Opinion
Why is Africa Still Held in Contempt?
This is all “dharawu” – contempt – as we say in KiSwahili.
Why is Africa Still Held in Contempt?
It is entirely our fault. We have not yet used our tremendous, unequaled potential by converting it into strength. This failure has been on account of failing to detect 10 strategic bottlenecks. The strategic bottlenecks include the following:
– 1. Ideological disorientation;
– 2. Attacking the private sector;
– 3. Inadequate infrastructure thus increasing the cost of doing business on the continent;
– 4. An underdeveloped human resource i.e. an uneducated population which is also in poor health;
– 5. Small internal markets that cannot stimulate and sustain large scale production by providing adequate demand;
– 6. Lack of industrialization and continuing to export unprocessed raw-materials whereby we get much less money than those who convert those raw materials into final products and also export jobs to other countries;
– 7. An undeveloped services sector which phenomenon under-utilizes our huge potential in tourism, transport, banking, etc;
– 8. Underdeveloped agriculture – in Uganda, through research, we have discovered that farmers can produce 53 tonnes of bananas per hectare instead of the 10 tonnes the peasants have been getting, while in Brazil they are already getting 80 tonnes of Bananas per hectare per annum;
– 9. Lack of democracy;
– 10. Lack of ideology creating a criminal State – a State that, for instance, kills people extra-judicially instead of upholding the dignity of the people and their inalienable rights.
On this occasion, I will only comment on just 5 of these: ideological disorientation; inadequate infrastructure; small internal markets; a criminal state; and lack of industrialization.
Ideological disorientation is caused by failure to accurately define the interests of the people. In the story of the Good Samaritan, in the Bibilical Book of Luke (10:29-30), Jesus in response to a question from one of his listeners said – as in the quotation below:
– Vs. 29. But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is your neigbour?”
The Good Samaritan
In Vs 30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him, half dead. And by chance a Priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and he came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an Inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out 2 denarii and gave them to the Innkeeper and said, “take care of him; and whatever more you spend when I return I will repay you”; Which of these three do you think proved to be a neigbour to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands? And he said, “ the one who showed mercy toward him”. Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same”.
Similarly, in Africa you find a lot of ideological bankruptcy by groups that push the line of sectarianism by ethnicity; religion or by discriminating against women. These groups fail to accurately define the interests of the people and push pseudo interests instead. I always like to use the example of my ethnic group – the Banyankore of South Western Uganda. These people are cattle keepers and farmers. They produce milk, beef, bananas and coffee. Farmer A produces milk and bananas and so does farmer B. Farmer A cannot, therefore, buy any products from farmer B and similarly farmer B cannot buy any products from from farmer A. What, then, is the value of the ethnic group to either of them? You find that the saviours of these Banyankore who are stuck with their products are the other Ugandans of Kampala who buy their products. It is not only the Ugandans who rescue the Banyankore by buying their products; it is also the other Africans in Tanzania, Kenya, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan who buy what the Banyankore are producing that makes them prosperous. If, therefore, anybody was so narrow-minded as to care only about the Banyankore, they would have to first and foremost love Uganda, love East Africa, Love Africa in order to love the Banyankore. To say that you love the Banyankore but you hate or do not care about the other Ugandans/Africans, is to be bogus – fraudulent. You love neither the Banyankore nor do you love other Africans. You only love yourself. You are a traitor to the interests of the people of Africa. The only way the Banyankore help me as a producer, since they produce similar products, is to aggregate big volumes so that marketing and processing are easier. In that way my ethnic group helps me.
