Opinion
Africa: The changing perceptions of the continent
Our demography, and its structure, around youth and middle class, our aspirations, our natural resources create the need for a new approach to our land use and to the social contract we are proposing to our citizens, learning from the Arab Spring and ongoing social issues in Europe driven by economic decline.
About 60 percent of the world’s virgin arable land is in Africa.
Africa is home to the world’s largest reserves of various mineral resources. The exploitation of these resources offers great potential to create employment for our people, as well as value for our countries.
These are the resources the world needs today, so it is our responsibility to leverage them in order to create value for all, while planning the spatial development of our countries in order to safeguard the harmony between man and nature.
As the world is increasingly looking at Africa, at our resources, and as our children are now more than ever empowered to build our economies, it is crucially important that Africa takes its own destiny in hand.
We have a unique opportunity to do so, and we need to be very conscious of the terms of the choice. Do we want to be forever beholden to others, struggling to catch up and with no hope of ever achieving the independence that engenders self-respect? Or do we have the courage to define our own criteria of success, our own criteria of self-esteem?
Do not misunderstand me. I do not adhere to the culture of blame that some use to project responsibility on others and make excuses for Africa’s performance.
