Monday April 4th 2005   

Transcript: Rev. Andrew Young

Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome civil rights pioneer Andrew Young to this program. The former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta mayor is the co-chair of Goodworks International and a senior fellow at Georgia State's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He joins us tonight from New York City . Mr. Ambassador, nice to have you on the program again, sir.

Andrew Young: Very good to be with you.

Tavis: Glad to have you. You have spent a great deal of time in Africa and, of course, talking about African issues around the globe. You're part of an exciting project I've been wanting to talk about, and I'm glad you could make time for us today. There's a new television channel about to come on line on cable called the Africa Channel, and you're the chairman of the board for this enterprise. Tell me about the Africa Channel and why you think it's necessary.

Young: Well, one of the things that we do know is that we don't know anything about Africa . Most of us still think of Africa either in terms of Tarzan or tragedy. And there's some exciting things happening that I think if the world knew about it... For instance, we might not be in the war we're in now in Iraq if people had understood that the energy resources of West Africa were comparable to those in the Middle East and that simply by partnering with Nigeria and Angola and Cameroon and Congo, Brazzaville that we could have developed an alternative source of energy so we didn't need to go to war about oil with Iraq. We didn't know. They didn't think about that in the State Department. I can remember telling people, "You know, we get more oil from Nigeria than we do from Kuwait ." And if we spent half as much money on West Africa and Nigeria or any of the big—any of the countries as we do in Kuwait ... Now, I love Kuwait . Kuwait 's a great little country. But you can put Kuwait down inside the perimeter in Atlanta . And the money that we've spent protecting and securing Kuwait , while I agree with it and it's important, if we had half that amount of money spent in Africa , we would have our energy resources secured. We might not have people in battle in Iraq , and gasoline might be down around a dollar or less a gallon.

Tavis: Fair enough. I like the sound of that last part most especially, since we have to drive in the streets of L.A. , which is a pretty vast place, as you well know. Let me ask you, though, since you're talking about money, as a businessperson—and you got a great business mind. You've been the mayor of Atlanta for a couple of terms. As a businessperson, tell me how one sustains a TV network about a continent like Africa . Can you get the advertising? Can you get the underwriting? Is there the interest to sustain economically a channel about Africa ?

Young: Well, we think there is, because we think that the cable networks are going to want to offer this in their packages to their constituents. We're in negotiations with several of the cable operators now. And to be able to add an Africa Channel that's going to bring top programming from Africa ….well, you've been to Africa many times.

Tavis: Sure.

Young: There's some good television in Africa . There are some things that we would love to see. I remember looking at an African beauty pageant that was sponsored by Anglo Gold. I was fascinated by the fashions that were being developed in Mali . Nevertheless, we continue to hear nothing but horror stories from Africa .

Tavis: Let me—

Young: And there's some good news coming out of almost every country in Africa .

Tavis: Indeed, you're right about that, and I'm glad you're making an effort to demystify what we think about the continent of Africa .

Young: Thanks a lot. God bless you.