Africa Action: Activism for Africa Since 1953
Africa Action Statement on Nelson Mandela’s meeting with President Bush
May 18, 2005
“Let Us Not Forget What Mandela Stands For”
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 (Washington, DC)—Africa Action today welcomed former South African President and Nobel Peace Laureate Nelson Mandela on his visit to the U.S., but cautioned against the manipulation of Mandela’s name and image by the Bush White House. As Mandela meets with President Bush for the first time since 2001, Africa Action emphasized the principled positions Mandela has taken on urgent African and international issues, and guarded against efforts to discount his opposition to Bush Administration foreign policy in recent years.
Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action, said this morning, “Nelson Mandela is not only a well-respected and much-loved elder statesman on the African continent, he is also a voice of moral authority around the world. The Bush White House wishes to associate itself with Mandela as he visits the U.S. this week, but we must not forget that the Bush Administration’s foreign policy priorities and actions are directly at odds with Mandela’s vision.”
Booker continued, “Mandela’s acceptance of the invitation to the White House this week shows him to be a gracious diplomat, but should not be misunderstood to discount his previous vocal criticisms of Bush Administration policies. In particular, current U.S. Africa policy is in conflict with Africa’s most pressing priorities, and no ‘photo-op’ at the White House can conceal that reality.”
Africa Action highlights below some of Mandela’s critiques of U.S. foreign policy under the Bush Administration, and his assertion of the need for U.S. and international action on global priorities such as poverty & HIV/AIDS.
Nelson Mandela on the U.S. invasion of Iraq: "It is a tragedy, what is happening, what Bush is doing… undermining the United Nations. He is acting outside it…I hope that one day [he will] understand that he has made the greatest mistake of his life in trying to bring about carnage and to police the world without any authority of the international body. It is something we have to condemn without reservation.” (Johannesburg, January 2003)
Nelson Mandela on the need for international action against HIV/AIDS: “Let us not equivocate: a tragedy of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Africa. The poor on the continent will again carry a disproportionate part of the scourge…AIDS today in Africa is claiming more lives than the sum total of all wars, famines, and floods, and the ravages of such deadly diseases as malaria.” (Durban, July 2000)
Nelson Mandela statement to rich country governments on the need for debt cancellation: “We need action on 100 percent debt cancellation, multilateral as well as bilateral, to remove the burdens of the past to allow people to be free. Africa cannot have economic stability until you provide 100 percent debt relief and you have the ability to do that…do not delay when poor people continue to suffer." (London, February 2005)
As the White House claims that Mandela and Bush will discuss “their common concern for fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa”, Africa Action emphasizes that the Bush Administration’s Africa policy is at odds with Africa’s priorities:
Africa Action has been engaged in efforts to promote more just U.S. policies toward Africa since 1953, and played a significant role in the solidarity struggle in the U.S. against apartheid in South Africa. Africa Action’s predecessor organizations, the American Committee on Africa & The Africa Fund, hosted Nelson Mandela on his first trip to the U.S. after his release from prison in 1990.
Mandela’s visit to the White House this week comes two years after President Bush traveled to South Africa and snubbed Mandela by not requesting a meeting with him during his visit. Africa Action also notes that in 1986 U.S. Vice-President Cheney voted against a resolution that called for U.S. recognition of the African National Congress in South Africa and freedom for the organization's then-imprisoned leader Mandela.
“Let Us Not Forget What Mandela Stands For”
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 (Washington, DC)—Africa Action today welcomed former South African President and Nobel Peace Laureate Nelson Mandela on his visit to the U.S., but cautioned against the manipulation of Mandela’s name and image by the Bush White House. As Mandela meets with President Bush for the first time since 2001, Africa Action emphasized the principled positions Mandela has taken on urgent African and international issues, and guarded against efforts to discount his opposition to Bush Administration foreign policy in recent years.
Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action, said this morning, “Nelson Mandela is not only a well-respected and much-loved elder statesman on the African continent, he is also a voice of moral authority around the world. The Bush White House wishes to associate itself with Mandela as he visits the U.S. this week, but we must not forget that the Bush Administration’s foreign policy priorities and actions are directly at odds with Mandela’s vision.”
Booker continued, “Mandela’s acceptance of the invitation to the White House this week shows him to be a gracious diplomat, but should not be misunderstood to discount his previous vocal criticisms of Bush Administration policies. In particular, current U.S. Africa policy is in conflict with Africa’s most pressing priorities, and no ‘photo-op’ at the White House can conceal that reality.”
Africa Action highlights below some of Mandela’s critiques of U.S. foreign policy under the Bush Administration, and his assertion of the need for U.S. and international action on global priorities such as poverty & HIV/AIDS.
Nelson Mandela on the U.S. invasion of Iraq: "It is a tragedy, what is happening, what Bush is doing… undermining the United Nations. He is acting outside it…I hope that one day [he will] understand that he has made the greatest mistake of his life in trying to bring about carnage and to police the world without any authority of the international body. It is something we have to condemn without reservation.” (Johannesburg, January 2003)
Nelson Mandela on the need for international action against HIV/AIDS: “Let us not equivocate: a tragedy of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Africa. The poor on the continent will again carry a disproportionate part of the scourge…AIDS today in Africa is claiming more lives than the sum total of all wars, famines, and floods, and the ravages of such deadly diseases as malaria.” (Durban, July 2000)
Nelson Mandela statement to rich country governments on the need for debt cancellation: “We need action on 100 percent debt cancellation, multilateral as well as bilateral, to remove the burdens of the past to allow people to be free. Africa cannot have economic stability until you provide 100 percent debt relief and you have the ability to do that…do not delay when poor people continue to suffer." (London, February 2005)
As the White House claims that Mandela and Bush will discuss “their common concern for fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa”, Africa Action emphasizes that the Bush Administration’s Africa policy is at odds with Africa’s priorities:
- While HIV/AIDS remains the biggest challenge facing the African continent, the U.S. initiative to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa remains under-funded, and its promotion of expensive brand-name treatments over generic versions of AIDS drugs protects the profits of big drug companies over the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, the U.S. focus on abstinence-only prevention programs promotes the agenda of the religious right and contradicts what is known about the most effective ways to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and elsewhere.
- As African countries are required to spend up to $15 billion per year repaying old illegitimate debts to rich country creditors, the Bush Administration recently reversed its earlier commitment to 100% debt cancellation, and continues to stall on addressing Africa’s devastating debt crisis. The ongoing equivocation of the U.S. and other rich countries on this critical issue leaves most African governments spending more on debt service payments than they can spend on the needs of their own people, including on the fight against HIV/AIDS.
- In the Darfur region of Sudan, the Bush Administration recognized eight months ago that genocide was taking place, but has failed to respond to this crisis with the urgency that is required. Up to 400,000 people have lost their lives in Darfur since the government-sponsored genocide began in 2003, and up to 15,000 people are still dying each month. Yet the Bush Administration considers it more important to maintain an intelligence-sharing relationship with the Sudanese government in the context of the so-called “war on terror” than to take this government to task for genocide and to support an urgent international intervention to protect the people of Darfur.
- The so-called “war on terror” has re-imposed a Cold War-like framework on Africa, where the White House considers Africa as geo-strategic real estate. The Bush Administration ignores Africa’s priorities of peace, development and human rights, and instead defines the continent’s value in terms of oil and access to military bases.
Africa Action has been engaged in efforts to promote more just U.S. policies toward Africa since 1953, and played a significant role in the solidarity struggle in the U.S. against apartheid in South Africa. Africa Action’s predecessor organizations, the American Committee on Africa & The Africa Fund, hosted Nelson Mandela on his first trip to the U.S. after his release from prison in 1990.
Mandela’s visit to the White House this week comes two years after President Bush traveled to South Africa and snubbed Mandela by not requesting a meeting with him during his visit. Africa Action also notes that in 1986 U.S. Vice-President Cheney voted against a resolution that called for U.S. recognition of the African National Congress in South Africa and freedom for the organization's then-imprisoned leader Mandela.
