The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

24 SEPTEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Mark G. Wentling retired from the Senior Foreign Ser- vice in 1996, after serving as USAID’s principal officer in six African countries. He has worked in Africa for the Peace Corps, nongovernmental organizations and as a contract employee for USAID. He has published eight books, including a three-volume Africa Memoir released in 2020 and is a frequent contributor on Africa to the FSJ . MUCH CAUSE FOR WORRY A CLEAR-EYED LOOK AT AFRICA It is time to put sentiment aside and look clearly at Africa through an objective lens, this Senior Foreign Service officer asserts. BY MARK G . WENT L I NG A fter working and living in every corner of the continent and visiting its 54 countries over the last 50 years, I cannot help but worry about Africa’s future, and I want to spell out why. I apologize in advance to all my African friends. Though this article may come across as being too negative, I believe we need a dose of realism. It is time to put sentiments aside and look clearly at Africa through an objective lens, without exaggerating its future promise. There is no question that peace, stability and good leader- ship are essential to the advancement of any country. Today the opposite exists in most African countries, limiting the continent’s future role in the world. Few have graduated from the lowest ranks of the poorest countries. All but three of the 31 countries ON ENGAGEMENT WITH AFRICA listed in the lowest human development category of the United Nations Development Programme’s 2021 Human Development Index are in Africa. Despite many development efforts over the years, this has been the case since the annual HDI reports were initiated in 1990. This is not to say that some progress has not been made. For example, the average adult literacy rate in Africa has increased from 49 percent to 66 percent from 1985 to 2019. And the infant mortality rate improved from 139 to 44 per 1,000 births in the 1970-2020 period. Importantly, during the past 50 years the sta- tus of women has also been elevated, in spite of Africa’s age-old patriarchal traditions. Indeed, women represent Africa’s greatest untapped resource. But while there has been progress in Africa, it has been much too slow. b I arrived in Africa for the first time in 1970, in Togo, a small West African coastal country that was known at the time as “the Switzerland of Africa.” There was a euphoric mood among the people. They believed that after 10 years of independence, real development was within grasp, and soon there would not be any need for external assistance. Those were hopeful days in West Africa, where most coun- FOCUS