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Africa: Cancel the Debt
Africa: Cancel the Debt
Date distributed (ymd): 000921
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +economy/development+ +US policy focus+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains a press release from The Africa Fund and
statements from African-American religious leaders and elected
officials calling for cancellation of Africa's debt. A related
posting today has an update from Oxfam International on the HIPC
(Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) initiative.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Africa Fund
50 Broad Street, Suite 1701
New York, NY 10004
Phone: (212) 785-1024
Fax: (212) 785-1078
E-mail: [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2000
Contact: Aisha Satterwhite or Aleah Bacquie, (212) 785-1024
BLACK RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS SAY CANCEL AFRICA'S
DEBT
Wednesday, September 20 (Brooklyn, New York) - Along with The
Africa Fund, members of the African-American faith community and
state and municipal officials from across the country issued
statements this morning calling for the cancellation of Africa's
foreign debt. The statements, signed by fifty-five prominent
individuals around the country, were released at a press conference
held at St. Paul Community Baptist Church, which hosts the annual
Maafa commemoration for the millions of African lives lost during
the TransAtlantic Slave Trade.
"Congress is currently deliberating on legislation that contains
funding to reduce some of Africa's debt during the next two weeks,
but African-American religious leaders are unimpressed with the
efforts to date," said the Reverend Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Senior
Pastor of Harlem's Canaan Baptist Church and Africa Fund Trustee.
"It's 2000 A.D. and we're still in chains!" Walker added.
Signatories on the religious statement, from California to
Kentucky, include the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. of the
Rainbow/Push Coalition, Martin Luther King, III of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference; the Reverend Al Sharpton of the
National Action Network; Bishop Felton Edwin May of the United
Methodist Church; Archdeacon Michael Kendall of the Episcopal
Church; and the Reverend Terrie Griffin of Ministers Against Global
Injustice (MAGI). "We came together today to urge the US Congress
to help put an end to this crippling foreign debt crisis, which
poses a huge threat to the continent's long-term development
efforts. The Congress must cancel the debt now if Africa is ever to
have a fair chance," said the Reverend Johnny Ray Youngblood.
Also released at the press conference was a statement by The Africa
Fund's Advisory Council of Public Officials. The statement reads,
in part, "The US has provided leadership in the past to cancel
loans to European countries such as Germany and Poland, while
African countries devastated by floods, droughts and AIDS are told
to reschedule debt repayment under onerous terms." Africa Fund
Director Salih Booker added, "African-American leaders support the
cancellation of Africa's debt and consider this Congressional vote
the most important on Africa this year."
The statement issued by African-American elected officials echoes
the religious leaders' statement, stressing that "Africa's economic
development, the expansion of mutually-beneficial U.S.-Africa
trade, and most importantly the health and well-being of African
people, depends on this debt being canceled. The time for Congress
to act is now." Signatories include Denver Mayor Wellington E.
Webb; Boston City Councilor Charles C. Yancey; Representative
Reginald Beamon (CT); former Representative Dr. Irma Hunter Brown
(AR); Representative G. Spencer Coggs (WI); Representative William
A. Crawford (IN); Representative Helen Giddings (TX); Senator Avel
Gordly (OR); Mayor Marc H. Morial (New Orleans, LA); Assemblyman William D.
Payne (NJ); Representative Beryl D. Roberts (FL); Councilman George
Stevens (San Diego, CA); Representative Charles Quincy Troupe (MO);
Assemblyman Albert Vann (NY); and Representative Velma Veloria
(WA).
"Twenty-one million African children's lives could be saved this
year alone if this illegitimate debt were canceled. This is a
question of life and death," said Aleah Bacquie, Director of The
Africa Fund's Faith Communities Program. "Most African countries
pay more servicing their international debt than they do on
education and health care combined. Why must African mothers and
fathers starve their children to pay this debt? Why are the world's
richest countries holding the world's poorest countries accountable
for debts that can never be paid? In any case, who owes whom what?"
The full text of both statements follow.
Statement Of Black Religious Leaders on the Cancellation of African
Debt
We gather here in commemoration of our ancestors and their
struggles against unprecedented exploitation, greed and untold
suffering. We, descendants of the survivors of those taken from
Africa, now speak as one with the descendants of those not taken.
We charge the Congress of the United States to cancel Africa's
illegitimate debt, which the All Africa Conference of Churches
calls "a new form of slavery, as vicious as the slave trade."
Today we challenge the notion of African debt to the world's
richest countries. We ask, Who owes whom what?
The legacy of injustice against Africa dating back to slavery
continues to this day. Some practices of today's American
corporations demonstrate as much disregard for Africa's people as
their colonial predecessors during the height of the slave trade.
Water supplies and farming lands are poisoned from oil spills and
illegal toxic dumping, with no accountability or compensation to
the victims. Exploitative practices of mineral resource extraction
from Africa - her oil, gold, diamonds, copper and chrome -
generate millions for corporations, leaving Africa's people poor,
indebted, sick and dying. Repressive leaders propped up by U.S.
Cold War policies were allowed to pocket millions with impunity,
while the people are left to repay the misused funds plus
interest. Loans to apartheid leaders supported wars and repression
while apartheid's victims are left holding the bag. While the U.S.
has provided leadership in the past to cancel loans to European
countries such as Germany and Poland, African countries devastated
by floods, droughts and the AIDS pandemic are told to reschedule
debt payments under onerous terms. In the past 17 years, Africa's
debt has risen 350%!
While Americans revel in an unprecedented surplus of $4 trillion
over the next few years, the U.S. government demands that Africans
spend four times more on debt payments than health care and
education combined. African children are undernourished and
malnutrition accounts for half of all deaths among pre-school aged
children. In the words of Julius Nyerere, "African mothers and
fathers are being asked to starve their children to pay the debt."
Yet, some U.S. Senators and Representatives tell us that it is too
expensive to cancel Africa's debt, even though they voted last
session to give the Pentagon $12.5 billion in excess of its
request, more than double the total of all of Africa's bilateral
debt to the U.S. If this debt were canceled this year alone 21
million African children's lives could be saved by money diverted
from debt payments to health care and nutrition. Canceling this
debt would only cost a fraction of the book value.
We call on all elected representatives to stand on the right side
of this human justice struggle, on the right side of economic
development, on the right side of this moral imperative. Our
struggle is inextricably linked with those of our brothers and
sisters in Africa. To all Senators and Representatives who court
our votes, we want you to know that we are watching you and your
vote. A vote to cancel Africa's debt is a vote for us.
Denominational Offices/Religious Organizations
Shaykh Abd Allah Latif Ali, Chairman, Imam's Council of New York,
NY, NY
Dr. Louis Baldwin, Dept. of Religious Studies, Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, TN
The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle, Chicago State University, Chicago, IL
The Rev. William Monroe Campbell, Ministers Against Global
Injustice (MAGI),Washington, D.C.
The Rev. Jon Chapman, Presbyterian Church, USA, Louisville, KY
The Rev. Terrie Griffin, Ministers Against Global Injustice (MAGI),
Washington, D.C.
Mark Harrison, Program Dir., United Methodist Board of Church &
Society, Washington, D.C.
The Rev. Larry Haynes, American Baptist Churches, Valley Forge, PA
Archdeacon Michael Kendall, The Diocese of New York of the
Episcopal Church, NY, NY
Martin Luther King III, President, Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, Atlanta, GA
Willis Logan, Africa Office, National Council of Churches, NY, NY
The Rev. Bennie Mitchell, Dir. Labor Relations, National Baptist
Convention, Inc., Atlanta, GA
Bishop Felton Edwin May, Washington Episcopal Area,The United
Methodist Church, Washington, D.C.
The Rev. Dr. Glen Missick, The African-American Council, the
Reformed Church in America, NY, NY
Ms. Sullivan Robinson, Congress of National Black Churches (CNBC),
Washington, D.C.
Bishop Orris G. Walker, Jr., Diocese of Long Island of the
Episcopal Church, Garden City, NY
The Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Religious Action Network, American
Committee on Africa, NY, NY
Peace with Justice Organizations
Sister Alice Gerdeman, Intercommunity Justice & Peace Center,
Cincinnati, OH
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Washington D.C.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network, NY, NY
Individual Congregations
The Rev. Anthony L. Bennett, Mt. Aery Baptist Church, Bridgeport,
CT
The Rev. Harry Blake, Mount Canaan Baptist Church, Shreveport, LA
The Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Third Baptist Church, San Francisco, CA
The Rev. Dr. Lee R. Brown, Springfield Baptist Church, Memphis, TN
The Rev. Dr. Morris A. Buchanan, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
Church, Fontana, CA
The Rev. Dr. Christopher Allen Bullock, Progressive Baptist Church,
Chicago, IL
The Rev. James Coleman, Jr., Court Street Baptist Church,
Lynchburg, VA
The Rev. Dr. Ira Coombs, Greater Bibleway Temple, Detroit, MI
The Rev. Herbert Daughtry, The House of the Lord Church, Brooklyn,
NY
The Rev. Barbara Delaney, Missionary Temple Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church, Detroit, MI
The Rev. E. James Eaddy, Sr., St. John Baptist Church, Edenton, NC
Attorney Patricia Eggleston, Africa Ministry, Trinity United Church
of Christ, Chicago, IL
The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, Bethel Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.
The Rev. Floyd H. Flake, The Allen African Methodist Episcopal
Cathedral of New York, NY,NY
The Rev. Lawrence Graves, Second Providence Baptist Church, Harlem,
NY
The Rev. Tony Curtis Henderson, St. Paul's Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church, Detroit, MI
The Rev. Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Metropolitan Baptist Church,
Washington, D.C.
The Rev. Wilma R. Johnson, New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church,
Pembroke, MI
The Rev. Dwight Jones, First Baptist Church, So. Richmond, VA
Associate Rev. P. Kimberleigh Jordan, Associate, Marble Collegiate
Church, NY, NY
The Rev. Dr. Barbara Austin-Lucas, Agape International Tabernacle
Fellowship, Brooklyn, NY
The Rev. Dr. Mankekolo Mahlangu Ngcobo, Kalafong AME Mission
Church, Baltimore, MD
The Rev. Paul Martin, Macedonia Baptist Church, Denver, CO
Elder Tony Minor, Emmanual Chrisitian Church, Cleveland, OH
The Rev. Bennie Mitchell, Connor's Temple Baptist Church, Savannah,
GA
The Rev. Anthony Moore, Carolina Missionary Baptist Church, Temple
Hills, MD
The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., Olivet Institutional Baptist Church,
Cleveland, OH
The Rev. Cecil Murray, First AME Church, Los Angeles, CA
The Rev. Mangedwa Nyathi, Hartford Agape House, Inc., Detroit, MI
The Rev. Dr. Ronald Patterson, Marble Collegiate Church, NY, NY
The Rev. Dr. James Peters, New Hope Baptist Church, Denver, CO
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, Faith Community of St. Sabina, Chicago,
IL
Imam Talib Abdur' Rashid, Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, NY, NY
The Rev. Dr. Darrel Rollins, 31st Street Baptist Church, Richmond,
VA
The Rev. Emil Thomas, Zion Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.
Bishop Norman Quick, Child's Memorial Temple Church of God in
Christ, NY, NY
The Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Canaan Baptist Church of Christ, NY,
NY
The Rev. Joel Anthony Ward, St. Paul Baptist Church, Los Angeles,
CA
The Rev. Carl Washington, New Mt. Zion Baptist Church, NY, NY
Canon Frederick B. Williams, Church of the Intercession, NY, NY
The Rev. Ricky Woods, First Baptist Church West, Charlotte, NC
The Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood, Saint Paul Community Baptist
Church, Brooklyn, NY
Statement of Public Officials on the Urgent Need to Cancel Africa's
Debt
African countries are facing a crushing debt burden of over $300
billion, which constitutes chains of slavery in the 21st century.
African political and civil society leaders and the All Africa
Conference of Churches have called for this debt to be canceled.
This debt burden is a major obstacle to economic development.
Most African countries pay more servicing their international debt
then they do on education and health care combined. African
countries, facing an AIDS crisis greater than anywhere else in the
world, are unable to meet the health needs of their citizens or
the millions of orphaned children. The debt is owed to Western
governments, including our own (bilateral debt), and to
international institutions such as the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (multilateral debt). Much of this
debt was incurred at the urging of Western governments, the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund for failed and misguided
projects. Other loans were made during the Cold War to prop up
dictators. Now poor people in Africa, many who live on less than
one dollar a day, are left to pick up the tab.
For decades Western governments and the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund have come up with a series of plans to
reduce this debt, but in fact the debt has increased. President
Clinton pledged to cancel much of the debt owed to the U.S.
government, but Congress has failed to act. Africa's economic
development, the expansion of mutually-beneficial U.S.-Africa
trade, and most importantly the health and well-being of African
people, depends on this debt being canceled. Congress needs to
appropriate money to cancel both bilateral and multilateral debt.
The time for Congress to act is now.
U.S.-Africa Advisory Council of Public Officials
Reginald Beamon, State Representative, Connecticut; Chair,
International Affairs Committee, National Black Caucus of State
Legislators
Dr. Irma Hunter Brown, President, Shorter College; former State
Representative, Arkansas
G. Spencer Coggs, State Representative, Wisconsin
William A. Crawford, State Representative, Indiana
Helen Giddings, State Representative, Texas
Avel Gordly, State Senator, Oregon
Marc H. Morial, Mayor, City of New Orleans, Louisiana; Vice
President, U.S. Conference of Mayors
William D. Payne, State Assemblyman, New Jersey
Beryl D. Roberts, State Representative, Florida
George Stevens, Councilman, City of San Diego, California
Charles Quincy Troupe, State Representative, Missouri
Albert Vann, State Assemblyman, New York
Velma Veloria, State Representative, Washington
Wellington E. Webb, Mayor, City and County of Denver, Colorado;
President, National Conference of Black Mayors; Chair, Task Force
on Sub-Saharan Africa of the U.S. Conference of Mayors
Charles C. Yancey, City Councilor, Boston, Massachusetts; Immediate
Past President, National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC provides
accessible information and analysis in order to promote U.S.
and international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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