By Samuel Oluwole Ogundele
Donald Trump – the 45th President of the US is an enigma in a number of ways. Despite the fact, that he is almost utterly bereft of even elementary diplomacy, Providence has graciously made him the number one citizen of the world’s most celebrated geo-polity. Trump’s fondness for castigating fellow humans particularly African-Americans and Africans is second to none. He has on several occasions referred to Africans as lazy, unthinking, and even dangerous members of the Homo sapiens group who are always eager to migrate to the US among other parts of the Western world basically for economic survival. Again, he is disdainful of our penchant for praying and dancing very vigorously in churches and to a limited extent, mosques in spite of our ever-growing amount of unrighteousness in Africa especially Nigeria. Thus, for example, corrupt, incompetent and reckless political leadership is responsible for the dire material poverty of more than 80 percent Nigerians, in the face of abundant natural resources. According to Donald Trump, the US would continue to take Africa’s natural resources very cheaply to further develop its economy, since the African leaders lack the capacity to use what they have to get what they need.
If hate speeches often embedded in racism could kill, then most Africans would have died by now. This US President has to necessarily be a student of history and anthropology in order to deeply understand the vital role Africans played especially in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with respect to the emergence of modern America. Today’s Africans can never forget in a hurry how over 400 of their enslaved ancestors constructed the White House and the Capitol in Washington D.C. under the direction of some non-Africans. This is in addition to other public buildings. The enslaved Africans were hired from their masters to do quarrying, masonry, plastering and carpentry for the government of America. Africans were extremely hard-working and this virtue endeared them to their masters during the period of slavery in America as well as other parts of the world. Indeed, Africa was/is the unsung hero of the affluent Western countries particularly, the US.
It is a double tragedy that the West takes what Africa has and still continues to caricature the continent, as a universe for a bunch of sub-humans ruled by cannibalistic kings masquerading as presidents. In fact, about 60 percent of world’s natural resources are located in Africa and yet it controls only approximately one percent of them. The Euro-American world is greatly indebted to this continent. This notwithstanding, contemporary African political leaders would be making a grave mistake by not learning from the vituperative attacks coming from Trump. The current scenario should be a wake-up call for African leaders.
After the collapse of colonialism in the continent, some political leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Milton Obote of Uganda, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia made a great deal of efforts to achieve economic independence. They knew that without economic autonomy, political independence would just be a mirage. Agriculture and industrialisation played a key role in their domestic policies. These leaders crafted a socio-economic framework called Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI) strategy aimed at protecting local industries from the influxes of foreign goods and services. This was through the lens of high tariffs, quotas and government subsidies.
In addition, some foreign investments were nationalised and consequently, became state-owned enterprises (SOEs). But unfortunately, these enterprises were poorly managed due to gross incompetence and an absence of workable regulatory mechanisms coupled with performance-based reward. Thus, for example, agricultural marketing boards to purchase cash crops like groundnuts, coffee, cocoa and cotton ended up becoming bloated organisations. Huge administrative budgets almost totally consumed export earnings. Not unexpectedly, African countries began to experience a greater amount of demand-supply imbalances which made high foreign debts inevitable. The intervention of the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) like IMF and the World Bank is like moving out of the frying pan into the fire. Africa is largely voiceless in these bodies and consequently, they continue to force poisonous pills down its throat. The BWIs are policing only Africa and the rest of the developing world. Trade liberalisation applies only to Africa.
The continent is being regularly asked to reduce or remove state intervention in local industries and agriculture by eliminating financial as well as non-financial subsidies. But curiously, the Western world and parts of Asia still give subsidies to their local production with a special emphasis on agriculture. This is an application of a double standard of morality which defines and rules international political economy. Economic globalisation has brought marginalisation and crisis to Africa. It is worrying that Africa up to now, sheepishly follows the unhealthy doctrine of comparative advantage, leading to the hewing of wood and fetching of water for the Euro-American world. There is need for a paradigm shift in development strategy and policy orientation in contemporary Africa. Africa must systematically stop taking hand-outs at every given opportunity from the developed world. Hand-outs are not value-free! The African Union (AU) established in 2001 under the direction of Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya has to be working harder than hitherto to promote peace, unity and solidarity in the continent. Africa remains desperately poor and dis-orientated despite its humongous natural resources and fine-grained human capital. This continent must unite in order to save its soul from being completely ravaged by neo-colonialism.
The habitual, shameless xenophobic attacks in South Africa leading to the killing of several Nigerians, Namibians, Mozambicans, Tanzanians and Ethiopians among other nationals make a mockery of pan-Africanism which the Nkrumahs advocated for. Forces of darkness are laying siege to Africa – the original homeland of humanity. The large territory is be-devilled by poor implementation of decisions and failure of its political leadership to critically de-couple from foreign financial dependence or over-dependence. The limited achievements of the pioneer African leaders are being wasted today, instead of raising their standards. Black South Africans out of unbridled myopia are busy destroying the lives and property of African peoples in their midst, while the descendants of the promoters and enforcers of apartheid are enjoying. It seems to me that the Black South Africans (with a few exceptions) are a people with no sense of history. Despite the fact that apartheid ended in 1994, the White South Africans (about one-fifth of the entire population) still control approximately 96 percent of the land for farming and other purposes. Therefore, why should anybody blame Mr. Trump too much for always insisting that Africans are unthinking or intellectually lazy? From unilateralism to multi-lateralism, has Africa truly benefitted even as its political leaders run around the globe like a group of headless chickens? Africa has to begin to climb up the production ladder defined by industrialisation within the framework of sustainability and a corruption-free milieu.
- Prof Ogundele is of Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.
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