17 Jun 2009 |
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 Investing in a Vacuum: Foreign Direct Investment and African Development Chika Ezeanya Africa is currently experiencing a phenomenal increase in the flow of FDI into the continent. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), foreign investment in Africa peaked at $48 billion in 2006, overtaking foreign aid for the first time. The Time Magazine of March 13, 2009 in the cover story, “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now” lists Africa under number six as the next global “Business Destination.” Shielded from the global economic recession as a result of the non-initiation of her financial institutions in the sub-prime mortgages, African economies are under intense scrutiny by what remains of Western capital, ever in search of fertile soil from which to reap. On cue from Europe and America as is customary, African leadership has intensified the clamor for increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in strategic economic sectors. The emerging trend is for African governments to organize workshops and conferences aimed at untying the knotty issue of how to increase the flow of FDI into the continent. In Europe and America, the governments under tremendous pressure from domestic big businesses, are burdened with the task of engaging African governments on the quickest way to surmount the various problems hindering unfettered access of their multinationals into the continent. In buying into the FDI paradigm as now dictated by global big business, African leaders have invested very little thought in the development of African citizens who are destined to bridge the gap between FDI as a purely business transaction aimed at the siphoning of profit, and FDI as a tool for economic development. To ensure that the FDI concept retains its value of being an “investment” and not “divestment”, “capital flight” or simply put, the taking away of Africa’s resources for the benefit of foreigners – as is currently obtainable - it is expedient that Africans are strategically positioned in the receipt of FDI, in such a way that they are well enlightened to transform the accruable wealth of knowledge, infrastructure and capital into tangible sustainable development indices for the continent . Increased FDI flows without concomitant development of the people through appropriate education would result in the takeover of African economies by foreigners who as a matter of duty, will employ most managerial hands from their home country, import most machinery from their home country, remit as much proceeds as possible to their home country and once again, leave the continent of Africa seething with anger and steeped in want – as has been the case since the formal inception of colonialism in 1884. Zimbabwe, despite chasing away the white “foreign direct investors” while confiscating their investments, did not have adequate black hands, skilled in the techniques of modern farming, who could immediately step in and bridge the gap, resulting in the present famine and astronomical inflation – among other issues the country is battling with. Solicitation for FDI by African leadership not backed by a prioritization of domestic manpower development lacks merit and will merely succeed in impoverishing a greater majority of the populace, while building a tiny elitist class, who will be brandied about as reference point or success stories, made to speak at formal gatherings and elaborate forums as the voice of the “masses” whose lives have been tremendously improved by increased FDI flow. If the appropriate education and intellectual empowerment of Africans does not assume centre-stage in the global “increased FDI flow for Africa” discourse, then the continent should expect no more development than it has already achieved, except for the creation of a handful more colonial type infrastructures established for the sole aim of siphoning resources and for the furtherance of Euro- American interests, to the detriment of the ignorant and gullible African. FDI is needed by every country in the world as it is expected to spur development through the injection of capital, new technology and seasoned manpower. Therefore, the effectiveness of FDI in generating development in any economy leans most heavily on an enlightened populace, filled with an adequate sense of not just technological and managerial expertise, but most importantly too, a heightened sense of national awareness and an appreciable level of global trends; a group of citizens, able to borrow ideas from foreign investors to develop indigenous technology towards sustainable and growth and development. To spur development, FDI must rest on citizens who can be a voice against the notorious exploitation of international big businesses; citizens whose education instills a sense of national consciousness and self pride in them and who are willing to defend the country against abuse by foreign interests. While this might ring true of the education citizens receive in other parts of the world, the reverse is sadly obtainable in Africa. While school children in the United States, Europe, China and India are for instance taught the heroic achievements of their forefathers, thereby instilling a sense of pride and national consciousness in them, African children are taught that Mungo Park discovered the Niger River, John H. Speke discovered and named the East African Lake Victoria and Mary Slessor stopped the killing of twins in South Eastern Nigeria to mention but few. Essentially, the depressing European history of Africa, is taught as African history to African school children resulting in self nay national denigration and a servile worship of Europe and America. At home where education most crucially continues informally, while parents in other parts of the world would most often discuss national issues at the dinner table with a sense of pride in the history of the country, a belief in today and a hope for a better tomorrow, African parents, guided by the colonial curriculum within which they were raised, continuously speak in derogatory terms about their country, culture, values, and knowledge systems, while extolling that of Europe and America. What the two paradigms of education described above produces is nothing but glaring; two sets of citizens, the one with a belief in his country and a desire to protect her interest by all means possible and, the other, with a deep rooted disdain for everything his country and indeed himself represents; a citizen who embraces treacherous foreigners as his own kin, and with the same sense of awe with which he listened to his teacher in class and his father at the dinner table, he considers himself lucky to be so favored to sit at the table with Mungo Park’s protégé, and is very quick to connive with the foreign investors against his own government. For a morsel, the miseducated African citizen forges documents to assist the foreigner in evading taxes accruable to his home government, refuses to be part of organized trade union activities to check the excesses of the foreign investor; has no interest in keenly understudying technological know how, with a view to adapting same to indigenous circumstances, processes and materials to produce a hybrid or even an entirely new product that could be exported by his home country as FDI to other countries. In short, the current desperation with which African leadership clamor for FDI as the panacea to the African development cachexy, conjures fearful images of a fourth wave of massive and unchecked exploitation of the continent in the face of the collapse of Euro-American economies. While FDI should not be discouraged in Africa, the same gusto, if not doubly more, displayed in chasing after FDI should equally be applied in seeking for quality, relevant education geared towards self empowerment, national transformation and state building. Education to ensure that Africans like the Chinese and Indians have a sense of pride in being who they are. Authentic history of Africa must be taught in African schools and not the European history of Africa, authentic African philosophy must serve as the foundation for other philosophies being introduced to students in tertiary institutions, pharmaceutical students must go to the bush and research the chemical components of the herbs handed down by our fore-fathers to treat various tropical ailments, orthopedic medical doctors in Africa must seek out their renowned brethren – the traditional bonesetters and rub minds with them towards up-scaling of available indigenous knowledge for development and export to the rest of the world like China is doing with its various alternative medical practices; students of government and public administration must begin to study indigenous systems of governance and conflict resolution techniques, trained agriculturists must no longer ignore the time tested organic farming practices in use by Africans for centuries, especially in the face of the bad press generated by the various chemical based farming techniques prevalent in the West and now being shoved down the throat of Africa. The list is endless; architecture, midwifery, economics, to mention but few. History must be re-written and the present re-examined, in order to determine what Africa has and what Africa can give. The African must look himself in the mirror and smile at what he sees – the Holy Book demands as much from believers to “love your neighbor as yourself” meaning, that the basis for all love proclaimed towards any other person or group of persons must arise from self love and respect first and foremost. On the contrary, Africans have been taught to hate themselves and whatever they represent; indigenous political systems, economic structure, values, culture, medicine and thought processes, but instead, to love their Euro-American neighbors. This by itself is a strategy for self and national failure if the divine admonition is to be adhered to. With respect to the conversations emanating from the African development dilemma, the unvoiced truth remains that billions of dollars in infrastructural development, FDI, and aid will only succeed in increasing global frustration and further cause disdain and incur more disrespect for Africa. The most important step for Africa towards the reversal of the present decadence is a positive turn around in the language of education and communication – both formal and informal, from one of self-loathing to that of self-acceptance towards self-discovery and ultimately self-actualization.
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