If you don’t hold the trump cards in life, you end up with a mushy future. A future you have no control over. A despicable way of living.
The world is agog with all the terrible things people are saying and doing.
Old loyalties are torn apart, protectionism is exacerbated, and truth has become a matter of opinion.
But one thing holds true as it always has. God helps those who help themselves.
The meek are unlikely to inherit the Earth.
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When great powers become one, usually through conquest, exploitation and outright larceny; they offer the lesser ones a motley diet of olive branches, a rule book and a promise to help in exchange of good behavior.
This is a quote often attributed to Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya: “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible, and we had the land. They said, ‘let us pray’. We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land.”
And we the masses, the mere mortals, fall for it, hook, line and sinker; into believing that the ones who used us so easily will actually be our savior too. If we behave that is.
That is the reality that is being dismantled today.
But change happens out of destruction. Powers shift when hubris sets in. Opportunities open up when schisms occur.
My adopted continent has to therefore understand this. As a wakeup call. As a door that is opening.
If recent world leadership has taught us anything, it is that ‘it’s okay to think for oneself first’. It’s perfectly fine to ‘lie than take things lying down’. And of course, it’s all right to practise ‘might is right’.
African political leadership, mired as they are with the Bretton Woods strait-jacket and forward-sold to the Chinese, believe they have limited options.
But I see a silver lining. Because it’s par for the course to renege on agreements. It’s common to make new friends. It’s acceptable to be tough, hard and unfair, to make Africa Great Again.
And yes, we have some aces too.
Allow me to repeat the seven wonders the continent has–and the world covets.
Resources: for batteries, et al. Africa possesses 30% of the world’s known mineral reserves, 60% of manganese, 70% of cobalt, and 70% of iridium.
Renewables: to green the world? Africa has an almost unlimited potential of solar capacity (10 TW), abundant hydro (350 GW), wind (110 GW), and geothermal energy sources (15 GW).
Markets: for companies eager to grow. Africa has the world’s fastest-growing consumer markets and is projected to boast 1.7 billion consumers by 2030.
Politics: need African votes for legitimacy? Africa is 28% of all United Nations members.
Food security: to feed the world. Africa has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. Farming will be a trillion-dollar industry.
Green house: to absorb the world’s emissions. Africa’s forest resources comprise 650 million hectares, about 17% of the world total carbon sinks.
Immigration and militancy: as youth find few opportunities, they will migrate.
Africa’s population is estimated to almost double in the next decade while its GDP per capita is estimated to only grow by around one-third.
If ‘we the people’ don’t understand the above and realize the bargaining chips we have; then we will keep buying Musk perfume from Europe and never smell the coffee which is ours.
One makes one’s own destiny.
For too long, leadership in Africa has been conditioned to believe it needs alms to survive and accolades to feel good.
Yet, we have strong local businesses, banks and development institutions.
And our reserves (parked in the G7) and our pension savings exceed our total external debt, which in aggregate is around $1.2 trillion. And it’s only a quarter of our GDP.
Yet we suffer from a debt burden because of usurious interest costs while earning peanuts on our reserves. How is that clever and tenable?
Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it, so said renowned Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.
We have been seeds for too long. Buried and alive. Time to come out and build our own shadows. For us to be protected by ourselves.
It is believed that Ernest Hemingway said: “I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy.”
Now let’s make our own children and their children happy. Not some outsiders waxing lyrical about their ill-gotten paradise.
The gauntlet has been thrown. Let’s pick it up and run for ‘ourselves’!
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