Africa

The light of African elites should overwhelm darkness

/ Vera Mkenda / Leave a comment

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.

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Many livestock, for a billion people of many bare feet……

/ Vera Mkenda / 2 Comments

Africa is the second highly populated continent after Asia. It is now a home for over a billion people, half of whom are poor. The continent is endowed with climatic conditions that allow a variety of crops to grow well. Africa is also blessed with amazing natural resources like wildlife, forests, minerals, and large fresh water bodies. In fact Africa has over 600 natural lakes and over 300 permanent rivers. Honestly, the list is longer.

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We are still serving our visitors the best…..

/ Vera Mkenda / 6 Comments

Growing up in Africa, you learn to serve visitors the best. There will always be a chicken to slaughter for visitors, and the best portions for them to eat. They will also sleep on the best bed, with best beddings that nobody else in the family sleeps on them. These are usually called ‘visitors’ beddings’, or visitors’ glass’, ‘cups’ ‘plates’, or ‘spoons’, etc…. And these would usually be the most expensive, and of the best quality afforded by the host family. Nobody touches them, unless there is a visitor.

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The impoverished rural Africa is a nakedness for the elite to dress….

/ Vera Mkenda / 2 Comments

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.

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