Why Is Africa Poor And How Can Prosperity Be Ensured?

The present is born out of the past and dictates the future. To understand the causes of poverty in Africa, we must therefore first delve into the past of the continent; and through that analysis, today’s calamity can best be understood and only then can the right path be chartered for the future which will enable poor and marginalized people in Africa to live without want.

            The main agents of poverty in Africa are to be traced partly from the centuries before the coming of Europeans up to the 15^th century but mainly right through the pre-colonial epoch, the Continental Slave Trade era, the colonial time, the independence period and up to the present days.

            Several generations before the coming of the Europeans, Africa was neither a “dark continent” nor the “hopeless” one that we know today. Historical evidence shows that the continent was making commendable social, political and economic achievements. But an accident of history changed all that. As Walter Rodney asserts in his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Africa’s present predicament “has been arrived at, not by the separate evolution of Africa on the one hand and Europe on the other, but exploitation.”

            More than a thousand years ago some African farmers practised advanced agriculture like terracing, crop rotation, green manuring, mixed farming and swamp farming; wooden and stone implements had given place to the axe and the hoe; Hausa and Mandingo experts dyed and tanned a special type of leather called “red Moroccan leather” which Arabs in North Africa bought and exported to Europe; cloth makers in the old kingdom of the Congo made a cloth with a velvet-like finish from bark and palm fibre; even far into the 19^th century, Manchester cotton cloth, which was the best in Europe, was no match for the ones Africans produced; in Katanga, Zambia and Sierra Leone, African miners extracted copper and iron of a quality superior to the European; guild masters in Timbuktu, the Malian town of scholarship, initiated apprentices in tailoring skills whilst those in Benin taught the working of brass and bronze and others in Nupe inculcated the making of glass and bead; traders transported their goods for sale over several enormous distances such as the Sahara Trade Route and the Katanga Copper Routes; even State builders were making their début as Africa began to emerge from communalism into feudalism. At this stage of African development, Europe however had already taken the lead. Nevertheless the gap between the two continents was not too wide and even in some cases European travellers attested that Africa did better.

            At this crucial period in the 15^th century, Europeans arrived on the African continent and established permanent links with Africans. The centuries of relationship accelerated economic development in Europe and stifled the advancements that Africans had made as from the 10^th century. This was made possible with faster ships and powerful cannons which enabled Europeans to control all the world’s waterways and turn African coastal areas into economic satellites. Thus began the systematic transfer of wealth from Africa to Europe with the help of a lopsided international trade consisting largely of trade in human beings. Africa gave out treasures such as indigo, cam wood, gum, ivory, gold and received in return both good and bad quality goods such as cloth, beads, cheap gin, cheap gunpowder, Dutch linen, and cast-off uniforms. But the worst came when Europeans discovered America and its gold, silver and tropical produce. To tap this wealth required intensive labour. The American Indians could not stand the stress. Europe could not afford to release its own labour much needed in Europe itself. Africans therefore became the ideal candidates and that led to the organized slave trade.

            If nothing at all, the Slave Trade alone is enough to portray the injustice and the iniquity that generated poverty in pre-colonial Africa, the repercussions of which still exist today.

            From 1445, millions of Africans were hunted, captured, chained and shipped overseas to work free of charge for Europeans. This labour enabled Europe to multiply her capital, sustain her growth, and build up her shipping, insurance, companies, agriculture, technology, manufacturing, sea-port towns, naval technology, and the colony of America.

But what happened in Africa? The great societies and states like Egypt, Ethiopia, Nubia, the Maghreb, the Western Sudan, the inter-lacustrine zone of East Africa and Zimbabwe which could have blossomed further and suck other parts of Africa into their developments began to decline. The Slave Trade massively took away the most active population aged mainly between 15 and 35, the ablest arms which could have built up the continent. If a growing population usually spurs socio-economic expansion by supplying labour, markets and the pressures which engender further advances, then a dwindling one will do only the exact opposite. And this is what the Slave Trade did to us. In all the violence and uncertainties bred by slave raiding, who could fish, farm, mine or trade? With the depletion of the human resources of large areas of Africa, where was the dynamism to fuel internal growth? Under such circumstances which lasted for 425 long years, what could one reap but stark poverty?

As if that was not enough, hardly had Africans recovered from the devastating effects of the Slave Trade when it ended in 1870 when Europeans forced them into colonialism, especially with the Scramble for Africa at a conference table in Berlin in 1884. Africa certainly gained something from this enterprise, however if the balance sheet of colonialism is drawn, one finds out that Africans became rather impoverished. African surpluses were not kept and invested in the continent to help the economies grow. As for foreign companies, Walter Rodney observed that they “were responsible for expatriating a great proportion of Africa’s wealth produced by peasant toil.” The European banks also made huge profits in Africa and sent them as well as the reserves, to Europe. The colonial State also aided to exploit and impoverish Africa. Colonial administrations ran on taxes levied on Africans; they seized lands from Africans to be exploited for farming and mining; they forced Africans to produce cash crops whose prices were generally low; they instituted forced labour for so-called “public works,” and African wealth, kept in the coffers of metropolitan States, helped constitute reserves at the expense of the colonies.

Concerning socio-economic services like railroads, schools, hospitals, means of communication and the like built by colonialism in Africa, not only were they woefully inadequate but they were so planned and so sited as to further exploit, oppress, disregard and impoverish Africa instead of serving the direct interests of her citizens. Slowly the African got marginalized in his own land. To really appreciate the destitution of Africans during the colonial era, one must note that despite the mess Africans got themselves embroiled in during the independence period, far more has been achieved in practically all spheres in just 44 years (1960 to 2004) than colonialism did in 76 years (1884 to 1960).

It was the iniquities of colonialism which made independence hold aloft high promises of a new Africa devoid of misery, but here too the results as at today are extremely disappointing. What marred African hopes are of social, economic and political order.

On the social front, the marginalisation of women in all spheres of life except in procreation and in hard daily chores cost Africa the contribution of around 52% of its hard-working population. With the majority on the sidelines what notably can the minority achieve? Worse, at the same time we did not help preserve the environment. Our water bodies, forests, soil and air got heavily degraded. The inevitable disaster therefore came in the form of natural calamities like drought, polluted and drying rivers, depleting forests and game, loss of soil fertility, the heated environment and the encroaching desert. These problems were compounded by a population growth which constantly outdistanced our dismal economic performance. The result could only be poverty.

Coming to politics, the exclusion of other citizens from the affairs of the State, the institution of one-party Sates which consolidated dictatorships led to coup d’états and attempted coup d’états which occasioned political instability on the continent. Conflicts surfaced all over and produced refugees and displaced persons. Hence governments became more preoccupied with repressive security matters than with economic development and the misery deepened. Worse still, the money loaned us for economic projects were either mismanaged or simply siphoned off into foreign banks and our external debts mounted. In addition to other internal factors which robbed Africa of wealth, non negligible external forces also pauperized Africans. Notable is the one-sided international economic order. If you trade with someone and he has the right to dictate the prices of the goods you produce and sell him and you cannot do the same, and worse still if he continually increases the prices of the goods he sells to you and at the same time constantly reduces the prices of the goods he buys from you, one does not need to understand anything at all about economics to know that sooner rather than later bankruptcy will ensue. And naturally that is what has happened to Africa.

In the light of the above, how can prosperity and dignity be achieved? Definitely this will be done by overcoming the injustice and the inequality that caused the poverty in the first place. But how can this be done? This laudable aim cannot be achieved in the immediate future by fighting the iniquities in the international political and economic order. The angle of least resistance and the methods which will produce results now should first be adopted so that poor people in Africa can soon access their basic rights and fulfil their basic needs and secure sustained improvements in their livelihoods for further battles.

First of all people must be educated to change their mentality. People who believe that they have neither the leadership nor the human capacity to overcome the challenges facing them will not and cannot succeed no matter the amount of resources and prodding given them. According to an official International Correspondence Schools, ICS, Guide to Success in Life, How to Open the Door to Your Future, five tools can help poor people change their negative self image. These are visualization, affirmation, education, association and action. Visualization is a sort of a positive day-dreaming which will feed images to the inner mind to let needy people have confidence in their abilities to accomplish goals that they set themselves. Affirmation is the strengthening of visualization through self-talk. After holding positive images of themselves, the poor should tell themselves that they can also make it. Education is all about putting information at the disposal of people so that they can do better whatever they set out to do. But all four factors will not produce any results, except when action is taken. As we know, action speaks louder than thoughts and words.

Once the mentalities change, the next step will be to create the environment and conditions that will allow the social and political will and confidence to grow and so enable the new capacity to be used well.

How to Open the Door to Your Future says “There are three poverty inducing habits at work in the lives of everybody stuck in poverty … breaking these … habits is the first step up and out. These habits are negative attitude about money, slavery to debt and not increasing one’s value in the marketplace.

The negative attitude about money among the poor comes from the idea that they earn so little money that after paying for essentials nothing can be left for savings. Yet without savings, a person will forever remain in financial prison. The secret is to put aside a small percentage of one’s monthly income, say even 1 to 5%, and resolve not to touch it no matter what. Slavery to debt comes from buying on credit. The poor think they have so little money that they must buy everything on credit and pay in instalments. All this does is to maintain them in debt. The solution is to stop buying on credit. According to the ICS book, one can increase one’s value in the marketplace by 1. Performance, 2. Experience, 3. Education and 4. Combination of 1, 2 and 3.  On-the-job performance can be improved “by having a better attitude, being more punctual, cooperating better, cheerfully taking on extra tasks, whatever ... if, with each passing month, you are learning a new skill, getting better at the job, even finding ways to do things more effectively, then experience” will increase one’s value. As for education, ICS contends that it “is the great INCOME MULTIPLIER!” The world is changing fast and adaptation to this change requires nothing but continuous education.

Just as some habits favour poverty, others on the contrary ensure prosperity. According to ICS’s official guide, these are 1. Saving, 2. Giving, and 3. Self-improvement.

Concerning saving, the ICS booklet advises: “You may start just by putting ‘spare coins’ into a can at the end of every day, and by putting a tiny 1% of every pay into a savings account”. This amount may be small, but ICS contends that saving “has an impact on your self-image, self-esteem and self-confidence” and “that habit becomes automatic behaviour.”

How to Open the Door to Your Future affirms that as mysterious and as mystical as it may seem “the act of giving seems to increase wealth rather than decrease it … when people continue the habit of SAVING with the habit of GIVING, they seem to ‘attract’ new job opportunities, promotions, raises, even money coming to them from unusual and unexpected sources.” One may regularly and constantly give one’s time and a small donation to charitable organizations and community improvement projects.

Self-improvement as a poverty-banishing strategy can be done through formal or informal education. Classroom courses, seminars and reading are wise investments of time and money that could enhance the human asset among the poor and the marginalized.

The first condition to wealth on the national scale is democracy and good governance. When people freely choose their leaders, they identify with them and therefore less social tension exists. The prevailing peace aids development. Besides, conscious that they owe their position to the electorate, politicians will institute policies which will further the common good and ensure their re-election. Good governance on the other hand will ensure the optimum use of all resources. The subsequent elimination of waste can only benefit everybody, especially the poor.

But democracy and good governance will be illusions if the huge external debt still hangs over us. Each year huge amounts of money, sometimes up to 25% of the national budget, are used to service this debt. Imagine what these amounts could do in the fight against poverty! A vigorous campaign should be mounted to have Africa’s debts cancelled.

One area which can help Africa fulfil its potential is the provision of health facilities. Coupled with education, health facilities will give us healthy minds in healthy bodies. Lack of sufficient health care facilities may favour diseases. Diseases in turn may lead to loss of productivity which has direct consequence on the incomes of African households. Diseases do cause death. Death robs households of those who earn incomes. Making health facilities available will therefore lead to the reduction of poverty of African households.

Another factor which will reduce poverty in Africa, especially in the rural areas, is the provision of utilities and basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, telecommunication facilities, roads, schools and recreational facilities, among others. Pipe-borne water will reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases which diminishes people’s ability to be productive; electricity will give the poor and the marginalized in rural and remote areas the opportunity to go into small scale income-generating activities such as corn-milling and primary processing of agricultural products not only to reduce wastage due to post-harvest losses but also to add value to the products; information technology is sweeping the whole world and no nook and cranny in Africa can afford not to be part of the globalize village; telephone, fax, computers and internet facilities will help the poor to tap into the benefits of this new technology to lift them out of misery; the poor often live in inaccessible areas, yet  they have to cart their produce to marketing centres, hence the need for roads; the poor are often illiterate: schools to be built for them will serve both their children for formal education and themselves for functional literacy programmes; as for recreational facilities they will help avoid the “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” syndrome. And everybody knows that no dull person can work hard.

Agriculture maybe holds the best key to locking out poverty in Africa. With the help of irrigation dams, people could produce food year-round to feed themselves and also sell the surplus on the local market for income or export it for foreign exchange. Since agriculture weighs heavily on the rate of inflation which could reduce the purchasing power of the poor, it is simply common sense for the poor to invest in it. But not much will be achieved in this regard as well as in others for the poor if they lack the requisite training which will enable them use their limited resources well, if credit facilities, especially those specifically designed for the poor, are not extended to them and if they are not granted tax relief to allow them to build up capital.

Tourism is another high yielding activity in which the poor and the marginalized have a role to play to create wealth for themselves. Sustainable tourism, as an export commodity, does not deplete its resources neither does it degrade the environment. Tourism permeates the entire economy. It requires among others, transportation, accommodation, catering, entertainment, souvenirs, tour guides and visits to exotic places. These services could be provided by big and small investors in both urban and rural areas and among simple and sophisticated workers. And since the World Tourism Organization, WTO, forecasts a favourable long-term growth in tourism in Africa, it only makes sense to invest in it for the poor to reap its benefits.

All said and done, there are only very few human activities nowadays that do not require technology. Technology provides solutions to problems faced by today’s farmers, carpenters, mechanics, shoemakers, masons, electricians and others. For technology to be appropriate for the poor, organizations working with them should liaise with the universities, the polytechnics and research institutes to design simple technological equipments which would not only ease the burden of the poor but also help them work more efficiently and thus cut costs. The end result can only be more wealth.

But all the noble ideas outlined above to help banish poverty in Africa could come to nought if attention is not paid to marginalization of women and bribery and corruption. Gender equality will transform women’s lives, those of their families and indeed of the entire society. These gains will translate into better life for all. Yet prosperity for all could also be an illusion if strategies are not devised to fight corruption in Africa. As the British  Minister of State in charge of Africa, Peter Hain, observed: “… corrupt, selfish regimes have blocked their people from finding their way out of poverty … Honest governments working for the benefit of their people could have brought great prosperity to that continent.”

From all that precedes, we see that the causes of poverty in Africa are of both external and internal origin. But we believe that since the external factors are not easy to overcome and in the immediate, Africans should first concentrate on lifting the stumbling blocks they themselves created and which keep them poor. Through such measures, the poor and the marginalized can eradicate much of the poverty that haunts them. It is only when this happens that Africans on the one hand will harness more strength and the necessary resources to fight for their rights; and foreigners on the other will also have no choice but to do away with the injustice and the inequality that perpetuate poverty in Africa.

(Written 15^th July 2000)