Is Africa the Problem? or the Problem Africans?

[Type R]

TikTok,

The relationship between academics and the powers-that-be have varied over time. Sometimes encouragement, sometimes persecution.

Many of the arts and sciences were "patronised" by Royal families - Kings who wanted some P.R. In this sense, one could say "encouraged."

On the other hand, many scientists sat on their discoveries for fear of the infamous Inquisitors. The Church was not happy that, e.g., the Earth was not the centre of the universe.

First, should have come the writing tradition. Anyway, Ethiopia had a writing tradition before Europe existed and they're more backward than Kenya.

After writing, the academic / intellectual tradition comes next. Aristotle founded schools which ensured the spread of knowledge. MOre later...

[Atabong]

To bring about Change in Africa is very simple: compulsory education; this is different from ‘free’ education.

Compulsory education puts the responsibility upon the leaders where they are not just expected, but obliged to put in place policies to ensure that what's been put into law really happens.
Many African leaders preach free education, bla bla bla, and go-ahead constructing unfurnished/unfinished ghost classrooms for the sole purpose of creating room to embezzle. Teachers are miserably paid and students have no incentives to go to School or carry out research.

Most government institutions are aging; administrators appointed on the basis of connection not merit. These people have no interest to modernize because this puts their positions at risk and so they stick to old corrupt practices, which benefits only them.So we see unequal distribution of resources, which further aggravate old sentiments and tribalism, leading to wars and bloodshed. Lack of a broad base and vibrant youth with audacity to achieve goals ensures that the old corrupt regimes remain where they have been (and will be) for decades. Corruption and nepotism are Africa’s biggest killers, not disease. All other problems we face are only a manifestation of these two.

It is also important to note that colonial educational policies were directed at producing ‘laborers’ for the colonizer’s needs (just like training a hunting dog); not for the purpose of making a person self supporting or producing civilized individuals who could further explore life’s abundant adventures, and not for assisting a person partake in the molding of his/her own destiny. Unfortunately, their successors follow these legacies strictly. African leaders of today fit the description of pigs in Animal Farm by British writer George Orwell.

Education is supposed to be what it is meant to be i.e. the act or process of imparting or acquiring knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for life in a civilized society.Educated/civilised people (irrespective of age, sex, Nationality, skin colour, religious or family background and the like ) make allowance for debate, tolerance and mutual respect and not easily resort to physical violence.

In the same token, the solution to all of Africa’s problems is to make education compulsory; reverse the coliniser’s trend and place an urgent priority on Formal Technical Education, which is the bedrock of every modern self sustaining society e.g. In 2007 Germany exported machinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals and manufactures, foodstuffs, textiles worth $1.361 trillion making it the world’s biggest exporting Country, that’s what we are talking about.

Sons and daughters of Africa are watching expectantly like orphans for that dare devil leader who will set the pace and unlike the so-called independence, a real wind of change will blow through Africa but this time around blowing rather from inside out.

[t.D.A.]

I definitely agree about the need for education. I also agree wholeheartedly about the education that we 'inherited' for the Brits not necessarily being an education meant to inspire the next halogen bright leader.

Having had the pleasure of studying at a high school level abroad and at home I can honestly say that one of the goals of our education system in Kenya is to crush any form of independent thoughts and ideas. From being forced to sit down, shut up and listen in class rather than engage in debate. To being forced to learn and mimic the literary styles of writers and poets who are long passed. To the cramming of facts irrespective of whether they have practical application to the present or the future.

Here in Oz, people may complain a lot about education, but for me it was like heaven. I had choice over what to learn, I could have gone to a TAFE (polytechnic type of place) while still in high school where I could have learned a trade and gone into the labour workforce immediately after high school - apparently only 10% of Ozzies end up in university. A large chunk of them end up going into the trades or into the family business (quite successfully from an economic standpoint).

In short, I definitely think we need to rethink just why are we sending our kids to school: " I would argue that now it's a case of the old trying to force their way of doing things on the young" and maybe change that to: " We are sending our kids to school to teach them how to become the leaders of tomorrow" and adjust the school system accordingly. So many countries including Japan, Botswana etc etc already give us examples of how this can be done well so we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

My humble 2 cents

[Type R]

In my line of work as a freelance consultant, I come across Africans, Asians and Europeans (all white people are called Europeans, heh heh).

What I can say is that Africans have a problem getting the job done.

When you agree to meet with a Mhindi at 9 am, he will be there at 9 am, ready to work. If he/she cannot make it, they'll call. Africans have a problem of lacking a sense of urgency, of overbooking themselves, and of not calling when unavailable. Africans have many many excuses, very many. Mhindis tend to look at each challenging situation with an attitude of "creative solution-finding."

[Atabong]

Originally Posted by type r

in my line of work as a freelance consultant, i come across africans, asians and europeans (all white people are called europeans, heh heh) ...africans have a problem of lacking a sense of urgency, of overbooking themselves, and of not calling when unavailable. Africans have many many excuses, very many. Mhindis tend to look at each challenging situation with an attitude of "creative solution-finding."

my opinion is that, the issues you raise are symptoms of deeper more profound causes implanted deep into the african person.europeans did not just wake up one morning and start keeping to schedule or being duty conscious. The most important cause is leadership. What do you think about a school principal who is at his job only when he likes, because he is boss and has roots in high places; or about a school teacher who takes leave of absence three times a week because the principal is subordinate to his relative who is minister of education. These charlatans run our public schools that educate sub saharan africa’s children. BUT WHY??

Many people have blamed everything on africa's size, on climate, others on the biblical curse of noah on canaan (genesis 9:20-25) and so on but as t.d.a puts it

Originally Posted by t.d.a.

"how can we turn what seem like problems into opportunities and use them to drive our continent forward?"

similarly, i have a problem figuring out why size, climate, despotism, hunger, poverty, disease, curse etc have failed to inspire change and advancement like in other continents, and have left us worse not better off. Could it have something to do with the relative distance of sub saharan africa to the advanced world? does being populated by mainly black people have something to do with it?? some times i feel like i’m thinking aloud!

[t.D.A.]

In my humble opinion it has very little to do with our distance from Europeans. After all, never forget Europeans are probably the most ruthlessly bloodthisty group in history; one only needs to look at their history of colonialism.

If I were to be asked I think that the key is for us to come together in a spirit of togetherness with one shared vision of what tomorrow should be as opposed to things as they exist now which is everyone following their own little agenda. I think once we have our "African dream" that we are all working towards we will get there.

The American forefathers may have been barbaric especially in their treatment of slaves but they were all striving to uphold the declaration of independence and the American Dream.

I say that because after being abroad for a while I don't think I can attribute the success to work ethic because there are a lot of lazy Australians here and a lot of hard working Africans. As for punctuality, there may be something to that. After all how seriously can we say we are taking development if we don't respect it enough to show up on time?

My 2 bob opinion

[deliriumtremens]

It makes me sick to the bone that we Africans have to blame Whites for all our self inflicted misery's. Open your eyes and look at what we truly are..,

I believe Colonization made Africa wealthier because it introduced modernity and good management to the Dark Continent. Before colonization much of sub-Saharan Africa was literally stuck in the Stone Age. The most advanced parts of Black Africa were still in the Iron Age. Africans had no written language, no concept of science or math, no multistory buildings, no calendar, nothing that would remind one of any modern society.

Prior to colonization, African's were never anywhere near as wealthy as they were during European rule. When the white powers left, African economies collapsed.

The longer a African country has been independent, the more problems it has. Haiti had been independent for 200 years. At the time when they won independence, blacks massacred all the whites and mixed-race people who did not escape the island. Today the island is the poster child of mismanagement of the economy, government, criminal justice and everything else. The only time the island and its economy were stabilized was during the several American interventions when Haitians ran their country into the ground and could not continue without foreign help.

Ethiopia is another basket-case. Images of Ethiopian children dying from starvation on the filthy streets of Addis Ababa are forever burnt into our collective memory. The country was never colonized and foreign occupation lasted only 5 years.

The wealthiest African countries got independence recently. South Africa was taken over by Africans only in 1994 after many generations of apartheid. Namibia received independence in 1990.

The longer an African country had been run by Africans, the poorer it is. As a government official from the Democratic Republic of Congo acknowledged a couple years ago, “we are moving back into the cave.”

The excuse commonly used is that colonialism was replaced by “neo-colonialism”, which is even more severe, causing greater poverty.

The claim is so ridiculous that it can’t even be backed up by any logical reason. We must state the conclusion and accept it on pseudo-religious grounds. To suggest that Africans have less power now that the colonial governors and military forces withdrew is an equivalent of saying that a man who moved out of his parents’ house, has his own job and his own family is under more influence from his parents than he was as a child when the parents could completely dominate his life.

We are told that Europeans who are now in London, Paris and Lisbon have more power over Africa than they did when they were in Brazzaville (Congo), Abuja (Nigeria) and Lusaka (Zambia). The claim is simply preposterous.

We are also told that whites who remained in Africa and kept their dominant positions are to blame. Yet, the only African countries with stable governance and economics are those that gave their whites disproportionate power. Amongst them are Kenya and South Africa. Where the white minority lost its power, the economy collapsed. The latest example of that was seen in recent years in Zimbabwe where the government confiscated by force the land of the white farmers, destroying the economy and forcing millions of the country’s blacks to eat rats or nothing at all.

Nor can we blame whites for taking natural resources out of Africa. For one, before colonization blacks did not know what to do with oil, diamonds and other resources. Without white technology and customers, the natural resources would be largely useless. More importantly, the overwhelming majority of gold, diamonds and oil in Africa were discovered either after independence or in the very last few years of colonization. Lastly, many countries without natural resources are extremely successful, including Japan.

African poverty is the fault of the African people. The myth that the “Darker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice”, and therefore minorities are never to blame for any of their troubles, and whites are the source of all things that are wrong with the world must be rejected.

[Type R]

Any benefits that colonialism conferred on Africans were incidental, probably accidental.

The main objective of colonialism was not the advancement of Africans but the population of the African continent with white people - English, French, Dutch and Portuguese. The Germans under Hitler had their "lebensraum" plans too.

Africans would have been reduced to perpetual slaves or restricted to reserves, just like the Aborigines in Australia and the much more advanced Aztecs, Incas and all the suffering native "Indians" of the Americas and West Indies. We would have become drunkards, layabouts, depression patients, gangsters, gambling addicts, etc.

The spread of Western knowledge and institutions does not require military conquest, and political domination.

[HUH?]

Originally Posted by t.D.A.

...From being forced to sit down, shut up and listen in class rather than engage in debate. To being forced to learn and mimic the literary styles of writers and poets who are long passed. To the cramming of facts irrespective of whether they have practical application to the present or the future.

good point t.D.A, but i'd argue that China employs the same rought education regimen, and yet their economy is at double-digit growth. An archaic (IMO) education system is the problem. we've always relied on the "help" of westerners in the design of our education system(s). For once the country/continent has to come-up with something better, more original than what we've got for sure.

[Type R]

Originally Posted by deliriumtremens

Prior to colonization, African's were never anywhere near as wealthy as they were during European rule. When the white powers left, African economies collapsed.

The longer a African country has been independent, the more problems it has. Haiti had been independent for 200 years.

You are suffering from a very deep form of inferiority complex, and I feel sorry for you.

The availability of the Internet means that no one has any excuse for ignorance about simple facts on world economies, and history. Peddling falsehoods simple because you are a victim of ignorance fostered by biased western media is completely inexcusable.

Angola, pure madness ... and they're lovin' it

After many years of civil war, this country has one of the highest growth rates in the world. The most pessimistic forecasts saw a GDP increase of a maddening 30% in 2007!!! Oil revenues doubled in 2005. In 2006 they created over 350,000 new jobs. This means that the economy is doubling every three/four years. Previous years growth include 2006: 18.6%. The 2008 rate has been revised to a "miserable" 24% (click here).



Income per capita is growing from $1900 to $2400 between 2007 and 2008. Kenya: $1100.

Botswana

From wikipedia: -

"Since independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest growth rates in per capita income in the world.[1] Botswana has transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a per capita GDP of $14,700 in 2007.[2] Economic growth averaged over 9% per year from 1966 to 1999. The government has maintained a sound fiscal policy, despite consecutive budget deficits in 2002 and 2003, and a negligible level of foreign debt. It earned the highest sovereign credit rating in Africa and has stockpiled foreign exchange reserves (over $7 billion in 2005/2006) amounting to almost two and a half years of current imports. Botswana's impressive economic record has been built on the foundation of wisely using revenue generated from diamond mining to fuel economic development through prudent fiscal policies and a cautious foreign policy."

Income per capita, $5900.

Gabon

"Gabon is more prosperous than most nearby countries, with a per capita income of four times the average for Sub-Saharan Africa." This figure is about US$5000 (compare to Kenya's $1100, ha ha hah, and we imagine that we are Africa's shining light, ha ha haa).

Equitorial Guinea

This country expects a GDP per capita of US$ 50,200. It is currently at $44,100 (CIA factbook). This would skyrocket it above the USA, all Arab kingdoms, etc, to a position of Number 3 richest country in the world behind Bermuda and Luxembourg.