Petrus Ndeumono Mbidi
A continent that is made up of 54 countries and a total population of over a billion people, making it the second-largest populated continent, is being exploited by other world countries.
Africa is a continent that has the ability to be fully independent, unfortunately, the terms are unfavourable as the western and eastern worlds have infiltrated and continue to exploit it both politically and economically from the late 19th century to the modern colonisation of conditional aiding.
The oldest African countries such as Ethiopia and Ghana were made to believe that African principles such as Ujamaa, Harambee, and Ubuntu are meaningless without the involvement of the easterners and westerners.
It was then an African duty to learn a handful of things from other countries of the world but we ended up wanting to impersonate them by adopting their ways of being and doing things.
Aid is the biggest criminal activity African countries fell for, believing that the westerners and easterners wanted to help African countries for free – but instead, most of the aid came with an attached quid pro quo.
As a result of the quid pro quo, African countries such as Zambia are now unable to repay their debt, and this has enabled creditor countries to interfere in the affairs of Zambia as third-party governance.
Moreover, although Zimbabwe’s case is not aid related the country has been in crises as a result of failed compliance with the demands of the easterners and westerners, thus, leaving the country with economic sanctions and political instability to date.
African countries have to learn and realize that aid is never free, it can be in writing but the favour will always resurface to haunt them at a later stage.
Still, on Zimbabwe’s case study, do we expect sanctions to be lifted in Zimbabwe when innocent people are continuously dying at the expense and negligence of the national government? When democratic rights are infringed? When basic human needs are prioritized for the rich and those that are politically affiliated?
The only good outcome about Zimbabwe’s situation is that the problem is evident, however so is the solution, but will she initiate the probable solutions for her amelioration? Only time will tell.
The African Union (AU), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and Southern African Customs Union (SACU) should have by now learned to intervene firmly in matters such as Zimbabwe’s case, Zambia, Mali’s military coup d’état because our fellow African brothers and sisters are either dying or suffering from on-going poverty on their watch.
African countries are far behind in the global development race because we allow indigene business owners to ship out profits made on the continent without regulated taxes or declaration of assets accumulated on the continent.
African countries miss out on economic benefits and we need to find ways on how to ensure that African countries reap the benefits of Africa deservingly.
Another issue is that outlanders tend to involve African leaders in money laundering from the continent.
Hence, I find it odd that African institutions and their leaders failed to think about the prospect of having a continental court of justice considering the level of corruption on the continent.
Neglecting our traditions and cultural heritage for foreign ways of being is something we need to realise and recur to.
Foreign ways of livelihood had to complement our ways of being but along the way, we somehow allowed westerners and easterners to destroy our true African identities.
For instance, African spirituality (voodoo) is the foregone way of thinking but as of recent, Africans were made to think and believe African spirituality and traditions are outdated and it further does not serve the developmental agenda that the modern world craves.
The only way Africa will be able to achieve developmental growth is when the African population truly understand and recognise their traditional identity.
The African industrialisation policy is another aspect that is failing the developmental agenda. Instead of producing and manufacturing goods and products that are globally consumable, our focus has been on assisting outlanders at decentralised foreign-owned assembly plants.
The contribution of African countries to the industrial and manufacturing sector remains none existent.
African countries have not invested much in industrialized initiatives with the continents main source of income still being the exportation of raw materials.
On the contrary, do we expect the Africa we dream to be the Africa of today? When we have African countries being run and administered by politicians and public servants without relevant academic qualifications or integrity.
The level of modern development in any country is looked upon through the lens of its leadership, and if we were to be true to ourselves, we would realize that bad leadership could be traced back to the poor educational background of those entrusted with leading countries.
The handling of the Boko Haram group and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria can be very much traced back to the education qualification of President Muhammad Buhari who only has a secondary school certificate as his highest educational qualification.
The African founding fathers already lay out the foundation of the future of a developed Africa.
It is now the responsibility of the current African generation to exhaust all their qualities towards the attainment of Africa that has been drawn.
It was the aim of Julius Nyerere of Tanzania to have a united Africa for a prosperous future Africa and it is now the responsibility of the present African leaders to unify the African continent.
The great Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana spoke in favour of the United States of Africa, and it is an idea that African countries can decide upon because presently African countries are struggling to govern themselves with civil wars and conflicts around the continent.
It is as if our fallen leaders saw the vision of our great continent and knew that the African dream was not achievable by following in the western and eastern ways of doing things.
There is still time to realize the African dream but every gain comes with a sacrifice.
Therefore, are we as a continent prepared to realise the African dream without being negatively influenced by the rest of the world? This is a question only African bodies can answer and act on.