Back to Despair.

• Author: MACKENZIE, HILARY
• Position: Failure to achieve democracy in Africa - Brief Article

UNTIL RECENTLY, AFRICA SEEMED TO BE INCHING TOWARD PEACE AND DEMOCRACY. WHAT WENT WRONG?

The feeding room in Huambo, Angola, is quiet. The children are so severely malnourished that they barely move. There is no laughing, no teasing, no giggling, no squirming--none of the things that should come naturally when 40 children are crowded together for a meal.

In this city under siege--an island of government-controlled land surrounded by rebels--starvation is beginning to set in. In little more than six months, rebel forces have taken about 70 percent of this country, flushing more than a million rural Angolans into the cities, where aid organizations try to dole out food to the most needy.

Only last year, Angola was at peace. Its two-decade civil war appeared to be over at last, making Angola one of the bright spots in what many hoped would be a new Africa. The continent seemed to be turning a corner, overcoming its heritage of natural disasters, corrupt dictators, poverty, and civil war. When President Bill Clinton made a historic visit, he declared that "Democracy is gaining strength" and "peace is making progress."

A new crop of democratic leaders had emerged, determined to forge free markets and nurture democracy. Graft, corruption, and political mismanagement were on the decline. And self-sufficiency seemed to be growing. Africans were taking charge of their own affairs, and depending less on their former colonial masters.

But today, wars have erupted across the continent. Most of the new leaders have fallen short of expectations, doing little to end corruption, rebuild their countries, or extend democracy. While there are notable exceptions in Nigeria and South Africa, the hope of an African renaissance has turned to despair and nobody is talking about the "new Africa" anymore.

BROKEN PROMISE OF DEMOCRACY

Angola is not the only African nation to take one step forward and two steps back. In Congo, citizens cheered in the streets when rebel leader Laurent Kabila overthrew a 32-year-old dictatorship in May 1997. Kabila promised democracy, but instead has banned political parties, jailed opponents, and put off elections for two years. Last year, war broke out again when a new group of rebels took up arms to try to oust Kabila. For now, a shaky peace agreement has ended the fighting, but not resolved the conflict.

In West Africa, rebels in Sierra Leone waged a campaign of butchery against civilians. In a campaign codenamed "No Living Thing,"...