Hugo Chavez's lessons for Africa

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A United States of Africa was never born, but much of Nkrumah’s efforts laid the groundwork for what we know today as the African Union. Sadly, Nkrumah bankrupted his own country in the process, leaving Ghana almost $1 billion in debt.

So what can African countries like Ghana learn from Chavez in the week when we remember the legacies of these two important and complex international figures?

Most notable is that regional unity doesn’t always have to come at the exorbitant expense of one’s own country.

In Venezuela, one of the dominant themes of Hugo Chavez’s presidency are the gestures for unity among Latin Americans, exemplified in the way Chavez handled the country’s oil reserves.

In his documentary, South of the Border, Oliver Stone notes that “after the [Chavez] government got control of the oil industry, the economy doubled in size over the next six years, with poverty reduced by half and extreme poverty by more than 70 percent.”

The documentary also traces the rise of leftist presidencies in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, and Ecuador, where Chavez was an admired fellow leader and mentor to countries whose economies had been crippled after adopting policies put forward by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Chavez’s oil wealth, which enabled him to lend billions to Argentina and Bolivia to clear their monetary fund debts, and to retool their economic policies, earned him the reputation of being the number one enemy of the IMF.

Yet Chavez simply gloated and, in another gesture towards Latin American unity, in 2009 he forged ahead with plans to open a Bank of the South in Venezuela to lend to Latin American countries in times of crisis. This is the type of infrastructure people will remember decades from now.

In a move to further entrench solidarity in Latin America, Chavez held the first ever meeting in Venezuela in 2011 of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. At the meeting, which drew attendees from 33 nations, Chavez proposed plans for regional railways in South America and other aspects of economic development.

Chavez’s aspirations didn’t stop at South America. Even at his most infirm, he had his eye on Africa. In his final weeks, he penned a letter addressed to the 63 African countries participating in the third Africa – South America Summit (ASA).

Chavez argued that “the pace of integration between the two continents be picked up.” He wrote of the “natural, political, and historic resources” that the countries shared and urged leaders “not to miss the opportunity…to unite the capacities of our nations into a true pole of power.”

In 2011, I spent 6 months in Ghana, during the beginning of Ghana’s oil boom. The general sentiment from Ghanaians is that many were not benefiting from oil wealth despite the fact that oil production was at 80,000 barrels a day and oil exports netted $1.97 billion.

While I wouldn’t identify as a socialist, I admire leadership that prioritizes the welfare of people above business interests. As Chavez is put to rest and African leaders are trying to capitalize on economic gains, the management of Venezuela’s oil wealth and its promotion of regional unity deserve a second look from African leaders who have Pan-African legacies to uphold.