Timothy Kalyegira, writing in Uganda’s Daily Monitor last week, speculated on the reasons why the Chinese are rising to superpower status, and why Africans are yet to do so. He says, “What has impressed me has been to see a people that are this serious. It is typical of the Western world and is also present here in the Far East.” He says that an “all-consuming commitment to seeing one’s country being strong and effective runs through all levels of Chinese society”.
Kalyegira then asks about Africa: “Is it that we are too normal? Do we lack that extra rough edge that gets people to achieve beyond the ordinary?” He goes on to say, “I have finally settled onto the conclusion that to become an advanced people or civilisation has little to do with education, at least education as defined by sitting before a blackboard, taking notes, and passing exams. In fact, the sooner we wake up from the illusion that by sending our children to ‘good schools’ we are, somehow preparing them for success, the better for us.” Instead, he asserts, “An obsession, a semi-madness, a crazy atmosphere must exist in a country to stir human beings out of their normal calm, complacency and put in them a burning ambition.”
It’s an interesting perspective from an African visiting Beijing. My own view is that the special magic required to move a country from poverty to wealth, from powerlessness to power, is simply trust. If an environment arises in which people can trust each other, fair exchanges can be made and people know that they will in future be able to enjoy the fruits of their present investments, then gradually the country will move from poverty to wealth.