20 of the most powerful global political leaders gather to take decisions that will impact the whole world in far reaching ways and Africa is has only one seat at the table occupied by South Africa. This under-representation of Africa is sadly a recurring feature and indeed a defining characteristic of these international summits.
As Africans we have to start focusing our energy on adopting strategies to counter this state of affairs beginning with a harsh reality check. We are under-represented at these summits because we are increasingly irrelevant. On the global scene African countries have very little influence, even less power and no force at all (except against other African countries).
Relying on our current political leaders to draw up and implement a strategy to make Africa relevant in a positive way is a non starter. Indeed those who have succeed in making African relevant to international policy making have done so for increasing negative reasons, for example Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Bashir in Sudan. Ethan Zuckerman labelled the position taken by such political leaders as a strategy of, “If we act deranged enough, maybe they’ll just give us the country.”
The burden rests on us, the ordinary citizens of Africa, to come up with a strategy that will increase our positive relevance to important global conversations and thus make it impossible to ignore Africa, Africans and the issues they feel important. I would love to hear your thoughts on what this strategy should adopt.
As a first step we can start by breaking the cycle of ineffective negative political leaders. The veteran British political warhorse Tony Benn proposes 5 questions to ask anyone in power or who wants power:
- What power have you got?
- Where did you get it from?
- In whose interests do you exercise it?
- To whom are you accountable?
- And how can we get rid of you?
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I look forward to seeing how this summit will pan out. One of my favorite people Andrew Mwenda says its time for “the challenge of hope”…lets move away from a focus on aid – with all these years of aid, its clear we need a new strategy for Africa. Less focus on “poverty reduction” which is so negative, lets put more focus on “wealth creation” instead – this is the challenge of hope! Create wealth, ensure that Africans themselves can afford the medicine, can afford the food and don’t have to rely on donors to give it to them. Its possible and that is where my faith with regard to Africa is.
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Hey Daudi,
You’ve hit the nail on the head there. If Burkina Faso doesn’t come up with a fiscal stimulus or Tanzania fails to tighten financial regulation it won’t make any difference to the global economy.
The head of the AU should be at a summit like this – and should have some clout. Kikwete would have had something interesting to say. Gaddafi, on the other hand…
Enjoy London -
Sort out Zimbabwe, as many African states are, at least indirectly, supporting Mugabe, who, it is reported, is filling the bank accounts of cronies whilst eliminating opponents by starvation and illness.
None of my money would go to Africa as a whole, indirectly into the pockets of unworthies, until Africa as a whole sorts out Zimbabwe, and any other malfunctioning African state. Why would anyone listen to African political leaders under those circumstances ?
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Pingback from African Bloggers At The G20 « Crossed Crocodiles on April 3, 2009 at 5:33 am
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Daudi,
Good Question, but the answer i think is to make Africa the focus of our universe – if we constantly think about the rest of the world we will be in permanent race which we cannot win because we playing by other peoples rules. and unfortunately we have and are still playing by other peoples rules and we have been trained through schooling to play by other rules.If for a moment we stepped back and decided to focus on what is important and what is priority for Africans and not what we have to do in order to measure up to the west or the east (since that is the new paradigm).
i read the other day that the govt of kenya is implementing its own stimulus package – which made me wonder where othat govt has been through the years – by any economic measure kenya has needed a stimulus package since 1963 (unemployment,drought etc) but that didn’t matter to the govt until the nited states needed a stimulus and so the word stimulus is part of the national lexicon.
Last year something like 200k workers in the tourism industry alone lost jobs due to to the PEV but no one felt they needed a stimulus package. Point im making is that we as africans and the governments that we elect or allow to come into power are forever caught up in a cycle of conventional
wisdom. Now this G20 issue this stimulus is about American and European jobs, and i cant fault the US and European Govt for looking out for their peoples.Oh, my answer s that we should make Africa the center of our universe. and make our Govts think likewise. Alternatively we could just acquire WMDs and be a threat to everyones peace – now that will be attention grabbing.
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LOL @ Louis – African country acquiring wmd’s…sounds like the African country ‘Sangala’ in the new season of 24! What if that really happened?
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I totatlly agree with Louis. Africa needs to focus on Africa. And that African focus should not be from a western (or eastern) perspective, it should be 100% from our own eyes.
Think about it; nations that focus on themselves, whether voluntarily or not (most actually end up being isolated from the rest of the world), emerge stronger and more powerful. USA (religious separists aboard the Mayflower), China (voluntarily), Germany (after both world wars), Japan (after WWII), South Africa (during the Apartheid century)…
All the solutions that the world has tried to help ’save’ Africa have failed. It’s time to focus on ourselves and solve our own problems – ourselves. -
OMG, I was just blogging about this earlier.
My comment is to rm…. If you truly want to make a difference by investing on the African continent don’t hold back on account of Zimbabwe. My goodness, there is always one country or the other under the thumb of a diabolical dictator at any point in time. Just pick a place and make an investment. This is what all Africans who have the resources need to be doing. Patrick Awuah didn’t wait until every African country was on the straight and narrow before he decided to build Ashesi university in Accra.
An intelligent investor will find a way to make a difference whilst ensuring that his investment is protected and is making an impact in the lives of the targeted group.
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I always find this thread of conversation interesting in that we’re always looking for solutions that are within our grasp, and yet we can’t seem to find the conviction to carry out what is needed to effect change.
Firstly, I believe this is an ongoing and organic state of affairs where what is done today, will help inform what is done tomorrow – so the notion of waiting for something magical to sort out the “right” environment is a non starter.
Using Kenya as an example, I think that the best place for most of us to start is to stand in front of a mirror and look long and hard at ourselves in shame.
Why do I say this?
As a collective, the citizenry of Kenya are culpable and collectively responsible for the biggest case of collective gross negligence and incompetence in not taking their civic responsibilities seriously.
Until each individual acknowledges and accepts their responsibility in getting the country to what it is now, there’s absolutely no incentive for change as everyone will continue with the “Every man or woman for himself or herself mentality” that we see today.
There will never be a collective sense of patriotic responsibility to do what is right to ensure that we leave Kenya or Africa in a better state for our children than our parents left it for us.
I say we’re grossly negligent as a collective because for over 40 years, we have continued to support a type of leadership that has redefined the boundaries of impunity and arrogance. We have failed to vote responsibly and failed to vote for proper competent leaders in lieu of leadership based on retrogressive tribal affiliations for most part.
Until each of us acknowledges this and accepts their responsibilities in doing the right thing, then we deserve to be shafted left right and centre for generations to come. Until each of us takes this responsibility seriously, we will not be doing the minimum required to do our part in this world.
Of course, you’ll get the argument that folks will say that we did it and we were robbed, they’re too powerful….yada yada yada….
I say, if that’s the case and we end up with the same bunch of punks in leadership positions every time round, then it wasn’t bloody good enough. It defies belief that out of a population of over 30 million people, we’re stuck with the same unscrupulous leaders. Are we going to be content to tell our children – “We really tried, but we failed to take our country back from those thugs”.
Daudi, do you think that’s enough for my two cents….LOL!
And if I can just qualify, good leadership is not the only ingredient to this recipe. Good leadership will help promote the right environment e.g. in policy development and implementation and in ensuring security – so that we the citizens can get on with our job of building the nation.
That’s what each African can do to become relevant in the world.
This aid and development thing just does my head in.
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hi, this is huge Collins Injera * Humphrey Kayange have made it to the IRB player of the year list, i hae a post on it at my blog, knowing how huge a rugby fan you are i think i should spread the”good word”
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