Africans are justifiably angry over the blanket slandering of their
continent. Over the last few months, Africa has been pilloried by the
western press over events in Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, and the whole
of Africa has been termed a ‘basket case’, a ‘hopeless continent’.
This loaded reporting is not simply an unacceptable blow to an
African’s pride and self-esteem, it threatens to wreck African
economies. Who would want to invest in a hopeless continent? Who will spend
holidays in a basket case Africa?
But even if others are not, let us be rational. Is there any justification
to these claims? Let us examine the facts.
There are 53 states in Africa which is the second greatest land mass
on earth. Sudan alone is larger than the whole of Western Europe; the
DRC is larger than all the European member states combined. If you
could place all European, North American and Latin American states
into Africa, you would still have room to fit the Gulf states.
If Europe has problems dealing with its minuscule states, imagine the
challenge that governing countries the size of Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan,
the DRC, South Africa poses. If Europe has still come to terms with
its ethnic diversity - despite two world wars in the last century -
imagine the challenges facing leaders of a continent which has a far
greater ethnic diversity in one country, Nigeria, than all of Europe,
North America, South America, the Middle East and some Asian countries
put together.
If Europe still has economic and employment problems after three
centuries of the colonial era,industrialisation, and trade monopolies,
image the task facing Africa which at independence had practically no
industries, few schools, the worst of possible terms in overseas
trade, and a population that had no opportunity to accumulate
meaningful capital.
Add to this a burden of debt for loans which many countries were
forced to takeout, the structural adjustment programmes which the IMF
now admits led to increased poverty, and the destructive impact of the
Cold War whose legacy is still being felt in the on-going conflicts in
Angola, Sudan and the DRC.
Then look at the all the problems that confronted African states at
independence in the 1960s and compare them to the problems Western and
even East European states faced at the same time, you would be
forgiven for thinking that Africa had no chance. It would be like
asking the driver of a beaten-up taxi to enter a Grand Prix contest
against a million pound state-of-the-art Ferrari. No contest
Yet, incredibly, a surprising number of African states have and are
succeeding against the odds. They may not be in a position to
challenge for the Grand Prix, but the cars they have concocted with
their own means are still on the circuit and registering ever faster
times.
Botswana and Tunisia have recorded the fastest growth rates in the
world this year. Africa, according to the African Development Bank,
will grow by between 4% and 5% this year. This figure is greater than
for any other region of the world.
The vast majority of African countries now have democratically elected
governments. African stock markets, despite their modest size, were
the most profitable last year. The return on investment is higher
in Africa than anywhere else in the world.
Is this the profile of a basket case continent?
But there is more. Even taking into account African countries in the
slow lane, never has so much formal education been spread so fast to
so many people as in Africa., despite structural adjustment programmes
that have slashed spending on education. Can this really be the
hopeless continent that the critics would have us believe?
If the Afro-pessimists in the media and elsewhere were to tour Africa
and look at what has been realised instead of what is yet to be
achieved, they might have to eat their words. Since independence,
millions of new class-rooms, housing units, offices and clinics have
been built. Air and seaports have been developed and hundreds of
thousands of kilometres of new roads have been laid.
Starting from point zero, several African countries, Mauritius and
Tunisia to name just two, have become among the most competitive
industrial centres in the world.
Are we still talking about ‘basket case’ Africa?
But the most surprising statistic is still to come. We are told that a
tiny country like Belgium has a greater GDP than scores of African
countries. True, but this is a false comparison. It would be like
comparising the per capita income in Belgium with the per capita
income of Brunei. Using this yardstick, the Belgians would come out as
poor as church-mice!
Belgium, like many other Western countries has a long history of
industrialisation. In fact, Belgium’s current wealth was founded on
rubber from the Congo. The majority of the working population in
Belgium, over 90%, is engaged in industry or services. This forms the
country’s GDP.
There is one irreducible economic fact of life. You do not become
wealthy by simply producing primary raw materials. You become wealthy
by working on primary commodities and producing a wide range of products,
i.e. industrialisation.
So, for Belgium to have a high GDP is nothing unusual. To find our how
well it is doing, you have to compare it to other indusrialised
countries, not to countries in which there is little or no
industrialisation.
In Africa, the vast majority, some 80%, live a rural life. Most are
subsistence farmers. Their income does not come into the calculations
of national GDP. On average only one percent of Africa’s population
in engaged in industry, compared to 90% of Belgium’s. Thus, Belgium’s
GDP should be 90% higher than Africa’s - but it isn’t. So either
Belgium is performing well below par or Africa is performing exceptionally
well.
Those Africans who do pay taxes live in the urban areas but on
average, they do not form more than 11% of the population. The
national income derives mainly from commodities whose prices continue
to decline. The only jobs to be found are in the few industries and in
government. It is estimated that fewer than 5% of Africans pay taxes.
The cost of collecting taxes from the further 6% or 7% probably eligible to
pay tax would certainly exceed the amount of tax collected.
Tiny tax base :
From this tiny tax base, the government has to finance its budget. A
quarter to a third of national income goes to paying interest on debt.
No wonder African professionals and civil servants are so poorly paid.
Yet they expect and aspire to better lifestyles. No wonder parallel,
corrupt systems develope.
Africa has few industries because there is no capital base for
industrial growth. Prior to independence Africans were not allowed, by
law in many countries, to accumulate capital. Even today, in countries
like Zimbabwe, the majority are locked out of the mainstream economy
because they cannot obtain title-deeds to the only form of collateral
they have - land.
Without capital, or the means to accumulate capital, because most
businesses and property were and still are held by expatriate settlers
or commercial communities, the only route out of poverty is through
employment in government. This was the closest most Africans could get
to the commercial flow of their own country. It is hardly surprising
that some used their positions to accumulate capital corruptly.
Since the government is the main employer, getting yourself or your
party into government becomes a matter of survival. This is why
elections in Africa are such passionate affairs. In other parts of the
world, countries have gone to war over matters of economic survival.
The Gulf war is a case in point.
But this does not change the basic fact that for most African
countries, income from commodities is declining while their
expenditure, particularly in view of high population growth rates, is
increasing.
Africa’s problem is making the transition from a suppressed peasant
economy into a modern industrial based one. This involves massive
social, cultural and psychological changes. No continent, not even
Asia, has had to make such sweeping changes, with so little resources
and in such a short time, as Africa.
To expect this to happen without social and political turmoil is to
expect more than a miracle. Yet, considering the furies that were
unleashed when similar massive changes were made following the Russian
and French revolutions or the World Wars, Africa has come off lightly
by comparison.
Under such circumstances, it should not have been be possible for
Africa to register any growth at all. To produce more tea, coffee or
cocoa would only drive the price down and make income even worse.
Yet incredibly, African countries have been growing. Of course, growth
is not even but on average, there is real growth. This growth has been
achieved despite Africa having one of the narrowest industrial bases
in the world. It has been also been achieved despite the fact that the
bulk of Africa’s population is still shut out from the world’s
economic mainstream.
If Africa has been able to achieve so much despite the terrible start
it got at independence, imagine what it will be able to do when the
majority of its citizens are able to join the economic mainstream.
But the farmer will not abandon his fields to go and look for
non-existent jobs in the city. Jobs will only be created with greater
industrialisation. Industries will only be set up if markets can be
accessed. And markets can only be accessed if the trade barriers on
Africa’s industrial goods are lifted.
South Africa and other African countries are fighting tooth and nail
to get a bigger share of the global market. They are being fiercely
opposed by some industrialised countries but have the support of
others.
We believe that sooner rather than later, Africa will win and get the
markets. In the meanwhile, it needs investments to add value to its
products and gear itself up to enter the industrial mainstream.
Despite its problems, including endemic diseases, wars and famine in
some parts, outright looting of national resources in others, Africa’s
performance from less than a standing start 40 years ago has been
exemplary. Many nations, including the US, are now prepared to invest
substantially in Africa. Some voices, such as those of Jesse Jackson
and even President Clinton, are calling for a Marshal Plan for Africa.
They want to see an end to the sticking-plaster approach to Africa’s
problems. They want to see Africa given a fair opportunity to stand as
an equal in the community of nations.
Other voices, unfortunately equally powerful, can see nothing good
emerging from Africa. It is therefore our duty, and that of others
with a voice that can be heard, to make sure that Africa’s many
achievements are trumpeted at least as loudly as its shortcomings.
By Anver Versi
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