By Sineke Sibanda
Most African countries seem to have been struggling ever since the time they acquired their independence before and after the 50s. Intervention policies like the Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP) in Zimbabwe, and other Structural Adjustment Policies in Sub-Saharan countries such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda were all a result of foreign prejudices and compromises that failed to emancipate Africa.
Could it have been Africa’s corrupt leadership, could it have been their one size fits all policy imposition, which was incompatible with Africa’s way of life and industrialization rate? Was it a case of poor policy or just bad luck. Whatever the answer may be, the fact is it never changed how things were, it subjected African countries to the worst.
According to an Equity article by Ross Hammond, the World Bank vice president for Africa Edward ‘Kim’ Jaycox once said: “We are now insisting that the governments generate their own economic reform plans. We’ll help, we’ll critique, we’ll eventually negotiate and we’ll support financially those things, which seem to be reasonably making sense, but we’re not going to write these plans… We’re not going to do this anymore.”
Perhaps Jaycox’s words were meant to compliment the recent developments in Africa, specifically in Zimbabwe where a Nigerian businessman, Aliko Dangote has decided to invest about $400 million and where a Tanzanian Bakhresa Industrial Conglomerate is taking over the once second largest food processor in Zimbabwe, Blue Ribbon Industries.
There has been a positive reception of these investments with a firm belief that they will play an immense role in recuperating Zimbabwe’s ailing economy. The larger part of the joy coming from the mere fact that these are African based investors with a keen interest in Pan-African economies.
Energy and Power Development minister Samuel Undenge told The Herald on 3 September 2015 that Africans should drive their own development and investment.
“This is real investment. As you know, we should drive investment ourselves as Africans. He (Dangote) is a pan-Africanist and he appreciates that as Africans, we should drive the economic agenda in Africa. We should drive investment,” Undenge said.
There is a strong conviction that Africa is own self’s emancipator because it shares similar values than those that have been imposed by the other world. Economic and Industrial Development in East Asian countries beginning with Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and China charted quite similar industrial development policies and yielded striking results. Probably this is Africa’s belief too, that Africa is her own savior.
Sineke Sibanda is a student at a local university and is currently on internship in Harare.