The Africa Justice Foundation's desire to strengthen the continent's legal systems is laudable. But a focus on investment and natural resources during its launch event did it no favours
There is no disputing the role that lawyers have played in African development. Some of the greatest figures in the independence movements of countries throughout the continent were lawyers. And the lack of well-trained and properly paid lawyers, independent judges and fairly applied laws in African countries remains one of the many barriers to change.
Nevertheless, the congregating of a large group of lawyers declaring that what the world needs is more lawyers, is always going to be problematic.
All the more so if they are well-heeled corporate lawyers in wealthy global firms, part of a system seen by many Africans as having barely evolved since the colonial world order allowed London's commercial hub to exploit the continent's riches at will.
So when Cherie Booth's Africa Justice Foundation, a new initiative to promote the rule of law in Africa, launched this week at the Fleet Street offices of the global law firm Freshfields, it was bound to invite a degree of scepticism.
The event, with its sprinkling of presidents ? including former Ghanaian president John Kufuor; politicians, including the shadow attorney general, Patricia Scotland, and former equality minister and now shadow international development secretary, Harriet Harman; African diplomats and plentiful lawyers and business people ? focused on the positive and undeniable message that supporting Africa's lawyers will help strengthen the continent's democratic institutions.
Booth, the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, and others behind the foundation invited donations to help pay for scholarships for African government lawyers to study abroad, for legal literacy programmes and for law reporting ? all useful ways to build the capacity of Africa's legal systems.
But, and there is a major but, this initiative, like many others, needs closer scrutiny. First is the preoccupation with big business, and the assumption that creating favourable investment opportunities is the way to lift Africans out of poverty. The easiest way to reveal the flaws with this approach is to point out that the person invited to enlighten the audience on "how to answer the problems of Africa" was De Beers' executive director, Jonathan Oppenheimer. De Beers may have cleaned up its act lately, but the diamond industry, and especially the multinational diamond industry, would not be my preferred source of expertise on how to solve Africa's problems.
Then there is the emphasis on Africa's natural resources. I lost count of the references to investment potential and Africa's natural wealth at the foundation's launch, but until the continent stops being seen as a piggy bank for the rest of the world to raid, progress will be limited.
And finally there was the unquestioned premise that change is achieved by working with governments. The programme so far has a heavy emphasis on Rwanda, which Booth said glowingly she had visited with Laura Bush in 2005. I'm sure they had fun, but foreign donors have spent a lot of time lately wondering how to extricate themselves from the massive funding poured into a government whose democratic credentials are massively in question.
Suella Fernandes, the foundation's director, even named Chad as one of the countries illustrative of Africa's massive growth potential. Chad's politicians have had plenty of help in using the country's oil revenue to fund development rather than their own interests, and repeatedly been shown lacking.
All this was helpfully reinforced with a patronising film explaining that Africa "has a lot going for it". It's easy to be an "Afro-optimist", as Fernandes described herself, while based in a city which is, as ever, poised to profit from Africa's economic growth.
Even the foundation is driven, in part, by lawyers' unquenchable desire to self-promote. I have heard senior lawyers talk of wanting to support African development initiatives, and recruit more brown people generally, because it helps them sell business in the lucrative emerging markets of Africa and India. At this week's launch, law firms were invited to support the rollout of law reports in African countries ? at a cost of �100,000 ? on the basis that it provides them with a great marketing opportunity.
Booth, who made that point, speaks for herself, using her profile on the foundation's website as another opportunity to plug her book.
I hope I don't sound sceptical. I think training African lawyers is a great thing to do.
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