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At Large
Africa in the Eye of the Beholder
Once again, what’s inhibiting African economic development?
Africa’s potential economic development is a staple of commentary in publications on international affairs. What’s important about this fact is that it’s been this way for years, nay decades. It seems that Africa — by which is meant sub-Saharan Africa — is always filled with potential. Unfortunately there is very little analysis showing that potential realized.
There seems to be a very effective effort to place the ultimate blame for Africa’s inability to progress in economic and political terms on what William Wallis, the experienced Financial Times editor on African affairs, refers to as “the relative failure of Europe’s mission during colonial times, and more recently through development aid, to introduce rules-based systems.”
In stating this, Wallis has sought to explain why some observers believe that China and industrial powers of the developing world, such as Brazil and India, are more capable of dealing with Africa’s needs and desires. One only can surmise that the rough and tumble of African business life, and ultimately its entire economic status, is more suitable to the less complicated and purportedly less sophisticated commercial controls and methodology of these developing industrial countries.
In a certain sense this might be a correct assumption. The Americans, for example, have a host of federal laws (including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) that prevent U.S. firms from making the kind of corporate/government commitment that allows host country officials and local politicians to participate in or benefit from the projects under consideration. E.U. nations are now similarly constrained, though former colonial powers among them most often have had local companies operating under less restrictive charters and laws for many decades.
These legal and ethical inhibitions on foreign operations not only do not exist with such countries as China, but their percentage of ownership, financial advantage, or other forms of participation with local political elements — individual or group — has been considered simply a “cost of investment.”
Perhaps one of the most unexpected of recent developments — or non-developments — in respect to Africa has come about with Barack Obama’s assumption of the U.S. presidency. African UN delegates were encouraged to believe that with Obama as president he would take the steps necessary to enhance U.S. investment in Africa in general and Kenya/ East Africa specifically. It was not an unexpected commitment. After all, Obama’s father was a member of the Luo tribe, and in Africa one honors his family upon gaining high office through sharing the advantage obtained by the improved status.
The downplaying of this new direct American/African relationship may not have been surprising to the Western nations or Obama’s Chicago constituency, but it was certainly a surprise to China, the Middle East and South Asia investment groups expecting a strong African play by the Americans after years of staying on the economic sidelines in everything except extractive industries. China has been more than willing to take up the slack. But then it had rushed in as early as the 1960s on projects that Western firms and governments had turned down.
Beijing also has its troubles in Africa now. There are complaints that the Chinese do little to aid the persistent unemployment that marks the entire region. Apparently the Chinese have their own problems with the productivity of African workers. The Chinese solve that shortcoming by bringing their own workers with them, which is not at all appreciated. Another objection voiced by African politicians is that the Chinese never seem to let up on their political maneuvering. There’s always just one more thing that they are interested in and on which they would like to negotiate.
The last complaint is not hard to fathom. The Chinese are said to act very superior. In both East and West Africa, complaints have grown in the press in recent years against Chinese supervisory personnel in their dealings with “locals.” In a certain manner Chinese behavior has assumed a colonialist attitude and this naturally harshens the work environment.
Among investment development executives, there inadequate recognition of the gulf in technical sophistication between the urban and rural African. At the same time the tribal allegiances of both populations bridge their communities. These factors, political and social, tend to inhibit economic development as much as the more often derisively characterized lack of ambition for the vaunted benefits of an “advanced” society.
Africa may not be progressing at the pace it should in the minds of those in the world of economic development. But not unsurprisingly most of this objection comes from those who have little perception of what Africa believes is actually progress and how speedily it should be sought. The bottom line is that the external powers want to make a substantial profit and in Africa the definition of profit is not the same thing. For the typical African profit means a marginal accrual of wealth, a slight improvement in living standards, and above all an improvement in self-image.
Industry, long stretches of macadam roads, and monumental concrete buildings may make the Chinese, Brazilians, and all the other developing areas happy, but not Africa. In the end Africa will defeat all efforts to enrich and embellish it. It has its own particular wealth. As for beauty —- nothing can be built that equals Africa’s natural attributes.
Progress is measured differently in the sub-Sahara. Its politicians and generals may dream of the Côte d’Azur, but the average African seeks only an undemanding job, peace, health, and a bottle of moderately warm beer every now and then. And when it comes to the final analysis, who is going to gainsay that judgment?
About the Author
George H. Wittman writes a weekly column on international affairs for The American Spectator online. He was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (34) | Leave a comment
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dee see| 6.3.11 @ 7:25AM
--'Inhibiting' development?
Well, if one wants to be corny and address
the pre-cyber reality of humanity one should
be examining the likes of the WHO ---and a
host of other 'benny violent' fronts ---one and
all directed by the Globalist capstone 'agenda'.
SEEMS the 'benny violent' founded, funded
and directed WHO has, most recently, been
giving kids a 'new' strain of wholly incurable
polio in places like Nigeria and elsewhere
across the world.
And over in Pakistan its now been found
78% of those kids who've come down with polio
in the last several years ---were given the
'polio vaccine'.
(ALAN WATT yesterday)
'Benny violence' ---IS REAL
Timothy L. Pennell| 6.3.11 @ 7:53AM
It seems to me, that, when Colonial Powers were running these African States, things were a LOT better.
I hate to be the one who says it, but, "Chocolate Cities and States and Countries, have a P*SS POOR Record at Governing themselves.
I say we give them NOTHING. No AID. No HELP. Nothing.
As I see it, Africa is STILL evolving. They are in a constant state of NATURAL SELECTION. Darwin's Theory.
And I believe that the Left would agree with me, that we have NO BUSINESS interfering with the Natural Progression of Evolution.
Or, we could eradicate the MESS that's there, now, and start taking advantage of the things GOD put there.
buckeyeman| 6.3.11 @ 8:19AM
A very severe analysis, Tim. On the other hand, I honestly can't think of one advancement to the human race that has come out of sub-Saharan Africa since the purported "primordial Eve" hoofed it out of the "dark" continent about 150,000 years ago.
The current accepted, mainstream, irrefutable, incontrovertible dogma is that race has nothing to do with it. Your post suggests you may have drawn a different conclusion. Wow! You're not supposed to be thinking like that.
grethel| 6.3.11 @ 10:34AM
Actually, the common denominator to the cities and statest that you cite is democrat politicians.
BackToBasics| 6.3.11 @ 4:44PM
But how smart are whites really when they are in the process of allowing themselves to die out? And they also subsidize the growth of non-whites by the millions with taxpayer-funding and illegal immigration. This is happening both in Europe and in the USA and to a lesser extent in Canada. How smart are whites as a whole, really? Each race has strengths and weaknesses. Whites may be more inventive but what good is that if they don't bear enough children to carry on in great enough numbers in the future?
Timothy L. Pennell| 6.4.11 @ 8:06AM
Agreed!
Moe Blotz| 6.3.11 @ 8:16AM
Ol' Barry dinna' come forward with new opportunities for business growth in Africa because he is ignorant of what it takes to establish/run a business. Maybe if our State Department brought all the aspiring community organisers over from sub-sahara land and trained them in the Chicago style,the political environment would improve for entrepeneurs. God put so much potential wealth at their feet,but the poor Africans are yet to get the message of the son who was born on their continent 2011 years ago.
buckeyeman| 6.3.11 @ 8:25AM
"...the poor Africans are yet to get the message of the son who was born on their continent 2011 years ago"
Are you referring to Jesus, 'cause I thought He was born in Bethlehem, which is most definitely NOT in Africa.
"...brought all the aspiring community organisers over from sub-sahara land..."
Uh, I think this has already been done and we got modern day Detroit as a result. That problem is currently being remediated by the importation of Muslims and seems to be working out well.
BackToBasics| 6.4.11 @ 1:10PM
I have sometimes wondered if Africa's lack of progress is in part due to Chritianity coming there rahter late. I have wondered if they had had 500 more years of Christianity that they might have already attained one or more large civilizations and more progress. I am not sure of the answer to that but the thought has occured to me.
But as things are they still think in tribal terms. Except for Moslims who wish to dominate on a religious level, most political problems seem to take place within the boundaries of each country. There is no effort to form multi-national alliances.
JimH| 6.3.11 @ 8:24AM
Any country to develop needs several things. And this is not specific to Africa. Rule of law, secure property rights and access to markts.
dee see| 6.3.11 @ 8:27AM
---They're STILL running them, into the ground.
You will notice in the 'liberation' of such places
as Rhodesia and South Africa that, while the
hard working whites were pushed aside, indeed,
demonized and excluded ---the Globalist corporations and capstone
creeeps were left utterly undisturbed.
NO redress there-----
HERE at home you can feast on the agenda
in action as 5 mega corporations, which control
the ENTIRE food supply,are saturating our food stocks with GMO.
Putting aside last week's revelations that
Pepsico's using elements from aborted fetsuses
for 'flavor enhancement' (TRUE)----
an example, the GMO grain stuffs with their
built in insecticide are KNOWN to induce
inter-generational sterility. In 3 generations
---TOTAL. This is ON RECORD.
GMO's record with organ failure, neurological
disorders and their 'fave' ---cancer is also out
there.
Canadian PM Harper should, at the very
least, be facing a life sentence after having,
by stealth, signed and authorized the MASS
covert introduction of GMO throughout
Canada.
The damage to the world genetic table is
incalculable.
"And know this, the 'Big Boys', and the ones
'brought in' ---they're given cards. They have
pure sources to draw from. They don't eat
the swill we're being fed."
-ALAN WATT
(essential online coverage)
Believe you him.
THIS IS REAL
Weiserite| 6.3.11 @ 8:46AM
Some great observations in this article. I have been in agricultural development stuff for 30 years in the Middle East and the Sudan. Near Khartoum I have seen construction and farm projects manned by imported laborers from Bengla Desh and other such places sweating away shoveling and carrying stuff, while desperately poor villagers within eyeshot just sit with their knees up languidly watching. Here are the troubling facts: one, there are many desperately poor people in this world who will not glob on to an opportunity to pull themselves out of their miserable state, second, stupid third world governments adopting stupid labor policies like minimum wages and complicated work rules under advice from "experts" from more developed countries prevent those desperately poor who do want to pull themselves out of their misery from seizing an opportunity to work.
Petronius| 6.3.11 @ 9:17AM
Circumspection all around. Why invest in Africa when, 1 the entire continent consists of parasitic dictatorships from the Sahara to the Transvaal? 2 The populace will not abandon their tribalism just like our urban gangs and become civilized? 3 Our pseudo-African President viscerally hates commerce in any case? 4 Agriculture is not commercially viable because the UN relief agencies won't allow it? Foreign project engineers and superintendents get kidnapped and murdered constantly?
Africa is a hell hole because that's what it's rulers want; China's sweat shops in Madagascar not withstanding.
ncatty| 6.3.11 @ 11:00AM
Mr. Wittman is channeling Earl Butz in that last paragraph. Better look out.
Weiserite| 6.3.11 @ 12:05PM
Good memory
Sheila| 6.3.11 @ 11:29AM
Why is Africa not developing? You have two choices: either it's all the legacy of colonialism and racism (i.e. Blame Whitey!!) or race is more than a social construct and culture is inextricably tied to race (for evidence see:http://unamusementpark.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/intelligence-flyer/ and http://unamusementpark.wordpre.....ime-flyer/). Being a rational individual not prone to stop thinking in order to avoid shaming language, I choose the latter.
Brian B| 6.3.11 @ 12:11PM
Seems to me many of the commenters here would benefit greatly by reading a few of Thomas Sowell's books.
Race and culture are not permanently locked together, as the divergent experiences of Caribbean vs African blacks demonstrate right here in the USA.
Africa is mired in the same culture of dependency that dismantled the black family in America, which went from a higher percentage of intact families and lower unemployment than whites to the current inner city mess in a matter of a few generations of the left's ministrations through the welfare state.
Pat| 6.3.11 @ 12:17PM
Africa deserves our heartfelt gratitude because we Americans desperately need some nation or group of nations to feel superior to. We prefer to focus our collective attention outwards asking what is inhibiting Africa’s economic growth instead of asking what is inhibiting America’s economic recovery. Obama’s handlers recently declared our government has done all it can to create jobs and now it’s up to the private sector. In response, our business leaders just shrug, close another small plant in Rhode Island, open a new plant in Tianjin, China. African nations can’t attract new industries, we can’t keep our industries from leaving.
As big government junkies, Americans can’t break the poverty cycle to which we’re so heavily addicted. We tell ourselves that economic recovery is occurring, maybe very slowly, but still there is no reason to panic. Perhaps Obama didn’t fulfill all his promises, maybe we need a more effective president – but Americans complaining today were crowded into the voting booths last election pulling the lever for Obama – snorting more big government cocaine and enjoying the pleasant, but temporary, high. So, our addiction continues as voter mandated big government responds by raising taxes, increasing government spending using borrowed money and the private sector responds, in turn, by closing more plants and operations within the United States.
The Obama voter then loses his or her job but our government coke dealer will supply unemployment benefits, offer more in food stamps and “emergency” mortgage assistance. The American poverty cycle completes another circle of the track but still we have to wonder just what the heck is wrong with Africa.
William Burns| 6.3.11 @ 2:33PM
If you want to find the underlying cause of the
problems with Africa and many other locations
I suggest reading two books: Guns, Germs and
Steel and Why The West Rules.
Just Plain Bill
Sheila| 6.3.11 @ 4:45PM
The Jared Diamond/Franz Boas school of thought. Typical of an AS reader.
John Navratil| 6.4.11 @ 12:04PM
Sheila,
That last post was truly inspiring. God bless you for posting. At last I have something to think about.
BackToBasics| 6.4.11 @ 4:03PM
I read about Jared Diamond's ideas after reading these posts. I have not read his books but he does write about geographical and easily domesticated animals being advantageous to Europeans. But then he talks about the small nation-states that developed in Europe because of its diverse geography as being advantageous because it allowed for the "natural-selection" process of many competing states and ideas. These 2 environmental distinctions, one easy and one hard seem almost contradictory to his overall tenet.
But on the other hand if as he said Africans had a disadvantage in that they had to contend with wild animals for example, how is it that this did not favor "natural-selection" for them the same way that many nation-states did for Europeans albeit in a different way with different outcomes? Using Diamond's type of reasoning one could just as easily say that it would have been possible for the outcomes in Africa to have been different and possibly even better than what happened in Europe. But this did not happen according to him.
So, how are the competing advantages / diadvantages of Europeans any different than for any other people in different continents? I think the answer is that this is not the main reason for the differences that developed.
It would not surprise me if bottom-line this is more of the same false guilt that liberals employ today for whatever ends they have in mind. I am not sure that they even know what it is that they want other than the destruction of what they perceive as an "evil-white- hegemony" and along with that their desire to see the destruction of Christianity.
Bill Sundling| 6.5.11 @ 10:37AM
Africa doesn't have long navigable rivers the way Europe and North America do. Water transport costs a fraction of what land transport costs.
BackToBasics| 6.5.11 @ 3:31PM
It is a huge continent and some areas are more favorable for development. Again, the question could be asked as to why such a disadvantage would not bring out the resourcefulness of the people? Diamond argues this point about the varied and the mountainous terrain forcing the Eurpoeans in to clans and eventaully small states. He argues that such disadvantages forced the resourcefulness of the Eurpoeans. The same should apply for Africa as well.
Jeanne Rodgers| 6.3.11 @ 6:13PM
Mr. Wittman rightly states sub-Sahara Africa "will defeat all efforts to enrich and embellish it." Some cultures resist all efforts from others to enlighten and, form our point of view, to improve their lives. Whether in Africa or the Middle East where education, individual rights and responsibilities, and individual efforts and work are apparently of little cultural value, the citizens of such countries make get the warm beer Wittman claims they want at they end of the day, but they will never achieve health and wealth they seem to believe others should bestow upon them.
dee see| 6.4.11 @ 9:03AM
"As every red indian knows.
'charity' is the white man's MOST
insidious poison---"
D H Lawrence
essays
----actually, its a Globalist/Free Trader 'thing'.
HONESTLY
BackToBasics| 6.4.11 @ 1:19PM
I have read many times about how Africans have complained about Chinese treatment of them. Once I read that leaders were wishing for the return of Americans and Brits.
So how sickening is it to hear whites in Europe and America speak about white colonialism as if it were the worse human plague in history. Just pathetic to hear this nonsense from these white suicidal maniacs! At the bottom of it all they are envious of those more fortunate than they are. Thus the tear-downs.
Just wait until the Chinese or Moslims get more power and control over world affairs. Everyone else will be looking back and wishing for the good-old days when whites had more control.
BackToBasics| 6.4.11 @ 1:21PM
And just as pathetic is it when Republicans are afraid to stand up to these suicidal maniacs who find their homes in the Democrat Party!
Richard Baker| 6.4.11 @ 3:33PM
What's inhibiting African economic development? Tribal Africans, that's who.
Mike Hawk| 6.5.11 @ 9:50PM
Ancient Tribal animosity, multiculturalism, language all mix together for backwardness and regressive regimes. Idi Amin dined on his rivals, in Rawanda two people living in the same area hate each others guts and the Hutus and Tutus or whatever they are can tell skin color (they all look alike to me) and murder each other by the thousands. Muslims massacre Christians or sell them into slavery. Zimbabwe is now a poverty ridden Communist paradise. Now tell me again why there isn't economic opportunity and peace in Central Africa.
ejb| 6.5.11 @ 3:00AM
Several languages in one country present a problem in African countries. Several people here stated how Christianity sooner may have helped improve Africa, but it is growing there faster than anywhere else now. Also I dont think enough Conservatives go there. The big Liberal/Progressive types love to go there and share their genius, ha ha. I was in Ethiopia and got to go to several classes where people were learning english and answer questions about America mostly. I would say about 99% of Ethiopians love America, and see it as a sourse of hope. They also liked George Bush a lot, and didnt think much of Obama. I would recomend going to Ethiopia to everyone, it is a great country, with nice people who are very friendly. Positive changes dont happen overnight, it takes time. I think Africa can become a much better place, maybe not so much with help. But rather with the right guidance.
Bill Sundling| 6.5.11 @ 10:33AM
Africa has been a basket case for decades and it will continue to be. There's corruption, laws that make business difficult, and no rule of law. Africa is bad because Africans run it according to African practices and customs.
Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 5:44AM
Industry, long stretches of macadam roads, and monumental concrete buildings may make the Chinese, Brazilians, and all the other developing areas happy, but not Africa. In the end Africa will defeat all efforts to enrich and embellish it.
weddingdresses | 6.24.11 @ 2:07AM
Africa has been a basket case for decades and it will continue to be. There's corruption, laws that make business difficult, and no rule of law. Africa is bad because Africans run it according to African practices and customs