adminofficials. As majority of African countries join the jubilee year since independence elites and the population in general must take courage to salvage the continent from centuries of abuse.
The revelation by the African Union Chair, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that over 97 percent of the programmes in the continental body are funded by foreign donors points at the urgent need to reconstruct Africans’ dignity. The surrender of the continent’s strategy-making to foreigners explains in part why independence nationalist sentiments evaporated.
Dlamini-Zuma’s shock should awaken intellectual discourse and action on the continent so as to make 2013 the year to plant the seed to recapture Africa for Africans.
The re-election of US president Barack Obama and change of guard in the People’s Republic of China is unlikely to change the status quo where translational financial interests control major decisions on the continent. The onset of multiple growth centres namely the West and Asia, will amplify confusion on the continent. The year 2013 will simply spur the emerging and developed markets to reach out for Africa’s vast natural resources and virgin markets.
The United States’ support for Africa will be informed by its national security interests and the quest to tame China’s influence on the continent. It will pay more attention on food security, health and to Africa’s youthful population aged 15-35 years that comprise of the continent’s over one billion people. The Europeans will be keen on effects of climate change in Africa as a trigger of conflict, migration and possible burden to their overstretched and ageing economies. The new leadership in China is unlikely to deviate from the now institutionalised Forum on China-Africa Co-operation. China is likely to stick to the Focac Beijing Action Plan 2013-2015 that sets a wide range of goals that include democratisation of international institutions and multilateral trading system. Embedded in the Chinese deals will be the possibility of further Chinese migration into Africa.
India is likely to tap heavily into its Diaspora in Africa estimated at 2,5 million to leverage its presence on the continent. Africa’s faith in international benevolence compromises its ability to evolve effective strategies to leverage on existing natural resources and markets to access the global economy. The continent remains an object of international intervention and humanitarian concern spurred on by rampant corruption and incompetent politicians. The vast natural resource wealth breeds instability and provides motivation for elites to invest in and sustain weak state structures for purposes of plunder.
The last 50 years of independent Africa bred weak state — governance systems that served the interests of both local and international elites. The essence of government and governance draws its credibility from the institutionalised international notion of sovereignty that recognises national borders instituted by colonialists.
Unfortunately, this notion has provided little impetus for Africans to invest in a culture of diversity and ethnic inclusion in nation-state affairs.
To an African rural dweller whose jigger-infested hands cannot allow him to register as a voter, elective politics is simply a ventilation ritual for political elites.
The surrender of nation-state building and promotion of institutional capacity to foreigners is an indicator of the use of nationalism to simply plunder resources by the continent’s elites.
Kevin-Prince Boateng’s action was a loud cry for dignified engagement with countries interested in the value that Africa has to offer. Africans must evaluate their value and price it well globally. — African Executive .
Online Reporter