FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 4, January 24, 2008

. . .then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, Deuteronomy 8:14.

Can Greed Save Africa?

The December 10, 2007 edition of Business Week magazine had an interesting article entitled, Can Greed Save Africa? It points out that since 1960 $605 billion in foreign aid has been pumped into Africa with no noticeable rise in gross domestic product. From 1976 to 2000 Africa’s share of global trade dropped to 1%, down from an already negligible 3%. The U.N. scale of human development which considers health, education, and economic well being rates thirty-four African nations among the world’s forty lowest. The article points out that foreign aid has not helped Africa but then suggests, "Perhaps greed might." By greed Business Week means capitalism.

South African based microlender Blue Financial Services, energized by a Wall Street investment last year has 171 branches in nine African countries and soon is to open offices in Rwanda, Cameroon, and Swaziland. At least $2.6 billion in private equity deals were struck in 2006 in the region (not including South Africa which already is more developed), and this is nearly seven times the 2005 figure. Masoud Alikhani, a business man in Mozambique, says that the "We Are The World" 1980’s movement by celebrities to end world hunger made beggars of whole nations. "We are capitalists and opportunists," says Alikhani. "We are doing this to make money. That’s the only way to help." In fact, his company in rural Mozambique has hired 620 locals who now make between $60 to $2000 per month. These are large salaries by African standards, particularly when we realize that prior to this, people there were making no money at all. And Alikhani knows that unhealthy workers means lower profits for his stockholders; and he therefore has worked hard at mosquito control (to keep down malaria) and to provide drinkable water for his people, something foreign aid has largely failed to do.

What are we to make of capitalism in Africa as the means to deliver her from her seemingly impossible morass? On the positive side, I suggest capitalism, not social welfare in the form of foreign aid, will improve the standard of living for millions of Africans. None can deny that money is a powerful motivator for any people. Even in the days of Apartheid in South Africa more blacks owned automobiles there than the rest of Africa combined. There were better schools and far better medical care available there than in the rest of Africa. And vibrant capitalism should quell the notorious corruption of African politicians who have siphoned off billions of dollars since the fall of colonialism forty years ago. More and more money in the form of wages and salaries will flow to the people who have earned them. Of course, business ventures in such an unstable part of the world always carry with them the threat of nationalization of assets and buffoonery of leaders like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Also it may be that a brisk capitalism can overcome the tribalism which has plagued Africa for centuries. Money talks and tribal factions, if given access to economic power, may set aside their differences for financial wealth. African tribes in power tend to keep down rival tribes, not allowing them a piece of the political pie. It would be nice to think that Christianity would overcome tribalism, and no doubt vibrant, Spirit-filled Christian faith has and will continue to make inroads, but nominally Christian Rwanda and the genocide of the Tutsis at the hands of the Hutus proves that such Christianity is no better at quelling tribal hatred than are well meaning government negotiations.

Two negative implications of capitalism in Africa are what trouble me the most, however. First, knowing the evil that lurks within the heart of every person, can we really have confidence that much will change between the rich and the poor of Africa? Honest capitalism can easily morph into unbridled greed. How much of the money earned by corporate giants from Asia, Europe, or America will stay in African countries? How will the taking of natural resources from an African country differ from what occurred in colonialism? And what is to keep outside investors, after making huge returns, from taking their capital with them to more lucrative markets at the slightest economic or political downturn?

And second and most importantly from a Kingdom perspective the remarkable growth of Christianity in the so-called southern world (Asia, South America, and Africa) may suffer due to financial wealth. Moses warned the children of Israel against apostasy, knowing that their prosperity at the hands of Yahweh could provoke pride, causing them to forget the Lord their God, the One who alone had delivered them from Egyptian bondage. Paul says the same thing in I Corinthians 1 where he reminds the formerly pagan Corinthians that not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble enter the kingdom of heaven. God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Cotton Mather, in Puritan New England, only sixty years after their arrival in 1630 said that Christianity had brought them prosperity, but in their prosperity they had turned away from the author of it, God Himself. The simple fact is that poverty, persecution, and disenfranchisement often drive a people to Christ for refuge. This no doubt is an important reason why Christian faith has flourished in Africa. The more money people have, the more liberty they gain, and the more prideful and self-sufficient they become. It is not long before pride and prosperity have crowded out a conscious need for the Savior.

The economic growth in Africa seems inevitable and certainly capitalism is a welcome improvement to the "We Are The World" financial aid which has done nothing but rob people of their dignity and made despots incredibly wealthy. Since apostasy, or at the very least an insipid, nominal Christianity may come from financial prosperity, I suggest both northern (the western church) and southern Christian leaders need to seize the day by planting churches and equipping indigenous church leaders to strengthen their people in the faith before apostasy or nominalism inundate the church. The greatest thing the northern church can do for developing nations and the building of Christ’s kingdom there is to offer theological training for our brethren. While many wonderful efforts are presently underway in this regard, perhaps the most encouraging is Third Millennium Ministries, directed by Dr. Richard Pratt of Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando; which is developing on-line theological education for third world pastors and leaders, now translated into six languages, offering theological training from a distinctively Reformed theological perspective. And in this I greatly rejoice.

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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