EAC should compete with the big boys, Nigeria and SA

Much as the Western media loves to portray Africa as a dark continent plagued with disease, poverty and ignorance. I am one of the people who are convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that our continent’s biggest problem has got less to do with poverty, disease or ignorance. In my opinion, Africa’s biggest dilemma lies in the overly meaningless ‘Africa’ brand bestowed onto the whole continent. Many visitors to Rwanda, Kenya, or Malawi will casually (though ignorantly) talk about how they visited ‘Africa’ without mentioning the particular African nation they went to. On the contrary it is rare to hear a visitor to Hungary or Greece saying they were on a trip to Europe. Those who go to Canada say they went to Canada not North America. A trip to Brazil is never referred to as one to South America. Therefore, the simplistic branding of everything on this continent as being African has led to the obscurity of so much. It explains the gross Western ignorance about the continent. A continent of 53 states is always packaged as just one big troubled state. And many people in the West, including those who have visited the continent a couple of times are not in position to list more than 10 African countries. Many of them only learn that Africa is not a country when they are making their flight plans. At the end of the day, the only survivors of the ‘African’ tag are countries like Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. Sometimes Libya and Zimbabwe are added to this group because of the flamboyance or notoriety of their leaders. These are countries whose identity stands out as individual entities or brands that can compete with the meaningless African brand that always obscures the other African states. Nigeria and South Africa are seen as the big boys in this regard. Nigeria owes its prominence to the huge oil reserves and the bulging population both within and beyond its borders. The country is leading oil exporter on the continent and has an estimated population of 154 million people. Actually it is often said that for every five Africans, one is a Nigerian! Nigeria’s brand has been promoted through platforms like their hugely successful film industry (Nollywood). Nollywood is known for its interesting and simple storylines that characterised by the easily recognisable Pidgin English (Nigerian English). To some extent, many people now tend to confuse other Pidgin or Creole speakers like Liberians, Togolese and Cameroonians to be Nigerians. Moving down south, South Africa is also a strong continental brand thanks to the fact that it has the biggest economy. South Africa is perceived to be the continent’s superpower and its recent achievement of being the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup was another feather in the hat. On the global scene, the struggle against apartheid and what is now seen as the larger than human, saintly brand of Nelson Mandela have contributed to the country’s popularity. Mandela holds so much global acclaim the he can only be compared to names like Mahatma Ghandi, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, or Bob Marley. What all the above proves to us is that the EAC as a block is the only way we can forge a brand strong enough to stand out the way Nigeria and South Africa do. As individual countries it would be a fallacy to think we can put up much of a fight. However, as a regional bloc, we have more than what it would take to compete with the big boys and we should. EAC represents an area that is bigger than Nigeria or South Africa in size. On top of that, the combined population of EAC; 132 million (July 2009 estimates) is more than twice what South Africa has and quite close to what Nigeria has. And with the current population growth rates in this region, we should be able to match the Nigerians in a short time. Although our GDP is still lower than both Nigeria and South Africa there is potential for it to rise considerably since the region is blessed with enough resources like the new found oil in Uganda, the tanzanite in Tanzania plus the lucrative tourism in Kenya. We can further make our region more competitive by selling the good stories of Rwanda’s recovery, the unique tourism experiences on offer as well the unifying language of Swahili. We may not have a Mandela or Fela Kuti but I think we do just fine with a name like Julius Nyerere who is even being considered for sainthood by some sections of the Catholic Church. By making the EAC work and function as a unit, we can get the world to start talking about East Africa instead of Africa when referring to us or this region. ssenyonga@gmail.com