The irony in 'Africa Rising' narrative

Africa is rising. Africa is falling. Africa is reeling. The internet has been full of chatter and opinions over the last couple of days in response to an article in international media last week.

It states that ‘Africa reeling’ may be a more fitting description of the state of affairs in Africa. Yes, as if Africa were one homogeneous territory, as opposed to 54 different countries each with diverse nuances, cultures, economic trajectories, the list goes on.

It is no wonder that we feel the inclination to repeat, every so often, that Africa is not a country.

Over a year ago, I wrote about the allegory of the African Renaissance, the concept that our continent’s people and nations shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific and economic renewal.

It is said that nothing good comes without strife, my question is whether our strife will amount to surmounting the odds or if as individual countries we will be in a constant state of discord.

Incidentally, most of the times I come across the ‘Africa Rising’ quip are actually the opposite of a portrayal of the continent rising. I realise that this sounds a little bit like an oxymoron.

The African renaissance is predicated on a couple of things, the biggest underlying one being governance – in both the public and the private realms.

But even in the private realms, the codes of conduct and boundaries for private enterprise are to a very large extent enshrined within the laws of the country with the watchdogs of enterprise residing as a state function.

Therefore, public governance and leadership are the biggest determinants of the success or failure of states. It is no wonder that where we have banana republics, captured and failed states the genesis of all these problems can be traced back to the countries’ leadership.

Whether through desperation or to gain relevance though, we tag Africa rising on everything and anything that works, in spite of the governance systems.

A country has a breakthrough innovation to take care of a basic need that is the responsibility of the relevant government, we tag it as Africa rising. We refer to 5 per cent growth as Africa rising because other bigger economies are barely achieving half of that despite the fact that they are more robust and stable.

We speak about our transient middle class (who are also often referred to as the urban poor) and tag it as Africa rising. Incidentally, exemplary political governance hardly ever makes it to the continent’s rising hashtag.

In my view, proclaiming that Africa is rising or reeling is entirely too simplistic. It ignores the gains being made in individual countries, as well as the specific challenges in others.

The article in question dissects Ethiopia, citing on the one hand its status as the fastest growing economy for 5 years and the systemic repression.

On the other, it highlights the significant unrest, a country that is burning. It then asks, pertinently, whether political turmoil can co-exist with economic prospects.
Whether it is Ethiopia, South Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo in the spotlight, one thing bears remembering.

All African countries are in various stages of democracy and development, even though some do argue that democracy in say, Kenya, is a façade represented by what we often refer to as the tyranny of numbers as opposed to true choice and equality.

There is no doubt in my mind that we can rise. The question is whether we have the courage to do it. The violence uprising in many African countries is not unexpected. When you push people hard enough, they will push back. As the gaps between the haves and the have nots continue to rise, the walls separating the two can only be built so high.

The haves do not sleep because they know it is only a matter of time before the have nots figure out how to scale the high walls and take back what they feel should rightly belong to all of them.

And the have nots do not sleep because they are frustrated, upset at doing the equivalent of Sisyphus – pushing a boulder up a hill every day and never making any progress. Our poor people are not in poverty because they are lazy.

In fact, they are some of the most hard-working people, we see them walking to work before daybreak and trudging back to the slums after dawn.

But it gets to a point when they realise they have nothing to lose and they are willing to go to extremes to get what is owed to them by society. And when it gets to this point, the chips start to fall. Countries burn, people kill each other, they lose all concept of right or wrong.

And this is the point at which African countries are. What is unclear is whether this is a tipping point or whether it is going to be our eternal plight. For our own sake and for the sake of our continent rising, I hope it is our tipping point.