By Paidamoyo Muzulu
FLYING across Africa is still a nightmare. Travellers have to deal with visas and connecting flights at every hop. This proves that the continent, despite its high-sounding development agenda, is still far from being united as many things are still controlled by the colonial past.
In the past week, I travelled to west Africa to attend an African bloggers conference in Ivory Coast. It took me two days to travel from Harare to Abidjan, a distance that usually takes nine-and-half hours. There are no direct flights and one has to travel through Ethiopia, east Africa and then traverse east to west roughly across the equator.
Ethiopia, one of the two countries in Africa that were never colonised by the imperial West, is the nerve centre of Africa’s aviation industry. This is a legacy that was bequeathed to the nation by its visionary leaders. It started running an airline, Ethiopian Airlines, as far back as 1946.
Ethiopian Airlines is one of the biggest airlines in the world and has over 130 planes. Most of the planes are modern such as the 787 Dreamliners and Airbus A350s. Its sheer size and alliances with other airlines has made it an important cog in the aviation industry.
Besides the negativity of frequent droughts and civil wars, the airline has become one of the best things to come out of the country. The State-controlled airline is one of the few profitable airlines in the world. In financial year 2019/20, it made over US$3,7 billion in revenue and a net profit of nearly US$200 million.
It flies to over 127 destinations, making its footprint one of the biggest in Africa, Europe and Northern America.
The country has developed a modern airport, Bole International Airport, which is the aviation hub for Africa, just as Dubai is for its Fly Emirates. The airline has become the centre of development, as construction in Addis Ababa is going up taking advantage of the huge tourism traffic.
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Many hotels have sprouted around the airport to provide overnight accommodation to travellers who will be waiting for connecting flights. This also has created a boon for the taxi industry, which has to shuttle travellers between the airport and the hotels.
These developments are in stark contrast to Ivory Coast, a former French colony, renowned for producing cocoa, but has no significant chocolate-making industries. It remains just an exporter of raw material to France and Belgium.
There is not much construction taking place. The capital is full of vendors. It relies on MTN and Orange for mobile communications. It has no national mobile communication company. The country has had civil wars and is under threat of the Jihadists that are running rampant in the Sahel region. The suburbs are dilapidated.
However, the most striking thing in Abidjan is the huge French military garrison, 41eme BIMA. It sits on more than 20 hectares and has many compounds and soldiers in the garrison. They also have a large avenue named after France.
This is shocking when one considers that Ivory Coast became independent more than five decades ago. It remains under considerable French control both economically and militarily.
It would be interesting to note what new developments would be put in place for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals to be played next year in Abidjan. Whether the tournament will spur on legacy developments is still a question that can be answered by time.
It is time that the same gaze should be placed on Zimbabwe. Now at 42, Zimbabwe remains one of the least developed countries in southern Africa. It has the dual enclave of former white and black economy. High-density areas have bad roads, bursting sewage, no running water and refuse is seldom collected. However, on the other side of the capital, the north-eastern suburbs have beautiful roads, world-class shopping malls, G5 internet connection and above all they can afford borehole water.
It is clear that colonialism has a burden on growth of African countries. The prevalent growth trajectories are based on what the colonial power looks like. African leaders have chosen not to be innovative, but mere copycats who thrive on mimicry as Frantz Fanon observes in his book, The Wretched of the Earth.
The Ethiopian story is inspiring. Not only do they have a large airline that is keeping the continent united and accessible or housing the African Union headquarters, but have been forward thinking to the extent that they recently launched a big hydro-electricity power plant on a dam built on Nile River.
This brings us to the famous book Why Nations Fail, the author noted that this all boils down to the leaders a nation has. Development is a deliberate thing inspired by leaders.
It is interesting to note that one State-controlled company, Ethiopian Airlines significantly contributes to the development of Ethiopia, while countries such as Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe have failed to operate State-owned enterprises and are busy hawking them to the politically connected.
It is shocking that monopolies like National Railways of Zimbabwe, Cold Storage Company and Hwange Colliery Company have been run down to the extent that they survive on Treasury bailouts.
It is no rocket science that the boards and management that have been placed to run the parastatals were appointed by the government. This week alone, we learnt why the PetroTrade board was dissolved. It was because the board refused to be used to sell the lucrative fuels company for a song to a known political honcho who hobnobs with the President himself.
It is clear that African countries need visionary leaders and not the askiris that fight to be like the former colonisers. It needs leaders that are selfless and ready to build enduring economic legacies. For now, we need to turn the tide or we sink.
