CAPE TOWN, South Africa — It's not easy to market a vast continent of more than 50 nations as a desirable, upbeat sort of place when at any time there might be war breaking out, hunger, people dying of AIDS and malaria, others struggling in poverty, and entrenched government corruption.
But African leaders and businessmen meeting here for an economic summit this week took on the challenge of how to promote a positive "brand Africa." Many argued that the continent's real problems were not death, disease and criminality but the international journalists who wrote about them without noting African successes.
"We are not angels, but we can't all be devils all the time," Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa said at a news conference at the Africa Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum, which ended Friday. The talk of Africa's image problem comes at an important moment, with international attention focused on the continent in the lead-up to next month's Group of 8 summit of leading industrial powers in Gleaneagles, Scotland. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to lobby for doubling African aid to $25 billion a year and cancellation of all the debt of poor African countries.
Some, like Niall FitzGerald, chairman of Reuters news agency, said world leaders had a rare opportunity to redress African poverty and disadvantage, and that forgoing it would shame the current generation.
Despite Africa's rich natural resources and a flow of international aid, poverty there has worsened, not declined, in recent decades. The assistance is often highly conditional and in the form of loans, not grants.
The Cape Town summit's main purpose was to focus international business and political support before Blair's big Africa push. But although the U.S. agrees broadly with most of the goals, it has its own approach on aid and debt relief, and is wary of a British proposal to sell International Monetary Fund gold to help Africa.
If there was a contradiction between summit participants wanting to market Africa as a big success story while seeking debt write-offs and massive new aid, it was drowned out in the general criticism of the media coverage of Africa.
In the last decade, Africa has seen a dramatic transformation, with the resolution of many conflicts, leaders' growing reluctance to deal with neighbors who seized power illegally, and the spread of democratic elections, some freer than others. Economic growth in Africa on average has reached 5%.
