"We are a conquered race and it is utterly foolish for us to believe that we are independent. The Black Race depends on other communities for its culture, its language, its feeding, and its clothing." So says Chika Onyeani author of Capitalist Nigger. To that I would add that even those that lead us are captivated by the conspicuous consumption of imperialist products.
They will do anything to appease and allegedly represent the interests of the masses while living in a cocoon of western comforts. They have cleverly created a delusion that they stand for our interests and yet Africa remains poor and despite the economic growth projections we see, things are getting worse.
Nothing more brought this to my mind than the starving masses we saw in Somalia. We as Africans cannot feed our own, we have failed dismally to create our own economic systems and despite having some of the largest natural resources in the world, we have failed to capitalize on them and ameliorate the economic condition of the black poor. Wealth remains the highest virtue and poverty the greatest vice.
In his Harvard Research Paper published in 2004, titled "Is there an African curse?", Zoel Jean-Loius posed interesting observations. He observed that:
"Africa is a puzzle to economists. Why is it so unsuccessful in partaking of development? In short, is there an African curse? This paper argues the answer is 'no'. Africa's dismal economic performance is neither due to colonization nor to a different effect of the usual variables impacting on growth. It presents a rare combination of exogenous handicaps: poor soils, infectious diseases, small economies, landlockedness, declining rainfall, hasty independence, high dependency ratios, terms of trade losses.
Dysfunctional governance is however the main factor, due to an exceptionally harmful post- independence history. This generated not only growth traps but a pervasive lack of trust too, including of Africans in themselves, a sort of ethical trap. Still, there are flames of hope and more Africans want a deeper change. They might prevail if democracy gives them a voice and a chance."
I disagree that our circumstances are to blame because that is the easiest way out. I would rather argue that our fundamental problem is that we are confused as a people, easily gullible, greedy for material wealth, mostly uneducated and have lacked the requisite leadership to take us out of our circumstances.
As a result we are unable to plan our lives, we are expert crisis managers. We have quickly refuted all that is African and adopted western fashions and lifestyles and view them as progress.
Our fundamental handicap is the inability to plan as this is the root of most of our economic and social problems. I can give you numerous examples of the negative consequences that lack of economic planning has done to Africa despite us having the resources to implement fundamental social change.
I for one therefore fully support Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI) and what it seeks to achieve. Africa needs better leaders and less opportunists masquerading as our economic saviors from imperialism.
Vince Musewe is an economist and you may contact him on [email protected]
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