Monday, January 26, 2004
CHEGE MBITIRU / There and About
German leader sets good example with Africa trip
Visits to African nations by big wigs like US Secretary of State Collin Powel, to say nothing of his boss, cause real havoc. The gains, if any, remain nebulous. Mr Schroeder’s "no-big-deal" like demeanour, proves Nigerian author Wole Soyinka right: A tiger doesn’t have to proclaim its tigritude.
Germany is a nation of means. It’s the world’s third largest economy after the United States and Japan. Unfortunately, the country was a victim of sighted and power hungry worst of Prussianism in Kaiser Wilhelm II and mediocre artist Adolph Hitler. They invited all and sundry to reduce their country to rubble twice in less than a half a century. For years after, it was difficult to tell which Germany was the real Germany.
It’s anybody’s guess what Germany would be today had all this not happened. Certainly it wouldn’t be a middle-level European power. But that’s in the past and Mr Schroeder is a "now and the future" man.
Presumably that’s why he chickened and skipped Namibia. Like in Israel, where Nazi sins are all but enshrined in the Tabernacle, there is a tick in Namibia that refuses to get off Germany’s skin: the Herero issue. It’s 100 years old.
In keeping with now and the future rhythm, Mr Schroeder first stopped in Addis Ababa. He had business with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. It included the usual suspects: development aid, clean water and sewage, HIV/Aids, and liberalisation of the economy. Germany is a good trader.
Now, visitors of consequence to Ethiopia inevitably talk about its border dispute with Eritrea. To Germany, Mr Schroeder said, the issue is legally settled. Diplomatic niceties forbid him from saying Germany was bombed flat twice because leaders broke agreements.
Appropriately, Mr Schroeder stopped at the headquarters of the African Union. An offshoot of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s diplomatic re-tooling, the 53-member AU only has a future. Mr Schroeder noted continental woes the AU faces and dropped in 825,200 dollars to help it on the way.
In Kenya, it was niceties. They included praises of the smooth transfer of political power, war against corruption and efforts to re-invent good governance. He chipped in Sh4.5 billion ($62.74 million) toward President Mwai Kibaki’s grand march to prosperity, diplomatically told Kenyans their coffee is lousy and had a shot at beauty products salesmanship. Mr Schroeder then flew to South Africa where he had a mighty ball. South Africa is Germany’s leading trading partner in Sub-Sahara Africa. Politicians understand money language very well.
Ghana was Mr Schroeder’s moment of glory. He stood tall at the opening of Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. Germany is providing money and technical support. In Addis Ababa, Mr Schroeder had urged efforts to rid the continent of wars and crises to foster development. That’s why he had euros for the centre. He flew home on Saturday and left a subtle message in a continent Germany was chased from by fellow Europeans nearly a century ago: There’ll be no babysitting. If you govern well and your folks work hard, we’ll help. That probably means additions to the 20 per cent of Berlin’s development aid now doled to Sub-Sahara Africa.
By design, Mr Schroeder avoided the tick in Namibia. It’s unfortunate. He should have stopped at Okahandja. The Hereros, about 200,000, consider it their capital. It was when they decided German settlers considered Herero land a Berlin suburb and slaughtered a few.
Powers-that-be in Berlin weren’t amused. They sent General Lothar von Trotha to give "savages'' lessons on German civilisation. The general bubbled with obscene modesty like "I, the great general of the German soldiers."
The now infamous general decreed every Herero found in German territory shot. They were. By the time survivors, without a single of their loved cattle, reached what is now Botswana, 35,000 to 105,000 were dead. Anyway, figures don’t matter. Germans fought a colonial extermination war in Africa at the time. By sheer will to survive, Hereros exist.
The descendants of the victims are crying genocide. They want four billion dollars from two German companies and the government in reparation. As precedents, they cite reparations for Holocaust and Japanese Americans and Canadians who lost lives and property during World War II. Germany says nothing doing. In any case, Berlin is pretty generous to Namibia. President Sam Nujoma agrees.
At Okahandja, Mr Schroeder would have met Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako. He would have reminded him that all the reparations he’s ululating about were settled politically, not legally. There would have been a rider: Talk to your people and I’ll talk to mine. There is no point in punching each other just because our ancestors did
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Mr Mbitiru, a freelance journalist, is a former Sunday Nation Managing Editor
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