By Robert Calderisi
2006
Africa is very large and diverse. We could put 4 USAs on the continent, and they would not touch the coasts. However, there is very little coastline relative to the size of the continent, with few ports and navigable rivers. There are harsh climates, including diseases, insects, and poor soils. Early ancestors migrated away, and became successful elsewhere. Today, Africans are leaving in droves.
Africa has 10% of world’s population, and 1% of world’s trade. Chicago’s economy is larger than all of sub-Saharan Africa. China attracts more investment in 1 year than Africa in 10 years. 40% of African investments are abroad. They do not trust their own governments. Most investors do not think seriously about Africa.
In the past, when I thought Africa, I thought ‘slavery’. Slavery was a terrible history, with 20 million lives being lost and many more families being disrupted. It was perpetrated by Americans, Europeans, & Arabs. Yet it does not explain today’s problems. 60 million people of Jewish decent were killed during World War II, but that did not preclude them from being successful. Also, some would say that most descendants of slaves in the US today are better off than their ancestors in Africa. Whoopi Goldberg reportedly said “I have been to Africa, and believe me I am American.”
Colonialism similarly had many negative consequences, like extreme subjugation and poor government structures. Yet, there were some positive outcomes, such as health care, schools, and businesses.
Causes of Today’s Problems
Bad government is the biggest cause of problems in Africa today. There are pompous officials, padded budgets, stuffy reports, and therefore no real progress. Leaders live in AC buildings while people have little food and no mosquito nets.
Mismanagement and corruption are rampant. Why? In most African cultures, respect for elders is paramount. This has translated into the acceptance of fate and not challenging authority. Also, people largely do not strive for a better life. Families are strong, so people largely do not have to worry about starving if they have a family. AND this makes it hard to achieve success. Family members expect that they will all get a cut of everyone’s income. Therefore there is generally no savings or ability to prepare for another venture.
There is no incentive for change. Even if a bureaucrat wanted to live only on his meager salary, it would be hard to resist the temptations of corruption. They would see people reporting to them, with less salary, having villas in France.
The debt problem is also caused to some extent by unwise management, as well as the extreme poverty. (Perhaps you can see a kind of Catch-22 here.). Forgiving debt may at times allow funds to be used to other purposes. The money not spent on debt has also been absorbed in government corruption and personal gain. In addition, other poor countries in Asia and South America have paid back their debts, and they resent debt relief for African countries.
Political correctness is an influence also. There is worldwide public sympathy for the poor continent, in part due to historical & racial guilt. There is a desire to see progress in Africa. Also, people are questioning economic globalization and its possible effects on Africa. In addition, Africans blame others for their problems, and leverage guilt against westerners.
To add to the factors above, there is often an anti-business attitude, poor policies, too many small countries that stifle investment and trade, and high populations.
Required Changes
Free trade is generally good for business and therefore poverty reduction. Also it is good to encourage more people to people assistance, rather than aid funneled through government or NGO bureaucracies. This is much more direct and effective.
But Africans need to be responsible to correct their own problems. Specifically, we need to consider the following:
- implement systems to trace and recover public funds
- require all heads of state to have open accounts
- cut direct aid by half (encourage better mgmt, redirect saved aid to infrastructure projects, reduce abundant hope of infinite aid)
- focus direct aid on 4-5 serious countries (Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, (perhaps Mali)
- required all countries to hold monitored elections
- promote free press, independent judiciary
- supervise schools and HIV programs
- establish citizen review boards over government policy
- emphasize infrastructure & regional link projects
The good news is that Africans have not given up. This is demonstrated in one of their delightful proverbs:
“May the new earth that receives you be like honey.”