By James Shikwati
It is time Africans identified the difference
between market seeking industries and intrinsic industrialization. When
international food, beverage, motor vehicle and information technology
companies set foot on African soil, they do so to access domestic markets. Such
initiatives do not necessarily lead to industrialization.
To industrialize,Africa
must invest in growing its own productivity character, a form of “African
capitalism.” Productivity character requires that Africans patiently study what
drives Western and Asiatic industrial powerhouses such as Japan and China . What type of individual and
societal habits do these industrial centers exhibit? The Japanese are nurtured
to focus on personal reflection and how one connects to the entire society.
Amongst the Chinese, man is at the center of all things as long as he is
balanced with the universe. The West is driven by the notion of the “original
sin” that prompts man to seek to redeem oneself.
Sub-SaharanAfrica
exhibits a strong sense of extractive entitlement to ethnic and extended family
networks. The safety or security provided in ethnicity blunts the thirst of
individuals to surface innovation and industry. Safety in extractive
entitlement is analogous celebrating the ownership of a big piece of family
land but waiting for someone else to develop it. Progress is slow for those who
merely celebrate ownership of physical, human and intellectual resources and stop
at that.
Can the attitude of the continents’ urbanized folks who are always quick to transform challenges to opportunities evolve “African capitalism?” It is easier to blame thriving industrial centers that thwart the ability of others to surface in order to protect their domestic producers.
Africa has no excuse but learn fromChina , Japan and other Asian Tigers that
have successfully navigated Western roadblocks to industrialize. The continent
should adopt the urbanized mindset and forge carefully calculated steps that
will lead to rapid modernization by studying the systems of successful
economies. This quest should urgently replace the political electoral cycle
that is driven by short term focus. Long term strategies should exploit the
current dominance by Anglo-American industrial initiatives and the USD $ 10
billion China-Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation Fund. The West and Asiatic
characteristics will not by themselves set Africans on the path of
industrialization.
Africa ’s
industrialization dream is held back internally by the lack of a competitive
“African character.” Imagine if the continent’s 1.2 billion people reversed
their sense of extractive entitlement to the over 2,000 ethnic groups and
encouraged individual productive obligation to the numerous challenges facing
thousands of ethnic groups! The continent would become a bubble chamber of
innovations that address ethnic and by extension global challenges.
To industrialize,
Sub-Saharan
Can the attitude of the continents’ urbanized folks who are always quick to transform challenges to opportunities evolve “African capitalism?” It is easier to blame thriving industrial centers that thwart the ability of others to surface in order to protect their domestic producers.
Africa has no excuse but learn from
Intrinsic industrialization requires deliberate and proactive
steps to put the African at the center of problem solving. It entails getting
rid of the prevalent notion of externalizing all African problems.
Collaboration with successful industrialized centers has to be about borrowing
tools that will enable Africans fix their problems but not about transfer of
industrial units. Transfer of whole industrial units to Africa devoid
of growing an African industrial character is likely to breed monuments of failure
in the long run.
One can transplant industries to Africa but not industrialization. The responsibility is
on Africans to build a unique character that can effectively compete globally.
Such a character must address the coziness the continent has with benevolence.
Individual Africans’ obligation to society should be to offer solutions to
challenges rather than simply seeking “security” in ethnicity. The continent’s
industrialization remains a mirage as long Africans’ are suffocated by
extractive entitlement to ethnic coalitions and external fixers.
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