54 FROM AID TO COOPERATIONMyth-busting: a sine qua non forAfrica’s 21st century developmentPersistent misconceptions about the challenges that Africa faces are preventing progress.If the continent is to achieve development this century, the real issues must be addressedBy Sylvie Aboa-Bradwell, Founderand Director, Policy Centre for AfricanPeoples, London, UKBack in 2008, a group of like-mindedindividuals created the Policy Centrefor African Peoples to provide aplatform for the engagement and educationof Africans and key stakeholders in theUK, Africa and elsewhere. We weretired of how debates on African topicswere monopolised by non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs), celebrities,politicians and entrepreneurs purportingto seek the development of Africa when,in fact, their modus operandi and, in somecases, their existence, depended on theperpetuation of aged-old myths that werehindering this development.There will always be countless mythsabout all sorts of people and places.Thus, at first glance, it may seempointless and foolhardy to conditionAfrica’s development to the debunkingof widely held but false ideas. However,certain myths are so detrimental toAfrican development that rebuttingthem is imperative for Africa to achievedevelopment in the 21st century.Myths, foreign handouts andAfrican developmentProbably the most ingrained myth aboutAfrica is that its main challenge is poverty.In reality, Africa is the world’s mostresource-rich continent. Poverty is notits problem, but a mere symptom of thereal problem that has been gnawing at thiscontinent for centuries: the squandering ofits wealth by leaders and partners that areunaccountable to African populations.With a few exceptions, from the 16thcentury onwards, the most powerfulAfrican leaders have been those who havedisregarded their people’s interests tosatisfy their personal desires and thoseof their successive partners, includingslavers, colonialists and big businesses,both foreign and local.The corollary of the aforementionedmisconception is the ‘save Africa’ myth,which stipulates that poverty-strickenAfrica desperately requires aid fromforeign governments and charities to fulfilthe basic needs of its people, and achievedevelopment. In fact, foreign aid and whatcould be termed the ‘beggary industry’fomented by international NGOs aremajor contributors to Africa’s continuousunderdevelopment.slave-trading were fundamentally evil anddifferent from us. In fact, they were justnormal human beings who were as fallibleand motivated by misconceptions andself-interest as many of us. Furthermore,slave traders and owners were oftenconvinced that they were helping theslaves by introducing them to civilisation,Christianity, etc. In other words, foreignaid and charitable engagement, our mainpolicies towards Africa, are motivated bythe same thinking that made some peoplebelieve that slavery was good for Africans.Though these policies are happening inmodern times under the illusion of change,their repercussions are equally damagingto African populations and detrimental toAfrica’s development.The most pernicious consequence offoreign aid and charitable donations forCertain myths are so detrimental to Africandevelopment that rebutting them is imperativeIn the past, the lifelines ofunaccountable, self-interested Africanrulers were the weapons and goodssupplied by their slave-trading partners.Nowadays, they rely on foreign handoutsfor the subsistence of their populations,while they block their countries’development by wasting their wealth.This parallel between past slavers andmodern-day individuals and organisationsmay be difficult to accept because ofanother myth. We often assume that ourpredecessors who engaged in slavery andAfrica is that they are depriving Africancitizens of the basic human right to holdtheir leaders to account. In so doing, theymaintain the status quo by prolongingthe centuries-long oppression andunderdevelopment of African populations.The myth of Africa as a continentrepeatedly plundered by outsidersconceals the reality that throughoutthe centuries, some African elites havebeen agents and beneficiaries of thedomination of African populations andlooting of African wealth. Most of today’sGLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2014
FROM AID TO COOPERATION55© GettyAfrican leaders are the beneficiaries of afundamentally corrupt system wherebypower was generally handed not to themost principled, responsible or honestAfrican individuals, but to those who werethe most shameless, corrupt and eagerto serve their own interests and those oftheir foreign partners.Too often, those who point to Africanhistory to explain the current state ofaffairs are accused of playing the ‘blamegame’. This overlooks the uniqueness ofAfrican history. Africans have had theirsocieties and self-confidence completelyshattered by centuries of slave trade,colonisation and neo-colonisation. Thus,unlike the people of China, India, andother former colonies, they generallylack the basic self-assurance necessaryto design appropriate solutions to theirspecific problems and are more likelyto internalise foreign misconceptionsabout themselves.The way forwardThis does not mean that there is no hopeor way forward for Africa in the 21stcentury. Simply debunking harmful mythsRelatives of Congolese soldiers stand in the formerpalace of late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, in Gbadolite.Mobutu, who ruled Zaire (now Democratic Republic ofthe Congo) for 32 years, gained notoriety for the scaleof his embezzlement and luxurious lifestyleis not the endgame, but an indispensablefirst step on the long road to Africa’sdevelopment. This should address thefollowing five areas.Africans must realise that though thereis no single solution for all the 53 Africanstates, there is no template outside Africafor rebuilding and developing a continentGLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2014
Change language