Africa Day: The dream lives on
The adoption by African leaders in 2015 of Agenda 2063 as the continent’s new long-term vision for the next 50 years was a milestone in the history of Africa.
AFRICA today celebrates the 54th anniversary of the founding of the continental body — the African Union — at a time when Africa is building up the momentum to press for industrialisation to rapidly transform its desire to turn its vast economic potential into reality.
There is no doubt that the continent’s thrust to unleash its economic potential through the implementation of strong industrial policies will, at least, despite the huge challenges that exist, help provide Africa with the tools for value addition and commodity-based industrialisation.
With bold leadership and state support, consistent monitoring and evaluation, inclusivity and prioritisation of major sectors, it is possible that Africa can be firmly put on the tough and winding road to structural transformation.
The era of begging bowls is ending and Africa increasingly needs to finance its development programmes to ensure sustainability of projects and, more importantly, for its own survival.
The continent has posted enviable economic growth rates in the past few years despite a slowdown in its 2016 economic growth rate which stood at 2,2 percent down from a 3,2 percent in 2015 owing largely to low commodity prices, weak global recovery and adverse weather conditions that badly affected the continent’s agricultural sector.
Despite, the slowing growth, Africa still remains a major global destination for investment.
The latest African Economic Outlook report shows that the continent’s foreign direct investment stood at US$56,5 billion in 2016 and is projected to hit US$57 billion in 2017.
For the continent, the priority is keeping up this momentum and meeting the challenges that lie ahead.
Africa Day provides an opportunity to celebrate that African solidarity, African identity and a common humanity and destiny which is shared by the continent’s more than one billion people.
After nearly five-and-half decades of the existence of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, now AU), it is a time for reflection for this continent that is so strategically important to world economics.
Despite all the harsh criticism, Africa is in a considerably better shape than popular perceptions may suggest.
Brutal wars and famine have declined, though not to the scale Africans may want to see.
It is a fact that people still struggle to make ends meet, just as they do in Europe, the US, Brazil, China and India.
They don’t always have enough to eat, they may lack education, they may not have the best of infrastructure, they despair about corruption, lack of jobs, poor service and social injustices and some even want to emigrate.
In the process, the dominant Western media continue to capture these problems to paint a different picture about the continent.
Powerful countries, too, continue to subdue and hurl everything they can find at this collective African spirit that seeks to bind, integrate and ensure Africans have control of their destiny and resources.
Despite this assault, the African spirit still lives on, unbowed by the divisive and dominant policies of powerful countries, which aim to exploit for next to nothing Africa’s economic resources.
In the terms — AFRICA DAY, Zimpapers Syndication unearths some of the major highlights of events and processes driving change on this continent, home to more than one billion people.
A – for Africa
The origin of Africa’s name is an area of major contestation by etymologists. One school of thought suggests that “Afri” was the name of a people, maybe the Berbers of North Africa, given by the Romans while others say the addition of the Latin word aprica, meaning “sunny”, or the Greek word aphrike, meaning “without cold” would ultimately lead to the use of the term Africa.
Some historians or Egyptologists say the name Africa is of African origins from the Egyptian word “Afru-ika” or ‘Motherland”.
Other scholars suggest that the name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — “land of the Afri” referring to the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, in modern-day Tunisia. The Roman suffix “-ca” denotes “country or land”. There are so many theories around the origins of the name and most historians say the actual etymology of Africa is uncertain. No one knows the exact origins but it has come to be acceptable on the continent and globally.
F – Founding fathers
Founding fathers who gathered together on May 25 1963 in Addis Ababa to establish the OAU (now AU) had to come up with a united, independent and strong Africa.
They dedicated their lives and worked tirelessly to liberate Africa from the shackles of colonialism.
The OAU was established, first and foremost, with the express objective of working towards the greater unity of the African continent while at the same time ensuring that the remaining colonies on the African continent are assisted to achieve their freedom and independence.
The memory of the founding fathers should not got to waste.
The legacy of the likes of Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Modibo Keita of Mali, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Sekou Touré of Guinea, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Ben Bella of Algeria, Emperor Haile Selasse of Ethiopia, William Tubman of Liberia, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and many others who were part of the major driving forces for a common and shared vision for Africa must live on and never be downplayed.
Their vision inspired the pan-African movement and also influenced the transformation of the continental body in the years that followed.
These founding fathers must continue to be part of our collective memory as the continent continues to celebrate their work and soldier on in achieving their dreams.
R – is for Resources
Africa has a large quantity of natural resources including oil, diamonds, gold, platinum, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum and a whole range of plant genetic resources. Much of its natural resources are undiscovered and have not been harnessed. Africa is the prime target of most industrial nations who want to exploit its resources.
Despite the abundance of natural resources, the bulk of resources exploited from Africa is causing most of the value and money from the natural resources to go to the West rather than the African.
Africa could be losing more than US$15 billion from its biodiversity as medicines, cosmetics, agricultural products and indigenous knowledge surrounding these are being patented illegally by multinational companies without any of the benefits accruing to local communities in countries of origin.
The scourge of illicit financial flows (IFF) from the continent is milking the continent dry. Proceeds from Africa’s resources that could easily turn the continent into one of the most developed and industrialised continents in the world are being squirrelled away in billions depriving the majority of the poor of vital infrastructure, uninterrupted power supplies, jobs and a peaceful and stable socio-economic environment. Economists estimate that Africa is losing up to US$70 billion a year through illicit financial flows — the illegal movement of money out of Africa countries, mostly by transnational corporations.
The Global Financial Integrity calls IFFs “the ugliest chapter in international affairs since slavery”, and says as a percentage of GDP, IFFs in Africa are the highest in the world, with multinational corporations a lead contributor, undermining the effect of foreign direct investment and aid.
For Africa’s struggling masses, the questions are: “What are we as Africans doing to help stop IFFs, to stop transnational corporations from cheating African nations out of revenue due to them? What is the role of multilateral finance institutions in all this? It is estimated that Africa has lost more than US$1,8 trillion to IFFs between 1970 and 2008 through tax evasion, mispricing of goods and services by multi-national companies.
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