Africa must rise, for good

In this week’s edition we pay homage to the Mother Continent as she marks Africa Day. We have assembled an array of excellent thought leaders to help us understand why Africa, despite its extensive mineral wealth, continues to carry the face of poverty. There is no way a continent endowed with so much of nature’s bounty can consistently fail to feed its people and resort to the mercy of the world’s food kitchens. Given what Mother Nature has accorded us, Africa is able to feed every one of her 1.58 billion mouths. That the continent seems unable to punch above its weight when it is so obviously able to do so boggles the mind. Decisions affecting us are crafted in places such as Beijing, Paris and, saddest of all, Washington. Our argument is that the Second Scramble for Africa shouldn’t happen on our watch when we have so much at our disposal to avert the age-old plunder. It is a shameful indictment on the collective leadership of the continent that Africa continues to bleed resources through such blatant thievery as illicit financial flows, which stand at billions of US dollars. As you read this, various think-thank organisations would have convened gatherings to chart the way to build a prosperous Africa. This is not a new assignment. We can only hope that each of the events have not degenerated into the usual talk-shops. The time for Africa to rid itself of the stigma and stench of backwardness and underdevelopment has come — and gone. We invite you to come along for the ride, through these pages, to see how, through partnerships, Africa can succeed at curbing the paternalistic attitude of the West, as evinced by French President Emanuel Macron’s insolent behaviour in Nairobi recently. Africa is a much-needed partner of world nations, not their doormat. One of our contributors on these pages posits that Africa has what the world sorely needs. Perhaps Nairobi will wake up to the wisdom that, as a continent, we need to speak in one voice. No unilateralism has yet wo