AFRICA: A rich Africa?

Sam Kebongo

Africa, the cradle of mankind, is full of contrasts. With a population of just over 1 billion, that is about one sixth of world population, it’s share of world trade is less than 4%. The respectable figure would be about 20%.

It is blessed with every conceivable mineral wealth yet half of its inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day. It is the continent with the highest number of countries (54) yet 32 of these are squarely at the bottom tier world poverty. These 32 are among 48 of the world’s poorest.

In the face of these distressing statistics, one must ask; why is Africa so poor? What does Africa need to change/ embrace to harness its many resources and grow rich? Let us look at a few;

Attitude: As the founding father of Tanzania, Mwalimu Nyerere put it; the worst form of poverty is that of the mind. Africans suffer this ‘poverty and slavery mentality’. We lack a ‘can do’ spirit (chutzpah). At best we need for external help/aid to do even the simplest of things.

Look at any social welfare commercial in an African country e.g. on prevention of Malaria, road accidents, HIV- AIDS, there will be a caption that the announcement has been made courtesy of the generous help of USAID or some western organization. At worst this is manifested in corruption.

Why would someone use a public office to improve his/her private circumstance? It is because s/he does not think they can make it on their own. And this is despite having had the best education and opportunities in life!

We must, through education and practice, change this attitude among our elite. We must also fight lethargy, sloppiness and time wasting that has become our lot through the malaise called ‘African’ time.
Dependency syndrome:

Trade: Who’s Africa? We produce goods for export to the west at unfavorable terms when we could use the same effort more productively trading with each other.

The East African countries are each other’s largest trading partners. The potential for growth on trade is even high with a little more focus. The trade

We must also fight lethargy, sloppiness and time wasting that has become our lot through the malaise called ‘African’ time

Africa, the cradle of mankind, is full of contrasts. With a population of just over 1 billion, that is about one sixth of world population, it’s share of world trade is less than 4%. The respectable figure would be about 20%.

It is blessed with every conceivable mineral wealth yet half of its inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day. It is the continent with the highest number of countries (54) yet 32 of these are squarely at the bottom tier world poverty. These 32 are among 48 of the world’s poorest.

In the face of these distressing statistics, one must ask; why is Africa so poor? What does Africa need to change/ embrace to harness its many resources and grow rich? Let us look at a few;

Attitude: As the founding father of Tanzania, Mwalimu Nyerere put it; the worst form of poverty is that of the mind. Africans suffer this ‘poverty and slavery mentality’. We lack a ‘can do’ spirit (chutzpah). At best we need for external help/aid to do even the simplest of things.

Look at any social welfare commercial in an African country e.g. on prevention of Malaria, road accidents, HIV- AIDS, there will be a caption that the announcement has been made courtesy of the generous help of USAID or some western organization. At worst this is manifested in corruption.

Why would someone use a public office to improve his/her private circumstance? It is because s/he does not think they can make it on their own. And this is despite having had the best education and opportunities in life!

We must, through education and practice, change this attitude among our elite. We must also fight lethargy, sloppiness and time wasting that has become our lot through the malaise called ‘African’ time.
Dependency syndrome:

Trade: Who’s Africa? We produce goods for export to the west at unfavorable terms when we could use the same effort more productively trading with each other.

The East African countries are each other’s largest trading partners. The potential for growth on trade is even high with a little more focus. The trade is often done in much fairer terms than with the West.

Population- Africa is eleven times the size of India yet it has just about the same population as the latter. With India’s stellar economic growth, the argument that high population is the cause of Africa’s underdevelopment is a farce. The question is; how engaged is the population? Herein is the paradox. It is presumed that the low levels of education lead to lack of skills and then low productivity etcetera. That is only a third of the truth.

The other two thirds lie in the elites. First, we do not engage professionally with our communities and second we do not keep engagement and growth n our professions. Our professions are more of means to easy life than of service.

This has led to lethargy and mediocrity that has stopped professionals from taking a leading and creative role in the continent’s development.
The youth: Africa is a youthful continent. More than 40% of Africans are below 15 years. The best resources any country has is its people. In Kiswahili we say ‘samaki mkunje kama angali mbichi’ (if you want to bend a fish do it while it is still raw). Now that we have a good idea where we want to go, we need by instilling the right attitudes in the group, from now on. We need to train them to be entrepreneurial as opposed o being consumerist.
Integration: Countries in Africa should integrate into economic and political blocs. This is the key to Africa’s growth. According to experts, a ‘critical mass’ population of 150 million is necessary for as country to ‘take off’ economically. A large market stimulates and sustains economic growth.

Perhaps Mo Ibrahim had this in mind when he quipped that ‘some African countries are not feasible’?

Kenya’s independence leader, Tom Mboya said that no society can grow without the efforts of its own citizens. This holds true to date.

Sam Kebongo teaches entrepreneurship at Rwanda Tourism University College. He also is a Director at Serian Ltd that provides skills and business advisory services consultancy.

Source: Newtimes, Thursday, 2nd February, 2012
Author: Sam Kebongo
Contact email: sam.kebongo@gmail.com