In events a couple of weeks apart in the fall of 1999, the Western donors announced that Cameroon was slated to be among the first nations to receive significant debt relief in the context of the revised highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative; and Transparency International (TI) announced that Cameroon had for the second year in a row received the dubious distinction of ranking as the most corrupt nation in the world in the annual TI Corruptions Perceptions Index. The discourse surrounding the first event was emblematic of the world community's concern for poverty alleviation and economic renewal in Africa. The discourse surrounding the latter event was deeply cynical about governance in places like Cameroon, even if imperfections in TI's methods were duly noted. But the two events appeared to take place in two distinct and unconnected worlds. Governmental corruption in Cameroon was little remarked on in the HIPC announcements, while the news stories about the country's ranking made no mention that its government was due to receive several hundred million dollars from the world community in extra financial support.

This disconnect would be only mildly ironic in isolation. But, indeed, a key feature of Africa's twenty-year crisis has been the critical role played by the financial support of Western donors for governments in the region. The domestic dynamics I have described in the three previous chapters occurred in the context of a massive flow of resources from governments in the West to governments in Africa.