New Activism by African Nations: Joining Forces to Solve Disputes

Charles Taylor resigned the presidency of Liberia yesterday in front of leaders from Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana. The president of Ghana announced the terms of Taylor's succession, while troops from Nigeria and South Africa stood guard in the city of Monrovia to ensure that the civil war had truly come to a close. Once, says this article in the New York Times, African nations would have considered such interference in another state's affairs deeply inappropriate. The continent has witnessed many conflicts – Liberia's included – that were either instigated or exacerbated by outside states and is often more critical of interferers than of the tyrants they confront. Yet, Liberia is but one example of peacekeeping efforts currently being performed by African troops in countries such as Congo, Burundi, Somalia, and Sudan. Experts say these efforts indicate that Africa is beginning to view conflicts as regional problems and to believe that it should referee its own disputes. However, critics are quick to point out the reluctance of the African Union and individual states to reprimand such flawed leaders as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. If Taylor's resignation was the result of foreign intervention, these critics say, it did not come from African states. "Our leaders are taking credit for what they didn't do," one South African scholar said. "African governments were not the ones demanding that Taylor step down. It was George Bush demanding that he step down." Indeed, with 2,300 US Marines off the Liberian coast awaiting further instructions from Washington, America's influence in the region couldn't be clearer. – YaleGlobal