[ Introduction ]    [Trade & regional Groups]   [Debt & Dev ]    [Muslim Initiative ]    Abstract The objective of this paper is threefold. First to provide general but relevant details on the economy of sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on trade, debt and development, thus providing a background for the discussions of the congress. Secondly the paper will discuss the major trade blocks within the region such as ECOWAS, PTA etc. and examine their impact so far. Thirdly the paper will then look at the various attempts at salvaging the African economy, from economic development aid, through debt reduction, to the recent Global Coalition for Africa. The paper will then raise some fundamental issues regarding development in sub-Saharan Africa. It will then explore alternative visions of economic development. The thrust of the argument of the paper is to show the futility of the efforts that are tied to or rely on the goodwill of the economic North for the recovery of African economy. Africa will simply have to look elsewhere for its recovery. Can a Muslim initiative come to the rescue? Introduction The mere mention of Africa today conjures up an image of poverty, debt and deprivation. This is the image which western media has consistently and successfully conveyed over the years, an extension of its aggression on Africa, dating some five centuries back. It is true that Africa is poor, unable to enjoy equitable terms of trade, labouring under a debilitating debt burden and suffering all manners of deprivations, but it is certainly not the whole truth. In any war, especially the kind which the West has been engaged with Africa, truth is usually the first casualty. It needs to be recalled that, Africa was drawn into the Western led global system first as a supplier of slaves who worked the plantations, later as the main source of raw materials that kept the industries of Europe busy and today robbed of what little they make in the name of servicing a perpetual debt that was never meant to be paid, as well as a dumping ground for all manners of manufactured goods and even toxic wastes. To be sure, Africa's current predicament is not for want of resources. For Africa has a rich soil for Agriculture and abundant water resources for irrigation, transportation and hydroelectric generation. In terms of mineral resources, Africa has 97% of world reserves of chromium, 85% of platinum, 64% of gold 50% of manganese, and 25% of uranium, [1] not to mention the all important oil. EEC's dependence on Africa include 95% of its uranium, 46% of Tropical woods 41% of chrome 41% of cocoa, 25% of coffee, 23.3% of manganese, 20% cotton to mention a few. [2] But these resources belong to Africa only in name, for Africans do not decide the prices of these commodities, all they need do is tune the BBC and it is there on the air. And the IMF and World Bank will decide the value of their currency and the level of subsidy they can give to their citizens, all in the name of a Structural Adjustment Program designed, ostensibly, to help their poor economies. Sucked dry, unable to find any succour, naturally the living conditions deteriorated. A recent UN report entitled Brave New Third World observed that "Health systems are collapsing for lack of medicines, schools have no books and universities suffer from a debilitating shortage of library and laboratory facilities ... the hungry go without food, massive resources are being hived off to servicing the continent's $138bn external debt".[3] The report further blamed the US commercial banks and the IMF for what it called "shocking and extensive assault" on the economic sovereignty of Africa and the rest of the third world. By their own admission the IMF and the World Bank reckoned in a report a few years back that 950 million people are living in absolute poverty and squalor, 350 million of these live in Asia, 280 million in the rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and 80 million in Latin America. This number, the report further admitted, had been increasing rapidly throughout the 80's. [4] John Pilger a veteran British journalist captured the sprit of this grim picture when he titled his 1992 revealing documentary on debt problem, ‘War By Other Means’. [5]