(Africa Day debate in Parliament)
Africa Day commemorates the great expectations that the leaders of a new, free Africa cherished some sixty years ago. Unfortunately, most of their expectations have since been dashed.
The Organisation of African Unity was established on 25 May 1963, largely inspired by the president of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Certain fundamental decisions for the “new Africa” were taken at the time. The most significant of these was to uphold colonial borders and to keep using colonial languages, rather than developing indigenous languages into languages of administration. This formed part of the African nationalism ideology.
The question is whether this ideology was successful. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita may not be the only measure of success, but it can be used to compare countries’ performance.
In 1965, the global average GDP per capita was 4 300 US dollars (at 2010’s value). By 2025, this figure had risen to 10 500 dollars, an increase of 244% of the initial value.
There are 22 states in Africa for which the same data is recorded. In these states, the average GDP per capita rose to only 158% of the initial value, from 1 313 dollars to 2 077. In comparison, Malaysia saw growth of 656%, Thailand 836%, Indonesia 651%, Korea 2 463% and India 549% during the same period. All these countries had a lower GDP than the African average in 1965, but far surpassed it by 2020.
Africa must have done something during that time that obviously did not work. Did the use of colonial languages hamper broad-based empowerment? Or is it the artificial borders that led to ongoing social disruption and frequent conflict?
Or is it the approach reflected in the theme of this debate, which refers to “justice through reparations” – in other words, an assumption that former colonial rulers owe their onetime colonies an economy?
It is most probably a combination of all these factors. If nothing changes, we will look back again after sixty years, still wondering why Africa keeps falling behind, even when compared to less developed states.
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