AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - “Africa has no power to decide on the use of its own resources; the continent is subject to the decisions made in other places,” says Cardinal Pengo, President of SECAM

Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) - “Africa is no longer per se a marginalized continent, as far as the global political set-up is concerned. The role of Africa in the world’s economic development, however, remains marginal. Although considerable economic growth rates can be observed in many African countries, Africa’s share in the world trade is decreasing. There is injustice on global level.” With these words, Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, Archbishop of Dar es Salaam and President of the Permanent Committee of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), revealed the negative consequences of global commercial relations on the African economy, during his speech given in the international Congress in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 8-9 (see Fides 5/2/2008).
In his address, entitled, “Justice for the Poor in Africa - Challenges and Experiences,” Cardinal Pengo recognizes that “Globalization offers opportunities to the African people. Many Africans have found their own place in the sphere of global business as well as in international institutions. Migration is a positive concept for these men and women. Greater strata of the population are, however, still systematically excluded from basic access to the market sphere and remain restricted to subsistence or sheer survival economies. The modern communication systems have linked Africa to the global scientific and economic progress. The internet, for example, gives Africa a unique chance to equally participate in the global development. Many individuals, however, lack the basic knowledge and education to make use of these new opportunities.”
The lack of respect for “human capital,” that is, for people with innate capacities that are not put to use due to lack of education, is one of the evils that still keeps the continent from being able to offer better living conditions to its own people. Another reason the Cardinal pointed out, is the injustices committed in international business relations: “…the African continent has been continuously discovered in recent years as a resource base for industrial progress and a potentially growing market. But Africa hardly has the bargaining power to decide upon the use of its own resources. The continent is a subject of decisions which are made from outside.”
With this in mind, the African bishops, through SECAM, want “to carry the voice of Africa into the Universal Church…, so that the Universal Church can also play its advocacy role vis-à-vis the secular world in the interest of Africa.” (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/2/2008 righe 32, parole 393)