Maravi

A forgotten continent

A forgotten continent
By Editor
Saturday March 24, 2007 [02:00]

While it is no longer our wish to keep whining about the role of colonialism in the misery of Africa, there are compelling reasons that make it necessary for us to refer to the past. First of all, when we talk about Europeans’ messy experience of colonialism in Africa, we should remember that we as Africans were in the first place never asked whether we really wanted to be guinea pigs of such a scheme. We were forced into it.

Of course we know what role some of the traditional African leaders played in selling their kingdoms, their land to the Europeans in exchange for bottles of whisky, clothing or guns. During their scramble for Africa at the end of the 19th Century, European powers staked claims to nearly the whole of Africa as they bargained over the separate spheres of interest which they intended to establish. When the Europeans invaded Africa, they overwhelmed the poor continent with nothing but unrestricted loot. They simply turned the continent into a money-making machine as they ripped it of its vast resources. And this destruction continued from the late 19th Century into the mid 20th Century when we decided that enough was enough. To this day, the colonial imprint across the African continent is visible in a number of ways.

That said, the important thing now is that we have learned as Africans that it was a mistake from the start to have allowed the Europeans to introduce their authoritarianism on us.

However, there is no need for us to keep singing the blame-game song without trying to find ways of improving the lot of our lives. After all, we know very well that there is actually more to our continent than just a vast history of failure, stagnation or brutal subjugation by the West. We now know that if we continue doing the right thing as we have started doing, our future is certainly not as bleak as it may appear at present.
But do we agree with Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs director for Africa’s sub-Saharan region Ambassador Ivan Mora Godoy that Africa is still a forgotten continent in a number of ways. And here is why. Today, it is not an ambiguous fact that Africa continues to be the world’s poorest region and its average per capita national income is a third lower than the world’s next poorest region, South Asia. And we should take note that most of our countries have lower per capita incomes now than they had in the 1970s or the 1980s.

We also know from United Nations statistics that half of Africa’s estimated 930 million people live on less than a dollar per day. We are also aware that Africa’s total economic output is not more than US$420 billion, just 1.3 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product, which is less than the GDP of countries like Mexico. Africa’s is the only region which continues to register low investments and savings since the 1970s. Africa’s share of world trade has declined to half of what it was in the 1980s, totaling only 1.6 per cent.

Further, the continent’s share of global investment is less than 1 per cent. Ours is the only continent where education standards are not improving and we still have many children not going to school. We therefore have the highest levels of illiteracy. We also know the burden that HIV/AIDS has caused on us. As the rest of the world continue to reap the fruits of globalisation, Africa continues to be on the losing side, lacking both the skills and the infrastructure to attract foreign investment.

This is the true picture of Africa. It really looks like a forgotten continent.
Some people have argued that for Africa to creep out of its miserable condition, it may perhaps need the assistance of Western countries. Many campaigns have thus been undertaken to seek ways of mobilising resources for Africa’s development. We know of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa. It has been in place for several years now. However, we are very certain that Africa is yet to realise the benefits of Prime Minister Blair’s Commission for Commission, if at all they will ever come forth.

Although we take note of efforts like those of Prime Minister Blair, what is also true is that the current international economic system will not in any way assist Africa to come out of its troubled history. If anything, the world economic order is not designed to help Africa deal effectively with its development challenges. And this has been deliberately made so by the rich nations of the world. The poverty of Africa is what appears to be the source of their continued richness. And it does not even make it a source of shame for the rich nations that their source of wealth is a poor continent like Africa. It bothers the rich very little that at their source of wealth is the heart of the world’s misery.

As Ambassador Mora is suggesting, we as Africans need to start finding friends who are interested in our progress. We need to start forming alliances with those who understand and share our experiences. We should start refusing to continue to be exploited in the manner it has been for many years now.

We can find ways of adding value to our resources and exploiting them for our own benefit and not for the selfish gains of the rich nations. We should refuse to continue allowing our abundant wealth to be used for the development of the economies of rich nations. If they ask us to open our markets, we should always insist on being sure of what benefits we will derive from that. If foreign investments should be unrestricted into our countries, let it be so in order to develop our own economies and not vice-versa. Let us not provide more opportunities for the rich nations to continue invading us like they have done in the past. We have to start seeing through their schemes and say no to their insatiable appetite for our resources.

Until we start reversing the present world economic order, we as Africans will truly continue being considered a forgotten continent.

Labels: EDITORIAL

posted by MrK @ 4:27 AM