Monday 5 September 2011

How far Behind the Developed World African Countries Really Are

Kenya's most prominent writer, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Cheikh Anta Diop, the Senegalese who is often called the champion of African identity, and the less known Simon Kapwepwe, a politician in the first Zambian republic who later turned to writing, have one thing in common. Each, in his own way, figured out how far behind western nations, or the developed world, Africa really was, and knew what had to be done to "open up the minds" of Africans in a manner known of people in developed countries. These men knew Africa had to go through a rite of passage of sorts, without which setting the continent on a path to attaining its own dynamic culture, capable of standing its own in this system, was impossible.

All three men chose to write in their own mother tongue, after starting out writing in English in the case of Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Simon Kapwepwe, compiling a dictionary in his own mother tongue in the case of Cheikh Anta Diop. This need to use a local language, even when it cost them in terms of local and international exposure, provides us with an indirect clue to the step that Africa requires to take in order to be able to cope in this system. Explaining what this is from the onset is not a very good idea without first delving into issues that require comprehension for the point to sink in.

There is a misunderstanding, caused by a hangover from a period when Europeans in the main line of the study of foreign cultures saw existing native societies in the world as prototypes of their own "primitive ancestors", fossilized remains, so to speak, of stages of development that western Europe had once gone through. This was a time when cultural anthropologists and social scientists regarded the modern west as the latest point in a line of progress that was single and unilinear, on which all other people of the world could be fitted as illustrations, as it were, of western man's own past.

This euro-centric thinking has for the most part been eradicated as the west got better informed, but only for those in the main line of study and others who came accross the knowledge through research. Little has been done to change this standpoint among the common masses. It is therefore a common occurence for people to interpret time given in estimations to mean one culture is in the exact same state in which another was as many years ago. If you asked how far behind the western world Africa is, most people would say 100 years.

Social scientists who know what they are doing are estimating how long it will take to transform, for example, Africa's economic system into a likeness of the western model, rather than placing the continent on an evolutionary ladder with Europe at the top. The amount of time is usually calculated using items that differ with subject matter, the most applied of which include technology, industrialization, economic system, and culture.

Culture is unique, the odd one in this list because, when it is understood to be a comparison between shared bases of social interaction, it includes the first three items. Though it is the most used of all in this sense, it is the most inacurate and misleading. The admission has to be made culture does not easily lend itself to comparison or ranking. It may be possible to know the state of a culture, to be able to tell whether some cultural practice or trait in one is better than that in another, but problematic to apply this to the totality of the culture, unless there is an attempt to show interrelation.

It is possible to say the Zulus have better morals, but wrong to assume their whole culture is more advanced than another because it is the nurturing environment - unless one can show how other aspects are working to make the morals better, if this can be the proof the totality is better. It is even more inappropriate to estimate how many years Zulu culture is more advanced than another, if by this we mean to approximate the number of years it will take for another to catch up. Such comparison is only possible where cultures are always exact replicas that follow a set pattern of development, and some are delayed versions (prototypes) of others. Even if this was the way reality works, we would still only be able to make rough estimates and accept they could never be accurately fulfilled due to factors with the potential to delay or speed up development, attempts to include these unknown factors in the calculation notwithstanding.

The term culture can now also be used to refer to smaller segments of society, for example business culture, political culture, or to the system or mode of social provisioning. Where the system is concerned, African countries seldom have a single, or predominant one. Most countries have a combination of the tradition based, the command, and the market driven (also called free enterprise economy). This mixture of systems is a situation quite unlike Europe at any time in its history. In the west, groups advanced from one predominant system to another, for example from feudalism to capitalism or socialism. The modern African system, or even political culture, may in large part be imposed from Europe, but differs from it in many respects because of this. There is also the fact Afrca has adopted the worst aspects of capitalism. All this makes it impossible to trace the African incarnation of a western system to some period in the west's past when there is no European parallel. Talking of Africa as behind Europe by a number of years in terms of the system becomes illogical in this case because Africa just isn't in any position or place that the west has been. It is in fact hovering between semblances of cultures that have had the most influence on this continent, never really being a carbon copy of one at a past date.

Industrialization and technology are better items to use in estimating the time required for one culture to catch up, but also have their shortcomings. For example, there is always going to be a difference between how developed a group is and their potential for development if there were no inhibiting factors. I have in mind known factors working to prevent a group from doing better than they are able to with what they already have, for example unfair terms of trade, cheaper foreign products that stunt local production, poverty, and so on.

Another factor is the known paucity on funding third world governments put into Science, Technology and Innovation (STI's), compared to western countries. The most reliable approximations of STI activity are patent filings. When they are correlated to Research and Development expenditure, the worst performers internationally are also the worst spenders. According to data compiled by the World Intellectual Patent Office (WIPO) in 2006, Africa was the worst performer. With the exception of Kenya (71 patents) and the island of Madagascar (44 patents), all patent offices in African countries recorded zero filings from locals. Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Chad and a few other places saw more patents filed by foreign nationals than the total from Kenya and Madagascar which, for such a big continent, is much less than underpopulated Iceland.

If it were really possible to equate standards, and it were true that Africa is at the same level of development as Europe 100 years ago, then the creativity and inventiveness Europe entered the 20th century with would be evident in Africa today. 100 years ago was the time in Europe when motorized vehicles had already been invented, when the Wright brothers had already made their first flight, when Nicolai Tesla had already filed his patent for a basic radio. This was a time when Europeans were inventing radar, when the printing press, the paper, the machine gun, had long since been invented.

The STI activity that characterized Europe 100 years ago is nowhere near that seen in Africa today. Africa could only be considered at par with Europe 100 years ago if it was assumed there are factors preventing Africa from showing its potential, such as lack of investment by African governments in Research and Development.

That fact of the matter remains it is not possible to find Africa in any developed country's past by any of the criteria mentioned before, except in fragments. There is actually something else that I have not mentioned thus far, an item we can apply to this case that will enable us to pinpoint Africa's position with regards developed countries accurately, that will also help us know what is wrong with Africa today, why the continent is performing so poorly. This item will enable insight that will take us more than two thousand years into the past, to the efforts of Socrates, Plato and the like, efforts to which Simon Kapwepwe comes very close if not equals. We will find the answer in Greece, 2000 years ago, without this implying Africa is as many years behind the west, or that it will take as much time to catch up. The hint as to what this is comes from an unlikely source.

Nobel Laureate Gumar Myrdal concluded in his major development study, Asian Drama, that institutions and attitudes are the most important factors in economic development/progress, a factor extensively illustrated in Africa. I concur wholeheartedly with him on this. Though Myrdal does not show how attitudes and institutions are related, which would have helped make the solution easier to see, we can do the math ourselves. Attitudes build institutions, and though institutions impact attitudes, they can be considered more the means rather than the end in itself. It is therefore to attitudes that we must look in order to know where in time a group is in relation no another, as well as why a given group is failing when compared to others.

There is indeed an era in western history more important than others, an era without which the creativity that characterises the western world would have been impossible. The foundations for this culture (civilization) were laid then. This happens to be the step that African has not taken, a step as prerequisite to mature entry into this western system as knowing the alphabet is a prerequisite to learning how to read, a rite of passage without which the system will remain alien. Keep in mind as we go along the undeniable reality I have already inferred above that this system, even if a mere variant, imposed on Africa through conquest, is the one the continent lives by.

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Saturday 3 September 2011

Playing With Fire: Ignoring or Stoking the Ever Present Portent of Inter Ethnic Violence in Africa

People in Sub-Saharan Africa are sitting on an ethnic time-bomb, and, unless it is diffused, can never rest assured the potential for inter-ethnic violence is a thing of the past. This is true for any African country where multiple ethnicities live in countries that are run as nation states - a multi-ethnic mix united in such a manner it can lay claim to a singular national identity - in which power is not, and often cannot be de-centralized.

The manner African countries are arranged, especially regarding efforts that go into blinding people to the truth, reminds one of the film "Men in Black" in which those who are not on the inside and have seen an alien get their memory erased. The gadget in the film is very effective and, apart from memory, leaves no other side effects. In this real life example, however, the methods employed always work against the good of everybody. It results in unbelievably hateful and violent dispositions, and a general, intense malaise that takes away the creative force of the group. The harm is permanent and the damage is perpetuated for generations to come.

We have to remember when dealing with the prevention of ethnic violence in Africa that these are countries characterized by the failure of the state apparatus. What this says about the leaders of the regimes on duty is that they are grossly inept at almost everything except pulverizing their own fates and people, and, of course, self aggrandizement. Ruling party conduct where prevention of inter-ethnic unrest is concerned is the same as with everything else. It is inept, often irresponsible, ignores the problem hoping it will go away, abuses the problem for political gain (inadvertently worsens the issue), or feels it is doing the right thing but is in fact applying uninformed and ineffective methods that harm the people, and subsequently the welfare of the state.

Examples of African leaders who didn't just get their country into a terrible state by meddling with ethnic issues, but put their own selves in a lot of trouble as a result include Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. According to Amnesty International, quoting UN refugee agency figures, some 670 thousand people remain displaced after Ivory Coast's post-election violence that happened in April and May this year. They are afraid to return for fear of ethnic reprisals. Aljazeera reports that ethnic cleansing is still going on in Ivory coast.

As is customary for the continent, the new president, Alassane Quattara, appears to have come into office eager to observe this African tradition. He is reported to be turning a blind eye to abuses of Gbagbo's ethnic group by his tribesmen, or others loyal to him. It is either the case that he doesn't care. Maybe he doesn't know he is making things worse. It could just be that his behaviour is due to helplessness, the kind felt before a formidable foe the likes of which the previous unscrupulous regime conjured up from the nether world, and then left without disclosing the incantation.

Regimes in Africa do not understand the power of the ethnic instinct. If they did, then they would never apply remedies akin to self harm to the issue. They do not care how their actions are interpreted, how they are judged and in what ethnic light they are viewed (regardless they are multi-ethnic). They definitely only realize how much harm they have done when it is too late. It may seem from this behaviour that a good number of leaders in this region appear to want a continent that can achieve very little, if by this they are easier to control, and take their people for granted. The conduct of many leaders on the continent also suggests they are more than convinced they have the situation under control. They feel they have done the necessary work and left no stones unturned.

To give an example, the Zambian regime has of late been very busy ensuring the multitudes in the country can count on timely consent by those political parties that will lose the elections. In light of post election result violence witnessed in a number of African countries, the fear has set in, and no politico in his right mind will act irresponsibly by procrastinating, let alone egging his supporters into battle, when election results are announced and the loser disagrees with them. It is now considered a duty for all involved to concede defeat in as timely and orderly a manner as can be, to settle disputes through available channels, in the name of peace and tranquility. This mood is being induced by constant repetition in words or pictures, those behind the campaign sure it will be effective. There is nothing wrong with this, but the problem is the ruling party is not considering the effects its own actions will have on how people react to results. They are sending this messge out while stepping on toes. This same tactic was actually also employed in Kenya prior to the post-election violence of 2007.

The failure of measures aimed at preventing inter-ethnic violence lies in the reality there is never likelihood, nor is there a fitting mentality where inter-ethnic violence is concerned. People will not always respond to a switch, and there is no social institution or technology that can control inter-ethnic violence. This truth is immediately verifiable if we check accounts by those who witnessed ethnic unrest first hand, and noticed that, every time it happened, it was sudden, not in the least anticipated, and ugly beyond belief. Charles Dickens wrote quite a bit on what he considered the forgetful nature of human beings. He described how difficult it was for people to imagine the neat clad, good mannered English gentleman engaged in lowly acts of violence, yet he had witnessed men of this stature turn from well clad gentleman into monsters, overnight, in major wars between European nationalities.

We can talk to, or read about, the living, today's Bosnians, Rwanda's Hutus and Tutsies, and others. They will most definitely inform that neighbours mass murdering each other, neighbours wielding machetes on each other, people hiding out in swamps and marshes for fear of being hacked to pieces, was the last thing they ever thought possible. In Rwanda before this tragedy, people were aware there was discrimination and tribalism, but thought the country was full of big cowards. They did entertain the idea, but always dismissed it as an impossibility because of this. Remember here that this is how those in Rwanda who were not too careful how they treated others felt, those who abused power in an impoverished environment where everything is in place for the ugly tribal instinct to materialize.

Today, most people in Rwanda who remember this mind-set regret it. In hindsight, they see they were not attentive enough. They believe a little bit more attention from a critical number of people is all it would have taken to avert the nightmare. I, however, do not see attentiveness to be much of a help in such a situation. The instinct never lends itself to such easy detection. It usually lies buried beneath veils of loyalty, ideology, political cause, etc. Usually by a precipitating event, the instinct comes to the fore, when least expected.

According to Jarle Simensen, Professor Emeritus, Department of Archeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo, ethnic unrest usually starts out as something else, "...But once the feuding parties have resorted to violence, be this on an ideological, political or other non-ethnic basis, we see in Africa, just as in the Balkans and the Caucasus, that ethnicity overrides all other forms of loyalty with a ferocity that belies belief, but is easier to understand if we bear in mind the role that nationalism has played in European history".

Ah! Europe. The place where the French fought the Germans because they were German, and vice-versa. Europe is the one place where we can ascertain that ethnic violence is a human condition, the place where the power inherent in the instinct is demonstrated in, for example, Napoleon's unwitting awakening and underestimation of German nationalism that cost the Holy Roman Empire dearly. Europe is one place that, unlike Africa, has found its own solution to this issue and, today, one of the few places where one would expect inter-ethnic violence (yet it does occur).

The most frightening reality is that a good number of Africans harbour some form of ethnic resentment. If things were to go wrong, the number of people who would milk the tribal instinct for all it is worth - particularly politicians with some bone to grind with ethnic groups they feel are the bane of their existence - far outnumber those who would be busy damming the flow, who would as such be fighting an uphill battle.


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Friday 2 September 2011

When Adjusting to Hardships Means Going Backwards in Standards, It is Time to Change Regime

"...investing in a healthy, well fed, literate population is the most intelligent economic choice a country can make" - 'A Fate Worse Than Debt', by Susan George.

In today's Zambia, neighbourhoods are a shadow of what they used to be. They have lost much of the shine of old, a shine a developed country would not have been ashamed of. The infrastructure built in the past, though dilapidated today, is still being used by a significant if not majority of the urban population, and though it should rightly have been phased out in a perpetual modernization process if the investment made by the first government had paid off, and the momentum set had been followed through, it is still in reasonable condition within the local framework, better than some modern era neighbourhoods.

Gone are the street lamps, the free and dedicated trash collection, the reliable water and electricity supply. Pre-installed geysers that hung on many a wall have all but been cast into the waste dumps as citizens found them impossible to maintain on low budgets. The roads have all but disappeared, replaced with rocky or overgrown terrain where they used to be.

People have responded to these changes by either reverting back to the ways of their ancestors who migrated into towns from the villages, inhabitants of thatched mud huts that knew no electricity or clean tap water. They have also adopted practices that do not do much for the visage of their neighbourhoods, or personal hygien or morale.

Due to the unreliability of water supply, people have resorted to buying drums to store water they can use in moments when the supply is cut off. Taking showers or dipping one's self in a warm bath tub are for the most part luxuries of a short lived past. The usual way to bath is by boiling water on a stove or charcoal burner. Having taken the water into the bathroom, most people simply squat, dip their hands into the bucket and splash it on their body.

Flashing a toilet can only be done from the tank when the water is flowing through the pipes. What happens most of the time is that people draw water by bucket from their water reserve that they either take with them before, or after they are done.

Medical care is no longer free. A visit to the doctor has to be paid for, and most of the better medication can only be had for cash at a local chemist. The amounts asked are not much, but in a third world country where 65% of the people live below the poverty line, this just means most people go without routine checkups, or a visit to the doctor when ill. Most simply self medicate, while others force themselves to go on. Self medication in an impoverished environment means buying cheap, usually stolen or expired medications.

For physical ailments such as tooth issues, most people simply ignore the problem until it gets out of hand. In almost all public places, be they frequented by the rich or poor, a decaying odor permeates, be this nasal or otherwise. Autopsies usually reveal gradual, undiagnosed harm that ate the individual from within, from which there must have been a lot of discomfort. I know a case of a man who lumbered on with a burst apendix until his lower abdomen was all rotten. He died sitting upright, waiting to be seen by a doctor. It is no surprise that dying suddenly is very common. In fact, most deaths I know of occured without warning. One moment the individual was up and about, the next they were gone.

Chemists and other vendors of medication, especially those selling natural remedies, are doind good business, seen very clearly in their proliferation.

Unsightly wall, hedge, wood or reed mat fences that are covered.with a remarkable layer of fine dust in the dry season have marred the appearance of the average neighbourhood. The practice of erecting all manner of fences is a reasonable response to a common feature of most African countries, which is the failure of the state apparatus, in this case the failure to provide security and enforce or foster a culture that respects privacy. The sad thing about this is people behind wall fences are virtually imprisoned in their own yards, without much of a view. Also, though having a wall fence is now seen as a sign of prosperity, they are an affront on an aesthetic sense, and, in the case of unkempt hedges and the like, the source of vermin. Without fencing, however, people would have to accept their yards becoming pathways for all manner of travellers, even at ungodly hours. Some people would not sleep a wink without these large brick walls around their domains for commotion and security concerns.

Households have resorted to burying garbage in their backyards when they cannot afford to have their trash collected. People are forced to dig multiple pits on their plots to keep up with the flow of waste. Most yards are filled to the brim with garbage, so that digging new pits is sure to run into old ones. All manner of either non bio-degradable and toxic waste lies buried beneath in the very places people live, where their children play. When it becomes impossible to throw waste in the backyard, most people simply throw it out in some nearby bush somewhere, usually not very far from human habitation, the result being that there is unsorted, ignored garbage lying around everywhere, a source of vermin, contamination, diseases, leaving a constant stench in the air.

Though there is now a continent wide attempt to rehabilitate roads that is being felt as I write this, whether the efforts will fill the shoes left by the first regime remains to be seen. Countries in the European Union, The World Bank's International Development Association, the Development Bank of South Africa, etc., are all pumping funds into this project, looking to build super-highways in the case of the last. However, Indications are that those receiving the funds and coordinating activities in the country are badly organized or too deliberate. Priorities are being overlooked for political reasons, as well as those based in ineptitude. For example, many of the roads that have thus far been rehabilitated are shoddy and not up to modern road building standards. They lack pavements in residential areas and use drainage that is outdated. They do nothing to combat the dust and dirt. Roads that could simply use maintenance to preserve them are being left to deteriorate further while new ones are laid elsewhere, especially in long neglected rural areas.

People await the outcome of the road rehabilitation and maintenance venture with scepticism, but, for the time being, the destroyed roads are a source for much discomfort and repair bills for motorists, a hindrance to commerce, but crucially they are a health hazard for the dust and dirt they generate. It is everywhere, constantly wafting up and covering everything. One shudders to think of the state of lungs exposed to the finer particles. Shoes have to get constantly polished, while, due to the jagged nature of most road surfaces, most people have wisely taken to wearing steel-toe boots. In the rainy season, the roads turn into mud pools.

The questions most people ask regarding the slide in standards are manifold. The salient ones include those from people who have gone to the extent of asking whether this was unavoidable under African (black) rule? Others blame it on the overspending habits of the first government. There are those who have reason not to entertain the idea Africans are inherently inferior, or that the previous regime was incompetent. Their question is whether our lives would have been more stable or turned out better had we not changed regimes for the sake of change.

The answer to the last group's question is a resounding "yes". Evidence of this we shall find in the dedication and organizational skills the previous government showed, and also in the state of bordering countries whose leaders may or may not have answered the call for multiparty democracy, or applied the World Bank or IMF's Structural Adjustment Programs as stringently. Many, such as Angola, Namibia, or Botswana, have made leaps and bounds in progress, including standards, while we have moved backwards.It is true that hardships have followed all African countries since the mid-1980's, but then, under the previous government, we may have belonged to the club of the impoverished, but were one of the leading economies in this group rather than one of the last as economic statistics clearly show about the present.

According to the CIA World Fact Book, the country's annual growth rate, that now stands at 6%, only matched 1987 growth rates of the same percentage point in 2007. This recovery had the competent leadership of Levy Mwanawasa to thank. This man's tenure was characterized at the onset by positive changes, including a fall in interest rates. They hit the single digit figure of 8%, the lowest since 1977.

Otherwise, all else has been a downward tumble since this government came to power. The country's GDP per capita that stood at $1400 in 2007 is a mere two-thirds that at independence, making Zambia one of the poorest countries in the world today. Social indicators have continued to decline, particularly in measurements of life expectancy at birth that now stands at 50 years, and maternal and infant mortality that is at 85 per 1000.

It is preposterous to blame this remarkable decline on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, while affirming that 6% economic growth cannot support the rapid population growth characteristic of Zambia, when the latter is a valuable resource and the former has failed to impact the latter in all but demographics. Obviously, the fault here lies squarely with an inability to devise an effective coping strategy as a response to real exigencies.


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Sending the Ghost of a Cadre Party Back to the Grave

Basil Davidson's book "The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State" provides useful insight into the problems Africans inherited from the era of colonialism. When Europeans imposed on Africa their system of competing nation states by way of conquest and subjugation, they were motivated by their own strategic interests, not those of Africans. This impromptu initiation of a group into another culture, and the state of a people not yet ready to meet the challenges the new era brought, would linger and characterize the continent. It would become the source of much disarray for years to come.


At the time African countries were gaining independence, this new system, the colonial economy in particular, had not penetrated as deeply into African society as would allow for the rate of development seen in those Asian countries that had also been colonized. For example, Africa lacked strong enterprising groups with international connections that would have helped Africa keep up with international economic growth. Another example would be tribalism and ethnic unrest seen in much of Africa, that is a major impediment to development and persists to this day due to the manner the continent was divided.


The very first leaders of the newly independent African countries were not exempt from this rule. They had no first hand knowledge of running a state or of large scale economic development. Following in the footsteps of China's Mao Zedong, they copied from the Soviets. They learnt how to run a country while in office. Many became very good leaders, and did manage to effectively address many of the problems inherited from the era of colonialism. The task was not easy, and the unsteady and slow pace of progress testifies to this truth. Our leaders did much for us, but the one thing they all failed to achieve was move the continent up into the developed country category.


Of all the issues faced by Africa with a root in this past that it is still not very prepared for, not properly arranged for, and does not possess the means to handle as the third world, the phenomenon of cadre parties in the context of the African mode of social provisioning (that is still largely tradition based), is perhaps the most pernicious.


Cadre parties are defined as political parties dominated by elite groups of activists. They developed in the 19th century in Europe and America. They reflected a fundamental conflict between the aristocracy and bourgeoisie at a time when each class's ideology was being formed. Bourgeoisie liberal ideology.swept the aristocracy's conservative ideology away, thanks in large part to its appeal to the grassroots (bourgeoisie ideology spoke of the aspirations of this class as well), and would determine the future form the cadre party would take from then on.


Cadre parties would soon evolve into highly organized political units. Their capacity to take over and direct crucial national activity and set in motion a self perpetuating political culture is the main reason the system they created was referred to as a machine in its own right. Indeed, they were capable of creating a social machine the likes of which wayward communist revolutionaries have been at pains to emulate.


At a time when the suffrage was restricted to taxpayers and property owners in the 19th century, cadre parties went about ensuring they got power by offering various rewards to voters in return for the promise of their votes. They could offer such inducements as jobs, trader's licenses, immunity from the police, etc. Operating in this manner, they could guarantee a majority in an election. Once in control of local government, the police, the courts, and public finances, the machine and its clients were assured of impunity in illicit activities, for example, granting of public contracts to favoured businessmen, and so on.


The drawback of the system created by a cadre party was the fact the moral and material cost was very high. The corrupting effect on a people's mentality couldn't be understated. The machine was also often purely exploitative, performing no services to the community whatsoever. In the final analysis, it disadvantaged the community, especially in competition with countries that were not so encumbered, bringing nothing but untold miseries and tragedies to the common masses. This is the main reson why, in the western world cadre parties were in large part replaced by people's parties, and consigned to history books. They were incompatible with the march of progress. However, they have since reared their ugly heads among unsuspecting cultures of the world, never failing to wreak havoc in their wake. Today in Zambia, the MMD is a textbook example of a cadre party. Their every act since they came to power has marked them off as one. In the typical fashion of a paranoid cadre party, they sought and attained absolute control using underhanded tactics. It didn't take long before the MMD had become a power unto themselves. They could beat people up with impunity. They could do as they wished with public finances and property, etc. It belongs by the territory that, from the very onset, talent became as much a myth created by the previous regime, as the enemy they had to unseat at every turn. "Anybody can do anything" was their motto, and by the top down manner, this thinking soon infected the land. Nothing was sacred any more as they went about replacing experienced and often talented people in order to control vital social institutions. What became of ZNBC is a well known example to give for this.


But soon, reality came calling. Mediocrity and wantonness reigned supreme in the land and major social projects were either stripped clean of value, or they ground to a halt, otherwise they were simply allowed to dilapidate. Very little was going right but, fortunately for the machine, people were not seeing this. To the majority, the dilapidation going on around them was all that was wrong with the country. They failed to see this as the epitome of much more rot within the government.


The country was allowed to go into auto-pilot because those supposedly leading it were interested in matters that belonged by a crime syndicate. The party was a highly organized organization that didn't have what it takes to run anything other than a cadre party. In taking over the running of vital institutions, they infected the country with this quality too, so that, in time, this third world country didn't have what it takes to prosper. The dilapidated, second class third world country that became of Zambia after two decades of their rule was the inevitable outcome.

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Saturday 20 August 2011

How safe are African people from radioactive contamination in the wake of the Fukushima disaster?

The Fukushima nuclear plant disaster has been described as "the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind" by Arnold Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants in the US. Fallout from the disaster, estimated to be 20 times bigger than Cernobyl whose effects are still being felt as far afield as Germany where radioactive wild boar can still be found, has spread as far as America where, according to a published essay by physician Jannette Sherman, the 35% spike in infant mortality that occurred in north-western cities after the event was caused by radioactive fallout from the plant. There have even been reports of dangerous levels of radiation detected in Australia that was traced back to the Japanese disaster. About two weeks ago, Tokyo Electric Power Company recorded its highest radiation readings.

An increasing number of countries around the world are halting or tightening control of food imports from Japan. India halted all food imports after fish imported from Japan was found to have excess radioactivity. The US's FDA, Russia, South Korea, the EU, all have halted or restricted food imports from the region. What is worrying is the fact, apart from Nigeria and South Africa, I have not heard mention of the position of African governments on the import of food products from this country. Considering the history of this continent where disasters of the kind are concerned, and especially the care taken to prevent contamination of the living environment with toxic substances, Africans should be very Afraid where their rice, frozen chickens, tinned fish, etc. is coming from.

Let me digress to clear up a statement that may have caused some to question my knowledge of international trade. Japanese exports a lot of consumer electronics and other non-food products to the third world. It is best known for its car exports, of which Toyota is undoubtedly the most bought. But, though food only makes up 1% of Japanese exports, an amount does make it to Africa. With the number of countries banning or tightening controls of Japanese imports increasing as we speak, I see nothing stopping unscrupulous Japanese business men from settling for lower prices that could be fetched in Africa. They must be very aware ours is a continent known not to care what it hauls onto its shores. Japanese traders are known to have done this very thing before with defective cars. Africa is a continent with a record for accepting all manner of toxic substances that the rest of the world neither want to see buried in their backwards, or may the case be that they would do this but cannot because a primed population would not let them get away with it. .

So far, the Japanese government itself has proven very unscrupulous with its own people. They have sometimes played down the risks and put women and children in harm's way. They have however time and again been caught red handed. They are being watched very closely on the Japanese shores. I doubt those watching, looking out for their welfare, care much for Africa. I doubt there is much they can do to prevent, for example, an unscrupulous fisherman who catches fish in areas that have been marked as contaminated zones from sending the catch to Africa. I doubt they can stop a farmer from diverting a ship-load of rice considered unsafe for human consumption to Africa when Africans are not as vigilant as the Japanese citizenry. The Japanese are looking out for their own interests. It is not their responsibility to look out for the welfare of Africans as well. They have enough problems on their hands as things stand. .

Only Africans can help themselves where this is concerned. The question is whether Africans are able. Going by the record, it can be concluded about the African continent that the advanced world, especially the technological, is quite dangerous for the place, and this because the precautions required to be safe in dealings with advanced cultures, with the creations of advanced cultures, are largely unknown. Africa is in many respects like a toddler that needs to be watched, protected from injury and kept away from cooking plates and other electronic gadgets. Battery disposal systems do not exist in much of Africa. There was a time in the past in my country when a regime did take efforts to separate waste, but even then I remember that the most common thing one found at waste dumps were batteries. They were everywhere. It was usual to find young children using them as makeshift bowling pins. That our ground water is as contaminated as it gets with acids and heavy metals is a well known fact.

People in Africa eager to make a quick buck are known to import toxic waste that ends up in our backyards, while others take advantage when countries desperate to get rid of products deemed unsafe for local consumption lower the prices, without regard for the health of their citizens.

I was in the former Czechoslovakia when the Cernobyl disaster happened. I remember that some Russian farmers in the vicinity of the disaster exported milk to Ghana that they could not sell at local and foreign, mainly European markets. Radioactive beef from a former eastern bloc country found its way to Zambia and was definitely enjoyed with the local staple foofoo.

Producers in the west are known to have exported soap and creams that have skin lightening effects, mainly to South Africa, and other countries on the continent, after it was discovered the substances were laden with health hazardous mercury. These soaps and creams are still being sold in markets on the continent.

Pharmaceutical companies still export Quinacrine to Africa even when the WHO declared it unfit for human consumption about a decade ago. Nevirapine and AZT continue to be the main drugs used to control HIV infection even when countries where these drugs are produced outright stopped the use of the latter about two decades ago, and considered the former a drug of last resort, on account of toxicity, on account of adverse side effects that can be genetic in the case of the former. Despite the information out there, many African countries still allow the use of asbestos in roofing, and other construction purposes. Houses that were constructed with asbestos roofing at a time when the whole world was non the wiser are inhabited by the majority, and still, to this day, nobody has as much as raised the issue in some representative house.

The issues I have outlined above may seen like much to one not familiar with the ways of Africa, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are just getting started.

So far, there has not been a single report of foodstuffs coming from the affected area in Japan that have ended up in Africa. The absence of a report, however, is as comforting in the case of the known dealings of this continent with the outside world as the lack of symptoms of a curable disease one is already infected with, that only shows symptoms when the damage done to the body is irreversible, and death.is the only consequence ... which is what will happen to the black race if this failing is not rectified in time. The focus of the task Thabo Mbeki proposed Africans give themselves to know what they were really dying from, rather than heap everything on HIV, may very well lie here.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

The Harm Using Foreign Languages in the Education System is Doing to both the African's Intelligence and African Communities

Pathé Diagne, a French anthropologist working in Burundi in 1976, conducted a scientific experiment in that country that same year. The objective of this research was to establish whether there would be a difference in the rate of uptake between groups of children taught using different languages. The subjects of the experiment were Burundi children who were divided into two groups. One received tuition in their mother tongue, while the other, the control group, used French as the medium of instruction. At the end of the experiment, the children were given an examination. The results were surprising, if not shocking. 65% of children in the first group passed the exam, while only 5% in the control group, the usual setup in Africa where a European language is the medium of instruction, managed to do as well.

This was not the first or last time that a similar experiment was conducted and results seen that confirmed the Burundi experiment. Recently in the Netherlands, high school students were subjects of a similar scientific experiment. For a significant period of time, one group received instruction in English while the other used Dutch, the national language of Holland. Though the results obtained after examinations were similar to the Burundi experiment, the big gap in pass rates seen in the former example was not repeated.

One explanation for why Burundi children taught in their mother tongue scored so highly compared to the control group is the fact the two languages used were not closely related. The languages applied in the latter experiment, Dutch and English, are both Germanic tongues that have very similar syntactic-semantic structures.

Another reason for the disparities lay in the age differences, and especially proficiency levels the subjects had in the languages used in the experiments. In the Dutch example, the test subjects were teens in later phases of the education process. They were already proficient in their mother tongue, Dutch, and, as is the culture in this country, they spoke perfect English. It was discovered in the Dutch example that those who were negatively affected were not in the least aware that this was the case. Many students were interviewed prior to the exams during which researchers noted that the Dutch students overestimated their command of English. They felt they were as competent using it as their mother tongue. Only the comparably poor results students obtained after the examination proved how wrong they had been.

What these results confirm, beyond a shadow of doubt, is that individuals who are learning a foreign language, including in this bracket others who already are fluent in one, have their capacity to learn adversely affected when it is a medium of instruction. When such instruction occurs in the formative stages of life, if the second language permanently replaces the mother tongue, then it is not just the capacity to comprehend that is negatively affected, but the mental apparatus is subsequently stunted in growth.

The explanation for this is actually straightforward, and can be laid out without the employ of jargon.

The learning of a second or other language is an activity that is superimposed on prior mastery of one's first language, and is a different process intellectually Only once in our lives do we learn how to speak. In acquiring a second language, however, we learn how to say what we already know in our mother tongue using words and language rules (grammar) of the tongue to be learnt, a process in which translation plays a crucial role. How well we learn the new language depends on our proficiency level in the mother tongue. We also tend to depend on our command of one language to figure out how to express ourselves in the new one, sometimes to such an extent we may transfer all the rules of grammar but the words of the primary language to the one we are learning. This is what happened when Africans were shipped to the Caribbean during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Here, due to necessity, they forged a lingua franca using the languages they were forced to use by their captors. Patois, the language spoken by Jamaicans, combines terms derived from various European languages, but preserves in full the syntactic structure of African languages spoken on the African continent today.

The first language we all learn after birth is called the mother tongue. At the age of approximately five or six, children are introduced to formal education where their mastery of this language is put to use. At this point in their lives, children already have a command of their local language that can get their heads around basic concepts, and possess a basic vocabulary, all of which would enable them to satisfactorily handle the demands of the initial learning process in school, a reality clearly demonstrated by the results of Diagne's experiment. The way the current education system is designed Africa, however, this stage of development is not used for learning to read and write, but for learning how to speak a foreign language that children then have to depend on to acquire reading and writing skills. This second language will also become the language of instruction for the rest of the education process.

This process is wrong because the linguistic skills in the foreign language are obviously insufficient for the complexity of such an exercise. This is also clearly demonstrated by the poor showing the control group made in the exams in Diagne's experiment. When the huge difference in pass rates is considered, it becomes plain that much more time is required for the children to master the foreign language to levels that will impact positively on their rate of uptake, as will prevent a scenario where they are in fact thrown back in time in terms of their capacity to learn new things.

Our children do gradually build their command of English, French or Portuguese, but then on a foundation developing in the non-official realm. The consequence of this is that linguistic skills in a language that is not directly involved in the school procedure, but is crucial to the learning process, more or less stagnate. As such, African children build a tower on a foundation of quick sand at a time when there is a need to reinforce all aspects of the learning process. The correct procedure should be that if the children receive instruction in English, then the mother tongue, the foundation upon which this learning is superimposed, has also got to be worked upon, otherwise the arrest in mental development that the poor results exposed in Diagne's experiment hint at will become reality as the years roll on into the future.

The children will never make a full recovery from the delay in mental development caused by learning new things using minimal linguistic skills. The functions of language as it relates to thought facilitation cannot be taken advantage of as it takes time before the African's grasp of the foreign tongue gets to levels where this is possible. For the growing infant, much more could have been learnt, much more of their mentality developed, if only the level attained in the mother tongue had been put to use in the very beginning. The mental growth of the child is actually put on hold for a while and, at the point in time when command of the foreign language can be considered at par with the mother tongue, which is usually a good number of years into school, the second language becomes the primary language and takes up the functions of language in relation to mental development.

We Africans brought up in this education system actually find it easier to express ourselves in European languages even when, by way of the process explained above, the proficiency levels are well below those of native speakers, nor are they equal to what we would have attained in our mother tongues had there been no pause and switch in the primary language learning process. Comparison of the mentality of African children to those in the West reveals ours are not as conceptually dexterous, which is no surprise. This issue is confounded by the fact subjects are not aware they are underperforming mentally, meaning they are unable to see the disadvantage, a fact that will not make them take corrective measures when they have gone through the entire education process and are running the system themselves. This means that our future leaders will end up thinking there is nothing wrong with the setup, while in reality they are underperforming mentally. They will in fact make the same error in judgment that the Dutch students made.

Things cannot possibly get worse, but the bad news is this isn't where it all ends. It is not just the mentality of the nation that suffers as a result of such gross oversight. In addition, the African who undergoes such a process is robbed of his culture, his identity and ultimately loses his mind in the process. Outlandish as this may sound, this process, like the previous one, can be laid out using simple words.

Language interacts with every other aspect of human life in society, and cannot be understood unless considered in this context. Each language is both a working system of communication in the period and in the community in which it is used, and also a product of its past history and the source of its future development. A simplified dictionary definition that may enable laymanly comprehension of the issue states that a language is "a system of terms used by a people sharing a history and a culture".

There is a linguistic relativity hypothesis by Benjamin Lee Whorf that can opportunely be applied to help clarify the point I am making. It describes how the syntactic-semantic structure of a language becomes an underlying structure for the worldview of a people through the organization of the causal perception of the world and the linguistic categorization of entities. As linguistic categorization emerges as a representation of worldview and causality, it further modifies social perception and thereby leads to a continual interaction between language and perception.

Central to comprehending and meaningfully applying this hypothesis to the matter at hand is worldview. In straightforward terms, it is the interpretation of perceived reality based on group perspective. Simplified further, it is that which is central to the saying "what is truth on one side of the Pyrenees is falsehood on the other", or the statement "if humans look ugly to aliens, then aliens look ugly to humans". The point here is that people define their reality according to how they interpret their perception of it.

Reality around us lends itself to perception by the senses we possess. We then define what we perceive according to the parameters of the apparatus we use for such interpretation, central of which is the mind, of course, and the language it utilizes for the process. It is common knowledge that people react differently when confronted with the same phenomenon. If a number of people unexpectedly ran into a spider, some may get frightened and others not, some delighted while others will be disgusted, etc. This is all due to how differently our minds are tuned, accounting for different interpretations of the same phenomenon that elicits different responses.

Language is not free from factors in its structure that can affect how perceived phenomenon is interpreted. If we see an alien, our interpretation of what we are seeing is going to ultimately get influenced by the information relayed to the mind by the use of the terms and expressions that exist in the same language for defining observable fact of this nature. Apply to this linguistic categorization and it becomes clear why the complete definition that is relayed to our mind is determined by the parameters of the very language.

Different languages have a different or differing syntactic-semantic structure which, after expansion, accounts for the reason translation is nothing more than interpretation. Different cultural entities, or ethnicities, have different languages, each language playing a crucial part in how the group interprets their perception of reality, each language influencing the worldview of the group, therefore affecting group identity.

Because language is also cultural heritage, it becomes clear why by forcing English on Germans, Yoruba on the Zulus in the same manner African schools force foreign languages on African children, we take away that which would make the children have a full German, English, Zulu or Yoruba identity. We render the child devoid of a cultural identity, and if they cannot be defined as anything culturally, then they can definitely not know any culture.
Africans who can communicate better in English than they can in their own language are basically culture-less, if we also see that language functions as the key to their culture. This means teaching our children foreign tongues, especially at a point in their lives when they are their most impressionable and, considering that children are born culture-less, before they have been introduced to their culture, is placing them in a situation where they will never adopt their culture, nor develop cultural identity, let alone a personal one with roots in their culture. A person without an identity knows not the difference between self and other. An individual without an identity cannot have knowledge of self, knows not the difference between friend and foe, and would under normal circumstances be considered a fool, unless the condition is understood.

The same can be applied to a community or nation. In an antagonistic world, a nation without a worldview, that nonetheless believes it has one, is lost among other nations that do have a solid one.

The propositions I have seen advanced for the resolution of this issue, where it has been identified, include allowing children to first master their mother tongue sufficiently before introduction to a different language, which would enhance competency. This entails using the mother tongue some way into the education process. Another of the many propositions is to simply not wait until they have reached school going age before teaching them the language of instruction.

The problem with the former proposal is it doesn't take into account the fact the capacity to learn is always going to be adversely affected when a language other than the mother tongue is used as a medium of instruction, as evidenced in the Dutch experiment. The latter proposal is being applied by an increasing number of parents in Africa, but substituting a foreign language for the mother tongue deprives children of minimal contact with their culture, which makes matters worse. Also, African parents and/or the African community cannot adequately reinforce in their child the linguistic skills in a European language that will suffice to prevent poor or second rate linguistic skills, minimal conceptual dexterity, underperformance or retardation. Our African milieu cannot compete with the native French, English or Portuguese milieu where this is concerned. Most African parents do not speak these languages as well.

It has incidentally already been ascertained in developed countries that the reason children of minorities who use a language that is different from the official one in their daily lives suffer disadvantage in the learning process is precisely because of this. This is also the case when the children grow up in neighborhoods that use the official tongue where parents possess poor linguistic skills due to the many factors that can cause this, of which a poor educational background, inarticulacy, foreign descent, or general intelligence are some.

For Africa, making the tribal tongue, a dialect or other closely related language, the medium of instruction is the only way to ensure the best results. Most world languages are not being used for the purpose of education because they have not been adapted to the demands of the institution, but a look at this tool with manifold applications reveals the process is uncomplicated. In developed countries, it has actually been the norm since the advantage of so doing was realized.

One feature that distinguishes human languages from all known modes of animal communication is its infinite productivity and creativity. Humans are unrestricted in what they can talk about. No area of experience is accepted as necessarily incommunicable, but it may be necessary to adapt a language to cope with new discoveries or modes of thought. When different languages meet, unless a conscious effort is made by the users of one language to prevent interlarding, the languages will form a new, richer language, each language bringing to the mix its own particular experiences that the respective group has been through. In time, this mixing too will be etched and preserved in the new language, and will go with the group wherever they go.
For example, two thousand years ago, the English language was quite different from what it is today. The vocabulary was basic, comprising words used for everyday, simple activities. Contact with foreign cultures (Roman, French, etc) exposed the English to new terminology, new concepts, new technology, new institutions, and so on. Slowly but surely, a new language was born that today is known as modern English, that is not that different from the original language whose basic structure it has preserved, but which tells a lot about where the English have been. The foreign additions to English can be traced right back to their origin, and this can tell a lot about the culture of the time, and that of today, and also of the people using the language then, and now.

This capacity for all languages to undergo metamorphosis of sorts that transforms them in part or completely, from simple to complex, from rudimentary to sophisticated, is the reason many Africans today accept the argument what Africa is going through is a natural process that will prove beneficial in the long run. English, Portuguese, or French have become part of our heritage, our culture, and it should be accepted they are here to stay. The problem with taking this position is revealed in the experiment done in Burundi, which exposes flaws within, pointing out an abnormal situation. In this case, it is the inevitable mental backwardness that results when individuals in a society are divorced, at an early age, from the language they first learnt after birth, and instead of a permanent divorce from one language to another, are thrown into the middle where essential linguistic skills on either side are not done justice, and also of the loss of a people's worldview that makes of how Africa came to speak foreign, European languages a completely different issue from how English came to have French words.

Africa got stuck with western languages that left Africans mired in a cultural existence that is not good for their mental well-being. It is not only that our people cannot be and give their best mentally as a result of this unnatural process, but also that, even though there is a lot of culture adoption, we Africans become neither ourselves nor complete Englishmen, French men, or Portuguese, either of which would be better than what we become…which is mere worldview devoid, culture-less carriers of foreign languages who can never even boast of being experts in their use without knowledge of the culture, traditions and customs of native speakers.

I read an article on the Internet where an African writer expressed how he was at once fascinated by the number of things he can express in the English language as opposed to his local language, and criticized those who wish for the reinstatement of indigenous tongues that he considered "poor of vocabulary, awkward, overly and unnecessarily complex of grammar, difficult to read", and as such not modern enough, and definitely not up to the standards of modern times. This writer didn't give recognition to the fact that his poor grasp of his own language was a result of the aforementioned processes, including in this the lack of constant practice. If a vital part of our school years are spent learning how to express ourselves in our own tongues, then surely the many complex ways we can express ourselves in European languages can be equaled and even surpassed given that we take a conscious effort to adapt our languages to this civilization (culture). The adage "practice makes perfect" is apt for this case. To repeat, the ease with which I can read and understand English is a result of constant practice. The difficulty I experience understanding my own language is simply because of lack of practice.

It is very true that, in their present form, African languages are not modern enough. They lack the necessary vocabulary, the numbers of ways one can express self are less than in European languages. For example, in my mother tongue there is only one word for "fool". This means that one has to determine the sense in which the word is being used according to context, an awkward manner of communicating. Most people do not even try to see what the exact meaning is. Obviously, the range of conscious of people communicating is such a manner is greatly diminished. But then all of this is only because we, the users, have not made a conscious effort to upgrade these languages.

One good example that exposes the error in the position adopted by this writer, and a lot of Africans in defense of the present state of affairs is China. The number of characters contained in the standard Chinese dictionary is 47,035 and though only a requirement of from 3,000 to 4,000 characters is necessary for full literacy, it is still a large amount of symbols to master. The fact the Chinese government has promoted standard simplified sets of Chinese characters that are based partly on phonetic simplifications of the traditional writing form in an attempt to increase literacy is proof of how much harder mastering their own symbols is compared to other systems, yet the Chinese are making economic, technological and social gains without major help from the use of a western language, meaning the language's full functions are in optimum effect. Without the use of simplification, the country has achieved a literacy rate of 85% as estimated by UNESCO in its 2000 figures, which is impressive considering the odds.

If the Chinese neglected to learn their language using traditional symbols and adopted English as their language of instruction, then they would have an even tougher time than we do switching back from the foreign language to their own language, written in traditional Chinese characters when practice in one is less than the other

As the case is in Africa today, the products of institutions of learning that pass through a process whose real effect can only be compared to a lobotomy become the future leaders we have to depend on for the resolution of issues like the one raised by the Diagne experiment, who are mentally ill disposed to interpret results of this nature, let alone know they are so affected. What we are dealing with here is a poignant reminder of a lost generation scenario, and all Africans who have been through the education system are victims.

This statement may seem harsh, but it is a logically deductible truth that Africans cannot afford not to confront any more.

At the time I started researching this issue, I lived in Europe and knew from the numerous debates that raged over the education system: the legislation and policy making responsibilities, the administration, facility maintenance, curriculum planning, teacher preparation and selection, etc., how importantly the leaders of the "Developed World" regard the role education plays in the maintenance of their way of life. This much I know, that if there ever was to be a sign that the western education system was as flawed in the manner the results of the Burundi experiment suggested about the institution there, then efforts to rectify the situation would have been launched in earnest, as though it were a matter of life and death, one that made the difference between having a meal on one's table or starvation, affluence or abject poverty lest the function of education be undermined and society suffer the consequences. There would definitely have been a public outcry. In countries where high achievement is everything, such as Germany, Japan or even China, heads would have rolled, figuratively speaking.

This is not to say Africans do not understand the role education plays in the welfare of their communities, but it would appear from the continent-wide lack of reaction to the Burundi experiment that a wholesome comprehension of the institution is lacking. Credit should be given where it is due, and in this light the role played by African governments in ensuring that their citizens are offered the opportunity to get an education cannot be underplayed. The fact of the matter remains that our leaders strive to provide education to the masses in the hope of improving their prospects, but have not grasped the finer points of the process, meaning the efforts to educate the masses are bound to fail.

I believe that, apart from the issues mentioned before, at the core of this failure lies an induced ideological poverty, the same kind that plagued the very first leaders on the continent. It is known that they were of the "let independence come and solutions will follow" mentality. In the case of efforts to educate the masses of Africa, our leaders tend to believe the solution to development lies in merely building schools, educating teachers to teach, packing classrooms full to the brim with African children, then sitting back and hoping that all else will follow.

The importance of education in our modern world requires that we formulate the overall objectives, content, organization and strategies of education. It is not just enough to have a number of schools we must see to it that they are able to get us where we want to go. If we discover we shall require 200 of a kind of factory within 30 years, it is to the schools we must look for the personnel that will run them. Here, we must ensure that the quantity and quality of labor required to properly run the plants is delivered in time, failure of which could make the project impossible, too expensive if we get the factories but have to rely on more expensive foreign labor, and so on. In this light, it is prudent to change aspects of the education process that hamper the objectives we set as soon as we are aware of them, otherwise we settle for second best or, as the case is in the present, schools themselves become the vehicle by which so much goes wrong, by which we fail, the weak link in the system.



Having dealt with a function of language as it relates to the intellectual growth of an individual, we can proceed to the function of education as it also relates to intellectual growth. Here, I will explain just why this function cannot sufficiently be fulfilled when the student goes through the process encumbered linguistically, why, instead of improving their mentality, most of them will actually walk out of the other end of this system less the better.

The purpose of education is to transmit knowledge and cultural heritage as well as influence the social and intellectual growth of the individual. A more philosophical way of looking at it is provided by PD. Maroon Tiger. According to him,

"...education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life. Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda...

...The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living."


The Burundi experiment shows us, and very clearly at that, that the education process in Africa is not good enough where the institution's overall aims and objectives are concerned. When we fully comprehend the implications of this, we can see how it can affect a country's very prosperity, its capacity to hold its own in an antagonistic world.

Education (or mis-education in the African case) then, can form part of the cause for a country's under-performance in economic encounters with other, better organized nations. For leaders and economists struggling to keep the ship afloat, looking every which way for impetus and flaws, the result of this experiment should be welcome news, an opportunity to reduce the number of obstacles to development. The inactivity regarding the results of the Diagne experiment makes it plain Africans, not just those in authority, have not done much of the basic math, unless, of course, they are not aware of this experiment, which is also not an excuse given the abundance of similar findings. The answer to the question of just why African countries are failing to do the right thing could very well lie here.

What the result of this experiment suggests about the products of such a flawed education system is the truth it is not just our leaders who are suffering from backwardness peculiar to the circumstances, but all of us Africans who matter to the system are affected. The problem, then, is not so much that our leaders are inept, but what becomes of all of us after we have been through an education system that is not designed to benefit us. An education system such as the one we have in Africa is only good for continued colonialism. It actually lobotomizes our minds, leaving our continent barren of essential intellectual clout, among many other things. This is to state, in no uncertain terms, that most of us Africans are suffering from a mental backwardness the defiling processing in these plants we call schools tinctures our minds with, and our propensity to blame our leaders for all of the continent's problems epitomizes the resulting mind-set. In other words, it is the pot calling the kettle black, if only the implied hypocrisy is replaced with ignorance and desperate finger pointing.

We know from the inaction that followed the Burundi experiment that as much our leaders as the bureaucrats in the education system, and the rest of us have no clue. We are like the Dutch Students thinking all is well, otherwise we would not have hesitated to do away with foreign languages and invested in a project to rewrite text books into a select African tongue, sparing no cost as we went about the venture, knowing the returns in terms of contribution from a better educated population will more than make up for the expense incurred in the process. We would have known that an Africa where the pass rate is 60% better than it currently is translates into an Africa where, for example, the average menial laborer is as conceptually dexterous as a witty and successful writer belonging to a society where only 5% make the exam cut off mark.

The difference between the two groups in the Burundi experiment is stunning when expressed in ratios, and should impinge upon any critical minded person's imagination. Only 1 out of 20 African children taught in French passed the exam, as opposed to 2 out of every 3 when the mother tongue was the medium of instruction. This is a ridiculously large margin that makes the point very clear indeed, pointing out that if it is education that Africans want to give to their children, if we understand what the purpose of schooling really is, that the point is how well turned out the final product is, then we are doing something wrong considering children taught in a local language can be better than those of us who were educated using foreign languages, this improvement itself coming without actual reforms to the education system, without any improvements to the teaching method so that it is more effective.

There can be no other explanation for why only in Africa such results do not prompt research into how such a negative situation could have escaped attention for so long, as such allowing us to learn that much more about our state, than the fact we are all negatively affected by our very education system. It is only in Africa where, even though the corporate well being of the nation is sought in socio-economic activity, such a counterproductive flaw in the system can be overlooked.

Much has been said and written over the reason why Africa fails to perform as well as most other nations outside the sphere economically. The continent keeps sliding backwards in comparable development. All the figures of growth given by our governments are worthless when the size of our economies is considered. 5-6% growth rate per fiscal year only mean the gap between the richer countries and Africa widens with the day. At this rate, we would have to make increases in GDP that are humanly impossible for there to be the prospect of change to our circumstances. Even if we are improving, we are still going backwards compared to richer countries. This statement is not farfetched for those of us who have had the opportunity to travel and reside in affluent climes. Africa looks the very image of a culture caught up in the past whenever we return. Useful technologies come and go in the West and other developed countries without reaching Africa before they are phased out, because the infrastructure for their use is still not available in Africa, and cannot even be contemplated.

There are a lot of African thinkers who attempt to bring this reality home but, to me, the reasons most of them put forward to explain this sad state of affairs pick out effects rather than root causes. There is however a book out there that comes close to the conclusion I draw here called "IQ and the wealth of nations". It is essentially the IQ of Africa that is the chief culprit in this affair. Where my argument differs from that of the authors of this book is in the fact I do not believe Africans are in any way inherently inferior to anybody out there. I also do not think it is possible to measure intelligence with numbers. Unlike the authors of this book, I think IQ is a measure of how well adapted one is to the prevailing culture, or system.

All in all, "IQ and the wealth of nations" is an attempt to support a preconception. The conclusions are drawn from fallacious arguments born not so much out of evil intentions, but as much hypocrisy and a desire to cover up the ugly truths responsible for the state Africa is in, and provide the cloak by which the robbery of a people can continue.

The authors of this book were obviously at pains to underplay the role neo-colonialism still plays in Africa's underdevelopment, which includes the frustration of progressive ideas, something that is unnecessary if their argument held some grain of truth.

Indeed, IQ does have a lot to do with it, but then I base the cause of this problem on the education system rather than genetic factors. Unlike those waiting for the "Flynn effect" to take effect, I believe the true potential of the African's mind is clearly demonstrated by the result of Diagne's experiment: by the group in that experiment that outdid all expectations.

Given the African has the potential, the conclusion must be drawn there is something going wrong with his education. Diagne's experiment actually provides us with the problem and resolution if we only can see this. It is well known that IQ scores tend to be genetic. A+ students also have high IQ test results. Obviously, an Africa where an average of 65% of students pass the exams, as opposed to only 5% in the control group, represents an Africa with a significant increase in the mean IQ. This means that a lot of our bright people are failing to show their colors in the education system, not because they are genetically dumb, but because there is an impediment inherent in the institution as it is in Africa they are failing to surmount.

At the risk of sounding simplistic, I should state I am aware there are a lot of factors that should be taken into consideration before drawing the kind of conclusions that I have here, one of which would be a follow up of the Diagne process throughout the education life of the subjects. Only if such pass rates can be sustained throughout the learning process, everywhere in Africa, can the result be considered conclusive.

Frankly, I cannot see how the performance of these pupils at a later stage in the education process could be different given what we are dealing with here is the foundation, given the fact a good foundation is the most important part of the education process.

To stress this point, Africa does indeed have a low IQ issue that is fortunately a problem that can be solved in a mere generation's time because it is not genetic, as long as we Africans modernize our tongues, change the language of tuition in our schools, then eventually hand control over to the generation that has been educated solely in these adjusted institutions of learning, and remember to keep them safe from those benefiting from neo-colonialism while we go about this procedure, otherwise they will find a way to throw a spanner in the works. This may seem crude, but we Africans need to realize those of us who are products of the education system are not good enough as leaders in such a system. We are out of it, lost generations that need to step out of the game as soon as those whose mentalities have not been defiled, as ours have, are ready to take over.

The usual objection raised whenever the issue of such a massive scale overhaul of an institution is raised, especially in an impoverished country, is cost. As has already been stated, the process of changing the language of tuition will cost money, but it is a good investment. The Investment will definitely be worth it in the long run. We can be sure of this if we understand the role education plays in the life of man. It is one of those things that we cannot afford not to do.

The good news is that such a venture doesn't have to be massively expensive. To spare the costs, it is not necessary to change all the books at once, but to do it gradually, starting with a single age group, a single school year. As the first experimental group progresses through the system, those to come will simply follow through their footsteps, through an improving system that is being tested every step of the way.

My point in writing this piece is to use the research I have done on the flawed education process in Africa, taking advantage of the experiment done in Burundi, and some other places, that makes it easier to portray the flaw, to enlighten about precisely the issue of schools churning out individuals whose minds are so tampered with they are of limited use to the future of the nation, about what we are doing to the minds of our children, and by connection to the intellects of those tasked to lead us into a better tomorrow, when we send them on the education journey that is peculiarly African. I hope that I have shown in this essay the connection between this and the loss of our worldview, and our very intellects. Keep in mind that there is much more being sacrificed as a result of this issue.

I hope that it is not too late to remedy the situation, that somewhere, soon, a leader will emerge who will help us take the steps we need to make the appropriate changes to our education culture that includes what I propose, and also the reinstatement and/or reinvigoration of those of our ways that have been cast aside as we went about building our new nations merely believing if we do as others outwardly do, all else will follow. I fear that, as time is passing, as more and more generations are robbed of their cultural heritage, and less and less of the people who can see the madness exist, the chances of correcting this issue get slimmer and slimmer. Keep in mind that without a worldview, we are a people who have forgotten who they were. The skeletal structures of our languages are still there to provide some kind of one-eyed guidance, but it will not take long before even this is gone. Then, we will have lost the last link we have to our past, the past civilizations still reverberating in our tongues, and possibly the capacity to survive itself, for, in a world like this one, in a system like the prevailing one, a people who forget who they are die.

(Excerpt from the book Africa's Lost Generations. Adapted to this blog by Mukazo Vunda)

Monday 15 August 2011

African Economic Independence is Only Possible if Africa Stops Playing the Economic Role Handed Down from the Colonial Era

A little over a century ago, right after the African continent was divided up in Berlin, European military might was felt on the entire continent of Africa. As one after another african polity fell to European empires, African elders and rulers were of the consensus that what ailed Africa at the time was western technological know-how. Getting the capacity to create western technology themselves would have been seen as the route to eventual African freedom. The basics of the problem remained well within sight of our ancestors. The problem from their perspective was simple and straightforward: africans had been defeated and the reason was known.

Not idle players in the game, the colonizing forces were aware of the advantage, and aimed to keep it, having sung songs to this effect as they slew resisting African armies. One of these would be the "we have guns, but they don't" chant the Germans used to give themselves morale as they chipped away at Togolese tribal resistance from 1884. The subsequent system of oppressive rule the colonizers introduced and maintained on the continent was aimed to keep them this advantage.

Two generations later, the fight for independence began to bear fruit. However, Africans of the independence era were different from Africans of the pre-colonial era. Their circumstances had changed a lot. Their problems were not as straight forward as those of their ancestors had been. Complex as these had become, the road to salvation lay in tackling the major problems first, the original first item to which a few others were added which could also be considered as primary.

First of these was the way the continent had been divided in 1884. Another was born when the period of cultural suffocation created within the African psyche a proclivity for strengthening the colonial system, also known as mental slavery.

If we agree that the colonizers were not yet ready to leave the vast reserves of resources on the continent to Africans, we can easily see why it's not wrong, or belittling to the efforts of individual African freedom fighters to claim that they were seen as the right persons for the positions of rule when the colonizers gave independence to African countries. By this careful selection, they ensured that conditions in their respective colonies were just right, that Africans were not going to tip the delicate balance of power they enjoyed. To this effect, the activity of colonial officials was increased towards the dates African countries were gaining independence, and not decreased as would be expected of a retreating power. The obvious aim here was to leave no stones unturned.

Saying that the majority of rulers they entrusted to rule were their good boys shouldn't take away from the contributions that individual African leaders from this era made to the cause. The term "interlocutors valuables", though not an accidental euphemism, was sometimes applied to persons who understood the odds well, who bid their time and waited for the right time to strike.

Most of the trusted African freedom fighters were thinking men too, who tended to know what they were doing, who sometimes stumbled on truths the colonizers would not have intended them to, whether knowing or incognizant of the qualities which made them fitting of the role assigned to them by the colonizers. In cases where these individuals would be known trouble makers, accidents waiting to happen, the colonizers either accepted to allow the person to rule knowing fully well that they had, and would keep the situation firmly under control. The retribution we have witnessed in instances when the extreme African went too far bear witness to this statement.

The Patrice Lumumba tragedy would not be a far fetched example to use for this.

Our freedom fighters meant well, but many had serious shortcomings, many of which we must recognize for our own good, especially now when we seem to be veering down the same old path. One of these was what has been termed "ideological poverty", the "let independence come and solutions will fall from the blue" mind set. This entrance into self rule meant that Africans had to learn how to manage a modern economy as they went along, entailing that they make many faults along the way, and since the other side was not standing still as Africans grew conscious, but continued to play a self-interested role in the developmental process, meant that our freedom fighters were beaten every part of the way.

A classic example would be the need by almost all African leaders to work hard to increase production of their major exports, believing as it were in the fruits of hard work, eager to prove the belittling words of their former masters that Africans couldn't do as well as whites at running a country wrong, as such playing into the trap. Contrary to what has been said about the continent in the era right after independence, from around 1960 to 1975, almost all African countries increased production of their main export item, only to discover that their earnings didn't increase with production, but stayed at the same level. They became aware, while in office, that the system was designed to give them a disadvantage.

As it turns out, the talk of the inability of African leaders to manage a country as well as Europeans served both to keep Africans in a frenzy of counter productive activity which enriched the west, while ignoring the real issue.

Those who made removing this disadvantage their first priority would not see their fight to its end, but would be removed violently from power. A typical example would be Kwame Nkrumah, whose original coining of the term neo-colonialism was an apt description of the relationship.

Ultimately, outwitted as it were, Africans couldn't play the game on their own terms. As such, the necessary changes to their colonial designs were not theirs to make. The fight to remove the impediments that the African suffered continued in full ernest, along the same old disadvantaged lines, with the results benefiting other countries.

Today, we have more knowledge than our freedom fighters had, there are sufficient highly educated individuals on our side. If there is anything we can learn from this short past, it is that the world never was willing to stand still and assist us out of our problems, and is not about to stand still for us any time soon. It has got more complex along the way, and will continue to do so, meaning that more insight and cunning is required of us, now more than ever.

We live in an era where complex issues have amassed making sight of root causes difficult. To the disadvantages which Africans had at the time our ancestors were defeated have been added other, more subtle issues whose identification and placing on the list of faults requires not only education, but a lot of vision. The resolution of the African conundrum requires not only textbook knowledge of the mechanics of economics, but an ability to play the game better than the best, to innovate. Knowing how the chess pieces are moved will not suffice. Becoming a good player, thinking ahead, knowing which moves matter is the solution.

So far, we have sought high and low for most of our problems, exacerbated during the short period of neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism, and today, even with our NePAD and the AU, have come up with solutions which, even though they do contain the resolution of the root cause of our misery in their agenda, relegate a secondary role to it.

Africa with NePAD or the AU is thus entering the foray blind, with only hope to guide us along, much as the freedom fighters did a generation ago. Ideological poverty is still an aspect of the African pioneer's makeup, even in this delicate phase of our struggle, which may turn out to be the last leg of the tournament, as Africa single handedly binds itself into a position of perpetual servitude to the rest of the world.

At base, the route causes of the African crisis remain the same, and are very simple. The problems have one source western aggression against peoples of this continent which manifested itself in slavery, the partition of Africa in 1884, and colonial rule. The failure of earlier attempts at pan-Africanism lies in the fact that they have tended to ignore the need to prioritize these three factors.

Following one of these root causes along the way reveals how much a simple act in Berlin some 110 years ago has affected our daily lives.

The fact that African border divisions after colonialism didn't reflect the ethno-cultural realities on the continent has not only provided fertile ground for tribalism, fueling regional conflicts, but, through this same tribalism provided for circumstances which support nepotism, creating mediocrity on management levels in both public and private sectors, adversely effecting decision making qualities of leaders and led, and the eventual productivity of these companies and countries on a global scale

Another failure can be seen in that today Africa has a reasonable number of highly educated people, but, if this abundance isn't utilized because of the above named reasons, it then falls prey to other ills, whose routes also lie in this inability of Africa to prioritize the problem of properly defining the profile of its inhabitants.

Since many countries neglected or gave insufficient attention to the pursuit of job creating growth for example, many of the highly qualified either languish the streets unemployed, or seek better pastures abroad in what is known as the intellectual drain.

All these negative factors notwithstanding, a situation where individuals leave their own country to seek a better life in places where they are sometimes only welcome for their expertise implies that their country has lost its value as a home. If we isolate cases where Africans leave their continent for purely financial reasons, we are still left with a large percentage who would have stayed behind out of loyalty to their group or tribe, even when there was mismanagement of the economy by this same tribe. As it is, the usurping of positions by another tribe in a dead end trend provides a reason to stay out of the country for prolonged times.

In short, to quote from a friend of mine, "a homeland that is not capable of maintaining the profile of its people in a predatory world is not a homeland at all", and that is what Africa is at the moment.

Though calling for the prioritizing of redesigning Africa according to ethno-cultural realities may sound like a tribalist's approach, it is at base an acceptance of a human condition. Further more, there is no country on this planet which is not run by and for a single ethnic group, and today's multicultural societies, though professing pluralism, have not made a move towards equal ethno-cultural status, but towards ethno-cultural hegemony. Cases where more ethnic groups have existed side by side are kept peaceful with considerable effort, and where the tutelage has been removed, there has almost always been an immediate outbreak of ugly ethnic conflicts.

The AU's Peace and Security Council, whose creation was approved by the Durban summit, is meant to handle problems whose route lies in the very lines which slice up the continent. The good point of the council is that, once governments agree to it, they accept a partial erosion of their sovereignty. The council can dispatch troops into their territories if there is a problem, a situation out ruled in the old OAU. This, coupled with the system of peer review, which many have seen as equivalent to the threat of an innocuous cold shoulder, may evoke a picture of clever moves towards a unified Africa, but is to me a resolve to ignore, not to prioritize the root causes of our decrepitude first, and rightly combating the easier to handel effects later in a same drive at unification. The way things are going, we are effectively rendering future effective remedies useless by allowing complicating circumstances to follow us whichever way we go. The situation is similar, if not the same as the independence era when African presidents carried explosive baggage into a new era.

The winds of change have visited the continent again, and it is important not to repeat old mistakes again. For the pessimists: the very fact that individual African rulers are willing to sit at the same table and even accept erosion of their sovereignty, even if partially, shows that the time is right to go all the way to place the major issue on the table and proceed in its resolution, a move which, once the advantages are made obvious, will surprise Africans by the willingness of individual members to play along, and the ease with which we will enter a new, united era.

I hate for my grand child, who may volunteer for the African army in future, to have to state the old colonially rooted geographical division, with all its ills and diseases still intact, probably also washed off on the boy's mind and physic, as his country of origin. I hate for him to associate this very division with race itself, like Africans do today, because this reveals the reality that the African identity is still a product of the Berlin conference. This, to my mind, will be the evidence that "the shackle on good sense" is still our predicament, that all we are doing in our age is changing names of countries and organizations without changing the constitution, and hoping that this affects the nature of the arrangement, wrongfully seeing in this the prospect of future success.