Africa is “ridiculously” wealthy but is systematically destabilised to keep it poor, says Danai Gurira, a Global Citizen and UN women goodwill ambassador.
Addressing the Global Citizen Now summit in New York, Gurira said Africa’s stunted development was a product of self-sabotage and lingering colonialism.
Africa had a long way to go to fully uproot colonialism. She noted Africa must be kept poor so the West could flourish.
“There’s many things at play. It has often been said, including more blatantly recently, the reliance of the Western world is on Africa’s raw materials. So there’s a specific balance going on between how the so-called first world works with the third world.
“Jacques Chirac [former French president] said in 2010 France would be a third world power if it were not for Africa. There are ways in which francophone countries are relied upon to keep France’s first-world status. And that is across the continent,” she said.
Chirac had said “without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third-world power”, while his predecessor Francois Mitterand said, “without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century”, she said.
There’s many things at play. It has often been said, including more blatantly recently, the reliance of the Western world is on Africa’s raw materials.
— Global Citizen and UN women goodwill ambassador Danai Gurira
Gurira, born in the US but raised in Zimbabwe, said Africa’s minerals were the site of many battles for control.
“We are ridiculously wealthy. From coal to lithium, to diamonds, rubber, gold and oil — I can go on for a day — but often you don’t see us in control.”
Gurira said Africa must also shoulder some responsibility and resolve its leadership issues. While the issues are complex, it does not help that countries such as the US destabilised the continent to either remove or keep certain leaders in power, in line with American interests and at odds with Africa’s.
“This is complex, it’s not one-sided. It’s been going on for decades,” she observed, noting the solution wasn’t about asking and giving.
“It’s also about dismantling a structure that works intrinsically against Africa being self-determined. And [working against Africa’s ability] to take care of itself, which it is more than capable of doing.”
Tshepo Mahloele, founder and chair of Harith General Practitioners, told the summit Harith had been involved in major infrastructure development on the continent for almost two decades. He couldn’t have been happier than to partner with the world’s biggest hedge fund managers at Bridgewater Associates who last week decided on a summit to be attended by heads of state in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on October 9 and 10.
“Public private partnerships are what is required to agitate for economic development in Africa. The global default rates in project finance in Africa are better than in Asia or South America. The risk on the continent is not as it is made out to be. We are urging longer-term capital on the continent from fund managers. What this summit will do is look at critical insights about doing business in Africa. It will be a fillip for growth,” he said.
He said until mobility and energy were sorted out on the continent, “you’re not going to be able to aggregate the continent’s economies with about 1.4-billion people whose median age is 19”.
Bridgewater CEO Nir Bar Dea said while the world was preoccupied with artificial intelligence, the recent meeting of African heads of state he attended in Nairobi, Kenya, was focused on roads and electricity. Yet a third of the world’s workers will soon come from Africa.
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