Postcolonial failures of governance in Africa are indefensible; it is even ridiculous that African leaders do not only expect public sympathy and want the public to view Russia as the saviour but always play victim when challenged about their role in the continent’s stagnation; to consistently raise the volume of Western blame each time the electorate demand accountability in governance is irresponsible leadership.
While the West cannot escape blame for the state of African governance and economies, blaming the West for all of the continent’s failings is escapism of the worst kind. The approach may have local consumers, but it will not rescue Africa from this precipice.
Taking more responsibility for the many bad policies in place and their impact on ordinary people will give the continent a better chance at introspection and altering its sociopolitical and economic direction.
Stop the escapism and blame shifting. When it suits us, we are independent, but we suddenly become victims of the West when accountability is asked of us. The public needs an explanation how the West remains responsible for internal issues when most African states have been independent for at least 30 years?
We have the power to make laws, we have parliaments to pass the laws, changing the political direction in our different countries is in the hands of local legislators, not the EU or the USA.
To suddenly think Russia is our saviour is delusional. Russia is trying to save its own face not interested in African economic and political independence; it is fast losing friends in Europe and Africa is the only receptive and vulnerable territory at its disposal where it can extend its global influence. Russia’s interest and target is clearly the African political elite not the improvement of an ordinary African’s life.
Africans must understand that trading one slave master for another does not constitute freedom; to reject the West and invite Russia or China into Africa will not free African people. Russian or Chinese political design is not what our forebearers fought for, and it is not what the African ordinary man needs; the public desire better access to decision-making processes, and only through democratic processes can that be achieved.
While every African citizen objects to foreign interference in internal matters, only the political elite conflate legitimate calls for accountability by Western governments and global institutions to interference. There is growing belief that China and Russia respect local institutions, but what is portrayed as moral superiority about the Russian non-interference policy exonerates and promotes unaccountability.
Let us face facts, there is nothing wrong with Western governments and Western leaning global institutions setting conditions for aid or loans extended to our governments, this is standard and proportionate intervention by all accountable institutions in the capitalist world whose benefits we long for.
Unaccountability has become a potent weapon that serves to protect the privileges of the egoist political elite who continue to benefit from looting national resources and suppressing ordinary citizens.
Relations between Africa and the West are fraught with distrust going back to the colonial period and the related imperialist overtures. Admittedly, the West has pursued Western interests in Africa at the expense of African public’s interests; such errors of judgement have caused tensions and pushed some African governments towards Russia; but Russia is not a solution, and no foreign government is.
What will solve Africa’s challenges is a technological revolution that will oversee creativity and lead to new ways of doing things being introduced to transform national economies; governments need to fund research for innovation for long term changes to the character of economic activity in the continent. Exporting cheap raw materials and importing back higher cost, high value products made of the same raw material can no longer sustain our economic demands and that has a huge impact on internal politics.
A homogenous, low value economic base laden with debt and suffering restricted growth cannot meet public demand for jobs and basic goods; governments face higher demand from the public whose expectations are constantly rising due to rapid population growth and changing consumption tastes; there is consensus that the quality of the economy needs to change to meet public expectation in the continent.
Diversification of the economy is important; being providers of primary raw materials is not what our economies should be based on anymore. The raw material based economic model is a relic of colonialism when in the global economic hierarchy, Africa was a raw material provider to the Western industrial development and growth. In that model the state had limited contact with the natives who lived in ‘native reserves’ and had neither interest nor pressure to develop those areas and people who lived there.
Slaves do not achieve freedom by presenting at the auction yard after a successful escape from one slave master. If we believe the West is enslaving us, the solution cannot be opening the continent to the mercy of Russia. If we want Africa to be free, we must stop presenting it to the highest bidder. Rather, we need innovation to create new things and change the economic design and outlook. Before we think of inviting foreigners, let us look within, strengthen national, regional, and continental institutions so that they are professionally run, speak to the guts of our people, and their decisions have currency in the continent and globally.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 