My African ears listen to you!

1961- In the Ambiguous Adventure of Cheikh Hamidou Kane, the Royal Lady argues vehemently in favor of sending the brightest child in the village to the white man school for the first time. “We will learn, she says, their art of winning without being in the right”. In that, she claims that her village can only get rid of the white man oppression by learning the latter’s secrets.

2018- African Student X scholarship application essay reads “I want to go to study abroad because I want to learn from the developing countries and come back and apply these skills in my country.”

57 years have passed and we are still trying to learn from the West. 57 years have passed and we are still getting almost nowhere close to the West. Are we good procrastinators or bad imitators?

I am going to explore only two reasons why we are failing our old mission to conquer the West Development Holy Grail.

1. Some may say that we can neutralize the opponent only with the same art or means. First, by using the same art, the underdog cannot win if the battle level is not equal. The West has been working on their development for centuries and with means which are not applicable now. If Africans want to have an equal fight and get to where West is now by using their art, then Africa should start doing the slave trade, slavery, imperialism and colonization as soon as possible! But this is not possible because the West has put in place institutions to make sure this does not happen.
2. While we are learning their ways of centuries ago, they are already on the next level. By tring to steal their “expertise”, our mission is not only futile but also a tool of distraction. For years, most African countries are still struggling to apply the West’s democracy and waste money on useless democratic and reconciliation programs while the West is making artificial petrol and iPhones X (from our mineral resources!). This is a lost race. Realistically, at the same speed, one cannot pass a runner with 500 meters ahead. Instead, the gap will keep widening.

Well, what to do now? Should we drop university and go back to Africa? Should we insurge against the West? Absolutely not. My argument is that Africans shall stop believing that the development will come from the West or the East. The development can stem within us. As Malcolm Gladwell claims in David vs Goliath, underdogs will win only if they adopt their own new and unique techniques. Therefore, all we need is to find our comparative advantage in the world economy and work hard to be the best at it.