By Prince Bright Majiga
There are but two types of men who desire war: those who haven't the
slightest intention of fighting it themselves, and those who haven't
the slightest idea what it is. … Any man who has seen the face of
death knows better than to seek him out a second time. — Abraham
Lincoln
For the past three weeks or so, there have been reports of a
diplomatic stand-off between Malawi and her eastern neighbor,
Tanzania, over the ownership of Lake Malawi. That is regrettable.
However, that is expected, for in the affairs of nations,
disagreements are inevitable. It has been claimed that Tanzania's
renewed interest in the lake is due to possible discovery of oil.
Whether that is true or not, is not the aim of this essay to show.
However, disturbing trends have largely been about war talk (both
subtle and direct) from both sides, officially and otherwise. My take
is that this war mongering is needless, irresponsible and is rooted in
the rocky soils of sentimentalism and not in common sense and reason.
War is sweet to those who have never fought it. Reality tells us that
once one hears the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it
from a defeat. Indeed, if we really saw war, what war does to young
minds and bodies, it would be impossible to embrace the myth of war.
If we had to stand over the mangled corpses of school children killed
in South Sudan, Angola, DRC or Libya and listen to the wails of their
parents, we would not be able to repeat arguments we use to justify
war. This is why war is carefully sanitized. This is why we are given
war's perverse and dark thrill but are spared from seeing war's
consequences. The mythic visions of war keep it heroic and
entertaining.
As the situation between Malawi and Tanzania stands now, diplomacy is
the way to go for both nations. Diplomacy will help both sides avoid
needless bloodshed. For example, if on the negotiating table Malawi
accepts to cede 50 percent of its northern part of the lake to
Tanzania, it will do so without any Malawian dying for the nation.
The same case also applies to Tanzania. If Tanzania agrees to yield
the part it claims as hers to Malawi, some youths in Mwanza or Dodoma
today won't have to die from Malawian bullets. Methinks it is not in
the best interests of the two nations to involve themselves in a
senseless war only for their leaders to later to come to their senses
and resolve to solve the problem in air-conditioned hotels somewhere
in exotic parts of Europe or East Africa.
Yes, we should avoid the classical situation whereby the master class
always declares the wars and the subject class fights the battles.
Reality tells us the master class has all to gain and nothing to lose,
while the subject class has nothing to gain and all to lose –
especially their lives. And in the case of Tanzania being a neighbor
whom Malawi relies for many of her imports and exports to pass
through, we risk a situation where we might "win a war but lose the
peace".
Sadly, this war talk has made many people lose sight of key questions
that should be tackled. Issues over how residents and the environment
will be affected by oil drilling, or how disempowered communities
might benefit from major finds are not being addressed/tackled as
comprehensively. These issues need to be discussed and addressed,
especially given that information about existing taxation and fiscal
distribution systems in Malawi, and probably Tanzania on the other
hand, is at times clouded.
Looking at the situation in the Great Lakes region, it can be seen
that much of the oil drilling in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique is
occurring in areas suffering from poor soil, low water tables and
geographical isolation, and in regions in which many residents
struggle to find employment. In our case, we should be talking of
whether discoveries of valuable natural resources will help or hinder
communities around the lake and not of gallant soldiers we have made
ourselves believe we have.
This cheap war talk has also in a way taken our eyes off the possible
agent of this confrontation – Western corporations. While this is
highly speculative, it is an open secret that western corporations
involved in arms trade will benefit from an increased demand for their
products if the nations at loggerheads decide to go to war.
Corporations know that negotiations may lead to a peaceful settlement;
and since peace is the enemy of the war industry, they might be
seduced to attempt to derail the said peaceful process.
In case someone has doubts over the role of the western war industry
in Africa, the question she or he should be asked is "how come wars
are failing to stop even though the conflicting parties do not have
anything close to a weapons manufacturing factory on their territory?"
As a reminder, oil or any other natural resource is going to be a
curse to Africa if there is no better leadership. I am not speaking of
leadership that can't or won't recognize the need to develop these
resources, no. I am talking about leadership that recognizes that need
as well as the need to see to it that their citizens, nations and
institutions also benefit from the revenues.
Most importantly, instead of indulging in wars of nations; which are
fought to change maps, we need leaders who will wage war on of
poverty. In doing so, they will map change.
--
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