A case for re-imagining Africa

Dr Obert Moses Mpofu

We are at a point where we are required to reimagine Africa, as it was before, as it is now and its future.

This is a crucial step that we need to take to move the continent forward. In doing so, there are some harsh realities that we must contend with.

There are even some counterproductive actions that we have to shed. We must start with an exercise of introspection and pick up some important lessons.

There is a lot that has not gone according to plan for our continent, mostly due to circumstances beyond our control.

For most of us, we have been operating under harsh conditions, where our detractors have been making concerted efforts to reverse the gains of our hard-fought independence.

This has slowed down the continent’s progression over the years. But this needs not be the case.

In the fight towards total emancipation amidst the machinations from our detractors, we have managed to survive and pick up some important lessons along the way.

For Africa to prosper, there are several truths that we should accept.

Our continent holds a lot of potential that needs to be unlocked.

We occupy the richest continent in terms of both natural as well as human resources.

The tragedy with our continent is that we have not yet fully unlocked its full capabilities.

It is crucial for us to act for Africa must save itself. We should, by all means, get rid of the dependency syndrome as we will not prosper if we do not change.

Solutions to our problems lie within us and we must do everything we can to ensure that we move our continent forward.

In this endeavour, there is a lot to learn from friendly and progressive nations such as China that, at some point in time, were in a similar situation to that of Africa.

It took China looking within for it to turn around its fortunes.

A quick look at Africa shows a glaring disparity between the intention of our forefathers and where we are as a continent today.

Africa seems to have abandoned one of the most important traits required to ensure its success, which is Pan-Africanism.

The continent is slowly forgetting that it has the unenviable task of catching up with the rest of the world.

History has not been kind to our continent nor has it been patient with us. This has necessitated that we move at a much quicker pace than the rest of the world to be at par.

Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to Africa’s aspirations are the artificial colonial borders imposed on us as our continent was carved up during the Berlin Conference.

To this day, our beloved continent has not recovered from this.

Many of our problems emanate from the fact that we are divided along artificial borderlines. Africans are a highly communal species, and such an inclination has been key to how we have evolved as a civilisation over time.

The coming in of the colonialists and their carving up of our beloved continent as per their own conceptualisation has been the greatest injustice ever done to the African.

We have Africans of the same bloodline residing in two countries that identify differently.

When Europeans came and decimated our way of life, cutting in half villages that had existed for a long time, they separated our people.

As is common knowledge, a people divided can never prosper.

Our people will find it difficult to get to where they need to because of these artificial borders, as much of their energy is spent on attempts to regain what was lost and achieve the previous connections that we once shared.

It is up to the current crop of African leaders to come up with solutions to this challenge that we face as a continent.

The same people are separated yet they share the same bloodline, history and aspirations.

In economic terms, Africa, with its population of approximately 1,5 billion, is potentially the largest market in the world.

Its practical integration will have tremendous benefits and has the potential to turn around the fortunes of all our people.

To achieve this seemingly difficult task, we need to break all barriers and find solutions to our plight or we may never prosper as a people.

So much has been said about Africa lagging behind, but if we are to be honest, the continent’s current situation was engineered a long time ago.

Remnants of colonialism still exist today, long after we achieved our political freedom and it is perhaps the time to rid our continent of all forms of suppression.

I am of the conviction that Africa will not develop in the manner the rest of the world has done. This is because its case is different.

We have all the resources we need and we are moving towards a position where, if we just get all the elements right, then our economic boom will be rapid and the continent will prosper at an exponential rate than has ever been experienced before.

We are but just a few steps away from realising our full potential as a continent.

We only need to break down some of these colonial misconceptions that have separated our people and slowed down our progress.

Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of ZANU PF. He writes in his own capacity.