Academics, professionals, entrepreneurs and politicians will debate in La Laguna until October 10 on the challenges facing the African continent. Campus Africa, organized by the Canary Foundation for the Control of Tropical Diseases, is one of the most important forums that have been held in our Archipelago on a territory in which the flourishing of its economy contrasts with a desolate landscape in terms of human rights, lives broken by poverty and chilling stories of diseases, tribal wars, etcetera.
The organizers, whom I congratulate for the titanic effort made to make Tenerife the setting for a campus with an extraordinary program, offered me the opportunity to share the stage of the Teatro Leal with María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, Vera Duarte Martins and Asunción Sánchez Zaplana, to discuss African women, immigration and development. This article is a summary of my presentation on "immigration and emigration: human rights in African development".
With apocalyptic headlines, the media, as absent from the heart of Africa as diplomacy itself, periodically inform us about the events that take place on our shore, in the final stretch of a journey that many begin in the interior of Africa. What sadness the distance between two territories that almost embrace each other produces! Not only are political relations ephemeral, but the news that is spread in Europe is so scarce that it contributes little or nothing to giving us a more real vision of a continent that only matters when it poses a threat.
In Africa, where more than 1.1 billion people live, and which is expected to reach 2 billion in 2050, more than 450 million live below the poverty line. Access to food, health and education is still a luxury for the vast majority of Africans and, what is worse, the situation has worsened in the last decade. The gigantic pockets of poverty that dominate its social landscape drag millions of people to pack their bags, say goodbye to their families and begin a journey whose paths many do not know.
Emma Bonino, who has been almost everything in the European Union and in her own country, in Italy, recently raised the need for a specific EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean to be created, so that the Community institutions have their own structure for monitoring the crises open in North Africa and for active cooperation in solving them, in addition to promoting the development of these regions.
From my point of view, Bonino's proposal falls short. What happens in the Mediterranean is the last stop on a journey that many begin in the interior of the continent. And the European Union must have an organism not only for the Mediterranean but for all of Africa. A structure that helps constantly, and not in passing conventions, to create a synergy between two territories whose borders not only cross in the waters of the Mediterranean but also coexist at this height of the Atlantic.
Europe is a reference for African civil society. It was for those two children, almost teenagers, who took refuge inside the landing gear of a plane in Guinea Conakry, and perished before landing in Brussels with a letter addressed to their "excellencies the gentlemen of Europe". They paid with their death for an exit that many perceive as the only way to enjoy a dignified life. Hence the responsibility that our continent must assume to contribute to the political stabilization of Africa and, especially, to the achievement of one of the few passports that exist to stop migratory movements: human rights.
In line with the Millennium Development Goals, whose fulfillment is very far away, I believe that it is necessary to advance in human and social development, emphasizing that today, more than ever, investment in human capital is the main political response to the challenges of globalization and the increase in inequalities, especially in Africa.
Development cooperation, whose objectives have been amputated by almost all countries, must resume the script drawn up at the beginning of the century to prioritize economic and social rights, rights in terms of sexuality and procreation, children's rights, women's rights, cultural rights, minority rights, etcetera.
In addition, without fair international economic relations and global trade and without adequate management of African natural resources that serves to improve the living conditions and the development of the capacities of that great majority of the population that is excluded, there will be neither democracy nor development on the continent. And without a responsible democracy or equitable development, millions of men and women will only have one way out: emigration.
"I despise them so much because, being able to do so much, they have dared so little." The words of Albert Camus, as severe as they are real, reflect the perception that many people share with respect to those who continue to look the other way, despite the harsh reality that is lived in Africa.
Ana Oramas, deputy of Coalición Canaria
