← RAMBLE in the JUNGLE: Debating Africa and the World

RAMBLE in the JUNGLE · Textbook · Unit 2: Development, Democracy and Self-Rule in Africa

Issue 2.2

Do African Countries Need Outside Help to Develop?

YESEditorial counterpoint, Hard Work Is Not Enough (written for this book)
NOWanaku Verdzekov, African Development Is Serious Business (2011)

Learning outcomes

After reading this issue, you should be able to:

Summarize the author's argument about work, elites and paradigms.
Explain internal and external explanations for poverty and development.
Evaluate the role of aid, trade and investment using examples.
Identify stereotypes and generalizations in an argument.
Write a balanced policy recommendation on development.

Introduction

Why are some countries rich and others poor? Economists and historians have offered many answers. Some stress internal factors: education, institutions, corruption, work habits, leadership. Others stress external factors: the history of the slave trade and colonialism, unfair trade rules, debt, and the prices of raw materials on world markets. Most experts today see both at work.

There is a long debate about foreign aid. The economist Jeffrey Sachs has argued that well-designed aid can help poor countries escape poverty. The Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo, in her book Dead Aid (2009), argued that decades of aid to Africa have encouraged dependence and corruption, and that trade and investment work better. After independence, Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere promoted self-reliance (ujamaa), though his collective-farming policy had serious economic problems.

The Marshall Plan (1948–1952) was a US programme that gave billions of dollars to help Western Europe rebuild after the Second World War. It is often held up as a model of successful outside help.

The author, Wanaku Verdzekov, is from Cameroon. In this 2011 essay she argues that African development depends on hard work and original thinking by Africans themselves, especially by the educated "elite", and questions the labels ("West", "Dark Continent", "East Africa") that outsiders have used for Africa.

As you read, ask: When a country is poor, how much of the explanation lies inside it, and how much outside?

YES

Hard Work Is Not Enough

Editorial counterpoint Written for this book, not by Wanaku Verdzekov.

This essay was written for this textbook to present the opposing side fairly. It is not by Wanaku Verdzekov.

Wanaku Verdzekov is right that no one else will develop a country for its people, and that speeches without work achieve nothing. But the essay's central claim, that Africa's problem is a lack of hard work, especially among its elites, leaves out most of the story. Africans already work extremely hard. What they often lack is not effort, but fair conditions in which effort pays.

Africans already work hard

Walk through any market in Accra, Bamenda or Nairobi before dawn. Farmers walk miles to their fields; traders carry goods on their heads; mothers run households and businesses at the same time. Many people hold two or three jobs. If hard work alone produced prosperity, much of Africa would be rich. The problem is that a farmer without roads, credit, storage or fair prices can work twice as hard as a farmer elsewhere and still earn a fraction as much.

Rules made elsewhere matter

International trade rules, debt and commodity prices shape African economies from outside. For decades, many African countries have exported raw materials (cocoa, oil, minerals) and imported finished goods, earning less value from their own resources. When the price of oil or cocoa falls on world markets, governments lose income through no fault of their own workers. Debts taken on in earlier decades have forced some governments to spend more on repayments than on schools and clinics. Hard work at home cannot, on its own, change these rules.

Outside help can work

Aid has a mixed record, but some outside help has saved millions of lives. International vaccine programmes have helped protect children across Africa from measles, polio and other diseases. Investment and loans built roads, ports and power stations. The author admires the Marshall Plan, which was itself outside help: American money that helped Europe rebuild after the Second World War. East Asian countries that grew rich, such as South Korea, combined hard work at home with foreign investment, foreign markets and, at first, foreign aid.

Blaming "elites" is too simple

The author criticizes an elite that avoids work. Corruption and poor leadership are real problems. But treating a whole class as lazy is a generalization. Many educated Africans are doctors, engineers, teachers and entrepreneurs working in difficult conditions; many have left because their skills were not used at home. The more useful question is what systems reward honest effort and punish corruption.

Development needs both

The strongest version of the author's argument is that Africans must own their development: set their own goals and do the work. That is true. But ownership is not the same as going it alone. The most successful development stories combine local effort and local ideas with fair trade, investment and partnerships. Rejecting outside help can be as unwise as depending on it.

Conclusion

Hard work is necessary, but it is not enough. Development also needs fair prices, working infrastructure, honest institutions and partnerships that serve African priorities. The question is not "work or help?" but "what kind of help, on whose terms, for whose goals?"

— Editorial counterpoint

African Development Is Serious Business (2011)

By Wanaku Verdzekov

Work

If Africans are not ready to work really hard, and just expect things to change by some sort of white MAGIC, it is never going to happen. There is no magic. There is WORK, WORK and more WORK.

And sincerely, that is what a lot of the so-called "elite" class in Africa does not want to do: WORK. Or do they? Why would you put on a suit in a hot tropical climate when you are supposed to be doing real, hard work to develop your living space?

The body language of most of the African "elite" (whatever that means) reveals a disdain for hard work, which (in my humble opinion) is the only way to make a difference. Without planning, and hard work in carrying out projects to help their own people, all the words the African elite speak just go with the wind. They do not echo on the rocks of Africa, let alone among the African people themselves.

This is not a reprimand of everyone who is (supposedly) educated in, and from, Africa. It is a call to reality: a plea to look at the brutal facts of history and current events, and a summons to take stock of what has been, what is, and what can be.

The so-called African problem is so complicated that no one person can claim to have the solution. Not even Mandela could make that claim. Or did he? I didn't think so. This is a fact all agree on.

Question

So what is the point here? Simply put: the African problem is more complicated than any maths problem you have ever met, even if you have a PhD in maths. Yes, it is that complicated. Are you good at maths? You could take a crack at this problem.

What is the African problem? It is a simple, direct question that is not easy or straightforward to answer. First of all, how does one solve a problem without defining it?

The West: the view

In today's world, dominated by "Western" civilization, humans have got used to defining almost everything from the Western point of view. For example, "the West" represents countries developed to a certain degree, found in the so-called "Western hemisphere". If the Chinese had conquered Europe and the Americas 2,000 years ago, they would have called it the Middle East, and Africa would have become the Far East. Well, that did not happen. Now we are stuck with what we have, unless you want to change it. Good luck.

What does this have to do with Africa? Before the so-called West came into contact with Africa, it knew it only as the "Dark Continent", meaning "no lights", "can't see inside", "impenetrable"… Today we know these labels came from people outside the continent. In those days, was the African continent bustling with activity? Yes: so many restless humans.

African history

There is reading material on the history of Africa before, during and after the coming of Western "intruders". Note that parts of Africa, like Egypt and the Mediterranean regions, were "known" to the West. So the parts of Africa that were "dark" and "unknown" are the parts facing some of the most complicated problems today. In my opinion, those problems swirl around "nationalism" and its failed implementation in various so-called African "states".

In most Western countries, the theory of nationalism has been analysed and practised for decades, to the point where citizens can sincerely say they feel patriotic about their country. Very few African countries, if any, have a convincing doctrine of nationalism that overrides the sectarian and tribalistic tendencies running through the fabric of African society. The result has been some of the worst atrocities of African-vs-African violence the world has seen in recent decades.

So instead of non-Africans waging war on Africans, Africans are decimating themselves. What do Africans expect the West, or the rest of the world, to do? Intervene? How? The UN has faced this conundrum: how do you separate family members who are tearing each other apart? Whose side would the UN (or anyone else willing to help) be on?

Labels

Africa has been labelled in several ways, and the more global attention is paid to this crucible of humanity, the more creative the names for its parts: Maghreb or Mediterranean Africa, Africa south of the Sahara, West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, South West Africa. After some years, the people who live in these labelled regions slowly but surely begin to identify with the labels: "I am East African; you are West African; she is Southern African. Oh! See that old lady? She's Central African." And someone complains: "No, I am from Ethiopia," or "No, I am Kenyan," or Nigerian, Togolese, Sierra Leonean…

The question is: are these truly African labels, or just a convenience to fit a Western paradigm? Or is it an African paradigm? There is a contention that the word "Africa" is not even African! Figure that out.

Talking of paradigms: if you don't create one, you are forced to live in one created by someone else, unless you live in a bubble. That is what African "intellectuals" need to do: come up with a paradigm that fits the African people, one that will create a spirit of nationalism, if that means love of country (meaning Africa) and love of fellow country men and women (meaning all Africans). Without that, the whole idea of a United Africa, or even a loose federation of so-called African states, is dead from the get-go.

It is this "coming up with a paradigm that fits the African people's reality" that is the hard, hard work. Speeches and public posturing without real hard work and extensive use of brain cells will not cut it.

Repeat: there is no magic. People can go to church, the mosque or ancestral tombs to pray and offer sacrifices, but without real work, several hours a day towards targeted objectives, nothing will happen. No one needs to reinvent the wheel, but it takes thinking (brain cells again) to use existing wheels to build your own automobile.

It is time for Africa's so-called intellectuals to pool their wits and come up with something original to help bring Africa out of the doldrums. And remember to include ways of funding the exercise. If you use other people's money (OPM), well, you know the drill.

Wanaku

— Wanaku Verdzekov

Written in 2011; lightly edited for this book.

Vocabulary

Word or phrase	Meaning in the readings
elite	a small group with more power, wealth or education than most
disdain	contempt; a feeling that something is beneath you
hemisphere	half of the Earth
nationalism	strong loyalty to one's nation
sectarian	divided along group, often religious, lines
paradigm	a model or pattern of thinking
doldrums	a state of no progress
commodity	a raw material traded on world markets
infrastructure	basic systems such as roads, power and water
aid	help, often money, given by one country to another
self-reliance	depending on one's own efforts and resources
entrepreneur	a person who starts a business

Comprehension questions

Literal (find it in the text)

What does the author say is the only way to make a difference?
What would Europe and Africa have been called if the Chinese had conquered them, according to the author?
What task does the author set for African intellectuals?
Name two external factors the counterpoint says shape African economies.
Which programme does the counterpoint point out was itself "outside help"?

Inferential (read between the lines)

What does the author's comment about suits in a hot climate suggest about her view of the elite?
Why does the author think labels such as "East African" matter?
Why does the counterpoint say a farmer can work twice as hard and still earn less?
What does the counterpoint mean by "ownership is not the same as going it alone"?

Critical (evaluate and respond)

Which reading better explains why some countries are poorer than others? Use evidence from both.
The author writes that there is "no magic". Does the counterpoint agree? Where do the two writers actually disagree?
Research one African country's development since 2000. Which factors, internal or external, best explain its path?

Is there common ground?

Both writers agree that development requires work, planning and honest leadership, and that Africans must own their own development. Both reject "magic" solutions. Both admire the Marshall Plan.

They disagree about emphasis. The author puts the weight on internal effort, especially by elites, and on original African thinking. The counterpoint puts more weight on external conditions: trade rules, prices, debt and infrastructure.

A shared position might be: African-led development, using African ideas and effort, with outside partnerships on African terms. The question then becomes how to judge which partnerships help and which create dependence.

Debate and writing prompt

Debate motion: This house believes that African countries need outside help to develop.

Divide the class into proposition and opposition. Each side must use at least two pieces of evidence from its reading and answer the other side's strongest point.
After the debate, hold a vote, then discuss which arguments changed minds.

Writing task: (400–600 words) Write an opinion article for a newspaper titled "What Africa's young people need most". Take a position on the balance between hard work at home and outside help, and support it with evidence from both readings.