Africa. Awaken The Big Friendly Giant Within

Africa has a tremendous opportunity to take its rightful place in the new world order that is taking shape in the aftermath of recent global crises. By far the richest continent in terms of resources, and with the youngest and most energetic people in the world, ready and eager and enterprising, wanting to get ahead, the continent has staggering potential for prosperity and for contributing to global development.

Africa can easily shrug off dependence on international development aid, if developed countries and international corporations really truly want this to happen, and choose to recognize Africa as a valued business partner, not just as a great place to dig up money and cart it away, paying off a few local heavies in the process. Oh and then sending food aid when it looks like too many people are dying. And of course if African governments truly want what is best for their people, not just what is good for the rich. The key to this transformation is for Africa to finally be allowed to use its competitive advantage, play to its strengths in a genuinely open world market, on a level playing field.

Consider that physically the world needs Africa every bit as much (if not more) than Africa needs the world. There is oil, iron ore, bauxite, uranium, lithium for your batteries, coltan for your cellphone… and probably unobtainium .. here in plenty. Pretty much everything you need to make all the machines you want, AND keep them running. Its all here, along with the diamonds and the gold.

But it doesn’t stop there. There is more. Along with the machinery and equipment and toys we all need or want, which are nearly all made with raw materials from Africa, there is the everyday question of food. We all need to eat, ideally every day. So where is all the food going to come from in the future?

Right now there are 6.5 billion of us on the planet and 2.5 billion of us (well .. of them anyway) go to bed – or to thin mat on floor - very hungry, every night. That’s not a civilized society now is it, where 4 people out of 10 are quietly starving? And by 2050 there will be 9.5 billion of us! (Unless maybe something really really good comes on TV J).

So we need to grow more food. Twice as much food as we are producing now. So where and how are we going to do that exactly, eh? Well Africa of course! It’s the only place.

But .. but … but how’s that? Isn’t Africa a net importer of food? Aren’t most of those starving people we read about Africans in Africa?. Don’t the Americans and the Europeans and the Japanese and everyone keep them all alive with development money and food aid right now? Whats all this about?

Well, let me tell you how … in my next blog!

AFRICA IS HOT. AFRICA IS COOL.

I know this because I have lived here for 28 years. Indeed that is WHY I live here. But I can see that in other parts of the world when people think of Africa they generally think of bad stuff. Desperate poverty, famine, death and disease, the ravages of AIDS, civil war and genocide, corruption, bad government, horrors of every description. Its understandable really, given the spin put on Africa by the international media. (Only recently, as for instance now with the Soccer World Cup being hosted in South Africa, a few more positive stories are being told about the place).

Well maybe its not the kind of thing that sells newspapers, but I can tell you that Africa is much much more than this. The grim stories are mostly true of course but conceal much more than they reveal. And I am not talking just about the legendary warmth and hospitality of African people that foreign visitors report. Its more than that. I am talking of the spirit of enterprise and innovation, of creativity and inventiveness, of hard work and tenacity, of clear focus and determination, of energy and optimism that is everywhere in Africa. People here are really very smart. Thinking ‘out of the box’ (a tired expression no?) is normal, perhaps because most people were never inside a box in the first place. Emotional intelligence, seeing and using the interconnectedness of everything – well that’s standard operating procedure around here. And while most people are acutely conscious of the privations and the injustice of their situation, they don’t spend a lot of time whingeing about it. They get on with living as best they can. On a dime. With dignity and grace and patience. And the second a real opportunity comes their way, to get on and get ahead, they take it up and run with it. And you won’t see them for dust.

I will be talking more about this kind of thing in blogs to come, and hope you might be interested. But that’s enough for now. This is a big moment for me. My very first blog! I am not a ‘digital native’, been around way too long – but figured it’s time to take the plunge.