The Sunday Mail
Leroy Dzenga
Senior Reporter
MAY 25 was Africa Day.
There were the usual festivities, including an overdose of rhetoric, as intellectuals engaged in their favourite pastime of asking why the richest continent in the world has the poorest people.
Dashikis were only used as part of the window-dressing aesthetics.
This year, Africa Day was commemorated amid an ominous atmosphere of anxiety.
Two things threaten to upset the normalcy that appeared to be returning after two years of Covid-19-induced disruptions.
Just as some economies, including Zimbabwe, were beginning to pick up, the Russia-Ukraine conflict began in February.
And the threat of a new disease – monkeypox – lurks on the horizon.
In journalism, they often say a squirrel in your backyard is bigger than an elephant a mile away.
It simply means it is wise to deal with a seemingly small issue within one’s reach that a big issue a distance away.
Almost every major event or upheaval in the Global North always disrupts value chains in Africa.
Rarely does Africa benefit from successes in the global village, but it shares its misery.
Africa should do more to cushion itself from effects of problems it has little to do with.
Fortunately, we can draw on the strength of the African Union (AU), which was formed as a central institution to help organise Africa towards a common cause.
Africa needs to start thinking objectively around continental value chains.
Every country on the continent is hard-pressed to develop as populations keep getting younger.
True Pan-Africanism centred on brotherhood and sisterhood should be followed in reimagining the continental economy.
In Europe, Russia was critical to the bloc primarily as an energy supplier.
Most countries simply relied on Moscow to provide the resource.
Imagine if the same model is replicated in Africa, where countries play to their strengths.
For example, green energy will dominate the future, and Zimbabwe has one of the best lithium deposits in the world.
At this point, there should be conversations around assisting Zimbabwe to extract the mineral for everyone’s benefit.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) in part seeks to address the issue.
However, it seems countries are limiting themselves to trading finished products, which falls short of what Africa truly needs.
Africa needs more than just sachets of sugar moving from one country to the other.
It needs self-sustaining value chains.
There is need for think-tanks on the continent, housed within the AU, that explore mutually beneficial solutions.
It is worrying that African countries get suggestions of workable economic policies from Bretton Woods institutions.
The political economy of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank means they serve other constituencies that have nothing to do with Africa.
Data is at the centre of modern-day policy-making.
Although countries have individual responsibilities to come up with solutions, there should be a veritable arm or set of institutes which provide intricate science on how continental issues can be solved.
The same way the African Union can galvanise peacekeeping missions is the same way it should imagine research missions.
Even in the face of adversity, countries should be able to reach out to the continental bloc for reliable technical assistance.
Such reasoning will allow the continent to come up with solutions whose epistemological roots speak to the reality lived by those on the continent.
For a long time, there have been complaints (again by African intellectuals) on Western-sponsored development projects which do not speak to people’s needs.
But, what stops the African Union from directing funds towards member countries to help them achieve goals under Agenda 2063?
If taxpayers from a European country can finance borehole drilling in Gokwe, Zimbabwe, what stops Egyptian or Namibian citizens from doing the same in Lilongwe?
In such instances, there is comfort in knowing that the motivation behind the benevolence is noble.
The same applies to Foreign Direct Investment.
African countries with pressing needs should start financing projects in countries that offer room for strategic partnerships.
For example, a country with power challenges should partner with a country looking to expand its power generation.
A country with skilled human resources could partner with a country with a pressing need of skilled workers.
At least Zimbabwe and Rwanda are already walking this path.
Countries can answer their problems through cross-investment in friendly countries within the continent.
With a collective population of about 1,2 billion people, Africa, too, can create a self-sustaining market and vibrant economic ecosystem.
Africa has two options: Either become a powerhouse in its own right or continue being water carriers for other global economies.
A choice has to be made.
