Half of Africans are poor and 70% live in rural areas. This makes poverty in Africa largely a rural phenomena. As a matter of fact, a duality exists, where you have an impoverished rural community on one hand, and a richer or better off urban society on the other. Consequently, development in most African countries is inherently urban biased.

Basically, we have the developed vs underdeveloped scenario replicated in each African state (Minus a local aid portfolio to specifically help the underdeveloped rural).

My plea is therefore for the elites to invest in rural areas and close the existing gap. Let them do substantial business with rural people by opening shops, supermarkets, building trade schools /colleges etc., sending good vehicles to do rural transport business, opening entertainment halls, building libraries, pushing the government to electrify all villages, joining forces to have reliable water systems, providing agricultural equipment for hire like tractors, harvesters, millers, etc., establishing real estate business to provide affordable rental houses for teachers, doctors, nurses, etc. so these can feel comfortable to provide services in rural areas,  etc.

The good thing is, if more people invest in rural areas, it becomes even easier, cheaper and more profitable for others to join in. Therefore, let us not put all investment in the urban, else we push more people to the urban, which is unrealistic!

Unfortunately, closing this  gap has become harder by the day, as the development mind within Africa continues to spiral away from realities of the rural context. The mind gets more and more blindly ingrained in rhythms and tunes of pipers from the developed world. The African elites are therefore losing touch with the rural Africa, where they visit only once in a while, for a change of scene and enjoy the hegemonic feeling sustained by the obvious economic and education differences. For example, African elites would enjoy giving urban gifts and dashing out few coins to the impoverished rural relatives, then feel important as they see helplessness displayed by those who submit to beg for help.

Unfortunately, this hegemonic feeling is addictive and just like an elicit drug, it works behind the scenes to blind senses and sustain its source, which in this case the source is the wide socioeconomic difference. No wonder, the urban elites would enjoy going back to same villages several times, without considering providing a permanent solution to break the cycle of being begged for help. Someone once said,“….I only go to the village when I have saved enough money..” This means, rural visits, are basically rare holiday visits, or when there is a burial or any other emergency.

Unconsciously, the elites have embraced modernity as a survival strategy, but happened to forget that the ‘abandoned rural’, will always haunt the ‘lucky urban’. In just the same way as the developing world is currently haunting the now developed world (e.g. illegally crossing the Mediterranean just to eat sweeter apples perceived to be blossoming on the other side of the fence; and they end up dying horribly in the process). Honestly, there is no escaping from the infamy of discriminating oneself from the lager body of humanity. It will always prey on the discriminator. Be it through excessive crime, getting disorderly crowded, getting noisy, or dirty, etc.

Like now, even by making things economically harder for the non-elites (especially the poor) to live in the cities, rural migrants still flood in, and an intermediary community of ‘peri-urban poor’ has emerged. These are neither rural nor urban, but rather caught up in between. Mentally, these perceive themselves to be urbanized (modernized) but in reality, and especially economically, their situation is worse than of those living in rural areas.

This duality which was consciously created, and now unconsciously enjoyed by elites is a timed bomb. It is also a big shame to all elites because, with all the knowledge and technology currently available in the world; and the trust bestowed to the learned by the entire society; and by the sanctity of the humanity we share: there is no credible explanations as to why the urban-better off should still allow the hardworking rural to keep on grinding in poverty. While on the other hand, they themselves sit and enjoy what modernity has to offer. The elites also enjoy best food products bought cheaply from poor rural producers. As consumers, urban elites hardly care if rural producers are fairly paid or not. Because, like all other urban consumers in the world, they set standards and producers have to provide accordingly.

Worse, the elites also reinforce the police to put in jail all petty thieves (who happen to be running away from rural poverty), while letting the elite-grand-thieves (who are also part of the elites) continue to enjoy and control the economy.

So it is very imminent that elites invest to do more business in rural areas and stimulate rural commerce.

VeraFM