Politicians have a unique talent for turning their failures into opportunities for new and more ambitious failures. This was the case for the world leaders gathered a few weeks ago in London. They came out saying they would forgive 40 billion dollars worth of debt to 18 of Africa’s poorest countries. This sum could later rise to 55 billion dollars. With a quick signature, they told us, the beginning of the end for hunger in Africa was underway.

The truth is quite different. There are 38 countries considered poor or deeply in debt. Public institutions have poured 114 billion dollars in loans into them. And today their income per capita is 25% less than what it was in 1980. In the past two and a half decades, those people taking part in globalization have seen significant development. Countries opting for the other path, World Bank or IMF credit to governments, have made themselves even poorer. The debt cannot be paid because instead of channeling the money into productive activities, the governing elite in these countries divvied it up and used it to consolidate power. This just proves the current system’s failure. It is then surprising to see world leaders spin the admission of this failure as some new success story.

A business asks for a loan because it believes it can use the money to develop productive projects that will allow it to repay the loan, with interest, and still make a profit. What does a government in a poor country, occupied by a corrupt and kleptocratic regime, do with the credit it receives? Increase its power and direct the funds to friendly sectors and areas. Divvy it up. Look at Yoweri Museveni, self-imposed president of Uganda. According to a recent report “foreign aid and natural resources have been frittered away and invested in corrupt leaders´ private companies.” Take Idi Amin, whose power rests atop 300.000 compatriots’ corpses, and his friends are quite a lucky bunch because they enjoy world solidarity. Exactly how does it help Zimbabwe to condone its government’s debt?

Condoning debt is useless and hypocritical. These debts were never going to be paid. Canceling them is mere propaganda, and implies that Africa is kept in poverty by cheap rich countries. In truth, the causes lie elsewhere. While the great development theorists like Bono or Bob Geldof say aid and debt forgiveness is the path to growth, the poorest countries long ago stopped letting themselves be fooled by such pseudo-prophets and nation-savers. In the United Nations meeting in Johannesburg the poor demanded the rich open their borders to the goods they produce. They were asking for more trade, more capitalism, and more globalization. If we are at all interested in liberating this continent from the poverty afflicting it, the path to take is not entrenching the power of its regimes, but contributing to the spread of democracy, the rule of law and opening up our economies to its products. This is the real debt we have with Africa.