By January Makamba - 28 June 2013
Dear President Obama,
Welcome back to Africa – where all humanity began. We have been expecting you for some time.
You are visiting the continent at its
most exciting time. We are in the middle of a transition from the old
Africa that most Americans know todate to the new Africa that Africans
all along believed it was possible. The narrative of a Hopeless
Continent – a supplicant people in need of saving - has given way to
that of a Rising Africa. GDP has doubled over the past 10 years.
Africa’s GDP per capita has crossed the $1,000 threshold for the first
time in history. More children are in school than at any time in
history. Dictatorships are dwindling. Infant and child mortality rates
have cut by a half. The continent has more mobile phones than Europe and
North America combined.
As you arrive here, you will see a
lot of things – colours, bright sun, and wide smiles. It will be
irresistible to beam these photos back home. But, as you think about
America’s partnership with Africa, please consider how the following
trends should shape the partnership between Africa and America:
One, there are many of us: about one
billion - a little fewer than the Chinese and Indians. By 2050 we will
reach 2.2 billion, surpassing China and India by far. Also, of the one
billion Africans today, seven hundred million are under 30 years old.
The median age here is 18.5 years. This scale of growth – about 2.2
percent compared to global average of 1 percent – will have implications
on almost everything, not only in Africa but also in your own country
where the politics of global population control is intense.
Some see this reality as scary. We
see it as an opportunity – so long as we make smart investments in our
people. And there is no smarter investment than education. As you think
about partnership with Africa, a partnership with lasting legacy, think
education – skills and competencies to contend with the challenges and
requirements of the new millennium. You have done it before.
Second, the association of Africa
with a village is gone. Africa is leading the world in the creation of a
new Urban Millennium. Within our lifetime, Africa will have more people
living in urban areas (1.24 billion) than its entire population today
(1 billion). Dar es Salaam, where you will visit, will double its
population in the next 15 years whereas the Gulf of Guinea will become
home to three hundred cities, each with over 100,000 people. Why is this
important? Urban Africa provides the fulcrum of Africa’s growth. The 40
percent of Africans living in urban Africa produce 80 percent of its
GDP. Cities provide hotbeds for political and social progress or
instability. As you think about partnership for Africa’s growth, think
cities. The United States is best poised for partnership with Africa in
urban creation, planning, and renewal and investments in urban systems –
transport, housing, energy and sanitation.
Third, you will be photographed more
by cellphone cameras than actual photo cameras. This would not have been
the case just a decade ago. In 1994, 70 percent of Africans had never
heard a telephone ring but, today, of one billion Africans, there are
700 million mobile phone subscribers. This has enhanced financial
inclusion, facilitated service delivery and helped lower the cost of
doing business. While the mobile revolution has been truly inclusive,
broadband access has not. As you push for expansion of broadband for
Americans, partnership with Africa in this area will see Africa leapfrog
into a new digital age. For every 10 percent increase in broadband
penetration, the economy grows by 1 percent, and doubling of internet
speed yields an additional 0.3 percent GDP growth.
Fourth, as you drive around, you may
notice a lot of Chinese people and signage in our streets. Yes, they are
here – in big numbers. In the last 10 years, for better or for worse,
over one million Chinese moved to Africa – to settle and do business.
Why? Because first, they ignored how Africa is covered in the Western
media and secondly they saw something that Americans were late in
seeing: Africa is not just a destination for volunteer work and
suntanning. It is also a place where returns on investments are almost
guaranteed. We are delighted that you will be bringing along with you
planeloads of American business people. American businesses can lead the
way in showing that foreign investments is not a zero-sum game and that
it is possible for businesses to succeed in Africa without paying
bribes.
Fifth, you will hear a lot about
natural resources and Africans’ quest to benefit more from them. You
will hear murmurs that Americans and the Chinese are competing in Africa
over Africa’s natural resources. These suspicions may be unfounded but
they are a result of history. Not long ago, when America was already
free and a democracy, there was an open scramble – among foreign powers –
for Africa’s resources; there was King Leopold in the Congo; African
countries were business companies owned by dukes in Europe. Some in the
continent see this exploitation continuing in different forms – a notion
facilitated by the fact that very few Africans have seen the benefits
of extraction of natural resources in their countries. Partnership with
America should be grounded in building the capacity of Africans to
harness their own natural resources responsibly and for the benefit of
their own people.
Finally, over the past 10 years we
have seen some good initiatives by American Presidents related to
Africa: President Clinton’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and
President Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), to name a few. We are
delighted that you have decided to continue some of these. But we are
also happy that you have decided to take on some critical issues for
Africa’s progress: transparency, through Open Government Partnership
(OGP); energy through Power Africa; and agriculture through Feed the
Future. The beauty about these new programs is that they can be executed
without significant new money from the US government. OGP is about
getting African leaders to do what is obvious and that doesn’t cost
anything: letting people be informed, as much as possible, about what
their governments are up to and giving them a greater voice in
influencing government choices. Power Africa and Feed the Future can
leverage the experience and capacity of American agriculture and energy
firms in partnership with African businesses and governments to do what
is clearly profitable and socially good.
While the general trends of the
continent are encouraging, the reality remains that you are visiting a
continent that is still the last frontier of human progress. Our
economies have grown fast but absolute poverty and inequality stubbornly
present. Over a span of 30 years – between 2000 and 2030 - our share
of global GDP will climb from a meager 2 percent to 3 percent. Many
people are still dying from preventable diseases. High unemployment,
particularly among the youth, even the educated youth, endangers social
and political stability. There is a huge skills gap. More children are
in school than at any time in African history but 50 million children
are out of primary and secondary school. We erect shiny skyscrapers
everyday yet 60 percent of city dwellers in African live in slums.
Governance institutions still need strengthening. The good news is that
there is an emerging crop of new, young African leadership – in
politics, private sector and civil society - able and ready to take on
these challenges. They are the midwives of a new Africa - a new Africa
that understands that aid may be necessary but should not be permanent,
and that trade and investments is the future, and that installing a
fairer international trade architecture should be Africa and America’s
common objective. And we are glad that you have chosen to meet with
them.
For what it is worth, America’s
global leadership remains robust – at least for now. One way to retain
and strengthen it in the face of insecure world and a deepening economic
and cultural competition is to project it for the good of humanity. And
this is the expectation of most Africans – that America shouldn’t
befriend a country just for security or strategic concerns but because
of advancement of shared values – of freedom, equality, tolerance and
human progress.
The Romans used to say ex Africa semper aliquid novi, meaning, Out of Africa, always something new. So, Mr. President, welcome to our Africa.
Mr. January Makamba is a Member of
Parliament and Deputy Minister of Communication, Science and Technology
in Tanzanian government. He is also the World Economic Forum’s Young
Global Leader and Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow.
SOURCE:Taifa Letu Blog.
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