Is Africa's plight permanent?
18 May, 2011 | By Michael J.K. Bokor, Ph.D.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangladeshi companies say they have leased thousands of hectares
of farmland in Africa as part of their efforts to avoid future food
shortages. Two Bangladeshi companies have already signed deals
to lease unused cultivable land in Uganda, Tanzania, and Gambia.
Another agreement to lease around 30,000 hectares for 99 years
will be signed with the Tanzanian government later this week,
according to a BBC news report.
The Bangladeshi officials claim that they are going for land in those
countries because African countries have huge amounts of unused
cultivable land. At the same time, they say that Bangladesh has the
manpower and expertise to produce staple crops all year round.
Bangladesh is the world's fourth largest producer of rice and it
harvested around 34 million tonnes last year.
Under the plans, the Contract Farming System will enable
Bangladeshi companies to get at least 60% of the produce. In
return, Bangladesh will train African farmers in rain-fed rice
cultivation, seed conservation, and irrigation. It is hoped that the
new arrangement will increase food productivity and enable the
country's (meaning, Bangladesh's) expanding workforce to be
deployed in Africa's farming sector.
Listen to Wahidur Rahman, a senior Bangladeshi foreign ministry
official: “Basically, this idea is mainly for proper management of our
food security… We are thinking of expanding our agriculture, but
we do not have enough land to cultivate. Because of this, we are
thinking Africa may be the destination for our agriculture
production.”
I am persuaded to conclude that Africa is underdeveloped, not
because the continent lacks the natural and human resources, but
just because its people lack vision and the urgency of purpose.
What is wrong with the governments of these African countries for
them to cede land to the Bangladeshi companies and not their own
citizens to use for food production? Forget about the fact that those
countries might get 40% of the produce. The fact is that the
Bangladeshis stand to gain more from this venture than the Africans.
The venture will not only help Bangladesh tackle its food insecurity
problem but it will also provide work for its population. Are we in
Africa so myopic as not to see things beyond our noses?
Indeed, in the midst of plenty, Africans are suffering the worst forms
of privation because they don't know how to tap into the natural and
human resources that abound on the continent. Africa is the only
continent whose people live in the most deplorable conditions ever
recorded in contemporary times. No wonder that the continent is
synonymous with every contemptible ailment or problem that the
world knows.
The Bangladeshis are smart enough to exploit a major lapse. There
is no optimal strategy for land use in Africa or systematic official
support for farmers, which hampers food production to ensure food
security. The problem is endemic and can be seen as part of the
complications resulting from the haphazard manner in which things
are done on the continent. Thus, the Bangladeshis want to take
advantage of this lapse. And, as is to be expected, the African
leaders have fallen for their bait.
Evidence confirms that Africa is the largest continent on the globe,
which has every resource that the world needs. Ironically, though,
the continent is rated as the poorest of the poor. Indeed, statistics
show that the world's poorest countries are in Africa. Some of
them—Niger, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Mali, Central African republic, and Ethiopia—are known
for their natural and human resources that serve the interests of the
developed world.
Although the new UNDP Poverty Index (MPI) shows that India is
far poorer than Africa not just in number but also in intensity, we
can't say that Africans are better off. Just 8 Indian states contain
more poor people than 26 poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa
combined. What is surprising is not the number but the intensity
because statistics provided by the Indian government show that
there is much improvement in living standards. Woefully, living
standards in Africa plunk.
According to the UNAIDS, more than 800 million people in Africa
go to bed hungry every day, 300 million of whom are children. Of
these 300 million children, only eight percent are victims of famine
or other emergency situations. Again, world poverty facts and
statistics show that more than 90 percent of Africans are suffering
from long-term malnourishment and micro-nutrient deficiency.
The picture is really gloomy. Evidence shows that despite a wealth
of natural resources, African countries typically fall toward the
bottom of any list measuring small size economic activity such as
income per capita or GDP per capita. In many countries, GDP per
capita is less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the
population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income
has been consistently dropping over the past century by any
measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about
three times what the average African did. Now, the average
European earns twenty times what the average African does.
In 2009, the 22 of 24 countries that were identified as having “Low
Human Development” on the United Nations' Human Development
Index were located in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2006, for example,
34 of the 50 countries on the UN list of least developed countries
are in Africa. Isn't this deplorable picture too depressing?
Talk about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and Africa is regarded as the
worst affected; raise the issue of civil wars, political instability,
genocide, excruciating poverty, debilitating diseases, vices such as
bribery and corruption, overpopulation, the shortest life expectancy
rate on earth, very low per capita food production, and many other
problems of underdevelopment, and Africa is the first to come to
mind. Africans are scattered all over the world as either refugees
fleeing the conflicts at home or desperate professionals (trained at
home with the tax-payers' money) leaving their countries as a result
of the brain-drain phenomenon in search of so-called “greener
pastures” elsewhere.
Talk about situations in which a country's imports exceed its exports
(which compounds the deficit problem), situations in which people
in authority sell their national assets to foreigners for pittance,
situations in which national leaders loot the countries' coffers to buy
or build luxury homes in foreign lands, situations in which
governments collude with foreigners to dupe their own countries,
situations in which government officials manipulate the system for ill-
gotten money to deposit in the Swiss Bank (to boost Switzerland's
economy), and situations in which national politics is driven by
negative tendencies such as nepotism, tribalism, and mismanagement
of affairs, and you will not miss the mark. Africa ranks high in all
these situations.
Talk about a continent with huge swathes of arable land whose
people cannot produce food to support themselves, thus, forcing
their governments to spend scarce foreign exchange to import
common staples such as rice, corn, sorghum, fish, and meat, and
Africa rises to the first slot. Africa is the burden of the World Food
Programme and foreign countries that cannot stand by to see the
people destroyed by famine.
About 50% of the African populations live in slums. From the
outskirts of Johannesburg in South Africa to the interior of Kibera in
Kenya (Africa's largest and worst slum), life is “a living hell” for the
people. Ghana too has its Sodom and Gomorrahs, Nimas, etc.
because of the government's ineptitude.
Indeed, the alarming rate at which Africans are contributing to the
underdevelopment of their own countries (the continent, generally) is
alarming. Within the context of these crisis situations, one may be
tempted to say that Africa's plight is, indeed, permanent. And I say
so without any remorse or reservation!
The land deal with the Bangladeshis is one of the events that reveal
clearly that Africans will continue to suffer privation,
underdevelopment, subjugation, and disdain for as long as their
leaders and the entire gamut of the citizenry fail to do what will uplift
standards of living on the continent. Indeed, Africans are still
saddled with severe economic and political problems because of
their own shortsightedness. Even if they see the need to rise by their
bootstraps, they cannot succeed just because they don't know what
to do. The going is still difficult because Africans have failed to
realize that they cannot rise by their bootstraps without first having
boots! They will choose to hand over the boots to foreigners instead.
Indeed, there is no justification for anybody to continue blaming the
European colonial enterprise as the cause of Africa's
underdevelopment. We are the cause of our own doom. Decades
after the European colonial powers freed the continent, many
African countries are still struggling to be self-supporting in several
respects. They continue to sag into squalor, sliding very fast into a
quagmire that will entrap them till doomsday.
African countries cannot balance their budgets without input from
the IMF/World bank and other “Shylock financial institutions,”
which suggests that they are virtually subsisting on the goodwill of
those forces. Many African countries cannot generate enough
revenue to support their development agenda. Panhandling is the
norm. Yet, in every conceivable way, they are not ashamed. African
leaders lack vision and the administrative acumen to galvanize their
people into doing what will move the continent forward. On the flip
side, other countries know what to do to appropriate the continent's
resources. Why are we so mindless of how not to worsen our plight
through self-created problems?
Why am I so diffident and critical—or condemnatory—of the
continent and its millions of people? A good cause exists to warrant
my disposition. It is inconceivable that despite their enormous
natural and human resources, African countries are still wallowing in
poverty and looking up to foreign countries for redemption. Many
negative factors have combined to deepen Africa's woes.
Unless the situation changes for the better, nothing will be more
prophetic than these words that I stumbled upon in cyberspace:
“Africa was poor, Africa is poor, and Africa will continue to be
poor if we the Africans are not ready to change Africa. Africa will
remain poor if Africans are not ready to make Africa rich.”
The author can be reached at: mjbokor@yahoo.com
18 May, 2011 | By Michael J.K. Bokor, Ph.D.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- I don't know how you will react to
the news report below; but mine
was to immediately disregard it as
one of the nine days' wonders that
irritate people for nothing. Upon a
deeper reflection, however, I
decided not to. The report entails
more than its being a mere figment
of somebody's wishful thinking. It
reveals something to prove that we
in Africa lack the benefits of good
judgement and endeavours that
have helped other countries
Bangladeshi companies say they have leased thousands of hectares
of farmland in Africa as part of their efforts to avoid future food
shortages. Two Bangladeshi companies have already signed deals
to lease unused cultivable land in Uganda, Tanzania, and Gambia.
Another agreement to lease around 30,000 hectares for 99 years
will be signed with the Tanzanian government later this week,
according to a BBC news report.
The Bangladeshi officials claim that they are going for land in those
countries because African countries have huge amounts of unused
cultivable land. At the same time, they say that Bangladesh has the
manpower and expertise to produce staple crops all year round.
Bangladesh is the world's fourth largest producer of rice and it
harvested around 34 million tonnes last year.
Under the plans, the Contract Farming System will enable
Bangladeshi companies to get at least 60% of the produce. In
return, Bangladesh will train African farmers in rain-fed rice
cultivation, seed conservation, and irrigation. It is hoped that the
new arrangement will increase food productivity and enable the
country's (meaning, Bangladesh's) expanding workforce to be
deployed in Africa's farming sector.
Listen to Wahidur Rahman, a senior Bangladeshi foreign ministry
official: “Basically, this idea is mainly for proper management of our
food security… We are thinking of expanding our agriculture, but
we do not have enough land to cultivate. Because of this, we are
thinking Africa may be the destination for our agriculture
production.”
I am persuaded to conclude that Africa is underdeveloped, not
because the continent lacks the natural and human resources, but
just because its people lack vision and the urgency of purpose.
What is wrong with the governments of these African countries for
them to cede land to the Bangladeshi companies and not their own
citizens to use for food production? Forget about the fact that those
countries might get 40% of the produce. The fact is that the
Bangladeshis stand to gain more from this venture than the Africans.
The venture will not only help Bangladesh tackle its food insecurity
problem but it will also provide work for its population. Are we in
Africa so myopic as not to see things beyond our noses?
Indeed, in the midst of plenty, Africans are suffering the worst forms
of privation because they don't know how to tap into the natural and
human resources that abound on the continent. Africa is the only
continent whose people live in the most deplorable conditions ever
recorded in contemporary times. No wonder that the continent is
synonymous with every contemptible ailment or problem that the
world knows.
The Bangladeshis are smart enough to exploit a major lapse. There
is no optimal strategy for land use in Africa or systematic official
support for farmers, which hampers food production to ensure food
security. The problem is endemic and can be seen as part of the
complications resulting from the haphazard manner in which things
are done on the continent. Thus, the Bangladeshis want to take
advantage of this lapse. And, as is to be expected, the African
leaders have fallen for their bait.
Evidence confirms that Africa is the largest continent on the globe,
which has every resource that the world needs. Ironically, though,
the continent is rated as the poorest of the poor. Indeed, statistics
show that the world's poorest countries are in Africa. Some of
them—Niger, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Mali, Central African republic, and Ethiopia—are known
for their natural and human resources that serve the interests of the
developed world.
Although the new UNDP Poverty Index (MPI) shows that India is
far poorer than Africa not just in number but also in intensity, we
can't say that Africans are better off. Just 8 Indian states contain
more poor people than 26 poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa
combined. What is surprising is not the number but the intensity
because statistics provided by the Indian government show that
there is much improvement in living standards. Woefully, living
standards in Africa plunk.
According to the UNAIDS, more than 800 million people in Africa
go to bed hungry every day, 300 million of whom are children. Of
these 300 million children, only eight percent are victims of famine
or other emergency situations. Again, world poverty facts and
statistics show that more than 90 percent of Africans are suffering
from long-term malnourishment and micro-nutrient deficiency.
The picture is really gloomy. Evidence shows that despite a wealth
of natural resources, African countries typically fall toward the
bottom of any list measuring small size economic activity such as
income per capita or GDP per capita. In many countries, GDP per
capita is less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the
population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income
has been consistently dropping over the past century by any
measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about
three times what the average African did. Now, the average
European earns twenty times what the average African does.
In 2009, the 22 of 24 countries that were identified as having “Low
Human Development” on the United Nations' Human Development
Index were located in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2006, for example,
34 of the 50 countries on the UN list of least developed countries
are in Africa. Isn't this deplorable picture too depressing?
Talk about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and Africa is regarded as the
worst affected; raise the issue of civil wars, political instability,
genocide, excruciating poverty, debilitating diseases, vices such as
bribery and corruption, overpopulation, the shortest life expectancy
rate on earth, very low per capita food production, and many other
problems of underdevelopment, and Africa is the first to come to
mind. Africans are scattered all over the world as either refugees
fleeing the conflicts at home or desperate professionals (trained at
home with the tax-payers' money) leaving their countries as a result
of the brain-drain phenomenon in search of so-called “greener
pastures” elsewhere.
Talk about situations in which a country's imports exceed its exports
(which compounds the deficit problem), situations in which people
in authority sell their national assets to foreigners for pittance,
situations in which national leaders loot the countries' coffers to buy
or build luxury homes in foreign lands, situations in which
governments collude with foreigners to dupe their own countries,
situations in which government officials manipulate the system for ill-
gotten money to deposit in the Swiss Bank (to boost Switzerland's
economy), and situations in which national politics is driven by
negative tendencies such as nepotism, tribalism, and mismanagement
of affairs, and you will not miss the mark. Africa ranks high in all
these situations.
Talk about a continent with huge swathes of arable land whose
people cannot produce food to support themselves, thus, forcing
their governments to spend scarce foreign exchange to import
common staples such as rice, corn, sorghum, fish, and meat, and
Africa rises to the first slot. Africa is the burden of the World Food
Programme and foreign countries that cannot stand by to see the
people destroyed by famine.
About 50% of the African populations live in slums. From the
outskirts of Johannesburg in South Africa to the interior of Kibera in
Kenya (Africa's largest and worst slum), life is “a living hell” for the
people. Ghana too has its Sodom and Gomorrahs, Nimas, etc.
because of the government's ineptitude.
Indeed, the alarming rate at which Africans are contributing to the
underdevelopment of their own countries (the continent, generally) is
alarming. Within the context of these crisis situations, one may be
tempted to say that Africa's plight is, indeed, permanent. And I say
so without any remorse or reservation!
The land deal with the Bangladeshis is one of the events that reveal
clearly that Africans will continue to suffer privation,
underdevelopment, subjugation, and disdain for as long as their
leaders and the entire gamut of the citizenry fail to do what will uplift
standards of living on the continent. Indeed, Africans are still
saddled with severe economic and political problems because of
their own shortsightedness. Even if they see the need to rise by their
bootstraps, they cannot succeed just because they don't know what
to do. The going is still difficult because Africans have failed to
realize that they cannot rise by their bootstraps without first having
boots! They will choose to hand over the boots to foreigners instead.
Indeed, there is no justification for anybody to continue blaming the
European colonial enterprise as the cause of Africa's
underdevelopment. We are the cause of our own doom. Decades
after the European colonial powers freed the continent, many
African countries are still struggling to be self-supporting in several
respects. They continue to sag into squalor, sliding very fast into a
quagmire that will entrap them till doomsday.
African countries cannot balance their budgets without input from
the IMF/World bank and other “Shylock financial institutions,”
which suggests that they are virtually subsisting on the goodwill of
those forces. Many African countries cannot generate enough
revenue to support their development agenda. Panhandling is the
norm. Yet, in every conceivable way, they are not ashamed. African
leaders lack vision and the administrative acumen to galvanize their
people into doing what will move the continent forward. On the flip
side, other countries know what to do to appropriate the continent's
resources. Why are we so mindless of how not to worsen our plight
through self-created problems?
Why am I so diffident and critical—or condemnatory—of the
continent and its millions of people? A good cause exists to warrant
my disposition. It is inconceivable that despite their enormous
natural and human resources, African countries are still wallowing in
poverty and looking up to foreign countries for redemption. Many
negative factors have combined to deepen Africa's woes.
Unless the situation changes for the better, nothing will be more
prophetic than these words that I stumbled upon in cyberspace:
“Africa was poor, Africa is poor, and Africa will continue to be
poor if we the Africans are not ready to change Africa. Africa will
remain poor if Africans are not ready to make Africa rich.”
The author can be reached at: mjbokor@yahoo.com
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