[stop-imf] Wole Soyinka blasts IMF/World Bank

[Robert Weissman]

Soyinka Blasts World Bank, IMF
Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)
February 8, 2001
Posted to the web February 8, 2001

Nairobi, Kenya

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have received a
bashing from an unfamiliar quarter, Nigerian literature Nobel Prize laureate
Wole Soyinka, the East African Standard reported Thursday.

Soyinka hit out at the two Bretton Woods institutions, saying they were
established to rip off Africans and safeguard the economic interests of the
super powers.

In one of the most scathing attacks on the two world moneylenders, the
prolific Nigerian writer argued that the World Bank and the IMF would like
to see a situation where Africans continue to depend on them.

Soyinka, 66, who won the Nobel Prize in 1986, was speaking to journalists at
the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi, on his arrival from New
York where he had gone for the bi-annual conference on Dialogue and
Civilisation.

"The realities in Africa and those in the USA or Germany are quite
different, and the IMF and the World Bank should not set unrealistic
conditions on us," he said.

Soyinka, also an internationally respected human rights activist, who has
for the better part of his adult life been in exile, called upon African
nations to find ways of being self-reliant instead of relying on aid from
foreign donors.

The writer's sentiments must have been music to the Kenya government's ears.
The country is striving to meet tough conditions set by the two financial
institutions before aid could be resumed.

Soyinka expressed disgust at the turmoil in Africa. He said the problems
facing countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sierra
Leone could be attributed to greed on the part of their leadership.

He ascribed Africa's civil strife to the many natural resources, especially
minerals, and lust for power. "Why don't these leaders want to share the
wealth?" he wondered.

"The leadership should understand that they are there to serve their people
and not for self-perpetuation.

"The West has continued to exploit Africans who, during the Berlin
Conference of 1884, created artificial boundaries that split Africans."

Also to receive Soyinka's flack was the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
which he criticised for lack of effectiveness.

He said African leaders gather at high-profile OAU meetings and never come
up with tangible solutions for the many problems facing the continent and
its peoples.

"Our leaders have become reactive to problems facing the continent. It's
about time they were told a few home truths," he said.

Soyinka expressed regret that the HIV/AIDS scourge had devastated so many
homes in Africa that children have now become heads of families.

"This disease should occupy the minds of our leaders," he said, expressing
hope that African scientists would soon find a cure.

During his stay in Kenya, Soyinka will visit the memorial gardens at the
site of the 7 August 1998 bomb blast at the US embassy in downtown Nairobi
that killed over 200 people, including 12 Americans.

He will also meet his local literary colleagues, including Prof. Chris
Wanjala and Grace Ogot.