Fighting poverty should be viewed with a bigger lens

Editor, Reference is made to the article, “Africa’s path from poverty” (The New Times, May 14). In relatively recent history, some former poor, agrarian Asian and European economies have transformed themselves, some more or less faster than others, from a low-income level into a middle-or even high-income urban economy. The author ascertains that the window of opportunity, the “right growth strategy” that African economic policymakers must capture, is focused on exports. Export of textiles, garments, shoes, and light electronics, all being output of light manufacturing industry. But who in Africa is ready and willing to invest money into manufacturing those products for export? As yet, no African capitalists, with “limited resources”, says the author, have been venturing into large scale manufacturing. So, the author concludes, African economic policymakers and implementers must find ways to attract foreign investors. Among these, Chinese capitalists who have both money and experience in manufacturing, for the entire world, the types of products listed above. The entire Africa continent must see “attractive opportunities” in many other factory openers like Huajian in Ethiopia, hosted into special and exclusive industrial parks, where those foreign capitalists will benefit and enjoy several social, economic, and financial incentives. Many such parks must be largely made available, the author advises. I beg to differ entirely with the view of the author. In my opinion, this view is too narrow, linking poverty only with material acquisition and possession. Unlike Asia and Europe, I hold that African poverty is not that of material things. Our poverty is that of mindset. Having been, in recent history of humankind, the only people sold en masse as slaves, and then colonised and for so long, yes, our material resources have been plundered; but not up to exhaustion. Our continent has been so well endowed with abundance. However, as regards our mind, it has been totally emptied. Our body has been filled instead with pale replicas of the coloniser’s mind. Therefore, in my view, what Africa needs to be alleviated first and foremost is the poverty of our individual and collective mindset. With the right mind, entirely dedicated to full exploitation of our natural resources, then like any other people on earth, our restored genuinely African mind, replenished, confident, and endogenously innovative, will no doubt yield all material wealth that we need for ourselves and for export. Thus we will no longer solely export raw materials but also locally manufactured products: textiles, garments, shoes, and many more made in Africa. The view reported looks much like a piece of political economic propaganda, far from an objective and genuine analysis aimed at recommending means to alleviate real poverty of people, whether material poverty or poverty of the mind. It clearly and solely is a promotion of China’s industrial expansion worldwide. The African continent remains, today just like yesterday, the eternal battle ground of world plunderers scrambling for natural resources, the human resource included, both as workers and as ‘consumers’. Having recently joined the club, by all means China is actively squeezing in around the horned table for a piece of the African cake. According to the author, once the piece of cake will be eaten, Chinese investors will move their “economic growth” elsewhere, in places with more abundant cheap labour and/or low class consumers... And for a few years engaged into “the tried and tested path of those who have gone before” like in Bangladesh, in mainland China, and in Pakistan, African countries and people will be left even more impoverished than before the Chinese dreaded servitude. Conclusion: Forget the author’s view. Let’s instead first keep re-integrating our continental physical infrastructures and mind set. The rest, such as a right economic growth, will automatically follow. A different kind of economic transformation than what the professor expects in his lifetime. Francois-Xavier Nziyonsenga

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Fighting poverty should be viewed with a bigger lens