Monday 27 February 2017

Towards the Great African Renaissance. - Africa doesn’t need economic aid, it needs psychological aid



Towards the Great African Renaissance.

 "Africa doesn’t need economic aid, it needs psychological aid".


Post-independence, Africa’s failure at self-sufficiency and economic development has been one major issue the world has tried incessantly without success to deal with. A great deal of effort (local and foreign) by way financial, governance, educational and humanitarian assistance has been channelled to Africa over the last century to help struggling nation states to overcome their economic challenges. Africa's great natural resource endowments have done little in this vein to help restore Africa's glory to what it was before the colonial masters arrival.

Year on year billions of dollars have been poured at the “African problem” to not much avail.
Over the last 40 years, Africa has also received over $400 billion in Aid from the developed nations around the world but has little to show for it. Per researchers, if Africa had achieved what was intended with these financial interventions then it should be the richest continent outside Western Europe and North America. The opposite however is what pertains today. I am at this point befuddled why many years on it remains the poorest.
By 2010, Africa was indebted to the World Bank and the IMF to the tune of $4 trillion. These often represent development loans for which very little development can be evidenced.
Beyond the investment of capital, Africa with the help of development partners has attempted several strategic programs designed to jump-start ailing economies and herald the new dawn of self-sufficiency. I have witnessed first-hand how the outcomes of these efforts have been consistently inconsistent and any successes chalked across Africa have been at best dotted and unstained. 

Take the case of Nigeria for an instance, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest economy attempted its first National Development Plan (1962 – 1968) aimed at higher level of growth and a second National Development Plan (1970 to 1974).   A Third and fourth National Development Plans were implemented in (1975 to 1980) and (1981 to 1985) respectively with similar objectives centred around growth, poverty alleviation, universal free primary education etc. 
Modest strides were made but largely, nothing went per plan.
  
These were then followed by the Integrated Development initiatives: Structural Adjustment Programme and “Rolling Plans” (1990 -1999), Vision 2010, National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (2004 – 2007) and then most recently the Vision 2020 agenda. 

The outcomes of these programs in Nigeria have never been commensurate to the intention and efforts invested as evidenced by a rather low per capita income of $2,548.     

Many African countries have followed the same example and attempted similar programs with sadly similar results. 
This has not been the trend in other nations that have encountered similar near fatal or disastrous consequence of acts of war, slavery, colonisation or other similar deprivations.

The likes of South Korea, Singapore, India, Germany represent examples of nations that have portrayed a demonstrable positive response to such stimuli over the years.
Consider the impact the Marshall Plan had on the economies of Western Europe. 
On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948 that made available $12 billion (Equivalent to $120 billion as at June 2016) to Western European States to help rebuild their economies post world war 2. The plan sought to assist Europe to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernise their industries and make Europe prosperous. The program was in operation for four years and achieved great success. Today, Western Europe contributes circa 30% of world GDP. 

I am intrigued by the particular case of Germany. Its cities had been completely carpet bombed by the allies. Millions of lives had been lost, its economy was in total tatters and the national disgrace of the defeat and the atrocities such as the holocaust weighed heavy on the German conscience. The nation had been divided in two; half to the Russians and the other half to the US, France and Britain. About 7 million of the forced labour which they had used to build the economy and support the war efforts left for their countries. 14 million Germans returned home to live in dismal camps. 

Under the Marshall Plan West Germany received $2 billion in aid. With this, the Germans managed to transformed itself into Europe’s largest economy by the mid-1960s. 

Japan is another example of a nation state that managed to rise from the doldrums of catastrophe to attain enviable world status.

Japan exited the second world war a humiliated nation and by September 1945, it had lost 3 million men and 25 % of its national wealth to the war efforts. Post second world war however, Japan achieved an almost improbable feat in world economic history when it increased its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) from $91 billion in 1965 to $1,065 trillion by 1980. This has been dubbed the Japan Economic Miracle by many intellectuals. This achievement made Japan the world’s second largest economy in the world exactly 35 years after the most humiliating chapter in their history. 

China, Singapore, South Korea, India and Brazil are all similar examples of nations that have recently achieved notable economic progress that has altered the fortunes of their people. 

Naturally my inquisitive mind has always wondered; what is it that makes these nations capable of rising from the ashes after such devastation to once again achieve great success? Did they have superior plans or better leadership? Did they have more funds available to them than Africa has had? Or is there a global conspiracy to keep Africa subjugated and easily exploited?  

How can Africa a continent so blessed with so much account for so little? Why should we need aid? 

What is it about the psychology of these people that makes them to aspire to greatness even when the odds are inordinately stacked against them.

Whereas several reasons have been adduced for the current state of affairs in Africa, one area that has received very little attention and focus is how the mindset of a people affects their economic fortunes and prospects. In what ways does the African mindset vary from others and does this collective African consciousness aid or inhibit development?
  
S.K Pipim in his book The Transformed mind summarises my suspicions perfectly; “The African mind-set is the result of mental chains that still bind us, despite our liberation from the metal chains of colonization and slavery. We may legitimately talk about other chains that shackle Africans—chains of poverty, chains of neo-colonialism, chains of slavery, chains of racism, chains of exploitation, chains of dependence, chains of ignorance and superstition, and all kinds of other chains. These other specific chains exist. But we need to realize that these are only symptoms of a deeper problem; they are not the root cause. 

The root of our woes is mental. It is not our minds, but our mind-set”
And ours is not merely a need for more educated minds, but also for more transformed minds”.

But what exactly is wrong about the African mind-set and what can be done to bring about this needed transformation? To do this we need to break down the African Psychology and understand it in greater depth

Psychology in general is the study of behaviour and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. 

This field of study has advanced a world of knowledge in how the mind influences everyday life and an almost universal understanding backed by inductive reasoning is that every action of success or failure starts with the mind. 


Analysing the psychological construct of a people can be a challenging task, however one can quickly arrive at a good understanding by trying to know these five basic determinants; their history/experience, their belief in God, their value for family, their passion for wealth accumulation, and what their future ambitions are. 


The relative importance that are placed on each of these determinants and interplay of how each can influence the others results in unique psychological constructs of a people.


“Religiosity” and the Belief in Self 

Some of the yarns that determine how the psychological construct of a people is woven are between (i) the reliance on God (an unseen force that has the power to influence the affairs of men for good or for bad) and (ii) reliance on Self.

Where ever there is an over reliance on a God factor the balance is upset and research has rightly shown that development and advancement of the person/people suffers. When people expect God to do for them what they are to do for themselves little gets done. 

On the other hand, where there is an over reliance on Self, decadence sets in and history has shown that nations on this trajectory are headed for a near certain decline.

The table below shows the correlation between religiosity and per capita GDP. 
(Religiosity in this context is defined as the belief that a super natural force is responsible for our day to day successes and failures.)


Per capita GDP versus Religiosity

 
The graph here reveals a rather disturbing trend where although Africans are clustered in the top left hand corner implying that they have the highest level of religiosity they rather have the lowest per capita GDP. 

It could be argued that religion plays a more functional role in poorer nations in helping people cope with life challenges and providing hope for a better tomorrow. It could be counter argued that this type of religiosity exonerates the individual from depending on Self and taking personal accountability for his day to day successes and failures. 

Western Europe is the exact opposite. Although there is very low reliance on religion the per capita income is significantly higher.

The USA is a complete outlier in this relationship. It has a higher level of religiosity than West Europe but also a higher per Capita GDP. This is the case where the belief in God is as strong as the belief in Self and proving that the two beliefs need not be mutually exclusive. When faced with adversity and challenges, they don’t fold hands and expect a miracle. 
They know that if anything must be it is up to them and that nothing will happen unless they take action. 

As shown in the Quartey’s God-Self matrix, nations often start their journey to dominance from the first quadrant where belief in themselves is low but this is balanced off by an obsession with God. This is where most of Africa finds itself. 

A critical and desirable transition which ought to occur is when the Belief in Self is matched by the existing belief in God. This is where most of the western world were at the pinnacle of world dominance.

As seen in the previous table the USA is the only nation that has been successful at maintaining this delicate balance at this point in history. But it is not an easy balance to maintain.

It is in fact a very slippery slope into the third quadrant where the belief in Self now clearly outweighs that morale counter balance as we have seen in the case of Western Europe. This is an inevitable path that many great civilisations like Greece, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt have had to traverse. 

The fourth quadrant is very often a brief stop. There cannot be meaningful existence without a firm belief until the cycle repeats itself again.
Africa is currently in the first quadrant. Africans practise the type of Religiosity that ascribes all responsibility for all daily outcomes to a supreme being and expect miracles from heaven to solve earthly problems. Africans pray to God for everything from a toothache to currency depreciation.

An unintended consequence of an over reliance on Religion is a very low self-worth and belief in one’s self. This is a debilitating illness that is eating away the soul of the continent. 

Africans export out all their raw materials to other nations, shun their own made in Africa products and rather import their own raw materials (now in as finished products) using a foreign currency. Ali Mazrui sums it up beautifully, “Africa produces what it does not consume and consumes what it doesn’t produce”.

Although research has shown that the Melanin makes the African skin age at least 10years slower than other skin types, Africans are obsessed with destroying this God given advantage through the deplorable activities of bleaching. In Lagos, Nigeria, one survey found that up to 77% of all residents use skin-lightening creams. By 2020, the lightening skin industry is estimated to grow to become a $23 billion industry – the largest market share being poor Africans.

According to an article by Antonia Opiah published by the Huffington Post, the size of the Black hair industry if you include “general market brands, weaves, extensions, wigs, independent beauty supply stores, distributors, e-commerce, styling tools and appliances” is potentially $500 billion dollars. That is more than the GDP of South Africa in recent times. Why would the poorest person on earth invest so much in non-productive effort to look like anything other than themselves? 

Nothing much can be achieved with this mind set. This kind of Religiosity is what has kept Africa from being a dominant force in this age. 

Once you begin to believe in yourself you are ready to develop mastery in your chosen field of endeavour. The love for doing one thing exceptionally well leads to mastery. By definition Mastery is comprehensive knowledge or skill in a particular subject or activity. The nations that dominate often start by having mastery in specific spheres of endeavour. The Germans have mastery in the field of Engineering and efficiency, Japanese have mastery in the fields of Technology, Britain has mastery of professional services backed by most of the world’s best universities. Success in this chosen field will often translate into financial/economic success which then leads to the overall development of the nation.  

The inevitable consequence of mastery that leads to economic prosperity is the development of a jealous sense of superiority.

Much attention must be devoted towards aiding Africans to stop seeing the super natural as responsible for the outcomes of their actions.

The Sense of Superiority

The Americans and Europeans both have a strong belief in Self and this forms a strong foundation for a belief of Superiority. The Japanese and the Koreans are likewise taught right from infancy to believe they are superior to the Chinese, all other Asians and the Westerners. 
What is this belief in one’s superiority and its relationship to mastery, world dominance and economic prosperity? 

Every civilisation that has risen to make History has had consciousness and an awareness of superiority and indomitability to other cultures.

This feeling of being better for one reason or another is what makes nations strive to achieve mastery and excellence in all endeavours of life. It is what makes them successful in achieving lofty ideals and to surmount the direst of difficulties. Belief in one’s self is key.

It is not enough to think equality when everyone you are competing with is thinking superiority. This competitive mind-set brings out the best in you and forces you towards a life of continues improvement. It will eliminate your tolerance for mediocrity, incompetence, ineptitude and waste.

The claim to dominance is always predicated on a plausible concept. Your quest to dominance must also have a purpose that your people can identify with and believe in enough such that it serves to motivate them to action. 

Take Nazi Germany for example. Hitler believed he and the Germans were of Aryan blood- the purest blood of all bloods on earth. Based on this he led his people in a quest to create a German master race. He used this reason (Race) to anchor a vision of German supremacy. The people bought into it. For this same reason, they sacrificed everything to find the resources and motivation to take on the entire world in a failed attempt to establish world dominance. The ideal was fraught however the positive effect race had in engendering the needed momentum towards action cannot be denied. 

Religion is another powerful rivet that anchors in place the vision of superiority and world dominance. This is the belief that it was the interminable will of the divine (their object of worship) for them to dominate.

The Jews believe they are Superior because they according to their history and religion they are God’s chosen race, preferred above all others.

Take the case of Vikings, they believed Odin their god to be far superior than any other and that he had destined them to sail to the ends of the earth and to dominate.  They further believed that Odin, demanded of them to die in battle (still holding their battle axes) to make it to Valhalla (their Heaven) where they will dine and merry for eternity. This made them want to rather die in battle than live to celebrate the spoils of victory. This made the Danes one of the fiercest warriors the world has ever known. Spurred by this belief, they conquered and dominated vast portions of the earth during their time. 

The British Empire also used the proliferation of the Christian gospel as an anchor to spread their dominance across the entire earth. They deemed all else as heathen and their God as the one true God who was interested in bringing the whole earth under His reign through them. As Christianity expanded so did the Empire. 

The same can be said of the spread of Islam across the Arabian Peninsula to north Africa and beyond. The Islamic state spread quickly after the death of the founder Prophet Muhammad. The wars of expansion were also towards advancing devotion to the faith. It was the will of Allah that many be brought to the faith even if it meant the total annihilation of other nations and peoples. Today Islam can boast of at least 1.9 billion followers.  

One other interesting reason which has been used to instigate action towards the establishment or maintenance of dominance is the concept of a common enemy. Japanese animosity towards China’s quest to dominate the pacific is one of the major impetuses that fuelled Japanese nationalism and their accent to becoming the world’s second largest economy.

In the aftermath of the September 11 bombings, America defined itself a new identity based on a common enemy - radical Islam identifying several enemy states who they named the “the axis of evil”. A new vision for dominance by the United States of America etched out of this tragic event and was crafted around these common enemies. The new cause strengthened nationalism and brought a renewed vigour towards maintaining world dominance in the 21st century. 

A belief must first be established before the action that leads to realisation of the ideal in question can be harnessed. 

I am wondering at this point if the African and those of African descent has found for himself any reason to believe in his ability to be dominant amongst other nations.

I liken Africa to a child who has been ridiculed, bullied and abused for so long by everyone in the class including the teacher to the point where she doesn’t deem herself good enough or useful. He no longer puts up a fight when the big bullies take away her lunch and push her about. The fight and will to carry on is gone. She believes she is not good enough to be an equal. 

Such a student doesn’t need more financial investment or extra tuition. What she needs is counselling and some psychological support to re-discover his self-esteem. 

This journey to that sense of superiority must therefore be commenced from a period before the present when the situations would have been more favourable. Africa, like this school child must consciously and consistently re-call her great and illustrious past, a very long period unrivalled in the annals of history when it ruled the world unchallenged. 

This kind of knowledge when presented has the power to make Africans and those of African heritage believe again that they can once again rule the world. It weakens the shackles of inferiority that binds the mind and burrows massive craters of doubt in any recent evidence of failure that supports may confront the them.

Calling back the Ages

Therefore, one of the other key determinants of psychological construct of a people is their perception of what their history is. If it is a history of conquest, achievement, legends and dominance then it will without variation build a stronger mindset that aspires to live up to the heights attained by illustrious forbearers. If the opposite is true it will create a weak-minded race of people who have no reference to aspire to.

It is therefore of utmost importance what aspects of their history a people are conscious of and deliberate attempts must be made to accentuate the positives that will embolden and elevate the psyches. Of what benefits is a fact if it doesn’t aid to edify and spur man towards his highest achievements
The British can feel superior and dominant because they can re-call the memories of the days of the Empire when Britannia ruled the Seas and the Lands, conquering and colonising just about every continent on the surface of the earth because they possessed mastery in many areas. 

The Americans can re-call a time- 1870 to be precise when they became the world greatest economic power and attained world dominance. They can recall how they led the Allies into victory over the Nazis in the Second World War. 

The Chinese can lay claim to a 5000-year history of dominance on the world stage in many human endeavours. 
In fact, by 1110 they had already invented gun powder. In 1405 the Chinese Admiral Zheng He led a fleet of nearly 300 vessels and over 27,000 sailors from Nanjing to Sri Lanka – a journey of 4,753km. Some of his other voyages reached Java, Malaca Straits and East Africa. In sharp contrast, Christopher Columbus when he set sail from Caiz in 1492 (87 year later) led just 90 men in three ships.

Yet when history is recalled, Colombo is said to be the greatest discoverer of all time. He is not the only one whose achievements have been over-hyped.  These claims to great achievement are necessary building blocks in developing belief in Self and a sense of superiority. These were done deliberately 

Africa’s history didn’t start with slavery and colonisation. Africa’s history is an illustrious one made up of over five thousand years of world dominance, discoveries, economic prosperity and intellectual advancements in almost every field unrivalled any other race. This knowledge is critical in helping the African to believe that what was can once again be. 

Africans in Africa and those in the diaspora must be able to rightly conceptualise the last 500 years as a dark chapter in a very long and successful history - a chapter that will soon pass. It is also imperative that Africans understand that those who now dominate are recent entrants and have not and will not always be at the top. It goes against the very cycles of history. To put this in context, the United States of America has only been a world power since 1890 – some 127years. Japan has been leading economy since 1980 – 37 years and China over took Japan as the second largest economy in 2011.  By Contrast Africa was the first super power starting with Egypt, to Kerma (Sudan), to Kushite kingdom (Sudan), back to Ptolemaic Egypt, Askumite Empire (Ethiopia) which lasted some 1110 years.

By learning of a history that is limited to tales of defeat and domination by the Europeans for instance we are indirectly also learning about the European History which to us started with the victory and superiority over Africans -This is beginnings of the making of an inferior class of people.  

The most recent recollection of Africans the world over of their history is limited to a very dark chapter based on the narrative of those who deemed and continue to see them as inferior. Successive governments in Africa have done very little to correct this erroneous rendition of the past events not being aware of the negative effects such impressions can have on self and the pursuit of one’s rightful place amongst his contemporaries. 

Another variation to the impact of history on the formation of the psychological construct of a people is how the negative effects of a prolonged and terrible experience such as slavery, colonisation or Apartheid can leave indelible imprints on the minds and cultures of the victims. The undesirable effects of these are often handed down from generation to generation without a trace to what first caused it.

To satisfy their thirst for the raw materials that was needed to fuel their industrial revolutions, European nations in what has become known as the scramble for Africa, banded together over 60,000 ethnic tribes together into 40 countries for ease of exploitation. No regard was given to the historic rivalries that existed nor the variations in religious practises that divided these tribes. This created more confusion and fragmentation than unity. These divisions were further exploited under their colonial policy of divide and rule. They left behind a very divided people, incapable of partnering or collaborating meaningfully in trade, governance or security issues. 

After successive generations of Africans had been colonised and forced to perform menial jobs that required no skill, no initiative, zero exercise of creative abilities and problem solving skills, you would inadvertently create a class of people great in following orders so long as the “master” is standing over them with a big whip but useless at anything else. You don’t go from taking orders for centuries to immediately responsibly managing your affairs overnight. 

When your forbearers are forced to slave for a foreigner for hundreds of years on their own land mining their own minerals for a stranger in return for nothing they end up losing every sense of attachment, value and respect for national assets. It is for this reason many Africans look on helplessly as government officials squander their national assets and the inheritance without consequence of prosecution.

Another terrible effect of the recent African history is that years of exposure to death, violence, depravation, humiliation, loss of human dignity and untold hardship meant that the habitual thoughts of Africans around the world for many generations would have been predominantly negative, deeply sorrowful, unproductive and damaging. It is therefore no surprise that our reality has mirrored the same mental construct because “as a man thinketh so he is and as he continues to think so shall he remain”. This is by far the greatest cost of the experience of the last 500 years.

Your Vision of Tomorrow.

The great leaders who achieved great transformation are those who succeeded to arouse the imaginations of their followers by painting for them vivid pictures of what the future held for them and why they for one reason or the other deserved such a glorious future.

Africans have no vision of the future. Being inundated with the challenges in the present no effort has been invested in enabling Africans to see a world beyond the present predicament and preoccupation with survival. I do not see Africans and their families spread the world over rallying around race, religion, history, a common enemy or the hope of a brighter future as a catalyst toward excellence and  the establishment of prosperous race.

A clear vision of the future influences the decisions you take today and pushes you to aspire. What will Africa look like in the next 200 years.  This vision is yet to be defined on paper let alone imprinted in the collective consciousness of the African psyche. It is the reason why we countenance corrupt government officials who squander our wealth. It is why we utilise our resources judiciously. It is also the reason why we will rather trade individually with the foreigners than trade amongst ourselves in a common market. Without a unified vision to inspire, Africa carries on aimlessly only existing to provide raw materials for the advancement of other nations.

Conclusion

When you reside on the wealthiest continent on the planet earth you should never need economic aid or be addicted to foreign loans. What Africa needs is psychological aid.

The kind of aid that births a positive mind-set; the kind that liberates Africans from their mental shackles; the kind that will once again re program our collective consciousness once again towards the pursuit of world dominance. 
It is what Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr, and the leaders that followed him like, Martin Luther King Jr, Kwame Nkrumah and like Colonel Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi, tried to achieve. It was to provide the strong sense of African unity, identity, nationalism and pride regardless of geography. Much of their efforts are yet to yield the result hoped for. 


Before any structural adjustment program or any economic policy will bring about a great renaissance worthy of a place in the great transformations in the history of humanity, the African leadership must first succeed in changing the minds and attitudes of Africans. This kind of psychological aid can only be administered by Africans for African.
About the author:
Nii Kpakpa Quartey ACMA, CGMA is a writer, a strategist and a fervent pan-Africanist who consults for businesses and non-governmental agencies to address the socio-economic challenges of developing nations.




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Sources



.—S.K. Pipim, The Transformed Mind, p. 198-199.

https://qz.com/718103/skin-lightening-is-a-10-billion-industry-and-ghana-wants-nothing-to-do-with-it/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4657139.stm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/antonia-opiah/the-changing-business-of-_b_4650819.html

Monday 9 January 2017

Towards the Great African Renaissance: Human Capital - Africa’s missing piece of the puzzle.

Human Capital - Africa’s missing piece of the puzzle


There has been no continent whose definition in itself has been as paradoxical as Africa. A continent with an abundance of resources but rife in poverty. A people who are hospitable but torn by war until recent times. A people with an unparalleled cultural heritage of medicinal plants and healing techniques but battling with common diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. This same Africa that has birthed great minds in the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan is the same continent that has more than 35% of its adult populace as illiterates. The same Africa whose people's built the empires of Europe and northern America cannot seem to even build their own continent to leave the status of the long held title of "under developed" or 3rd world. There certainly is a gap to bridge in order to extinguish this paradox and engender a new Africa.
Africa is continent blessed with an abundance of natural resources. These include diamonds, salt, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum and cocoa beans, but also woods and tropical fruits – the list is inexhaustive. Much of its natural resources however remain undiscovered or barely harnessed. Most Africans are rightly proud to hail from  a continent of such great endowments.
African mineral reserves rank first or second for most key minerals. The 2012 share of world production from African soil was bauxite 7%; aluminium 5%; chromite 38%; cobalt 60%; copper 9%; gold 20%; iron ore 2%; steel 1%; lead (Pb) 2%; manganese 38%; zinc 1%; cement 4%; natural diamond 56%; graphite 2%; phosphate rock 21%; coal 4%; mineral fuels (including coal) & petroleum 12%; uranium 18%. In fact much of the land south of the Sahara is arable all year round.
Yes, Africans pride themselves in these natural resource endowments, but ostensibly missing in the list of resources Africans boast of and that the continent is known for is human capital endowment.
In the World Economic Forum 2015 report on Human Resources Utilization, in sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritius (72) holds the highest position in the region. While another six countries rank between 80 and 100, another 17 countries from Africa rank below 100 in the index. South Africa is in 92nd place and Kenya at 101. The region’s most populous country, Nigeria (120) is among the bottom three in the region, while the second most populous country, Ethiopia, is in 115th place. Africa as a continent ranks lowest.
According to the World Economic Forum, Africa produces only 1.1% of global scientific knowledge. The continent has just 79 scientists per millions of inhabitants compared to countries like Brazil and United States where the ratio stands at 656 and 4,500, respectively.
This has however not always been the case. Although the authors of recent history pay little tribute to it, Africa has had an illustrious past in the fields of medicine, scientific discoveries, architecture, art, music, industrial innovations and various advanced forms of knowledge.
In Education The Library of Alexandria which existed in Egypt well before 300 BC was considered the world’s largest at the time. The same goes for the University of Sankore, Sidi Yahya University, and Djinguereber University -the three philosophical Universities which existed in Mali as far back as the 12th Century. By the end of Mansa Musa’s reign the Sankore University boasted of over 25,000 students and over 1,000,000 manuscripts. Scholars and the learned came from all over the world to study in Timbuktu.
In Mathematics Ancients texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus prove that the Egyptians were capable of performing the four basic mathematical operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They used fractions, computed the volumes of boxes and pyramids, and even calculated the surface areas of rectangles, triangles, circles and spheres. They understood the basic concepts of algebra and geometry, and could solve simple sets of simultaneous equations and had grasped the principles of the Pythagorean Theorm. Another major achievement found in Africa was the advance knowledge of fractal geometry and mathematics. This knowledge is shown to have been applied in wide aspects of African life from art, social design structures, architecture, to games, trade, and divination systems.
In medicine, we find that, around 800 BC, the first psychiatric hospital and insane asylum in Egypt was built by Muslim physicians in Cairo. Also, around 1100 BC, the ventilator was invented in Egypt. Tetracycline was being used by Nubians, based on bone remains found between 350 AD and 550 AD. The antibiotic was in wide commercial use only as recently as the mid-20th century.
In 1285, the largest hospital of the Middle Ages and pre-modern era was built in Cairo, Egypt, by Sultan Qalaun al-Mansur. Treatment was given for free to patients of all backgrounds, regardless of gender, ethnicity or income.
There is a long list of other several contributions to the world’s body of knowledge in almost every field of endeavour. This is however history. The current state of Africa’s knowledge based capital pales in comparison to its illustrious past.
What the advanced nations have managed to achieve with great success is the commercialisation of their discoveries and advancements to create a valuable competitive advantage for their peoples.  This translates into a higher per capita contribution to GDP and better standards of living.
As at 2016, Africa's population of 1.216 billion represented 16.4% of the world’s population. Although this makes Africa the second largest and second most populous continent, its contribution to world GDP has been circa 2.5% making it the continent with the lowest productivity per person.
Juxtapose that with Japan for instance that represents only 1.7% of the world’s population but contributes 6.65% of the world’s GDP in 2015. How can Japan be doing three times more than Africa with far less land mass, no natural resource endowments and significantly far fewer people?
The fact is that the value of what is produced by skilled labour is considerably many times that of unskilled labour. According to the Africa development bank, the informal sector in Africa contributes about 55 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP and forms 80 per cent of the labour force. Nine in 10 rural and urban workers have informal jobs (unskilled) in Africa and most employees are women and youth.
This is why Africa’s contribution in the global scheme of things counts for so little. Although Africa is blessed with such resources it is evidently intellectually almost bankrupt in comparison to the rest of the world.
Table 1 represents a list of the top 10 countries that have leveraged their human capital the most.
Their relative contribution to world’s total Gross Production supports the argument that there exists an undeniable positive correlation between having a strong human capital base and strong national productivity.
These countries have mainly only their intellect and human resources to boast of. Not gold, not silver, not diamonds but brains at work and yet they are doing far better.
The Human Capital Report 2015 defines a nation’s human capital endowment as—the skills and capacities that reside in people that are put to productive use—this can be a more important determinant of its long term economic success than virtually any other resource. This resource must be invested in and leveraged efficiently in order for it to generate returns—for the individuals involved as well as an economy as a whole.
This is the open secret of how the developed nations have gotten so far up the prosperity ladder. In fact, the closer you look the more you discover just how far the continent has lagged behind the rest of the world in developing its labour force.
The Human capital heat map (below) paints the bleak state of Africa’s human development when compared to the rest of the world.
Human Capital Heat Map 2015










Several factors however account for this state; some exogenous others self-inflicted.
Colonial Legacy:
Harnessing a nation’s human capital endowment isn’t an ideal that is realised over-night. The nations highlighted in green in the map above spent hundreds of years developing their peoples to be productive, innovative and relevant to the new world order that they foresaw emerging. Africa on the other hand spent the last few centuries specialising in being the world’s pool for menial labour.
For at least 500 years, the African continent has been forced to till the soil to feed the world and mine the depths of the earth to fuel the industrial revolution of many western nations today highlighted in green on the map – tasks that required Braun not Brains. The map above is a reflection of some of the adverse effects of colonisation and slavery. There has simply been no time or need for Africa to develop such advanced skills.
The travesty of this sad story is that the continent will have to play catch up for a very long time even if drastic steps are taken to remedy the situation.
Low Investment in Human Capital:
Post-independence, the colonizers sought to create a permanent class of people who will always be subjugated to them. Therefore little attention and effort was put into developing Africans to possess skilled labour. That way they could still have access to the resources without having to be physically present. What you see in the Human Capital Heat Map is a conspiracy by design and not entirely borne out of lack of effort on the part of the peoples of the continent.
Investors, global companies, colonial governments and even religious establishments conspired and combined their forces to prevent Africa from becoming a powerful force in this world.
The unfortunate reality for Africa is that almost the entirety of foreign direct investment has been either to extract its natural resources or to exploit its vast markets by providing services like banking, telecoms and transport. The little investments that go towards human development in Africa are often grants and charity handouts from Non-Governmental Agencies and donor partners. These as if by design have been often woefully inadequate to equip the continent and keep her at par with the rest world.
Although African governments spend on average 18% of their expenditure budget on education (higher than any other continent) it is still inadequate to make a noticeable dent on the years of exploitation, legacy of colonisation and the reality of neo-colonisation.
The glee and alacrity with which African governments hail the discoveries of Oil, Gold and other resources under the misguided impression that these new finds will herald a new dawn of wealth and prosperity easily betrays their wrong prognosis of the challenge at hand and consequently their wrong prescription of a solution. African Leaders are blind to the opportunities that are waiting to be harnessed and lack the political will to bring about the improvements needed.
According to a 2013 study by OECD, South Korea which attained independence together with Ghana in 1957 was the best (ranked 1st) in Mathematics and Science out of 76 countries compared. Ghana ranked 76th.
The difference is the relative levels of investment that goes into education. South Korea invests on average more than $11 billion dollars into education yearly and students attend school seven days a week. The country is nearly 100% literate. In contrast, Ghana's government 2016 budget, allocated approx. $1.4b (1:1.45) equivalent towards education with a sizeable portion of this going towards building educational infrastructure. Africa has simply not invested enough to make it globally competitive.
Absence of Peace and Stability:
It takes many years of persistence in peaceful and benign conditions to build that critical body mass of intellectual assets that the world’s leading nations do boast of today.
Since the 1960s, no continent has known more war and instability than the African continent. Such conditions displace and rob the youth of the safety and tranquillity they need to develop themselves. Instead of investing in their young ones, some African governments tend to invest more in feuding factions by investing in guns and ammunitions. Although there is relative peace in most parts of Africa today, the years invested in the unprofitable ventures of war has left the land intellectually impoverished.
Brain Drain:
Africa continues to lose it best talents to developed nations who can afford to pay several times more for such talents and provide the conditions necessary for them to thrive.
According to Thabo Mebki former South African President, since 1990 Africa has lost more than 20,000 of its academic professionals to other nations. It is estimated that more Africa scientist and engineers live and work in the USA and in the UK than anywhere else in the world.
Competition for the skills of the best and brightest this world has to offer is global and Africa has been intellectually impoverished by this brain drain phenomenon.
Lack of a Clear Strategy and Plan of Action:
Of Africa's 1.2 billion population, 41% are under the age of 15. This is a raw resource that is waiting to be harnessed.
According to a research by Mckenzie, Africa’s labour force is expanding, in contrast to what’s happening in much of the rest of the world. The continent has more than 500 million people of working age. By 2040, their number is projected to exceed 1.1 billion—more than in China or India—lifting GDP growth. 
This presents both opportunities and challenges. This human force can either become Africa's new factor endowment that will help it benefit from its natural resources and usher in a golden age of prosperity or can become a liability and a drain on the entire planet.
According to a Mckinsey & Company report of Human Capital in Africa, over the last 20 years, 66% of the continent’s increase in GDP per capita came from an expanding workforce, the rest from higher labour productivity.
But "education is a major challenge, so educating Africa’s young has to be one of the highest priorities for public policy across the continent" the report concludes.
If Africa can provide its young people with the education and skills they need, this large workforce could become a significant source of increased global consumption and production. This kind of advancement takes long term planning and execution to attain. Leaders on the continent are yet to show the devotion needed to make impressive inroads.
There are still Africans living today who continue to make significant strides in adding to the world's body of knowledge
So what is the way forward? What concrete steps can be implemented to accelerate the development of Africa’s Human Capital? What lessons can Africa learn from the developed world?
Make Education Free and/or Accessible.
Free quality education must be a core strategic imperative. One common feature of all countries that take human capital development seriously and are reaping the benefits thereof is that either all or most of the education provided is free and accessible.
Cuba is one of such countries. It boasts of the best educational system in Latin America and it is free.
The entire educational system is fully subsidized by the government, meaning that Cuban students at all levels can attend school for free. To ensure that free doesn’t mean cheap, the largest chunk of Cuba budget goes towards education. This has been the case for the past 50 years.
In the UK, public education is free until secondary school.  Once you make it into a tertiary or a vocational institution you can borrow up to your full tuition fee or up to £9,000 a year for university tuition to fund your education.
Apart from these provisions, there are private lending companies and banks that have products to support students once they successfully secure an admission letter from selected schools. Additionally, scholarships and grants abound to help citizens get up the educational ladder. Similar arrangements exist in most developed nations that ensure they remain ahead of the human capital index.
In the end it is a win-win situation. If Africans can have access to such levels and varied sources of funding, then those investments will go into the various institutions of learning to improve delivery and in the end produce high calibre graduates for the job market. The productivity will increase as would the GDP. Africa will have created a viscous cycle of prosperity. African governments need to make education free, underwrite loans for academic purposes and enter into private-public initiatives to open up their financial markets to those who want to advance their skills. These interventions must be targeted and focused on those particular fields of study that will promote productivity.
Make it Relevant:
African educational systems have been cast on the module of their colonial masters with no particular effort being made to tailor the investments to meet local needs.  According to Thabo Mbeki, “Africa recruits and hires expats and pay more than $4 billion dollars a year…the $3.6 billion dollars we spend training professionals who we lose every year is equal to the $4 billion that we pay the 150,000 that we import."
There is clearly a mismatch between the talent we produce and the talent we actually need. Some of what we produce is clearly irrelevant .This has the ripple effect of the continent ultimately being unable to achieve synergy between its natural resource endowment and human capital stock.
As aptly put by Ali Mazrui, “Africa produces what it does not consume and consumes what it doesn’t produce”. There is clearly a strong argument for a re-alignment of local talent to meet local demand and opportunity.
Bring Back our Brains:
Directly derived from the point above is the need for Africa to become an attractive destination for its own talent. There are millions of talented Africans living abroad with diverse skills and expertise critically needed for nation building.
By appealing to the patriotic feelings and nationalistic sentiments of its citizens in the diaspora, African governments can win the global price war in attracting its talents. This drive will however not be effective if consideration for competence and efficiency doesn’t begin to outweigh the culture of nepotism and the “whom you know” syndrome.
Also, you cannot ask someone to leave the comforts and allure of the developed world to join you in furtherance of an African dream when the same government officials are pilfering the state coffers and living in extreme luxury at the expense of its poor. It won’t work.
Leverage on Technology:
Technology can provide a robust platform on which significant gains can be made quickly in providing access to cheap but quality education.
Countries like Japan, Singapore and China are good examples of countries that are leveraging on e-learning tools such as open course (crowd source), online class room sessions, chat rooms, e-books and e-libraries to provide access to many millions. Why not Africa?
Although internet penetration in Africa is around 28% compared to 57% for the rest of the world, one can take comfort in the fact that the rate of growth in Africa is higher than anywhere else in the world. The internet penetration in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria for instance are growing at 41%, 27% and 17% respectively year on year and effort must be made to harness this opportunity.
Garbage in Garbage Out:
African governments must be ready to invest their best human resources into developing the next generation of human resource. How can the worst produce the best? It just doesn’t make any sense but unfortunately that is what is happening across most African countries. The system is designed to accept the worst university entrants to train as educationists.
Finland has for many years ranked as one of the nations with the best educational systems. Several factors account for this but chief amongst these is the quality of their teaching staff. Finnish Universities regularly turn away 9 out of 10 applicants. The 10% (the best of the best) that make it in have to undergo series of interviews and psychological assessments to confirm their suitability as teachers and then finally go through a 5 to 6 years master’s programme before they are allowed to teach their first primary class. Finnish teachers are amongst the best rewarded anywhere on this planet. The quality of the final product is equally unmatched.
African governments must make the teaching profession lucrative and fulfilling enough to attract the best minds as the quality of input invariably determines the quality of the output.
If these developed nations in spite of their lack of factor endowment in natural resources have created such significant wealth by harnessing their intellectual resources, then why not Africa? Africa’s error of the ages is in believing that all endowments have to be God given. No. Endowments can be nurtured out of nothing.
In conclusion, African governments must begin to de-emphasis their obsession with their natural resource endowment. The real jackpot is in human capital.
To harness this great potential African governments must develop long term strategic plans that will address Africa’s current skills gap and takes cognisance of the world’s future demand for human capital. Both government and the private sector must invest heavily in this vision and the technology to make it a reality.  The financial markets must be structured to provide funding for the investment in human capital. The millions of Africa talent living abroad must be encouraged to return and supported to successfully embed the best practises from around the world.
When the African story is told in the future it should be full of pride in innovations, inventions, knowledge and advancements in science and technology and of pushing the frontiers of space travel and of major discoveries.
Africans must start writing the lyrics and the melodies today for a new song; not only of Nature gifts of resources but of its human exploits and achievements.
Date: 31st December 2016
Author: Nii Kpakpa Quartey ACMA, CGMA
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