01 Jul 2014

Africa should learn how to negotiate properly with multi-national companies and other countries interested in its wealth, says former president, Sir Ketumile Masire.

Speaking at the commemoration of Africa Day on June 28, Sir Ketumile said for decades, the dominant African narrative in the world media was of famine, war and disease. However, he said, in the light of perceived economic upturn and a relative reduction in famine and disease across the continent, the narrative had changed to progress.

He said there was a general perception of Africa as the hub for growth and development surpassing other continents in the history of mankind.“The idea of Africa’s rise comes from a straightforward interpretation of high growth rates and increased foreign investment in parts of the continent,” he said.

The former president noted that over the past decade, six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing countries were African. He said even some analysts argue that the real GDP in Africa grew twice as fast in the 1980s through to the 1990s. He added that the challenge was that most of the wealth was extractive and that there was lack of value added on the African side.

“What is happening on the continent economically is a new era of massive resource extraction, catalysed mostly by Chinese and Western countries domestic demands,” he said.He said because the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world was almost exclusively extraction without value addition, it was a process where the continents elites, the Chinese and Western countries were the only ones who benefit.

He said the common feature across the continent was a system in which an elite minority, often not from Africa, benefits extraordinarily from the natural resources the continent had and the world needed.Sir Ketumile cited a recent UN report that showed that manufacturing had stagnated across most of Africa and had regressed in 23 African countries.

“The challenge now is how Africa is going to emerge from that quagmire of self-destruction and strife to play a role in critical sectors such as manufacturing since we have lost that game to Asian manufacturing capabilities,” he said. Though Africans speak of Africa rising, he said the narrative was both mythical and complex and failed to take into account the real situation on the ground.

He cited political challenges resulting in growing religious extremism, entrenched leaders and fighting of various kinds across the continent. Coupled with this, Sir Ketumile said was the debilitating aspect of greed and corruption that was breeding across the continent. “Unless something dramatic happens, the relentless profiteering by outsiders which affects Africans both emotionally and financially, will go on throughout the next century,” he said.

He said Africa’s real rise would only come if resources could be taken control of by Africans and used to lessen inequality and spread wealth. The official date for celebrating Africa Day is May 25, but the organisers postponed it to June 28 due to the  African Youth Games which were ongoing at the time. ENDS