I want to thank President Clinton and Secretary Albright for appointing me Special Envoy to Africa, with a focus on expanding democracy and human rights. It is a privilege to be able to serve the United States of America and, at the same time, have the opportunity and privilege of being a part of the great reconciliation and reconstruction with Africa.
February is celebrated as African-American History Month. For the most part, this month is usually a promotion of pictures and biographies of famous or highly-achieving African-Americans and serves as a kind of stimulus for motivation and esteem building for African-Americans. But, by and large, it does not address the real mission of the month, which is to inject the missing link in American history which is the American-African connection and the role of African-Americans in
developing American history. This month should not be just used as an esteem-builder. It must be used as an opportunity to heal the breach that separates the African-American tradition from all other ethnic groups. The immigrant tradition of being welcomed on landing ships and the African slave trade of being sold at the point of arrival are very different legal and political traditions.
The slave trade stands in great contrast to the immigration waves. We must use this month to illuminate the darkness, to put heat in cold places, and to transform a state of hurt and hate into healing and hope. We must build structural bridges, overcome structural gaps. We will be better for having done it. Inclusion is the key to growth, and the truth will light our pathway.
U.S.-Africa policy must be consistent with ideals of democracy, human rights, mutual recognition, mutual respect. As we engage anew with Africa, we must espouse high ethical standards in building democratic institutions and values. We must urge the enforcement of conflict- of-interest laws, human rights and non-violence. These standards are the key to stability, the key to attracting investment and economic growth.
Africa is a continent of over 700 million people. We are not divided by the Atlantic Ocean—we are connected by the Atlantic Ocean. If two people boarded a plane bound for Senegal, one in Los Angeles, one in New York, they would both arrive at about the same time. Africa is our next-door neighbor and, yet, if you were in Ghana, you would be closer to New York than to South Africa. Our geographical proximity is closer than the usual perception.
The U.S.-Africa mutual trade potential is vast. Africa is the most resourceful continent, with its oil and mineral deposits. It is also an export market for the U.S., and a potential site for telecommunications wiring and development. We also share military interests. Our trade with Africa creates 100,000 U.S. jobs at home. Today, we import more oil from Africa than from the Middle East, yet we do not see Africa as a strategic trading partner. We export more products to Africa than the former Soviet Republic, including Russia, by twenty percent. How does it play in Peoria? They build Caterpillars. How does it play in Houston? They are in the energy business. How does it play in Newt Gingrich's district in Georgia? This vast continent must be wired.
In this stage of rebuilding relationships with Africa, we must not trade ethical values, we must not trade human and democratic values, for commercial trade and national security issues. All of these interests must be kept in perspective. Trade without human values equals slave trade. One- way trade fed the apartheid system in South Africa. Democracy espouses a mutually beneficial reciprocity trade. We have so much to learn about the African-U.S. potential. Africa subsidized the U.S. for 200 years with work without wages and raw materials of below-market rate. This is a subsidy. Just as the U.S. absorbed Europe's struggling masses and helped to defend them in time of war, in many ways the work of Africans and Africa's resources have helped to subsidize and sustain the development of the U.S. and Europe.
Africans were on the New York Stock Exchange as commodities. Many of our earlier Wall Street investment firms started in shipping, slave trade and textile trade. During America's development, African-Americans, until 1954, were not protected under the Constitution. This perverse formula left Africa's rich soil with poor people and African (hard working)-Americans without equity. When you peruse history from slavery until now the formula has not basically changed. The masses are not benefiting from our trade with Africa. We must be acutely sensitive to this as we put forth an Africa trade bill initiative that could represent, at its best, growth for America and development for Africa. Mutuality of interest, democratic values and human rights will serve all of us well.
Africa must not be downgraded and degraded by low expectations. Democracy is said by some cynics to be an imposition upon Africa. Africans are not ready for democracy yet. That is the same thing that was said about African-Americans in this country in 1965. Despots and dictators the world over see democracy as an imposition. The fact is, democracy is a system of freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the right to vote, freedom of self-determination, freedom of checks and balances, freedom of separation of powers independent of the judiciary.
Democracy at its best will share and spread the wealth, the opportunities and the responsibilities. The African people are ready. They are not dictators, generals and despots. We must partner with the people and not grow cozy with the tyrants. Historically, we were at the low moral end. We have gone through several stages with Africa. The low moral end—the slave trade; then the alliance with colonizers; and then supporters of military strongmen and the despots, Doe and Mobutu; and using Africa as a staging ground during the Cold War.
President Clinton's upcoming trek to Africa as a sitting president espousing human rights, democracy, and mutuality is a sign of the most mature stage of our development. It must prevail. We have the strength to help the African renaissance, but we must earn the trust given our sordid past. Our actions in this country are so critical to African policy and American growth. Humane African policy and the right of African-Americans to vote in this country is inextricably bound. The press coverage in America and Europe is a big factor in the development of those democracies. Press exposure has a way of informing the people and modifying the behavior of leaders.
Last week I was in Kenya, where a troubled but stable government and the idea of multiparties has caught on. There is now roughly a balance of power and parties in the legislature. There was some post-election violence. It was political, not "ethnic." One hundred people dead; no one had been arrested. After I visited the area—with lots of press exposure—President Moi visited. The themes of democracy, human rights and reconciliation deserve to be exposed. Kenya is the key to the East African economy. In the Congo there is a ray of hope with the demise of Mobutu. Kabila has had an excellent opportunity to redirect the course of that country, but we see storm clouds rising. All parties have been suspended. The arrest of party and press leaders by that country of fifty million people has such an impact on nine neighboring countries. It is so rich in resources that it must not be put in isolation and left to its own devices. We must engage the Congo and release aid and trade as leverage for democracy, human rights and transparency.
In Liberia, after a long, bloody night in which 200,000 people were killed, 200,000 wounded, 700,000 made refugees, 700,000 displaced, the terms of reconciliation, reconstruction and rebuilding are about to take root. Liberia deserves and needs our help. In a strange way, our character will be measured by U.S.-Liberia policy. That is the country we have engaged the longest, since 1847. Liberia has been America's listening post: headquarters of Voice of America; military staging ground and trading partner; the Firestone rubber plantations. And, yet, when their government was overthrown and their leaders humiliated and shot at the stakes, we turned our backs on them. We must go forward in this new period of development, democracy, human rights, reconciliation and healing. Whether Africa, South Korea, Indonesia or any developing countries, we must be driven by a set of principles, not by greedy pursuits of short-term interests. We must uphold the principles of international law, self-determination, democratic values, high ethical standards, enforced conflict of interest laws, nonviolence and a commitment to a healthy environment and the elimination of poverty and disease—a dream that is so possible in our world of science and technology if our better instincts and highest values prevail.
Perhaps the Bible Writer put it best when he wrote: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will forgive them their sins and they will hear from Heaven, and I will heal their land."
It's healing time. It's reconstruction time. It's reconciliation time.