Nnanna Anyim-Ude

Can Africa (Still) Claim the 21st Century?

“Warriors will fight scribes for the control of your institutions; wild bush will conquer your roads and pathways; your land will yield less and less while your offspring multiply; your houses will leak from the floods and your soil will crack from the drought; your sons will refuse to pick up the hoe and prefer to wander in the wilds; you shall learn ways of cheating and you will poison the cola nuts you serve your own friends. Yes, things will fall apart.”

- Chinua Achebe

As the 20^th Century was receding, the World Bank commissioned a group of experts well versed on the subject of Africa to scan the horizon and craft the path to prosperity for the continent in the next century. The outcome was a seminal document appropriately titled with the question: Can Africa Claim the 21^st Century? The group identified the following as the continent’s plagues – economic decline, huge debt burden, aid dependence, poor governance, deteriorated capacity, weakened institutions, endemic diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, high child mortality, lagging school enrolments, decrepit healthcare facilities, severe poverty, inadequate infrastructure, and so on an so forth. These are the usual suspects that have so ravaged the continent and for which then British Minister, Tony Blair described Africa as “a scar on the conscience of the world”. Without a doubt, the most incurable of optimists would have been forgiven for capitulating to the pull of despondency and indeed many did. Yet as he bid farewell to the 20^th Century during the “Millennium Debate” at the South African Joint Houses of Parliament, President Thabo Mbeki audaciously proclaimed that the 21^st Century will be the African Century. But even he knew that, like an incubus, Achebe’s grim words were lurking around the corners of the continent.

That World Bank publication was described as a business plan for Africa and it came with a long list of measurable targets against which the African Century can be realized: improve governance, manage conflicts, rebuild states, address poverty and inequality, invest in people, lower barriers to infrastructure, information and finance, spur agricultural and rural development, diversify exports, reorient trade policy, pursue regional integration, reduce dependence on aid and debt, and strengthen partnerships. 

At the break of dawn for the new century, it did appear that Africa had turned the corner as key indicators and statistics were beginning to look good. By 2000, the two giants of the continent were democracies again – South Africa had done one full term as a non-racial democracy and Nigeria had just inaugurated civil democratic rule. The civil wars ravaging the peoples of Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Angola and Sierra Leone had abated and a scattering of nations like Botswana, Angola, Tanzania, Mauritius and Ghana were recording consistent strong economic growth rates. It was then safe to conclude that the 21^st Century was going to be ours and it was a good time to be African, a feeling last experienced during the days when the curtains fell on colonial rule in the fifties and sixties.

Buoyed by the possibility that an African Century could indeed be a reality, African Heads of State and Government vowed to take the destiny of their people in their hands by launching a New Partnership for African Development, NEPAD. Part of that initiative is a Peer Review mechanism intended to call African leaders to account by their peerage in office. As a response, western creditors initiated programmes that actually reduced and in most cases eliminated debts accumulated during the dark century and also returned looted funds in the vaults of their banks. Foreign direct investment flowed into the continent in large numbers and our diasporas were encouraged to return with their skills, talents, knowledge and, of course, money.

As I participated in some of the thrilling sessions at the World Economic Forum on Africa and also at this year’s World Bank’s Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) , I considered three issues as constituting the main obstacles on the path to the African Century: the mismanagement of democratic transitions; the absence of an effective policy establishment within (and all the way to the top) of the political process; and the diminution of an educated and informed citizenry. I discuss them in turn.

One, as I stated earlier more African countries were already in the zone of electoral democracies at the beginning of the century. But the hope brought about by that “wind of change” is being swept away by storms of despair as more elected leaders just cling on to power. Even the continent’s famed giant, Nigeria, relapsed into this signature malaise when former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, inordinately but unsuccessfully attempted to extend his rule and the ripple effect of that transition muddle is that the current president, Umaru Yar’Adua is still struggling with a crisis of legitimacy even after one year in office. Earlier in the year, a hitherto stable democracy, Kenya was saved from an outright descent to genocide and probably civil war largely due to another muddled electoral process by the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, who was incidentally elected only a few years ago through democratic elections. Then, of course, there is Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe. These examples are just symptomatic of Africa’s dilemma – sit-tight leaders in Libya, Cameroon, Gabon, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Egypt, Angola, Togo, Ethiopia, Chad and just about everywhere else who just stay on in office, obfuscate political leadership and refuse to ventilate the political space. In its bowels, this phenomenon carries implosive threats to the stability of the continent.

Two, we know that there is no shortage of ideas and discussants at usually well-attended fora on the policies desperately needed to unlock Africa’s potentials, reverse the slide and capitalize on opportunities. But such fora are almost always a dialogue of the politically limbless because I have observed that ninety-nine percent of the participants at such development fora and meetings are not in a position to make the key political decisions required to walk the talk. Most often even their best ideas still have to be processed at the top, in the inner sanctum of power where it is almost always stifled by other vested political interests. Sadly too even when some of them are able to get a seat, and this is especially true among the top business executives, the tendency is to speak differently to power in order to profitably maximize their business interests. It is just unfortunate that over the years and for too long we have bowed to the mediocrity in our politics and yet politics is the “technology of power” for the “great adventure of progress”. Our politics is desperately in need of a policy establishment of forward-thinking Africans who are excelling outside the political spectrum to open up the creative potential of politics. Yes, our politics is under-institutionalized and ripe for some creative thinking and recalibration but there is nothing wrong with our politics that cannot be made right by a surge of new, successful and visionary leaders into it. And this is not to scare anyone but on this subject I also refer the reader to the book written by Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, Africa Works: Disorder As Political Instrument.

Finally, Africa is littered with a horde of unemployable youths produced during the twilight of the 20^th Century. They were failed by our leaders and simply lack the necessary skills to drive an African Century. The constant abrasion of qualitative education across the continent is indeed a clear and present danger that stares us in the face. With it comes an armada of uninformed citizens who do not even have a basic understanding of the world around them. We confront this sob story in our daily lives so there is nothing more to add to this commentary on it. And yet Africans are excelling in other highly competitive environments like the United States of America, Europe and Asia. The system at home cannot fix itself but fixing it must be Job 1 for Africa. If not, to whom will we then entrust this African Century?

But I end, as I must, with a word on the future of South Africa. Late last year, delegates of the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress overwhelmingly voted Jacob Zuma as their president. A populist politician with no formal education and whose race to the top of the party’s hierarchy was characterized by charges of fraud and corruption, and a rape acquittal involving a HIV-positive woman (he famously brushed off concerns about AIDS transmission by saying that he took a cold shower after the intercourse), Zuma is on track to lead Africa’s strongest and biggest economy in 2009. The outcome of this turn of events should not be lost on all Africans and the African Century.

In my mind’s eyes, eight years is no doubt too short to assess a centurial outcome but I strongly believe that I have noted the fundamentals on which other drivers of change like good governance, economic growth, infrastructure, universal basic healthcare & education, science & technology, research & development, and all that stuff can connect and be sustained over a the long haul. But as I recall the words of Chinua Achebe (that prefaced this article) and as I think through some of the issues I have raised, I ask: can Africa still claim the 21^st Century? I offer my unsolicited two cents: if we address these fundamentals in a proactive, positive and productive manner, then my answer is yes. Then comes the next question, are we ready? Well, ready or not, we must get on the path because the rest of the world will not hold a stopwatch on things like this. But I ask you, will Achebe’s words definitively come to pass for Africa? Can Africa still claim the 21^st Century? What do you think?

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