200-plus years of existence, Haiti has been led -- or misled -- by a very African succession of "big men": kings, presidents, even an emperor or two.

Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, a Latin American country. In the article I referred to yesterday, The Economist points out that one difference between the two countries is that Haiai has seen just two democratic handovers of power, compared with a dozen (being generous in use of the term) next door.

Which is to say that one of Haiti's fundamental problems is a dire dearth of political leadership. It is not so absurd as it might seem, then, to suggest that hiphop "artist" Wyclef Jean could be suitable to be Haiti's next president. He couldn't do much worse than his predecessors.

It's also worth noting that not all of the French colonies in the Caribbean thought they were capable of running their own show. Guadelupe and Martinique remain French possessions to this day, although they are now legally regarded not as colonies but as "overseas departments" of metropolitan France. Unlike Haiti, the two islands are peaceful and relatively prosperous.

So too is the independent Dominican Republic. It's not exactly rolling in pesos, but it's patently better off than the republic on the western part of Hispaniola. Visitors who've seen both at the same time say it's like two different worlds on one small island.

To sum up, I don't believe the Haitians were or are or ever will be capable of governing themselves in an honest and competent manner, hence my pessimism. All the foreign aid and expressions of goodwill in the world aren't going to bring them to the status quo ante, let alone the average standard of living of other Caribbean nations.

So what is to be done? In a word, nothing. We first-world taxpayers have given Haiti billions of dollars in aid and support, the larger part of which has been unused or wasted. See yesterday's post for some discouraging statistics. Giving more isn't going to help.

Walt says, leave them alone. Let them pull themselves up by their own bootstraps...or not. Either they will survive, like Ghana, or become a failed state, like Somalia. The Haitians' future is in their hands, not ours.