That Laurent Kabila could ever have been mistaken for a leader of stature and promise almost defies belief. Whatever happens in Central Africa, it is a virtual certainty that US soldiers will not be risking their lives to prevent Africans from doing appalling things to each other. Clinton talks about Africa as a potential market of 700-million people and of sharing in Africa's prosperity, which he imagines will follow if economic growth rates stay as high as they have over the past few years. But he ignores the absolute poverty of much of the continent. Even countries where growth rates have been impressive, such as Ghana and Uganda, start from a very low base and the austerity measures forced upon them by the World Bank and the IMF in Washington have cruelly affected the poor and deprived many of access to health and education.
Transformation is sweeping Africa.
From Somalia to Angola to the streets of Hillbrow, Africa is on the move, creating its own models. It is this Africa that Clinton and his policy-makers should be looking at and seeking to understand, rather than condemning the continent to being a deviant example of a Western model whose only hope lies in falling victim to globalisation.