For many Australians, Africa conjures up images of famine, war, poverty and helplessness. But now a campaign aims to show Africa's other face — its many achievements and the superhuman efforts that Africans are making to improve their lives.
"Africa Alive" is a joint national campaign by several Australian aid agencies and will run to the end of the year.
The organisers don't deny that Africa faces huge difficulties. Per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa has fallen 25% since 1987, and Africa now accounts for just 1% of world trade.
Unless there is urgent action, Africa will contain 40% of the world's poor by the end of the decade. Some of that urgent action must come from wealthy countries like Australia, according to Africa Alive's organisers.
Just 8% of our aid budget goes to Africa, and a quarter of this directed to short-term emergencies. Africa Alive argues that the allocation should be much higher and channelled into long-term rural and small-scale industrial development.
The campaign also urges Australia to lend its weight to calls in international forums for debt write-offs for African countries as well as fairer trading conditions for the many commodity-dependent countries of the region.
On a national level there are many promising developments: peace in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Namibia, and popular movements for democracy in Malawi, Kenya and several other countries.
According to the organisers of Africa Alive, however, it is at the grassroots that Africa's strength and determination is most clearly seen. Whether it's a group of women in Zimbabwe pioneering new farming methods, retrenched black South Africans who have set up a successful wire-making business, rural women in the Transvaal organising protests about lack of water
services or many countries running AIDS education campaigns, everywhere in Africa the message is the same — people are not sitting on their hands overwhelmed by their problems and totally dependent on Western aid.
Radio National presenter Sandy McCutcheon observed this phenomenon on a visit to Mozambique with Community Aid Abroad: "Next time someone tells you Africa is a basket case, tell them to throw that idea out the window. When Africans have a chance to help themselves, with a little bit of assistance from outside — not imposed but offered — then they do some wonderful things."
The first major Africa Alive event in NSW will be a weekend benefit concert on July 31 and August 1 at Sydney's Harbourside Brasserie. Proceeds will support Community Aid Abroad's Southern Africa Appeal.
Contact CAA on (02) 281 6799 for details of other events. An Africa Alive information kit is also available fromm CAA for $5.