It is a simple truth of geography that the world looks different according to the point from which one views it. In his address to the Irish Times/Harvard University Colloquium in University College Dublin last night Mr Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, reminded us that Africa is "centrally positioned at what could be a cross roads for world trade, within easy reach of markets in America, Asia and Europe.... situated, we would like to believe, at the very centre of the world". This is the promise held out by the continent's rich resources and the hope entertained by recent economic and political achievements. It is good to be reminded that the potential exists, despite the marginalisation and stereotyping to which Africa has been subject, as it comes to terms with its history and contemporary position in the world.
This history and that future were the subject of Mrs Mugabe's address. He dealt at length and convincingly with the deep structures of exploitation, dependency and racism laid down as the slave trade was succeeded by the long scourge of colonial rule from Europe. If Africa is today pulling out of a dark age it is, as he puts it, "a dark age into which it was plunged by others, not, by itself". Coming to terms with that legacy has involved recognising the damage that was done to African social, economic and political life and the capacity, to learn from the mistakes that were made during the period after independence was won.
There is an inevitable tension between recognition of the past and finding remedies for the future, as self reliance, self help - and self criticism - must replace putting the blame on post colonial structures. The dilemma is well known to Irish people, a fact that helps to explain the genuine empathy that has characterised Irish approaches to Africa. Mr Mugabe admits that there was a failure to develop an indigenous entrepreneur class, an over reliance on state and semi state bodies and, when they failed, hardship, unemployment and disillusionment which made it easier for military elites or corrupt dictators to seize power.
It is important not to exaggerate the extent of political instability in Africa. Most of its states have not been at war, internally or externally, and have pursued their socio economic development quietly and usually beyond the scrutiny of western media. Many states, including Zimbabwe, have to struggle with a quite unacceptable level of indebtedness in addition to the rigours of meeting targets laid down in structural adjustment policies by the International Monetary Fund and other western lending agencies. There is a new spirit of regional economic integration and conflict prevention, which Mr Mugabe is determined to accelerate during his forthcoming chairmanship of the OAU. Democratic accountability and good governance, too, are increasingly indispensable ingredients of economic success and necessary means of escaping from the political corruption which can so easily destroy it.
In these circumstances imaginative and well focused policies on trade, debt and aid have a great deal to contribute to Africa's development in coming decades, as Mr Peter Sutherland argued forcefully last knight. It is essential to keep that message alive as the developed west turns its attention elsewhere or mistakenly concludes, on the basis of partial or biased reportage, that such policies have little to contribute to African development strategies. On the contrary, they are necessitated both by human solidarity and prudential concern for the economic progress and political stability that will bring Africa back genuinely to the centre of world affairs.