Whenever people marvel that I have never been to Africa, I point to the headlines: civil war, pestilence, famine, corruption, plagues, poverty, sadness. And yet many people describe this cradle of civilization as having some of the best vistas, the most amazing animals and some of the most complex history, from archaeological and cultural perspectives, on the planet.

Africa is not a poor continent but is bereft of wise, honest leaders with the clout to control tribalism, demand more from the Western corporate world or appeal to the international community to live up to its pledges of commitment to securing and maintaining peace.

It is no wonder that some Catholic cardinals from the continent hoped the next pope will be one of their own, someone who could focus attention — and resources — on Africa.

Kofi Annan, the African at the helm of the United Nations, is trying his darnedest to focus attention on the AIDS epidemic and on the genocide under way in Darfur, the western part of the Sudan. But last week the United Nations warned that without more money it would have to cut rations to more than 1 million people displaced by what’s happening in Darfur. Cutting rations to people who are already in dire straits.

Even as the Sudanese government and insurgents agreed to end a 21-year civil war that has led to the deaths of 2 million and the displacement of more than 4 million in the southern part of this largest country in Africa, something like 200,000 people have been killed and 1 million displaced in the west. Each day, women and girls are raped and then, if they become pregnant, are shunned as whores, beaten and jailed. Sudan is a mess.

And we in the more blessed nations of the world throw up our hands in both frustration and disgust.

Under the auspices of the United Nations, nations pledged $4.5 billion for Sudan to rebuild in the south, with the U.S. making its promise of $1.7 billion contingent upon a resolution of the genocidal chaos in the west.

That $4.5 billion sounds good, but pledges are too often for show. About five months ago, the United Nations asked for $1.5 billion to help Sudan through 2005. Only $500 million — a third of what was requested — has come through.

Africa is a mess. But so is the international commitment to come to its aid. This is what the United Nations’ news service reported last week:

“8 April 2005 — An international appeal for humanitarian assistance of over $39 million for Cote d’Ivoire has brought in “just over 0%,” while a general appeal for all emergencies, except the Indian Ocean tsunami, has garnered less than 10% of what was hoped for, the United Nations said today. … Gathering less than 5% of what was needed were Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Russian Federation for Chechnya, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Somalia and the West African region.” Notice how that list is pretty much Africa.

The United Nations is a mess. But, short of divine intervention, it’s the best thing going right now to engage the nation states of the world. The United States must exercise its influence not to tear down the United Nations, but to lead it toward freeing Africa from its present self.

— E.R. Shipp is a columnist for the New York Daily News. She won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1996.