Africa's REAL population crisis
from New Federalist, 1993
by Linda de Hoyos
Jan. 13 (EIRNS)--``Malthus is vindicated.... The Third World is overpopulated,'' proclaimed Dr. Arne Schiotz, director of conservation of Prince Philip's World Wildlife Fund, in 1984. ``It's an economic mess, and there's no way they could get out of it with this fast-growing population.'' A survey of the continent of Africa in 1992 exposes the fraud behind this misanthrope's declaration.
Since many of the African countries were granted independence in the 1960s, Africa has enjoyed a 2-3% population growth rate, becoming one of the prime targets of Malthusians such as Schiotz. Three African countries--Egypt, Ethiopia, and Nigeria--were on the list of 13 countries specifically targeted by Henry Kissinger's National Security Study Memorandum 200, which formulated plans to stop population growth in developing countries as a U.S. national security priority.
In reality, the African continent is {underpopulated.} Africa's population density is 451 persons per 1,000 hectares. With the exception of the United States (272/1,000 hectares) or Canada (29), Africa's population density was far less in 1990 than that in most industrialized nations--such as Japan (3,280), France (1,030), or Great Britain, headquarters of the world Malthusian movement (2,357).
The problem is not population density, but energy density, a parameter that shows the true economic deficit imposed on the continent by the International Monetary Fund, and the denial of technology and infrastructure to the African countries.
In Africa in 1986, annual per-hectare energy consumption (1,000 kcal/hectare of usable land) was an average of 2,887, compared to Western Europe's average of 89,447. Western Europe's energy consumption per hectare was 31 times higher than Africa's! Even the world average was 16,463--some 5.7 times higher than in Africa.
Taken per capita, average energy consumption in Africa is 6,439 thousand kcals per year. Average per capita energy consumption in North America is 83,900 thousand kcals. An American uses 13 times more energy every day than an African. The world average is 22,200 thousand kcals per person per year.
Thus, the biggest factor in Africa's crisis is not ``overpopulation,'' but lack of energy, in particular, lack of electricity and transport that would permit Africa to industrialize. Instead, the continent has been maintained as a raw materials preserve for the OECD nations.
If the development programs for Africa called for by American statesman Lyndon LaRouche were carried out--crisscrossing Africa with railroads and water projects to eradicate famine forever--far from being overpopulated, Africa would confront an acute labor {shortage!}
Today, while Africa has the highest fertility rate in the world, it also has the highest death rate. Nearly half the African countries have a life expectancy of under 50 years--compared to 76 years for the average American. The life expectancy is primarily brought down by the death of children under 5, which in many African countries is at a rate higher than 25%!
Now, there is growing evidence that the net population growth in Africa is already {negative.} That is to say, Africans are beginning to undergo a process of extermination--if the trend is not reversed.
In 1992, the government of Nigeria carried out a census which required that citizens stay in their homes for three days to ensure an accurate count. The population of Nigeria, based on the 1973 census, was projected by the UN and other agencies to be in the range of 110-120 million. But the 1992 census could find only 88 million! While some of the discrepancy can be accounted for by alleged inaccuracies in the 1973 census, physicians who have recently worked in Nigeria report that the IMF's structural adjustment program, imposed in 1986, resulted in the withdrawal of all medical services from rural areas. In these areas, the child-under-5 death rate is extremely high, and adults are now dying at higher rates.
In addition, Africa, because of the depletion of its population and the rise of malaria and co-factors, is the world's epicenter for the deadly disease AIDS. In Uganda, President Museveni has projected a decline in Uganda's population by the year 2010--a conservative estimate. In villages in the Uganda lakes region, 80% of the adult population between the ages of 20 and 45 has been wiped out by AIDS. AIDS is hitting the productive work force especially. In Tanzania, projections are that, even without any development push, an acute labor shortage will arise before the century is out.
What is killing Africa is not ``overpopulation,'' but the denial of technology and development to an entire continent. Behind the trumpeting of the word ``overpopulation'' is a policy of murder. If Africa looked like Germany, it could support a population many times higher than its current pathetic level. But for Africa to do that, the IMF and the Malthusian ideology it enforces must be expunged from any positions of power.