Africa Shamefully Adopts Foreign Begging As A Method Of Government

Africa is too rich for mothers and children to suffer in such a manner

"Et si l'Afrique refusait le développement," translated What if Africa refuses development?" This is the French title of a book written by Cameroonian writer Axelle Kabou.

According to the writer, no African country has yet managed to fight hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy, housing degradation, and to propose a company project that is understandable for its populations.

Why in Africa everything does seem destined for failure, resignation, breakup? But do Africans really want to develop? " Kabou – continues explaining the stagnation of black Africa with the refusal of development and to link this refusal to the type of culture and mentality of the Africans.

Her main thesis is that the underdevelopment of black Africa is not due to external impositions. But it is a result of the same African culture, regressive tendencies and negative behaviors deriving from backward traditions, supported by the negrist and Africanist ideologies of the period, following independence, and especially from poorly understood cultural recovery policies.

This is why according to Kabou, that after decades of imagined development, Africa has not yet managed to seize the secrets of development: science and technology. Traditionalist conformism has replaced inventiveness and creative fantasy; unproductive consumption replaced accumulation.

As a result, an international begging in the form of foreign aid application has been shamefully erected as a method of government. The ongoing economic transformations in the world are considered in Africa with indifference. Everything leads us to believe that the Black Continent is going against the current in history.

Unlike many Asian countries, Africa proves incapable of sensibly integrating foreign aid and the positive elements of its culture, so as to start along a coherent path that makes it competitive in the world.

On the contrary, it withdraws into itself, increases its internal tensions, looks with a servile spirit to a West from whom salvation is expected an international begging in the form of foreign aid has been shamefully erected as a method of government.

In essence, therefore, Kabou hopes that Africa will take the path of development, taking possession of "science and technology" as in the West, and other countries of Asia and Latin America. If Africa is still far away, it is the continent's fault and its lingering to contemplate his navel.

As a matter of fact, poor development in Africa, cannot be only attributed to the lack of adequate knowledge to hold the keys of science and technology, massive corruption has also played a significant role to sink Africa economically and underdevelopment.

Money is often taken by corrupt African leaders and politicians to foreign banks. The money helps to build a strong economy as well as improving developments, while Africa sinks with severe poverty and a poor weak economy.

In this way, I agree with Axelle Kabou's thesis that Africa actually is not keen to develop, if they do, why Africa remains the poorest continent in the world, yet is one of the richest continents in the world?

Belgian‑Ghanaian journalist Joel Savage writes the column “A Mixture of Periodicals.” A former member of the Flemish Journalists Association, he has contributed to the Weekly Spectator, Ghanaian Times, Daily Graphic and The Mirror.

Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."

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