How Africa can create the future

By Dereck Tafuma 

Africa can create its own future from the ground up.  The future we want is the one we can create. The tools to create that future already exist. The most important tool we have is the mind, given any scenario we can use the mind to come up with solutions. But it is not enough to just have a mind, we need to have the correct mindset. This is where most of our intentions hit a brick wall. We approach challenges with the wrong mindset hence we offer the wrong solutions. If a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, he will offer the wrong medication for the condition the patient is suffering from. It's that simple. We need to approach challenges with an open mind, otherwise we make decisions based on wrong assumptions.

Understanding the concept of capital is the starting point in shaping the right mindset. Failure to do so results in the history of failure repeating itself. It is not enough to articulate what the problem is. We need to go further to offer practical solutions. We need to act on the solutions, evaluate, and come up with a better solution. That is the process of learning through mistakes and imperfections. We should never be content with our achievements but continue to innovate. The concept of capital now also includes cyberspace. There is competition for digital real estate. The internet is the attention business. The more attention you get, the more real digital real estate you control and can monetise. Selling advertising space is one way you can monetise. Cecil the Lion is a recent example of how mainstream media and social media increased their attention levels by repeating the tragic story of his hunt and murder by American dentist Palmer. Cecil the Capital grabbed the attention of ordinary netizens who helped highlight the plight of wildlife as a result of trophy hunting. It added to the voice of conservationists who have been fighting a losing battle with wildlife safari operators and governments.

Once we understand capital, we need to find out who controls capital locally and globally. On average, 10% of the global population control 90% of global capital. This gap contributes to inequality of capital. Inequality of capital is closely linked to inequality of income. It is the duty of governments to craft policies that attempt to reduce inequality in a country or risk social unrest. The perception of poverty is always a result of comparison with the well to do in society. Free market capitalism tends to embrace a socialist approach to public healthcare and education as some of the ways to soften the blow of inequality of capital and income.

Government policies that encourage entrepreneurship help innovative citizens and smart creatives to create capital and provide jobs. This has seen the growth of digital age entrepreneurs who have taken technological innovation to the same level and impact as the advent of the industrial revolution. These college dropouts started their innovative corporations in their garages even before Silicon Valley. They have defined digital real estate and taken advantage of research carried out by the government agency DARPA. The iPhone is a technological Frankenstein consisting of some of the innovations that were initially designed for the military. The internet, maps, GPS navigation etc, all make the smartphone an innovative gadget. Even Siri was originally developed by DARPA. So we can see that when governments engage in research and development projects that later help smart creatives, we get amazing products never before imagined. Before the iPhone, I would need a little bag for my mobile phone, my satellite navigator, my my personal digital assistant (PDA), my watch, and perhaps a laptop. All these devices are no longer necessary when one has an iPhone. Governments that do not fund research and development, and craft economic policies that encourage innovation and entrepreneurship are stifling their economies.

So what is the economy? The economy comprises mainly wealth creation, distribution, and consumption. Wealth creation or productivity is paramount in growing the economy. There are three main drivers of economic growth and development: capital, labour, and productivity. The main challenge in Africa is productivity and adding value to the mineral resources that we have in abundance. But we also have to as innovative as Japan which is in the top 5 richest countries in the world despite having no natural resources on the continent. This also despite the devastating world war two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Imagine the excuses if those bombs had dropped in Zimbabwe. 

No discussion on the affairs of the African continent escapes the politics obtaining. It is a politics in its infant and violent stage. Politics should a fierce battlefield of ideas to gain the attention of the electorate and also to find solutions to local challenges and our relationship with the outside world. We should not allow crime committed by politicians to be labelled political. They are crimes that should be subjected to rule of law and enforcement. That way we remove criminal elements from the political process. The apathy in political participation by ordinary voters is a consequence of the violence perpetrated by the criminal elements of the political leadership using eager supporters. Once perpetrators of political violence are dealt with, there will be less and less occurrences of barbaric acts that keep a certain elite in power for the sole purpose of the primitive accumulation of capital.

Africa does not need a lot of new inventions. We can run where others walked by simply implementing ideas that have already been made. We must avoid becoming only consumers of capital built by other regions of the world. We must allow innovation and entrepreneurship to drive economic growth and development. We must create the future we want to see.