Africa: Declaration on Illegitimate Debt

Africa Jubilee South Declaration at the Illegitimate Debt Audit Workshop,
held from 11th to 13th June 2004, Cape Town South Africa.

We members of Africa Jubilee South Group, representing Angola, Cameroon,
Cote d' ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, South
Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, together with our solidarity
partners from Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines as participants in the
Illegitimate Debt Audit Workshop gathered in Cape Town, South Africa declare

1. We are united by our common history of slavery, colonization,
neo-colonialism and struggles against domination arising from the policies
of globalisation advanced by International Financial Institutions and driven
in particular by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
western industrialized countries.
2. We are conscious of our richness in human and natural resources which has
the potential to develop a sustainable economic system that galvanizes our
continent to shape our economic destiny in the interest of the poor and the
marginalized.
3. We further acknowledge Africa's potential to be a community of nations
enjoying peace and human security. But these aims will only be achieved if
our continent frees itself from the bondage arising from the systematic
domination, exploitation and control of capitalist globalisation.
4. However, we note that the overwhelming majority of the people in Africa
live in conditions of appalling poverty and are already suffering the
effects of the HIV and AIDS pandemic and that
· many of our governments are concerned with preserving the status quo in
the interest of the minute ruling elites, the profits of trans national
corporations, and lack the political will to challenge and fundamentally
resolve the structural inequalities that exist between the north and south,
the local elites and the overwhelming majority poor
5. We further note the rise of resistance and struggles of workers, youth,
peasants, women, expressing themselves in growing movements in alliance for
fundamental and transformative change.
6. As African countries we have paid a major price for our support, shelter
and solidarity for the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggle, which
includes the burden of illegitimate debts that we now carry.
7. We are deeply concerned with South Africa's sub-imperialist role and its
use of NEPAD to promote the neo- liberal paradigm to further dominate the
rest of the African continent politically, economically, culturally and
militarily, serving the interests of transnational corporations.

We note further

8. That Africa carries a debt burden of over US$300 billion yet has 5% of
the developing world's income and spends over US$15 billion on debt
repayments annually to wealthy nations and institutions.
· This is at the expense of providing basic social services, environmental
security, food security, diversifying its economic production and reclaiming
its sovereignty.

9. Africa's debt is illegitimate because
· Historical inequalities arising from slavery, slave trade wars, colonial
legacy and unequal trade relations framed the structure for imperial
domination and control of our economies and the resultant debt crisis.
· The international financial institutions and northern industrialized
governments have used the deepening cycle of indebtedness as a tool of
domination to create favourable conditions for predatory corporate expansion
to further loot and plunder Africa's human and natural resources.
· In this cyclical process Africa has repaid this debt several times over
and no longer do we just shout WE DON'T OWE WE WONT PAY but declare that
AFRICA IS THE CREDITOR.
We demand
· Full unconditional cancellation of Africa's total debt
· Reparations for damage caused by debt devastation
· Immediate halt to HIPIC and PRSPs and the disguised structural adjustment
program through NEPAD and any other agreements that do not address the
fundamental interests of the impoverished majority and the building of a
sustainable and sovereign Africa.
· A comprehensive audit to determine the full extent and real nature of
Africa's illegitimate debt, the total payments made to date and the amount
owed to Africa .

As African activists we
· Call for the growing debt movement on our continent and all other social
movements in the diaspora to unite and build our social weight, collective
wisdom and power to achieve our demands.
· We call for unity and collective action with other continents of Latin
America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific and with democratic forces
everywhere to challenge and replace the currently dominant neo-liberal
ideology and globalizing capitalist system.
· We call on our governments to work to unite with social movements in
achieving and defending these demands and in whatever consequences we may be
confronted by as a result of challenging global economic powers.

As African solidarity partners in the struggle against apartheid we state
that

· Our countries have made great sacrifices for the political freedom of
South Africans. We note painfully the great difficulties that some of the
delegates have experienced in getting entry visas into South Africa. We
call for a process to be started immediately to remove all barriers to our
freedom of movement within our continent.

We express our solidarity with the people of Haiti

· in their ongoing struggle to achieve true freedom, democracy, economic and
social well-being. In particular, we support them in their demand to
respect their right to self determination, the withdrawal of all foreign
military forces now occupying Haiti, for the cancellation of the debt that
is illegitimately claimed from the majority of the people of Haiti who have
never benefited from its accumulation.

· This year marks the 200 hundredth anniversary of the successful struggle
for political emancipation of the first slave nation in the Americas and all
the world. We call especially for reparations for the devastation and
domination which that debt has signified historically for the people of
Haiti.

Participating Organisations:

1. Ecumenical Service for Peace, Cameroon
2. Economic and Social Alternatives - Cameroon
3. Liga Jubilee 2000 Angola
4. Malawi Economic Justice Network
5. D'appui pour la promotion rurale (association paysanne)
Nouvelles alternatives pour le development (association d'education)
Democratic Republic of Congo
6. Malawi Economic Justice Network
7. Tanzania Association of NGO's
8. Mozambican Debt Movement
9. Dette et la Pauvrete (FNDP) - Cote de Viore
10. Southern Africa Peoples Solidarity Network
11. Zimbabwe Coalition Against Debt
12. Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia
13. ECONEWS AFRICA - Kenya
14. Foundation for Socio- Economic Justice Movement -Swaziland
15. Jubilee South Africa
16. Citizens Debt Auditing - Brazil
17. American Friends Service Committee
18. Dialogo 2000/Jubilee Sur/Americas - Argentina
19. Jubilee South Secretariat - Philippines
20. Zambian Debt Coalition
21. Alternative Information and Development Centre - South Africa
22. Network of Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa

For further details contact - Jubilee South - 27 -21\447 5770