Forgiving Africa

With the G8 countries preparing to cancel $40 billion in debt owed by several African countries, a fresh start is promised. But what has really changed? Acton talks to Africans about their views of the debt forgiveness campaign.

“The Free and Easy Charity of the One Campaign” By Anthony Bradley

The One Campaign, an advocacy group formed by international relief agencies that is promoting greater U.S. spending on foreign aid, has drawn support from prominent evangelical Christians and a pack of celebrities including U2’s Bono. But Anthony Bradley observes that the campaign, with its focus on greater governmental action rather than personal sacrifice, “promotes a depersonalized and sterile form of help characteristic of the secular appeal to radical individualism.”

Acton Interview:

“We want to work hard, and pay our debts,” African views of the G8 debt cancellation agreement.

The Acton Institute discussed the debt cancellation agreement and the moral nature of business with two Africa experts who were attending the institute’s June 14-17 Symposium event in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Rt. Rev. Bernard Njoroge is bishop of the diocese of Nairobi in the Episcopal Church of Africa, and a member of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission. Chanshi Chanda is chairman of the Institute of Freedom for the Study of Human Dignity in Kitwe, Zambia.

Video clips from the interview are available below:

Mr. Chanshi Chanda	Rev. Bernard Njoroge

Other Articles on African Aid

James Shikwati - “The WTO and the Voice of the Poor”

Rev. Michael Oluwatuyi - “An African Solution for Africa’s Poverty”

Akinyi June Arunga - “Letter from Nairobi: Why the world’s poor are no longer willing to remain ‘indigenous’” (PDF)

Rev. Gerald Zandstra - “Mr. Chibuye and the AIDS widows of Zambia”