“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” – Desmond Tutu (South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop)
This is a simple quote that helps to accurately capture the plight Africa has faced in its dealings with the European nations for the past centuries. The people of the continent may have reclaimed their land but is it truly theirs? Are we as a continent truly free to develop ourselves and take leaps forward? Or are we in a closet where the door has been slightly opened just to give us a little taste of the light of this beautiful world. Black and whites have always been different but equal, but from the 15th century onwards, the Europeans began to develop a new mindset, a new doctrine that they were the superior race. They had Christianity and civilization and they needed to come to the Dark Continent that was supposedly Africa to preach the gospel and civilize the savages.
What truly is civilization? Whose definition of civilization should be considered right? The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word civilization as
“The state or condition of being civilized; human cultural, social, and intellectual development when considered to be advanced and progressive in nature.”
If we detail the history of Africa over the years is there any of these things that the early kingdoms of Africa lacked? Were the great empires of Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Benin with fairly advanced governments/monarchies, stable economies and strong armies that lasted for centuries regressive in nature? I highly doubt that. Maybe civilization was the introduction of the gun by the Europeans because it was with this advanced weaponry that they subdued the African continent. (Basil Davidson; A Voyage in Discovery: The Bible and The Gun)
In 1884, at the Berlin Conference, Africa was carved into various nation states at the behest of the European world beaters. No African representative was present at this conference that was to set down the continent on a path of conflict. Nations were created without taking into consideration the vast tribal differences that were already on ground, outsiders were appointed as leaders so they could remain loyal to the White man. Many wars have occurred as a result of the unfair decision making of the Europeans just like the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970. The failure of the various tribes to effectively integrate led to a war between the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria and the Hausas and Yorubas of Northern and Western Nigeria with a death toll of around 3 million people. (Basil Davidson; A Voyage of Discovery: The Legacy)
“I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.” – Nelson Mandela (South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and the 1st President of South Africa)
Africa has battled the slave trade and the loss of so many of her valuable children. Africa has battled colonization of her land and the exploitation of her vast resources. The continent has come out of these battles beaten down and shaken up but still standing. With the help of Wangari Maathai’s The Challenge For Africa I hope to point out how Africa and its nation states can raise themselves to new levels of greatness, fight off the ills of neo-colonialism and achieve this beautiful dream of Nelson Mandela.
Two of the fundamental problems facing the development are economic challenges and poor governance. Many African governments have been plagued by corruption over the years and if it is not weeded out we will continue to take two steps forward and one step back. Maathai says
“The most important quality that the African leadership needs to embrace, and which is desperately lacking across the continent, is a sense of service to their people. The nations of the continent need leaders that do not merely support honesty and transparency in government… but embody it as well. Leaders should not politicize with ethnicity, sell off national resources and loot the treasury or tolerate such action by others. They must foster values such as fairness and justice rather than turn a blind eye to violence and exploitation.”
(Maathai; The Challenge for Africa, page 19)
The revolution cannot be confined to only the upper echelon of the African societies, even the least empowered citizens need to put away a culture that tolerates systemic corruption.
African nations may have suffered from a lack of great leaders to effectively govern, but the fate of the continent lies not only in the hands of the leaders but also in the hands of the led. Maathai says
“Africans must decide to manage their natural resources responsibly and accountably… Otherwise, they will continue to allow outside forces to seduce or bully their governments into arrangements that allow these resources to be removed from the continent for a pittance.”
(Maathai; The Challenge for Africa, page 23)
The people of the nations of the great continent must be determined work hard and strengthen their own abilities so as to uproot the culture of dependence that is already very common among African states. Truthfully, only the people of Africa can really help their continent and that is why we need to embrace our cultural diversity and fight for responsible leadership.
“From 1970 to 2002, Africa received over half a trillion dollars in loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and individual wealthy nations, and paid back roughly the same amount. However, because of the interest on that debt, by 2002 $300 billion was still outstanding”
(Maathai, The Challenge for Africa, page 89).
The problem lies not in the value of the debt, but in the fact that these nations have accrued such amounts and lack economically feasible means of paying it back. A major reason for the deficit is the continuous lending by the international communities to nations they know are practically incapable of paying back the sums. Other reasons include wide scale corruption of numerous African leaders. There are claims that between 1989 and 1998 back to back leaders of Nigeria Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha accumulated $8 billion between them. (Maathai, 91). Another factor is the privatization of these loans and aid by leaders and some international donors.
It is clear that the nations of Africa are not poor, they just need to learn to effectively manage their wealth. As Ethiopian economist Fantu Cheru examines, this will only occur if we strengthen our institutions, improve our skills, infrastructure, transportation and communication networks and loosen some ties to former colonial powers. African nations also need to curb their over-reliance on commodities (raw materials) because their prices in the world market will never be highly favorable for the continent. African governments need to diversify their economies, broaden their range of exports and develop mechanisms to add value to the commodities they produce. Another important way will to for the government to support start up initiatives and encourage entrepreneurial impulses of her people. (Maathai, 95)
The great nations of Africa have been belittled for the past years by its European and American counterparts. A lot of the criticism has been deserved and some of it has been borderline ridiculous considering the role the Europeans played in colonialism. But now the goal for this great continent is not to look back at the institutionalized evils she has faced with a somber mood, it is to use the evils as an impetus, a driving force to unite the vast ethnic differences of the continent, keep the lush rainforests green, preserve the hinterlands and deserts, adequately use the numerous natural resources and develop strong economies and governments.
References
Maathai Wangari; The Challenge For Africa. 2009
Basil Davidson; A Voyage in Discovery: The Bible and The Gun. 1983
Basil Davidson; A Voyage of Discovery: The Legacy. 1983
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