AFRICA was at first deemed barbaric; it was colonized and said to need civilization to afford it an image that befits western standards. In the 1960s, several countries were to be independent with flags, anthems and imposed western ways of governance. It did not end here. At the start of the 21st century, Africa was globally pronounced as a "hopeless continent”. In 2011, about a decade later, it was portrayed as a growing continent in the Africa Rising Narrative by the Economist. This has been a hotbed of contention and debate among African scholars. Yet with the current trends, there is another continent growing in Africa—along the strong divide in wealth distribution—projecting an unequal future ahead of us.

 The thriving wealth inequalities are more distinctly accentuated than ever. The gaps have widened and the world is bound to be captured by those with excess resources, courtesy of the privileges brought by their possessions. Oxfam reported in 2019 that the richest 0.0001% in Africa own 40% of the wealth of the entire continent—adding that Africa’s three richest billionaire men have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the population of Africa, approximately 650 million people. Poverty robs people of their dignity, distorts their images of the future and affects their decisions, not just for themselves but for the nations at large. In the long run, a duo economy is created where the rich call the tunes and poor do the dancing.  

Along the hedges of every beautifully structured and highly developed city in a couple of countries in Africa, are thousands of people forced into crowded makeshift shelters, heavy with the suffocating stench of the rich man's waste, peeping at the wonders of the world beyond from across unbreakable socioeconomic barriers. They are fenced in modern bantustans, where they are forced to drink from jagged pools of dirty stagnated water, search for a livelihood in garbage heaps and let their children play in the diseased clogged rains pooled in broken trenches. While traversing the luxurious states of Nairobi, it will only be a few minutes before one lands in the Kibera slums. Or the flamboyant sky-piercing structures in Johannesburg that are a skip away from the Soweto settlements. It’s the same in Kampala, Luanda, Yaoundé, Free Town, and all around.

The people residing in the slums are low-earners, often workers for the rich residing in the high-end fancy bungalows and driving posh cars. They live on less than $1.9 a day, a direct suggestion that they wallow in abject poverty by global standards. To them, education is a luxury and their children have traded their dreams for a brighter future in exchange for survival herein.

Whereas the rich have the power to dream big and live their dreams. They have an excess of the food, they drive, a child has a room fitted with a wide inched screen and a catalogue of complex gadgets, they go on vacations when they muse to. Certainly, their children don’t even know that the households a walk away survive on a basic meal a day. They often hold myths and egregious stereotypes that the slums are no go areas in order to protect them from the shocks of reality.

When one child is raised in the slum and the other grows up in the splendor of mansions, these two may never meet. With the issue of social mobility, the probability that a person born in the bottom 25% will make it to the top 25% is minimal and so unlikely. Whereas those in the top 5% are likely to stay there due to the connections and the opportunities they are exposed to.

The rich kids are the ones likely to occupy the leadership positions; they are groomed by their parents to think and own these spaces and leadership is further given the face of a family heirloom to the claim of the clan of the wealthy ones. With our politics of poverty today, a few dollars easily flip the ballot in favour of the opulent— offering them the ornamental rights to make decisions on how to eradicate poverty and create prosperity for all yet they have a blurred image of what the reality is on the other side of their countries.

With this inequality, the nation's progress towards inclusive and comprehensive quality change is next to impossible. As the small wealthy class gains more wealth, the poor become even poorer.

The promise of Sustainable Development Goals is slowly being betrayed. As the year 2030 closes in, the status-quo seems maintained as the global pandemic adds a final nail in the coffin. 

Pressing action is needed. The governments and the global development partners need to step up the public policies on the social welfare of the people—providing high-quality free education and health care to all the nation's people regardless of their class. A European Commission study of sub-Saharan Africa found that schooling raised the income share of the bottom 80%. African countries ought to benchmark such findings through intentional spending on sectors that can help improve the livelihoods of impoverished citizens.

In other words, to narrow down the gaps of inequality between the rich and the poor, there should be the establishment of progressive taxation systems since according to Oxfam, they pay a double dividend in the fight against poverty. The collected taxes should be aptly managed, and invested in social spending for the benefit of the majority poor.

Patrick Karekezi, a governance student at the African Leadership University, passionate about the interplay of policy, youth and community-led development. 

The views expressed in this article are  of the author.