africa

Africa at a Fork in the Road: Taking Off or Disappointment Once Again?
further demonstrations, encouraged and cheered on by ambitious challengers to
the incumbent regime.
Initially, the forces of reform were stymied. Illustrative is the case of Zaire, where
the United States continued to support the president, Joseph Mobutu, even as
Mobutu continued to ruin the nation’s economy. As recounted by Ndikumana and
Boyce (2011: 2):
In 1987, … under pressure from the US government, [the International
Monetary Fund approved a new loan to Zaire] over strong objections
by senior staff and a rare dissenting vote by three members of the
Fund’s twenty-four member executive board. This was among the
decisions that prompted the resignation of David Finch, director of
the IMF’s exchange and trade relations department ….
During the Cold War, the United States employed development assistance and
international financial institutions to stabilize regimes that supported its fight against
communist-backed movements in the developing world. Security interests trumped
development policy.
12.3.2.3 Political change
But then, in 1989, everything changed. Marked by the collapse of the Berlin Wall,
Eastern Europe withdrew from the communist bloc. When Russia subsequently
withdrew from the Soviet Union, the Cold War was over. In Africa, international
financial institutions were then able to join domestic political forces in backing the
forces of political change.
By way of illustration, we return to the case of Benin. Emboldened by the toppling
of governments throughout Eastern Europe, the opponents of President Mathieu
Kerekou flooded into the streets of the national capital, mounting waves of protest
that brought the capital to a standstill. The president was forced to call for a “Conference
Nationale des Forces Vives at which business, professional, religious, labor,
and political groups, together with the government, would be given an opportunity
to draw up a new constitutional framework” (Meredith, 2005: 388). The president
had expected to dominate the proceedings of the conference, but he failed to do
197