Africa: The Most Important and Strategic Continent in the World A few basic facts about Africa indicate that this continent is the world’s most important and strategic place on earth that only Africans are either not aware of or disregard it or both! Let’s look at the facts: Between 2010 and 2014, there are at least 7 Africa summits organized by foreign governments to which all Africa leaders where invited to discuss about peace and security, development cooperation and partnerships with and about Africa. These are: 1. 25th Africa – France Summit held in Paris in June 2010 2. 5th Forum on China and Africa Cooperation held in Beijing in July 2012 3. 2nd Africa – Turkey Summit held in Istanbul in June 2013 4. 5th Tokyo International Conference for African Development held in Japan in June 2013 5. 3rd Arab – Africa Summit held in Kuwait in November 2013 6. 4th Africa – EU Summit held in Brussels in April 2014 7. 1st US – Africa Summit held in Washington DC in August 2014 Africans are yet to ask why is everyone calling us to answer to them in their home to talk about Africa? Why are the meetings not held in Africa if indeed they are about the development of Africa? According to figures by the Brookings Institute, China overtook the US as Africa’s largest country trading partners in 2009. In 2013, the US trade with Africa fell to $60bn, compared to China at $170bn, and the European Union at $200bn. These figures are about half to one third of the trade between the US and EU and China, and growing. Ten of the 20 countries with the highest projected compounded annual growth rate from 2013 through 2017, based on the IMF’s estimates are found in Africa. Four of the 10 countries that are expected to have the most economic growth in 2014, ranked from first to last by percentage of GDP growth are in Africa as the list shows: (1) Mongolia, 15.3 percent (2) Sierra Leone, 11.2 percent (3) Turkmenistan, 9.2 percent (4) Bhutan, 8.8 percent; (5) Libya, 8.8 percent (6) Iraq, 8.5 percent; (7) Laos, 8.5 percent; (8) Timor-Leste, 8.5 percent (9) Eritrea, 8.0 percent (10) Zambia, 7.9 percent Africa’s population is now estimated to be 1.033 billion with more than half of the population less than 25 years. This makes the continent the youngest in the world. Africa is also the most centrally located place on earth, not to mention the fact that Africa is the world’s richest continent in terms of mineral resources. It has the most arable land and waterpower in the world. In fact Africa is the best habitable place on earth given the limited absence of natural disasters as is prevalent in other parts of the world. In light of the above, is it any wonder that the whole world has always been in love with Africa? The world has been frantically engaging Africa since time immemorial and indeed the world has always benefited more from Africa than vice versa. The Ancient Greeks had found education, employment, food and protection from Africa. The Arabs and then later Europeans had found resources from Africa in the form of slaves, raw materials and land among others through the use of violence and force. These trends continue up to today although in more peaceful, legalized and legitimized forms through these summits and other so-called global institutions and processes created by Americans, Europeans and Arabs and now the Chinese and the Japanese for the purpose of pursuing ad protecting their interests. Once again only Africans have failed to create their own robust institutions and processes or seek to dominate these global institutions and processes for their own benefit. The world however has noticed the importance of Africa and have always engaged us on that matter, albeit without our knowing or concern! I am sure very soon, UK, Germany, Australia, Russia and Malaysia and Brazil among others will also begin to call for Africa summits to seek resources and trade from Africa or protect their current areas of influence. But how can Africans realize their own worth and importance in the comity of nations? Of course patriots like Kwame Nkrumah were long convinced and determined that Africa is important and must assert its relevance and importance primarily for the interest of Africans. He had argued that for Africa to assert itself, serve the needs and aspirations of her people, ensure its security and become an equal and powerful player in the world, it must unite. Otherwise Nkrumah emphatically noted that Africa shall perish! The signs and facts on the ground are now too clear to dispute. The world is fast changing and this change is clearly in the direction of violence for the control of the limited resources of the world given the rising populations in most of the developing world. The West including Japan is already facing zero population growth rates, which naturally places demands on their countries to protect their resources and future. A zero population growth rate indicates a dwindling economy because there will not be enough people to work the economy to meet the demands of society. Hence in understanding the immigration policies of the West one should factor in the fact that these societies are also faced with a potential extinction. They cannot therefore allow a foreign set of people to come over to populate their societies more than the indigenes. Therefore given the internal and external factors in these countries and around the world such as the rising powers of others such as China, Russia and Brazil among others, the demand for resources will be even more acute and painful. What is even more poignant for the attention of Africans is the total disregard of principles of humanism, human rights and justice by particularly the big powers of the world. Thus the protection for anyone would ultimately rest on your own ability to physically protect yourself by the amount and quality of weaponry, strategy and power you accumulate from technology, economy and politics. No one should ever trust that there are good people around the world who are still guided by the values of God, justice and humanity! What all this means is that Africans are the only ones who are not either aware of their own importance or we simply disregard it. But even if we were aware of our importance, it would take more than what we are doing now to pursue and protect our interests. For example, to address our appalling conditions and assert our relevance, respect and importance even for ourselves, Africa needs to move towards one collective vision, objective, strategy and plans. As part of this, Africa must democratize to ensure that there is good governance, respect for human rights and adherence to the rule of law by first and foremost the State and citizens. To democratize is not just about holding regular free and fair elections and transfer of power. But such elections, which are critical, must serve as a means for the people to truly have voice beyond election day, and be able to hold their government and leaders accountable, while public institutions must be transparent and responsive to actually ensure that the rights and needs of the people are met. Basically people must enjoy free education, health care and social services and be able to develop their full human potential so that they can also make meaningful contributions to their society. The current cosmetic democracies littered all over the continent are non-starters. We need leadership that is visionary, honest, pragmatic and patriotic, and therefore place the continent on the path of industrialization. These qualities are in serious short supply in the current leadership at the moment. We also need intelligentsia that is pro-Africa in conception and performance that would conceive of productive and relevant ideas that seek to exploit and harness the incredible potential that exist in Africans and Africa. We do not need intellectuals who are still steeped in colonial and slave mentality in terms of their worldview and approach to development. Such intellectuals who dream of privatization as the only means to effective and efficient service delivery and economic development with the private sector as the engine of growth are merely delaying our progress. We do not intellectuals whose conception of economic development is first and foremost about foreign direct investment and increasing taxes while withdrawing the State from investing in the produce sectors. We do not need intellectuals and leaders whose perception and understanding of development is merely focused on economic growth rates as captured in GDP, without regard to human development. Africa needs to step back from these foreign-instigated summits, institutions and processes and begin to assess itself in terms of its current state of affairs and how and where we stand in the world. We need to understand the world itself as to how and where it is going and how we can fit within this milieu for our survival and development. These foreign summits are intended for only one purpose, and that is to create space for the foreigners within Africa so as to obtain more resources, and send us more of their manufactured goods for us to buy and consume. Currently, Africa is said to be the fastest growing mobile market yet there is no major mobile company that is African! Not Apple, Samsung, Nokia or LG! By virtue of the fact that everyone is seeking to invite us to meet, talk and dine should be a wake up call that indeed we must have something quite valuable. What we have is in the open, just that only Africans do not see it. We have the strategic location, resources, and population. These are three indispensable economic and political tools that can transform the lives of anyone who control them. Africans, let us control ourselves otherwise someone else will continue to control, exploit and dominate us, for their own good!
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:33:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015