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Africa's race against time: the need is urgent, but Stephen Lewis provides clear solutions that could have an immediate and lasting impact on Africa's future.

Article Excerpt
Stephen Lewis' Massey Lectures were originally delivered in late 2005, and were subsequently published by House of Anansi Press as Race Against Time. (1) Over the course of five lectures given in five different Canadian cities, Lewis railed against the injustices he has witnessed in his role as the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. And he rallied a cry--for the governments and citizens of the world to fulfill their moral, human duty to alleviate the suffering no nation, no continent, should face.

The following is an excerpt from the final lecture, "Solutions: A Gallery of Alternatives in Good Faith," in which Lewis prescribes a number of concrete, achievable actions that, together or alone, would hold immediate and lasting benefits for Africa. They glimpse at possibilities for turning the tide on problems of overwhelming proportions, while reminding us of the urgency of the need--and the unforgivable outrage committed by a world that continues to ignore the cries of a continent.

When Stephen Lewis speaks for Africa, we all should listen.

THE ESSENCE of these lectures is not difficult to divine: The Millennium Development Goals will not be reached in Africa. As I explored the issues dealt with in the previous four chapters, it became more and more apparent that without dramatic change, the goals are an intellectual illusion. We are in a desperate race against time, and we're losing. It's simply impossible to reduce poverty, hunger, gender inequality, disease, and death significantly at the present pace, and other than the contrapuntal beat of hyperactive rhetoric, the necessary acceleration is nowhere evident.

Alas, man and woman cannot live by rhetoric alone.

That being the case, I would like to advance a number of ideas, possibilities, suggestions, recommendations, solutions, which were they to be applied to Africa, in whole or in part, would give the continent a much better chance of survival. Some of the suggestions are sound; some are unselfconsciously eccentric, some will be seen as implausible. In certain instances, I highlight initiatives that are already in place, but which carry high levels of risk or uncertainty, requiring a special declaration of support. I offer them all as a gallery of alternatives in good faith. I would offer almost anything as an antidote to the pathetically blinkered and unimaginative current approach, which holds the continent in thrall.

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