Different schools of thought have debated the issue of poverty in Africa for a long time.
There is the school of thought that Africa is poor because there are not enough resources. However, the continent has the largest share of natural resources in the world. While large numbers of development organizations have flooded the continent to provide the ‘scarce resources’ and hunger plagues the continent, it is sardonic that we have the largest cover of arable land in the world. What is really frustrating about Africa’s development? What has been done so far has not worked. A renewed mind, and a new perspective on issues is necessary to make real and lasting changes in the continent.
In the past, Africa’s coffee, cocoa, tea, minerals, and even people have been exported from the motherland and used to make other continents rich. In the 21st century, Nations still scramble for its resources – yet Africans still remain poor.
In the East, countries with large populations but a fraction of the natural resources are much more successful than most African nations.
None of the developed countries was always rich. Throughout history, economies have risen and fallen. This possibly means that wealth is not just in the availability of natural resources but in the ability of people to use available resources to economically empower themselves. National values, vision, tenacity; resoluteness of purpose, and synergy are all crucial for economic progress. For this transformation to happen it requires renewal of societal perspectives i.e. a renewed mind.
Simple as it sounds, no single economy has been successful in any other way. If people are not transformed: cannot conceive an idea and resolutely work together towards it, it will not be possible to get out of poverty as individuals, a community, country, or continent.
Currently, Africa is uniquely placed to be an economic giant. Despite high poverty, the continent has the highest growth of mobile users in the world, the most natural resources and vast business opportunities, and unsaturated markets. The population of well-educated people is higher than any other continent when they started their transition to end extreme poverty. Could this be the moment for Africans to end the poverty that has plagued the continent?
Or is this another opportunity that will once again make other continents rich and leave Africa poor?
As Africans, it’s time we seriously embrace the values that define us, grasp once again the vision of freedom our forefathers had and fought for.
We, more than any other continent, ought to crave for peace and wealth at the same time because we continually experience what greed, corruption, ethnic and tribal intolerance can do. Ironically, we continue in embracing the things, leaders, and ideologies that divide us. Unless we have a renewed mind we are not likely to experience true wealth for a number of generations.
So the solution is not in our natural resources, neither is it through the nations that have worked against us in the past but are in a renewed mind that transforms people. We have been our own worst enemy for a long time and can be our own best friend and partner. If we do not transform, current and future opportunities will once again leave us poor and enrich others.
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