Only Africans Can Develop Africa
THE African continent has no choice but to
completely divorce itself from the disastrous and dependent construct
of ‘just surviving, merely existing’ and indefinitely root itself into
the real and tangible trajectory of living, the reality of a
dignified lifestyle. The day-in-day-out toil for barebones survival,
the contentment with the ‘beggars and burgers theory’ is just
unacceptable right here in the meaty-beefy, resource-laden continent.
The ‘cradle of mankind’ is well-endowed with abundant natural
resources, raw beauty and manned by extraordinary social engineers
with the African cause which was stubbornly self-tattooed at the
inception of existence.
This is a continent with a cause, a just cause, a bona fide
blue-print for its re-ignition, its re-organisation and intended
dignified re-emergence. These social engineers are not new and we have
witnessed their emergence before in the form of Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas
Sankara, Cabral and Patrice Lumumba just to name a few and the idea has
historically been frustrated and countered with colonial coercion and
more recently neo-colonial craftiness. The defining feature about
these unique social engineers in spite of the persistent pressure to
asphyxiate the cause is that new and more robust ones always emerge and
the cause stays alive.
The engineers at the nucleus of the conscious and righteous quest
for the African regeneration and fusion are still alive, have been born
and are still to be born. Robert Mugabe is alive to that cause;
Julius Malema has been born with the Mugabe vision permanently inked to
his spirit and more are still to be born to that continent-defining
outlook. The African quest to dissociate itself from the one-sided and
overly dependent relationships must not be viewed as pursuing an
isolationist course but a positive move towards mutually favourable
development partnerships. There is need for mutually beneficial
engagement with development partnerships, in particular with China
and, of course, continued engagement with traditional development
partners from the West.
However engagement with traditional development partners must be
mutually advantageous. The concerning thing is that over fifty years of
post-independence engagement and development partnerships with the
West has seen minimal benefit in terms of tangibility.
Pre-independence, the colonial settlers focused on development to cater
for a small and specific target group and, post-independence, the
traditional development ‘partnerships’ from the West have seen very
little in terms of tangibility and solid evidence of economic progress
on the continent. China’s engagement with Africa on the other hand has
in fact resulted in real and concrete productive assets such as
infrastructural development. What remains on the continent from
engagement with the traditional ‘partners’ from the West is what they
built pre-independence and very little post-independence.
The empirical evidence on the ground
clearly shows that Africa’s engagement with the Chinese is about
productivity, economic transformation and real development whereas the
engagement with traditional western ‘partners’ has mainly been about
less tangible and soft surface issues such as Millennium Development
Goals, democracy promotion, proliferation of NGOs which foster more of
dependence as opposed to innovation and self-sustenance. The
engagement with China seems genuinely based on mutual respect and
mutually beneficial outcomes are intended and evidenced. There is
concrete, visible and tangible evidence of the roads and other
infrastructure that China is building in Africa whereas engagement
with traditional development ‘partners’ continues to witness conflict
after conflict in any area of resource-abundance.
Although it would be dishonest to suggest that partnerships with the
West have been exclusively disastrous, their presence unfortunately
seems to invite conflict whereas Chinese presence seems to bring
positive economic progress for the continent. The mutually respectful
Chinese approach and the West’s ‘saviour attitude’ is what separate
these two development partners. There is nothing called charity and
both partners are in it for themselves, but mutual respect is crucial
to any relationship.
More Malemas and Mugabes will continue to be churned endlessly as
long as the same reasons that agitated Lumumba, Nehanda and others
remain unresolved and continue to afflict the African continent. The
illusion that once people have ‘food on the table’ the agitation will
stop is just but what it is - an illusion. The very reason why President
Mugabe’s name is synonymous with the pessimistic prophets who wish to
extinguish his visionary flame is the very reason they will
perennially construct and reconstruct his end year in, year out. The
people of Zimbabwe, the people of Africa subscribe to this vision and
what they all see in the Mugabe vision is the very same thing the
architects of his customary yearly demise and resurrection see as
well; the threat to their historical cushioned and pampered ‘living’
as opposed to ‘just surviving’ which has historically and continues to
come at the expense of the unfortunate inhabitants from the cradle of
mankind.
Africa is on a journey, an African journey and a journey that
requires Africans and them alone to carry forwards. Don’t be fooled by
superficial seals to the cracks with illusory promises from
Alienville; Africa is alone in this quest and no charitable champion is
going to command the survival of the continent with no motive of
their own. The perennial repertoire of analyst after analyst wishfully
clamouring for the demise of President Mugabe can only tell you three
things - that the man must be doing something right, is doing
something right and has done something very right!
The regurgitation of the national leader’s supposed end is not only
morally-offensive; it is irresponsible, immature and imprudent. That
no amount fabrication will quell the inevitable quest for that
morally-thick formula to genuinely upgrade lives is clear testimony to
the unquenchable craving for that enduring reality of dignified
‘living’. Only Africa can develop Africa. No philanthropic
knight-in-shining armour is going to come and rescue Africa from this
permanent predicament that has historically stalled its long overdue
development.
Source:
New Zimbabwe
Africason
Africason is a die-hard believer in Africa.
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