If at all education is light, and if just one bulb lights up a room, then why cant the hundreds of thousands, or millions of educated Africans be enough to enlighten Africa? Is it to do with the intensity of their light, or is it switched off?

I am asking this because every year over 400,000 Africans graduate from universities within Africa alone. If just half of these could engage in efficient economic activities connected with rural villages, poverty would have been reduced by now. But surprisingly, while world poverty has fallen rapidly over the past 40 years (especially in Asia), it has doubled in sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2004). Thus the continent with about 1.111 billion people (2013), has about 48.5% live on $1.25/day; and with about 414 million people (41.4%) live in extreme poverty. This means almost half of the population is actually poor.

It is eminent that African elites accept the fact that they are part of the problem. My late father once told me “Vera, you are smiling to life because you were lucky to be educated. But remember, you attended schools which you did not build, and taught by teachers  you never trained. Someone else, did that for you. So do not leave this world without building something for others.” This is a message for all African elites, i.e. to do something back home that leaves a lifetime impact on future generations. Ignorance is destroying Africa, and without education Africans will not catch the train.

The existing economic duality where we have the better off urban, and the impoverished rural is a big problem. Unfortunately, the gap between the two is growing by the day. If there is one important thing we should aim for, is to make rural areas as comfortable as in urban areas, in terms of basic needs and leisure.