By Peter Makwanya
JUDGING on the current discourse centred on environmental sustainability under the broad framework of sustainable development, sometimes it is really baffling to find out that all odds are stuck against the African continent. All inherent inadequacies, negatives, drawbacks and everything bad and dull, point towards the continent’s inability to pick itself up and recover considerably well and soundly.
What is it that the African continent cannot just do right, which other continents can essentially measure up to expectations? What is Africa capable of doing which cannot be appreciated and acknowledged within the global community of nations and practices? For quite a long time, Africa has found itself at crossroads whereby it has become a victim of assumptions, allusions and alarmism including lack of ambitions and intrinsic drive.
The African continent has allowed itself to be a victim of too many teachings, lectures and assumed lack of voice. All these have culminated into Africa’s development paradigms and tonics are just exclusively prescriptive, blindfolded and unnecessarily guided. Once upon a time when Africa’s landscapes were just intact, uncorrupted and well-nurtured. They convened in Berlin and parcelled each other chunks of the virgin lands of the continent henceforth, the destruction of the environment began. The environment was deforested, degraded, manipulated, poisoned and looted, remaining with just shells, only waiting to disintegrate. Obviously, there is always the piper, who sets the tune, the prescriptive tone, measuring and setting parameters, benchmarks, and supposed outcomes. The list is endless and a vicious cycle delivering quandary and confusion.
Since time immemorial, despite riches in natural resources and capital, hunger, poverty, famine and droughts have defined Africa’s lack of progress and growth. It becomes regrettably paradoxical that as African’s resources are pillaged to build castles in developed countries, the continent as a source remain hollow, shallow and depreciating. Judging from what is afflicting the continent, the negative reports, all ills and vices, those with Africa at heart always wonder what kind of human kind is an African.
Are the Africans so careless and reckless that they always score own goals, that everything bad and backward is measured using Africa. Although we blame the erstwhile colonisers for corrupting our environments, accelerating carbon emissions and polluting the world, since the days of slavery, African chiefs sold out their own people as slaves while our modern day rulers a busy mortgaging natural resources to the Russians and Chinese for a song. Although Sub Saharan Africa appear as if cursed, clueless and with no readily available plans to uplift nations out poverty, economic quagmire and virtual incompetence, it is proving difficult for Africa to smarten up and impress, tame poverty and hunger.
All the climate related problems eating into the continent seem to have permanent home on the African continent, sometimes with the blame being shifted to the Africans themselves. Any development oriented dosage to the African continent, appear to have their genesis in the lands far-afield, originator, tutors or self-appointed think tanks, always setting the pace while Africans follow and play second fiddle. All development oriented research and funding have keys and coffers in developed countries, where most of them have never set their foot in Africa yet they research, write and pass judgements some of which are out of context with the going on in Africa. Ever since these lectures, teachings, gospels and prescriptions were initiated, almost centuries, jubilees and decades ago, Africa as a continent has never bothered to improve. Africa continues to be the dull student, concern case, caricature and remedial pupil of the world.
So many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have come projects and what they called developmental ideas, which they ended up sometimes abandoning when they proved to be out of touch with the people’s underlying structural and procedural needs.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Currently, there are some African countries with more NGOs as compared to local companies and industries hence they are taken as darlings of the continent. The particular budgets of these countries are determined by these NGOs, but they continue to wallow in poverty despite all these pampering.
No matter what efforts Africa invest in, they are always found on the losing end especially on the environmental front, food insecurity, water scarcities, conflicts and human rights abuses, among others. Some years back, some African countries used to supply food, flowers and other accessories to developed countries when they were still viewed as good boys, but when they tried to open their eyes and reclaim what were their birth right, all hell broke loose, and the master made sure that they suffer on all fronts. Agricultural production plummeted, bright minds migrated to every corner of the globe, as the centre could not hold.
- Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes here in his personal capacity and can be contacted at: [email protected]
