Page 21 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 15

Economy

Presently Africa’s fractured into to keeping neo-colonialism alive. of intra-African cooperation was
51 diverse markets, argues Zonke, The challenge of African unity is taking place was in a world struc-
with populations of fewer than 10 also a challenge to the failed neo-lib- tured North-South rather than
million people. The gross domes- eral economics of the last three and South-South, which is to say that
tic products of some of these a half decades. the international corporations which
national fall below the revenues of supplied the industrial physical capi-
certain Fortune 500 companies. The bulk of Africa’s exports are tal had their own strategies.
Therefore, regional integration is raw materials. Moreover, the hare The population of liberated con-
imperative for expanding trade of primary commodities in Afri- tinental Africa is now around one
across the continent. By integrat- can exports is increasing: from 72 billion and in real terms, that is,
ing, Africa would be able to unlock to 78% over the first eleven years taking inflation into account, there
its full market potential. of this century, argues Peter Law- has been little change in real con-
rence in The Thinker magazine tinental GDP and a substantial
An African Perspective of Afri- (Vol. 60/2014pg 36). Conversely, decline in per capita income, given
can Economic Development the share of manufacturing goods the more than threefold increase in
Let us get the wisdom from our in total trade dropped from 21 to population. The EU population is
political forefathers, and this 16% while oil, the most important over 500 million with a GDP per
is what Nkrumah said in 1963: export, increased its share of trade capita of $33, 000 and a total GDP
“Since our inception, we have value from 51 to 57% over the 13 times greater than that of Africa,
raised as a cardinal policy, the same period. While Europe and the and the market is dominated by
total emancipation of Africa from US are still the main consumers its very few large corporates. On the
colonialism in all its forms. To share of Africa’s export consump- basis of these calculations African
this we have added the objective tion from just under 5% in 2000 to integration and unity is just as an
of the political union of African almost 29% in 2011. Manufacturing imperative
states as the securest safeguard as a proportion of GDP was only It is, therefore, very prudent for the
of our hard-won freedom and more than 15% in three countries, Friedrick-Ebert Stiftung together
the soundest foundation for our as compared with seven in 2000. with the EAC to call for a confer-
individual, no less than our com- Manufacturing was the key and ence of this nature to begin to do
mon, economic, social and cultural this could start with the processing something along the lines of seeking
advancement”. of the hitherto only exported raw an alternative, inclusive and broad-
Nkrumah’s ‘Africa Must Unite’ materials. As Nkrumah noted: “In based economic model, not for Afri-
remains a classic of its time, con- a country whose output of cocoa is ca only, but for the entire globe.
tains analyses of Africa’s position the largest in the world, there was We are, therefore, here today, in
in the world economy., much of not a single chocolate factory (1963, Uganda, to search for an alternative
which would not look out of place 26-27) GDP methodology.
today. It is either unity or poverty. The complexity of the current glob-
Five decades later, in spite of the Even now Ghana processes very al economy has to do with certain
development of several regional little of its cocoa output with a small fundamental disjunctures between
trading blocs on the continent, the market and the dominance of the economy, culture, and politics that
dream of African economic unity major multinationals in the global we have only begun to theorize.
and increasing strength within the market. The Berlin Conference of 1884–
world economy, seems a very long It is by now a truism that decoloni- 1885 legitimised the creeping
way away. Africa’s share of the zation meant for African countries European economic and political
world trade has declined over this that they became politically indepen- dominance in Africa and obstruct-
period from 4% to 2% while the dent but remained economically de- ed the normal historical thrust and
continent’s share of world GDP pendent on their former colonizers. continuity of African societies,
has also declined from 2,1% to The East African Community of whether in cultural developments,
1,7%. These developments come Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and economic growth, or state-building.
at a time when not only is there Rwanda attempted such a path with With an unquestioned belief in their
increasing evidence that neo-co- an industrial strategy that aimed own self-righteousness and the de-
lonialism has not been overcome to distribute industrial projects pravity of Africans, Europeans were
but that neo-liberal economics has throughout the community. How- determined to change indigenous
made a considerable contribution ever, the context in which this kind institutions and behavior and thus

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