Page 76 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 4
P. 76
TRUE AFRIKAN LEADERS TRUE AFRIKAN LEADERS
can president. purpose. Eurocentric knowledge, Critics of the incumbent Jubilee
Stimulated with the full glare of as Edward Said once observed, administration led by Uhuru Ken-
Trump’s political turmoil in Ameri- was not produced just for its own yatta have pointed out that the
ca, countries in the oriental world sake. Its purpose throughout the government’s appetite for mas-
are busy trying to reclaim their ages has been to enable them to sive loans has been exacerbat-
former prominence on the world “know” us “the natives” in order ed by an equally pervasive cul-
stage. Unlike the situation in Af- to take control of our territories, ture of corruption in the country.
rican academies, many Asian including human and material Indeed, Kenya has a history of
scholars are also engaged in an resources for their benefit. To multi-million-dollar scandals that
ardent effort to respond to the date, such control of knowledge have failed to result in high-pro-
new reality by reexamining basic continue being used to exploit file convictions. Overall in Africa,
political principles. Their effort is African communities across the a report by the Global Financial
not only academic or philosoph- continent, most educational pro- Integrity (GFI) estimates that Af-
ical; it is also deeply moral – a grammes at universities are de- rica lost between USD 36 billion
situation where these scholars signed and aimed at advancing and USD 69 billion between 2005
are making an effort at preserving the mental and geo-strategic in- and 2014 in illicit financial flows.
what is of value in their own cul- terests of mainly leading Western This represents about 74% of all
tures and traditions while adapt- countries and increasingly China financing required (approximately
ing to the changing geopolitical as well. USD 93 billion per year) to devel-
designed to prepare young Af-“
circumstances and engaging in op infrastructure to service Afri-
new relationships. As Africans we ca’s growth needs.
must try and simply do the same. colonial education was not
In Africa today, there is a trag- The African State as
‘Police Boots and Barbed
ic contrast between intractable ricans for the service of their
Wires’
problems and knowledge explo- own countries; it was instead
sion that has made politics an Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo
even more confusing business. motivated by a desire to incul- captures well the current traves-
The sheer quantity of knowledge cate the values of the colonial ty in his 1986 classic ‘Decolonis-
available is mind-boggling and ing the Mind’ where he called for
is increasing exponentially every state. further attention to the corrupting
power of Western imperialism
day. And yet, in spite of this, most
of our political problems are get- Today, whereas Africa’s total ex- and the equally detrimental polit-
ting worse. There is, as such a ternal debt is estimated at USD ical and economic subservience
of the African neo-colonial elites
need to transform the production 417 billion, around 20% of Afri-
who are busy mortgaging African
and dissemination of knowledge can government external debt is
communities to the highest bidder
to make it more useful for solving owed to China. Whilst a further
African problems. 35% of African debt is held by – a situation that has led to a cul-
Since gaining independence in multilateral institutions such as ture of what Thiongo calls “ape-
manship and parrotry enforced on
the early 1960s, the African Uni- the World Bank, with 32% owed
a restive population through po-
versity and the African govern- to private lenders, China remains
lice boots, barbed wire, a gowned
ments that created them have the largest single creditor nation,
dismally failed to chart new paths with combined state and com- clergy and judiciary”. Needless
for Africa’s emancipation and mercial loans estimated to have to say, as presently constituted,
the vast majority of Africans re-
liberation and Africa finds itself been USD 132 billion between
main alienated from the postcolo-
in deep, multidimensional cri- 2006 and 2017. In a 2019 report
nial state which remains a colo-
ses that require deeply thought by the World Bank, 18 African
out solutions and responses, if countries have been classified as nial imposition and is incapable of
Africans are to reclaim what the at high risk of debt distress, a sit- expressing the basic ideals of the
African community.
late Koffi Anan once declared as uation where debt-to-GDP ratios
In my view as such, without ap-
‘Africa century’. The problem for has surpassed 50%. Here in Ken-
prehending the cultural, econom-
African academics is that we can- ya alone, the current public debt
not just continue talking about the stands at a staggering USD 50 ic, and ideological aspects of Eu-
production of ‘knowledge for its billion or 56.4% of the country’s ropean violence meted on African
communities, it is impossible to
own sake’ without interrogating its gross domestic product (GDP).
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