Africa in a turbulent world ( 5)
WHICHEVER model Africa chooses to use, we should stop destroying our indigenous technology, no matter how crude. Enough of razing to the ground artisanal refineries when our sophisticated refineries cannot yield a drop of refined oil. Enough of destroying our local gun factories when our Defence Industries Corporation can only boast of beds, bolts and nuts after 50 years while it's counterparts in Brazil and elsewhere are building fighter jets.
Enough of destroying other private initiatives. Enough of parading jaded market cliches like "government has no business in business". Indeed, government has every business in business! With an inherently weak and dubious organised private sector ( Mbeki- Report on Illicit Financial Flows in Africa) we do not need a soothsayer to tell us that government and organised private sector must of necessity create a synergy.
The turbulence has and will take many dimensions including attempts to re- colonise Africa by both the West and the East. It is a golden opportunity for Africa to play the beautiful bride and for it to know there are no benevolent colonial masters or foreign partners. It is important for Africa to know that diplomacy or international co- operation is not about chastity or charity naivety. Everybody takes what they can and move on.
It is equally important for African countries to note that they do not need hymnal or harmonic peace to develop but blood and grit! I propose the emergence of sub- regional powers with the wherewithal to inspire development across their sub- regions as well as whip into line smaller or weaker nations.
Africa must decide for itself where it wants to be by making smart choices. Africa should not be scared to venture.
After all, strength comes from rubble ( Napoleon). "And out of the rubble comes peace." ( Marwa Al- Sabouni, a Syrian Architect).
At the beginning of this presentation, I did say that there were three possible assumptions with the first being that the world is in a state of turbulence distinctly different from the regular turbulence we know. Developments as earlier enunciated point to this.
I have talked about multi- dimensional confrontations across the world in multiple domains and their potential effects including major destructions and emergence of new global power centres. In spite of the potential magnitude of the changes expected, this may be no more than a phase in the global cycle of power and therefore not extraordinarily unique after all.
The second assumption is that the world is in need of a direction. My thoughts on this àre similar to the first assumption. The world has never been a perfect place even during the Eden Garden era and the so- called Golden Age or Age of Enlightenment. The world has been in search of direction from its birth to the first industrial revolution, the second and third and then the fourth. Only "recently" in its relentlessly quest, it "found" itself on the brink of a self- destructive world of Artificial Intelligence realising just in time to step back.
The world will therefore keep on searching for a direction because it has no light of its own. The only light it gets, comes from the sun, and only for a few hours a day. The third assumption is where Africa will be or expected to be during or after the turbulence. My take is, Africa is not new to turbulence. It was the centre of creation ( Serengeti) and creation didn't happen peacefully ( using the big- bang theory). Africa is one of the few places on earth that an ocean turned into a desert, and with temperatures hitting the roof in the Mediterranean/ Red Sea nowadays, who knows what will happen next. Africa experienced slavery twice ( first came the desert and then the ocean). Africa came under ruthless colonialism by Western powers ( with the Belgian Beasts leading the pack) and at the moment coping with neo- colonialism, globalisation, disease, poverty and underdevelopment. The expected turbulence in Africa could range from nature- made to man- made. The "rebellions" in Francophone Africa are some of the things we expect aside from being sucked into the vortex of violence arising from a global military confrontation.
The point being made here is that the new turbulence ought not shock or awe or paralyse Africa ( given its history) even as no two turbulence are ever the same. Nonetheless, how it weathers this new turbulence will entirely be determined by the decisions or choices Africa makes since this is expected to be some kind of participatory colonialism in which Africa is expected to have a voice if it choose to, unlike Berlin Conference of 1884 where there was no African.
Finally, in the emerging world order, in spite of the growing resentment of the weaker nations ( for being bullied), and commitment of the powerful nations to be more accommodating, few powerful nations, if any, are prepared to share the perch with the weaker ones.... except for the vote or the cheer from the sidelines.
Weaker nations will always be reminded of the risks they face from the enemy camp if they don't fall into line in their own camp. Similarly, they would be reminded of potential isolation from their own camp, and lastly, their own people, especially during elections. Afterall, powerful countries can make things happen in weaker nations. The last line is that all the three assumptions might seem unique and extraordinary on a scale possibly never before seen but in the cold and remorseless trudge of time, all this might be no more than another phase of existence... waiting for another phase.