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The Rapid Africa Plan: A fundamental rethink of Africa

Opinion & Analysis
In the meantime, Africans have been getting poorer and youths and women remain marginalised, disillusioned and hopeless.

By Vince Musewe

AFRICA is well-known for its prodigious resource base which, unfortunately, has not been fully exploited to benefit its citizenry. Africa is also well known for its pervasive poverty which requires urgent attention.

History books are full of how Africa has been deliberately underdeveloped for many years by colonial powers and now by China. The so-called Africa Rising idea unfortunately continues to see Africa as a recipient of Western or Eastern aid to deal with poverty, while its consumption power is exploited by technologies and products manufactured elsewhere. The wealth of Africa is not in Africans’ hands.

Since the liberation struggles of the 1960s and subsequent political independence from colonialism, Africans have been talking about Africa becoming a self-sufficient continent but instead, we have seen the rise of kleptocracies which have formed predatory coalitions with foreign capital to continue to exploit and export Africa’s resource wealth.

In the meantime, Africans have been getting poorer and youths and women remain marginalised, disillusioned and hopeless.

The post-colonial political and socio-economic architectures have failed to transform African societies to informed and proactive citizens who create their own futures. The suppression of freedoms of speech, association and free enterprise has seen the rise of a predatory political elite far removed from the needs of citizens and least qualified to continue to lead the continent into the 21st century and beyond.

Africa’s economic policies continue to be masterminded by so-called developmental partners, but they have failed to realise any meaningful economic transformation for six decades.

The Chinese have taken full advantage of this and through political influence, have become the biggest lender for African infrastructural development while they extract mineral resources for their benefit. The industrialisation and modernisation of Africa seems to be on nobody’s agenda, even African leaders themselves.

The book Paradigm Shift is a first which tries to educate, inform and provoke Africans, particularly the youth, to realise that it is only themselves who must take responsibility for creating the Africa they dream of. But those dreams must be backed first by a thorough understanding of the forces at play and second, by the adoption of scientific processes of transformation in order for it to be successful and sustainable.

A paradigm shift by Africans is not only critical but the only means to lasting change. Rethinking and re-imagining Africa is, therefore, key. All this is covered in the first part of Paradigm Shift.

The power of vision, which is covered in the second part, is a thought-provoking look at leadership and why it is necessary for every African country to have visionary leadership which can articulate a leading concept which can then be translated into a national vision reality. Lack of vision has seen no progress in Africa. Despite the exciting ideas articulated by Africa’s icons such as Kwameh Mkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara and others in the 60’s, the momentum for visionary leadership has all but dissipated only to be replaced by leaders who have compromised the great vision of a highly developed African socio-economic space for self-interest. Instead, Africa’s leaders have partnered foreign predatory coalitions to milk Africa of its wealth.

This can only be addressed through revolutionary disruptive change and not evolutionary “slowly fix the problems” approach, argues Hanning Maubaiwa the author. A look at how and why revolutions are a necessary dialectic is well articulated and covered in the third part: Revolution. Understanding the nature of revolutions, why revolutions are necessary and what they can achieve is a very compelling subject matter. Without revolutionary disruptive transformation both on the political and socio-economic front, Africa is likely to stay where it is and so are its old leaders whose ideas have become obsolete.

The fast-track modernisation plan for Africa and the rapid Africa plan in themselves revolutionary are truly ideas whose time has come. In order to achieve this, the author shares some deep insights on why it is necessary and important to follow a scientific transformation process. Africa must look at itself as a unified economic powerhouse and then implement transformational projects in each country.

The African Union has failed on that score and its failures are well covered in the first section of the book. The scientific terms and language used therein must not intimidate but educate. Africa must go through rapid industrialisation and modernisation taking advantage of its resource base and people.

Africans must be their own masters as the key drivers of change and as equal partners to the West or the East. Africa must stop being an eternal beggar duped into believing that others have its interests at heart. The youth must take up the fight for a free modern industrialised Africa.

The book ends with an insightful analysis of how Western systems have failed and looks at China’s strategy for Africa. China is slowly becoming dominant in competition with the West because it has a plan for Africa and sadly, that plan is about China and not Africans. This is a continuing theme in the book, but is well covered in the last section of the book.

The author is a visionary who is seeing beyond many. A gifted social scientist whom I have much respect for after having deep conversations with him for the last eight years on what is wrong with Africa. His scientific mindset towards social transformation combined with an engineering background are unique approaches to developmental issues which will certainly open new conversations and possibilities for Africa and Zimbabwe.

After reading this book, readers should appreciate the fact that Africa is not poor but has been poorly managed. International geopolitics have deliberately underdeveloped Africa.

Only a revolution led by Africa’s youth under a new paradigm of what can be achieved can unleash Africa’s potential. The Rapid Africa Plan if adopted and implemented effectively will finally, see the modernisation and industrialisation of Africa, a dream well-articulated by Africa’s revolutionary forefathers in the 60’s, but deferred in time and space.

Yes, Africa will rise but not through the efforts of foreign capital and interests, but through Africans, especially the youth, taking the responsibility to transform Africa by first understanding why Africa is where it is today, and what needs to be done to take it where it truly belongs. A great continent with all the resources and human capital it needs!

If you truly love and care about the fate of Africa and Zimbabwe, as the author does, this book will educate and show you what needs to be done. The book “Rapid Africa Plan” is available online.

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