Africa's 'Dome of Shame'
If African governments "allow their people to learn by doing", Africans will
build their "monuments of glory".
Last Modified: 08 Dec 2012 10:53
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The new African Union Building in Addis Ababa is a gleaming and magnificent
piece of architectural design and engineering feat. It was a gift from the
People's Republic of China (PRC) to the African Union (AU). China's
president, who was in the Ethiopian capital earlier this year, handed over
the keys of the establishment to the AU in the presence of very large number
of African political leaders.
The Dome, as I prefer to call the complex, showcased China's economic and
engineering prowess, and was celebrated as a symbol of the new productive
relationship between the Asian superpower and the African continent.
A number of African scholars have recently argued that China is working with
African countries to advance the continent's development, while the United
States is deeply engaged in security and terror issues in Africa. This
argument is made in order to explain why China is beating the West in
Africa.
Most recently, China has overtaken the US as biggest trading partner of
South Africa. Although there is an element of truth in this thesis,
particularly with regard to the American involvement in Africa, I beg to
differ with the claim that China's interventions are significantly advancing
Africa's capacity to develop.
It is often noted by well-meaning but misinformed people that Ghana had a
higher per capita income than China and other East Asian states when the
former became independent in 1957. These people equate per capita income
with development capacity, and consequently suggest that Africa wasted its
potential while East Asia relentlessly pursued to expand its economic
capacity over the last 50 odd years.
China's contributions
More recently, scholars have recognised that public institutions and the
development infrastructure East Asians, such as Taiwan, inherited from Japan
was qualitatively better than what the British (Europeans) left behind in
places like Ghana. This difference partly explains the contrasting
trajectories of Asia and Africa.
Witness - Africa Rising
It is now well established that Ghana's (and other African countries')
incomes reflected the high price of primary commodities they exported. And
when commodity prices collapsed in the late 1960s, these countries were
plunged into a deep economic crisis. Therefore, Africa's weakness was fairly
due to the orientation of the inherited colonial institutions and
infrastructure.
Most certainly, the continent's industrial base was not as developed as
those of former Japanese colonies in East Asia, and African government
policies have made matters worse.
The critical question is: What the Asian or PRC leadership did differently
than Africans to advance their economies? For starters, the younger Asian
Tigers had a model of industrial development in Japan. East Asians and PRC
understood that without a strong industrial base they could not develop.
Consequently, their industrial strategy was qualitatively different than any
other Third World government through the discipline their state exercised.
State companies took the lead and this approach blossomed in China after the
post-Mao reform in the late 1970. It is the emergence of state-directed
industrial development that has given Asia or China an incredible
competitive advantage in so many fields.
To gain such an edge, the PRC did not invite others to China to build such
things as domes of shame, but instead ensured that its people learned to
build and develop enterprises by doing it the old fashioned way. Chinese
companies that are building infrastructure in Africa developed through such
processes.
Unfortunately in Africa, the state elite prefer to have others build world
class structures for them as they do not trust that their people can learn
to do so.
Travelling around the continent, one readily sees all types of construction,
such as highways, railways, hydroelectric dams, theatres, government
buildings, etc, being built by Chinese public and private companies. In such
sites, one easily observes that Africans employed in these projects are
labourers. All the technical operations are carried out by Chinese and in
some cases, even the labourers come from China.
The net effects of these projects are that Africans do not gain the
individual skills by doing it. Consequently, these workers cannot join an
expanding and complex workforce. This disables the continent from
engineering the kind of public enterprises and institutions that are
essential for Africa to catch up and leapfrog in the global economic
competition.
If China followed Africa's strategy it would certainly have remained the
land of famines where hundreds of thousands if not millions used to perish
regularly let alone aspire to become the economic power house it is.
The art of adopting and adapting innovative ways of developing economies and
organising institutions was pioneered by Japan after that country was
confronted with the real prospect of Western domination. More recently, a
younger generation of Asian Tigers copied and adjusted the Japanese route to
development to their circumstance, and the PRC is the latest progeny.
Poorest region
The point of this essay is not to blame China for the African elite's
incapacity or unwillingness to look after their people's interests. However,
one must strongly dispute the declaration that China's current engagements
in Africa are facilitating the continent's internal capacity to chart a
prosperous future for its people. China is consciously safeguarding its
economic and strategic interest in Africa, no more and no less, but who is
minding Africa's own?
It is nearly a half century since most African countries became independent
and the African political elite and their international associates have done
an excellent job in maintaining the continent's unenviable rank as the
poorest region in the world. This is why the African people are compelled to
operate in the margins of projects developed by Chinese and other investors.
Highways in Nairobi, the Beltway in Addis Ababa, apartment buildings on the
outskirts of Luanda, government buildings in Botswana and other facilities
elsewhere in the continent built by Chinese state companies are clear
manifestations of a crippled continent.
Beneath the media glare that surrounded the inaugural ceremony of the AU
ceremony, the Chinese guest must have minimally felt pity for his hosts
whose incompetence created the opportunity for such gift giving. In the
colonial era, Africans were denied the opportunity to develop their skills
and build their enterprises.
For instance, early last century, King Khama of Bechuanaland (today's
Botswana) established a state company to assist his people compete with
South Africa's white businesses in his territory. But the British
authorities forced Khama to liquidate his enterprise and this damaged the
future Republic of Botswana.
More recently, African governments have failed to learn from their history
and those of others by squandering opportunities to capacitate their people
so they can design and construct their own domes.
The African people's disability is unmistakably exemplified by the AU
building and that is why it is Africa's "Dome of Shame". To challenge this
history, the response of young Africans must be: never again will others
build things for us and steal our precious natural resources and markets.
The ultimate antidote to the "Dome of Shame" is the development of African
public and private enterprises that can nurture skilled and talented
workforce which will create vibrant economies that can sustain decent
livelihood. If African governments allow their people to learn by doing, I
am confident that Africans will build their monuments of glory.
Abdi Ismail Samatar is Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota
and a research fellow at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is the
author of An African Miracle.
Abdi Ismail Samatar
<
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Abdi Ismail Samatar
http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2012/12/7/201212793839309734_20.jpg
African Union Building in Addis Ababa showcases China's economic and
engineering prowess [EPA]
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Received on Sat Dec 08 2012 - 07:27:06 EST
