Malaria is another more intricate example. For centuries this mosquito borne disease has been a hazard to people on the home continent. Long before Europeans found their way south, traditional healers had known that regularly drinking an infusion of Quinine bark would keep one healthy. Many Africans followed this practice and shared it with European visitors. Pharmacologists studied and eventually synthesized Quinine. Generations of synthetics have grown increasingly expensive and have encouraged ever more resistant strains of malaria. Meanwhile Europeans have poisoned the waterways in futile attempts to eradicate mosquitoes and demonized traditional healers who once maintained the balance. Today malaria is a worse problem for Africans than ever before.

The European-African relationship has been a win-lose bargain for so many generations that the balance is all out of whack. Europeans and Americans have the stuff, much made from the raw materials of Africa or by the labor of African hands. Yet the World Bank holds that most African countries are seriously indebted. Some countries pay huge portions of their gross national product just to service the interest on their debts. Total forgiveness for the most indebted nations is the first step to restoring balance.

Many have noted that Africa lacks the infrastructure to become economically productive. Implied in this observation is the assumption that the only route to productivity is to follow the same path taken by the industrialized nations. Yet if Africans can learn from the mistakes of northern experience, they may yet sidestep many of our problems. Wealthy nations should counsel environmental sensitivity, decentralized systems, modern communications, and appropriate technology.

For example, decentralized solar power is even more viable in Africa than in those parts of the planet further from the equator. Photovoltaic cells being manufactured from the silicon sands of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, hold greater promise than damming the Zambezi and crossing the rainforests with high voltage lines ever did (Imagine the line loss in such wet surroundings!). It is in Africa where the vision of the world village is most likely to come to fruition.

I believe Africa will best participate in the global marketplace not only by contributions of raw materials and strong backs but through engagement of creative minds with comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of human relationships. Eco-tourism encourages those from wealthy nations to exchange their money for a taste of the African experience. Broadcast and entertainment tours offer Africans the opportunities to take that taste to the peoples of Eurasia, Australia and the Americas.

Global broadband communications through a network of low earth orbiting satellites hold the promise of connecting remote villages to us all without disturbing the ecology on which their traditional lifestyles depend. How much could we all learn from people who know how to live in balance with nature? Africans can help us to understand the lessons of community that survived the onslaught of the industrial-colonial era without major change. Respectful honest exchange of information will move all human society toward better health.

Of course, there must be something for Africa in this exchange. The people of the home continent deserve to enjoy the fruits of modern lifestyle to the extent that they can without destabilizing traditional values. We should all foster those developments that enjoy broad support of the African people, honoring the traditional roles of the elders and contraries. Grameen-style banks that feature micro-loans to the poor are among the most hopeful fronts.

The official governments of Africa are a serious mess. With borders drawn in Europe by men who often had never even been to Africa, the descendents of imposed colonial structure are even less effective than the homegrown governments of the Balkans. Africa has had too few leaders of the caliber of Nyerere, who twice resigned the highest office of his nation to pursue idealism. More often, men of narrow vision have built kleptocracies and used brute force to reward petty corruption. But the national governments have far less influence than older traditional structures.

But the ideals of the generation that won independence from colonialism are not dead. Strains of Pan-Africanism can still be heard. Perhaps one day we will yet see Africa united in defending the autonomy of each of the thousands of diverse tribes that still exist where they have been for a thousand years. Peaceful coexistence has been proven possible in Zambia and Tanzania. Why not hope that such wisdom could engulf all Africa and eventually the whole world?