The suffering of West Africa
Richard West
The expulsion by Nigeria of nearly two million Ghanaians is far more brutal and dangerous than the expulsion from Ghana, in 1969, of 250,000 aliens, most of them to Nigeria. This week we have read of Ghanaians given only a few days to be out of the country; of newspapers and radio in-
citing anti-Ghanaian violence; of statements by All Baba, the aptly named Minister of the Interior, that foreigners are responsible for the Nigerian crime wave. TV has shown us hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians camping out on the beach in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, with little food and no sanitation. Some are already re- ported drowned. The return to their home- land of all these people can only worsen the economic and social chaos of Ghana.
Ghana, in 1969, was genial by com- parison. There were queues at the embassies of such countries as Mali and Upper Volta, where I went to apply for visas; but no one was thrown out by force. There was no at- tempt to whip up mob hatred against the foreigners. Some Ghanaians said that the foreigners were useful because they did dir- ty jobs like night-soil collection; the Man- dingos from Mali were prized as night- watchmen (just as Ghanaians were in Nigeria until this week); there was even a touch of comedy when the beer ran out in Accra because, so it was learnt too late, a small tribe from Niger used to collect the bottles and take them back to the brewery. (These bottle-men were brought back and given work permits, thus avoiding a beer shortage and revolution.) The beer drought became a joke in Accra, which was still, at that time, a laughing and tolerant city.
There is not too much to laugh about in today's West Africa, where except for Senegal and the Ivory Coast (both strongly under the influence of France) almost every country has suffered from military govern- ment. In Ghana (the former Gold Coast) and Nigeria, which once were ruled under British law, unsuccessful politicians have been taken down to the beach and shot in front of a jeering mob. Liberia, which had been a democracy of a sort since 1847, suf- fered a ,revolution by one Sergeant Doe, who gunned down most of the Cabinet on the beach. Even the little Gambia, which was a smiling and prosperous country when I was first there, still under British rule, has had its revolution, its massacres and political prisoners. Almost all these coun- tries, except for Senegal and the IvorY Coast, are short of food, medicine and teachers. And yet we in Europe, who hear so much of injustices in South Africa, know little about this dismal side of the continent. Few journalists can get permission to enter West African countries, except for Senegal and the Ivory Coast, which have little to hide. The coverage that we do get is tenden- tious, The Guardian, for example, whose previous incarnation the Manchester Guar- dian once championed African In- dependence, has given a curious treatment to Nigeria and Ghana, the two countries now at odds over the expulsion of aliens. The Guardian supported Nigeria's Federal government in its war against Biafra, as did all the press except the Spec- tator. The Guardian stands by Nigeria In opposing sporting ties with South Africa though the Guardian Pension Fund has In- vested heavily in South African shares. Suc- cessive British governments have also suP- ported Nigeria, because it is rich in oil. Like other countries rich in oil, Nigeria has financed 'Special Reports' in the British press, interlarded with advertising, to extol its achievements and its opportunities for the future. Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries have paid for 'Special Reports' in the Times. Nigeria tends to favour the Guardian. In the summer of 1972, when Idi Amin was expelling Ugan- da's Asians, the very good Guardian man in Kampala, John Fairhall, was taken aback to be told to proceed to Nigeria, to write some articles for a 'Special Report'. When he protested (ultimately with success) Fairhall was told that Nigeria had requested him by name. Those businessmen and those very few journalists who have recently been to Nigeria speak of corruption quite tin-
Paralleled on this earth, of having to bribe one's way onto planes with confirmed seats, and into hotels with confirmed reser- vations. The peasants are deserting the land; tribal and religious massacres take Place in the north; the Biafrans still long for a separate state. A fall in the price of oil, Which accounts for 90 per cent of the coun- try's revenue, has shown what havoc will come when the oil runs out altogether.
Such things are no more than hinted at in the Guardian's latest 'Special Report' on Nigeria (26 Octobr 1982), whose first of ten Pages proclaims, under a photo of Port Harcourt oil refinery: 'Resources and discipline offer a prosperous future'. In fairness to Michael Simmons, it should be said that the text of his article does not en- tirely bear out the headline. Nevertheless the 'Special Report' is enthusiastic enough to have won advertisements from: Unity Life & Fire Insurance, London & Overseas (Sugar) Co; UKWALLACE, Wema Bank Ltd, Union Bank of Nigeria, NAL Mer- chant Bank Ltd, Paterson Zochonis, Na- tional Bank of Nigeria, Savannah Bank of Nigeria, Mercury Assurance Co Ltd, Nigerian Far East Co Ltd, First Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Ports Authority, E. 0. Ashamu & Sons, Mandilas Group Ltd, Nigerian Airports Authority and Aero Con- tractors Company of Nigeria Ltd. This 'Special Report' is not aimed simply at businessmen. As befits a paper whose Woman's Page is notorious, the Guardian 'Special Report' carries an article by Anene lbisi, 'Woman's Role: a potential power in the land.' There is even an article by Ad, Obe Obe critical of the British who supported Biafra during the bitter civil war'. If only they had! 'Nigerian intellec- tuals,' Mr Obe continues, 'have been demolishing British values. Colonialism has since become a dirty word and the British among all the other foreigners are seen as foisting it on Nigeria. The British are now seen as those who culturally "raped" Nigeria. School textbooks are now being rewritten to portray the British as invaders rather than benevolent conquerors who came to spread civilisation.' , In spite of Ad'Obe Obe's radical talk, !Nigeria is hardly a left-wing country: in fact !t. is capitalist in the most cut-throat way. It has none of the revolutionary rhetoric of Ghana, whose half-Ghanaian, half-Scottish 'eader, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, combines the visionary dream of the coun- t_rY's first ruler, 'Redeemer' Kwanle Nkrumah, with the delicacy of a Glasgow Rangers supporter. Ghanaian journalists, writing anonymously in the African news Inf agazines published in London, give tern- accounts of murder, anarchy, looting, rlreakdown of all public services and tribal stilitY between the Ashanti and Ewe peo- Ne, above all a purge of the professional, esducated class. But Rawlings has found a euPPorter in the Guardian. Their special 2rrespondent Victoria Brittain wrote in "el- three reports in December: 'The clearest gain of the Revolution is the extraordinary
mobilisation of a wretchedly poor, hungry and demoralised working class. It has come from their faith in Rawlings — his honesty, his sympathy with them and his moral ap- peal ... When Mrs Aana Enin, the only woman on the Defence Committee, jumps on to a van to address crowds of workers, she wears simple black jeans and work shirt. It is easy to see why the soldiers call her "the people's wife" ... The birth of working-class consciousness has been fostered by the network of People's Defence Committees and Workers Defence Committees which have spread across the country ... There is a continuing exodus of middle-class professionals known as "the flight to Agege" (the town in Nigeria which has become a haven for nurses, doc- tors, other educated people and businessmen) ... The flight to Agege is partly of economic refugees but it is also a fearful response' to the new judicial system of the Public Tribunal and the Citizens Vet-
ting Committee .. The sentences such as 20 years for foreign currency offences ... are harsh and are designed to establish a new moral code ... The plaster cast on the leg of Mr Yaw Graham was covered with his slogans for Ghana's revolution: "A luta continua", "Down with Unilever" and "Down with imperialism" ...'
The February issue of New African magazine, not the most hostile to Jerry Rawlings, carries a three-page feature on Ghana. The introduction starts: 'Some say it is the beginning of the real socialist revolution. Others say it is chaos based on
incompetence ... Our correspondents disagree. Victoria Brittain, a visiting jour- nalist, takes a pro-Rawlings line. Our Ghana correspondents are more critical ... ' They would be. They have to live there. As Wordsworth might have said of Ghana's revolution: 'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be white was very heaven .... '
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