It's interesting when I talk about Africa to ill-informed, media induced and what I would call 'poverty p*rned' ( you know... images of starving children to open your pocketbooks) individuals.
Recently, I was talking with an interested party in buying our business and she asked me what I was going to do next. I never know how to answer this question because I'm not sure people can put their minds around it.
But, I told her that I was considering moving to Africa and that in the next few years we would be doing some ground work for that.
Her reply was interesting. She said something like " Isn't really impoverished over there...I mean how would you live?"
Hmmm....where does this preconceived notion come from?
And to be honest, the church and missions has added to this delusion. Of course there is poverty, corruption and lack of moral leadership. But, as I look around here in my US setting, I see the same.
We just have different forms of it.
But my view of Africa is changing. I see Africa as a continent with unlimited potential. I see Africa as a leader in world evangelization.
I see Africa as a continent that is far from its potential right now, but as the world recognizes this, things will change. China already has been investing in Africa. I have seen whole city streets in Senegal taken over by Chinese merchants in just a few years. I have seen the Chinese building roads in the DRC . But the US keeps talking about aid....and more aid....
Here's a good block of text from a TIME magazine article; (
my thoughts in italics)
Perhaps the most compelling evidence that Africa is now a business destination is China's new love for it. While the old superpowers still agonize over Africa's poverty, the new one is captivated by its riches. Trade between Africa and China has grown an average of 30% in the past decade, topping $106 billion last year. Chinese engineers are at work across the continent, mining copper in Zambia and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo and tapping oil in Angola. Nor is this merely exploitative. ( this is debatable )China bought its access by agreeing to create a new infrastructure for Africa, building roads, railways, hospitals and schools across the continent. The current crisis is not expected to affect China's march in Africa: on the contrary, with the West's plans in Africa on hold at best, Beijing views it as an opportunity to extend China's lead. "We will continue to have a vigorous aid program here, and Chinese companies will continue to invest as much as possible," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in South Africa in January. "It is a win-win solution." Dambisa Moyo, who wrote Dead Aid, says those who need convincing about Africa should ask themselves if they are convinced about China, "because if you back China, you're backing Africa." Ecobank CEO Ekpe says part of the explanation for China's zeal for Africa is a new way of looking at Africans. "[The Chinese] are not setting out to do good," he says. "They are setting out to do business. It's actually much less demeaning." ( How would you feel if people constantly come into your neighborhood and your house taking photos and looking at them as inferior human beings?)
And that gets to what, for Africans, is the emotional heart of the matter — and why joining the business world means so much. Though it rarely occurs to Westerners who've been instructed that Africa needs their help, charity is humiliating. Not emergency charity, of course: when disaster strikes, emergency aid is always welcome, whether in New Orleans or Papua New Guinea. But long-term charity, living life as a beggar, is degrading. Andrew Rugasira, 40, runs Good African Coffee, a Ugandan company he set up in 2004 to supply British supermarkets under the motto "Trade, not aid." He is emblematic of a new generation of African antiaid, antistate entrepreneurs. For Rugasira, aid not only "undermines the creativity to lift yourself out of poverty" but also "undermines the integrity and dignity of the people. It says, These are people who cannot figure out how to develop." Aid even manages to silence those it is meant to help. "African governments become accountable to Western donors," says Rugasira, "and Africa finds itself represented not by Africans but by Bono and Bob Geldof. I mean, how would America react if Amy Winehouse dropped in to advise them on the credit crisis?" (Oh man...that's a daggar!)
So its time to reshape our ideas about Africa.
Let's think about a hand up...not a hand out.
Let's look at the potential of Africans. You'd be surprised.
