Africa's Wellbeing in an Uncertain World: Searching for Solutions

By Vusi Gumede

The world remains uncertain.
Africa is fragile. Many issues remain unresolved and the African, and global, situation is worsening.
South Africa has been at the crossroads for long enough. There can be no more delays, the time has come to address the many critical issues.
In Africa's Wellbeing in an Uncertain World, Vusi Gumede discusses these critical issues about Africa, with specific focus on South Africa. He has revisited opinion articles and blogs he has been writing since the mid-2000s and taken his ideas and arguments, together with his deliberations on the recent changes globally and in Africa, and presented them in this thought-provoking book. While taking into account what others have said about similar issues, this is an attempt to get us to talk about these challenges, the important issues and fundamental problems, with a view to finding solutions.
The future of the African continent could be bright if all the efforts that are being pursued for the improved wellbeing of Africans succeed. But, as Vusi Gumede reflects in this book, if South Africa is to achieve the society envisaged in the Constitution, then all South Africans, whatever the colour of their skin, have an important role to play.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tracey McDonald Publishers
• Release date: Nov 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781990931703

Book preview

FOREWORD

The world we live in is in the throes of unprecedented change, on an exponential curve over the last few decades. And this has not translated in a proportional improvement for Africa – it perpetually feels like the continent takes two tentative steps forward, followed by three giant leaps back.

South Africa, in particular, has been a huge disappointment of late, considering our country’s huge potential and advantages at the dawn of its democracy. The excitement of the 1990s has disappeared. The society that we have been hoping for is dissipating in our hands.

Developments in South Africa need to be placed in an appropriate context. There are many voices but some do not look at South Africa through the critical comparative and global perspectives as this book does. Professor Vusi Gumede has given us a rare gift in this book, Africa’s Wellbeing in an Uncertain World, as he yanks us, kicking and screaming, inside his mind to take a look in the mirror through his unique prism. As we seek solutions to South African problems, it is important to deal with what is or what has been going on globally, and in Africa.

There are issues that cut across the whole world. The coronavirus pandemic has made that blindingly obvious. There are issues that affect most, if not all, African countries. The malady of corruption is a case in point. There is a problem of politics in our countries, resulting in a logarithmic spread of graft, malfeasance and endemic raiding of state resources – in many instances, outright daylight thievery. Corruption is done with external forces outside the African continent. There is a leadership deficit all over the world.

South Africa has been deteriorating. Democracy has not delivered on its promise. Political parties have been in crisis. Society continues to be divided along racial lines. All in all, we seem to be headed for disaster. Our leaders in the various sectors do not have what it takes. We see little progress in many areas and there are many reversals.

Reversals are actually occurring all over the world, but especially in African countries. The coronavirus pandemic has sharpened, if not intensified, the weaknesses we have been dealing with. That said, a better world is not an option – a functional Africa is not just an imperative; it is non-negotiable, and South Africa is a central piece in this imperative.

It is commendable that Vusi Gumede has covered a wide spectrum of issues about our world, our Africa and our own South Africa. This is an important work, not to be ignored. It should guide the dialogue that the many voices elicit. It is up to us to shape the future for our children and their children.

NDUMISO NGCOBO

Bestselling Author and Journalist

INTRODUCTION

There are many critical issues that require thorough reflection, especially in a world that has become preoccupied with soundbites, which social networks encourage. Given the intensified uncertainties that characterise the world we live in, this collection of essays is an attempt to dialogue with some issues in detail. A book cannot cover everything, hence I have selected some of the issues based on research I have undertaken.

The coronavirus pandemic has confirmed many things. Although we could not predict it, those of us who have argued that the world is uncertain, and volatile, see the coronavirus pandemic as confirmation. This book is influenced by that view and it is an attempt to get us to talk about important issues with a view to finding solutions. Although it covers the African continent, most of the essays are on South Africa, with the hope that South Africans can dialogue more about the issues I discuss. In this introductory essay I highlight the various issues that are discussed in the book. Each essay can be read individually, and a reader can move between essays. The essays are packaged to overlap on the central arguments made.

To start with, one of the fundamental questions that needs a comprehensive dialogue relates to ‘What does Africa really want?’ This question is for all Africans wherever they are, but more importantly, Africans living on the continent of Africa – note that the use of African in the essays differs with the context, largely because of South Africa and its racial categories. Ideally, communities across the African continent should guide what becomes an agenda or developmental programme for Africa. This is even more important now – more than ever before – as the coronavirus pandemic has further confirmed that governments are usually not efficient in figuring out what communities prefer, or what could work better for the different communities. Arguably, communities know better and have their own governance mechanisms to deal with various issues.

Besides the challenges of leadership, as the essays in the book demonstrate, there are a few situations that stand out as critical for Africa or the Global-South broadly. So much has been said about lack of appropriate policies in Africa. Put differently, the policies that are followed are not ideal for the context; policies that should give impetus and that are currently implemented in many of the African countries. In addition, there are important policies that are not in place in many African countries. Economic policies are largely an import of what the West pursues, while still there are few countries in Africa with social policies. Social policies are critical for advancing wellbeing. Evidence indicates that even when economies are performing well, human development does not improve much, ie it is not automatic. It is also not enough to have social protection programmes. There is no substitute for comprehensive social policies for many African countries, given that many of the countries also need to deal with the national question. See the essay on the national question to better appreciate this point.

That is why I keep arguing for a better development approach, anchored on a more humane philosophical framework that draws from how early Africa (and some regions much earlier) facilitated human development or advanced wellbeing. Another critical issue relates to Africa’s relationship with the rest of the world, including China. Indeed, all regions and countries have something to learn from each other. However, the unequal relationship that Africa has in favour of the so-called developed world is problematic. Not until recently, many West African countries have been beholden to France: their currencies and reserves overseen by French monetary authorities, and even those countries paying taxes to France. Africa needs to manage its affairs without interference. China, too, needs to step back.

Nowadays, information and communications technologies are critical for any country, or region. Africa needs to work harder, especially in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, to bridge the digital divide. In a conversation with Sammy Mafu regarding this, he makes a point that ‘we need one physical fibre network that connects all African capital cities as a broadband backbone on top of which the rest of advanced wireless and cloud services can be enhanced’, and that where there is fibre that already exists there should be no duplication. He argues for an Infrastructure Master Plan for Africa of which ICT is but one, and the rest should cover electrical grids, ports, roads, rail, air and other networks.

Among the biggest issues is politics in Africa and how Africa’s resources are managed. The elite in Africa, not just politicians alone, are preoccupied with benefiting themselves alone. Corruption is rampant, though, of course, corruption also involves those in other regions, including the so-called developed world. No wonder there have been unquantifiable illicit financial flows. This points to the problem of leadership in Africa and why I advocate for active citizenry and critical consciousness, as well as thought liberation. We must hold our leaders accountable. In large part, this affects peace in Africa and the continent cannot advance when there is no peace. And, as many say, peace is not the absence of conflict.

Africa has not been sufficiently clear on what it wants. The Agenda 2063 of the African Union has helped, but what Africa really wants seems to be left to others, such as the Chinese. Africa continues to allow external interference in its affairs. For Africa to achieve the Africa We Want, a clearer development agenda is necessary. This has become even more critical in the context of the coronavirus.

Indeed, the continent of Africa has come a long way. As Bience Gawanas of the United Nations puts it: from a continent largely under colonial rule in the 1940s, the decades that followed would see a multitude of African countries fight for and win independence, while immersed in struggles for socio-economic development, peace and security. Less than a century later, Africa is a continent ripe with human and natural resources and enormous untapped economic and social potential. It has increasingly pursued a transformational agenda, with the aim of achieving shared prosperity, unity, peace, and integration. Its renewed focus on human development has resulted in strengthened social and economic inclusion, improved primary and secondary education opportunities, increased gender equality across the continent, increased longevity and significant reductions in maternal mortality, as well as strengthened regional capacity for identifying and addressing peace and security challenges.¹

Of course, challenges remain. Among the solutions in addressing these challenges, as essays demonstrate, thought leadership, thought liberation and critical consciousness would greatly help (see Chapter 2, Thought Leadership for Africa’s Development and a Just World).

Gawanas emphasises, like many, the importance of democracy for Africa’s development. Linked to democracy is the issue of the quality of institutions. Institutions that oversee democracy and ensure adherence to rights and obligations are critical for wellbeing, just like state institutions that implement policies are important for development. Others such as Rianna Oelofsen² for instance, emphasise what Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and other earlier leading African intellectuals saw as the fundamental answer: decolonisation of the mind. Others, such as Oduwole Olufemi for instance, advocate that Africa should develop in its own interest by emphasising internal development through a commitment to political will, both by rulers and the ruled in order to create the Africa We Want.³ Alayna Hamilton⁴ argues that there is little discourse on the issue of political freedom in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hamilton states that there are many people who are excluded from political participation because of their ethnicity, religion, gender, or region.

For Sub-Saharan Africa, there are those who feel that this characterisation of Africa is wrong. Their argument is that Africa includes North Africa. I have suggested that it is useful analytically to discuss Sub-Saharan Africa when examining various social and economic dynamics because North Africa is different. Ideologically, however, when we talk about uniting Africa, we must consider the whole of Africa and its diaspora.

It could be said that Africa and most Africans remain in chains. Among others, Achille Mbembe⁵ suggests that one of the reasons why Africa remains in chains is because African State and Nationalism in the conventional sense – attachment to a nation-state based on some ethno-religious-experiential shared culture – has never been an easy fit in Africa. Others blame the artificial borders that were created by colonialists during the 1884/5 Berlin Conference. Slave trade, colonialism and imperialism have indeed impacted Africa negatively, to put it mildly. The continent of Africa has worked hard to reverse the ramifications of these evils. However, it remains largely in chains. Rosh and Gonick⁶ have argued that in obtaining social and political context, developments regarded as laudatory in these parts of the globe have resulted in increased levels of chains. For instance, the international finance system locks African societies in a state of increased economic dependency, which is another form of chains. As George Mwai⁷ explains it, there is a lack of acknowledgement of the interlocking nature of the factors and systems of oppression and how they continuously work together to produce domination, discrimination, and marginalisation in Africa. Global capitalism or the free market system ensures that Africa remains in chains. It slowed down Africa’s progress with the Structural Adjustment Programmes, among other tactics.

Leaders in Africa – or the elite broadly – are also part of the problem. They collaborate with forces that keep Africa in chains. Most of the leaders in Africa do not seem to have the best interests of Africa at heart. They have used the coronavirus pandemic to worsen the African condition. In a conversation with Khabele Matlosa of the African Union, as I was finalising this book, he observed that ‘there is a dark cloud hovering over the African continent, and the coronavirus is intensifying this cloud’ – the coronavirus arrived when democracy was already strained. The military and the political class (or better, elites), are harvesting the coronavirus boom when most countries in Africa were already dealing with serious corruption at the expense of people’s wellbeing.

With regard to getting the African economy right, as Carlos Lopes⁸ notes, Africa should also green its growth plans. African leaders must also ensure that their growth agenda is linked to the global challenge of urgent action on climate change. As the structural transformation agenda (particularly restructuring African economies) will take time, Africa, or African countries, should pursue the many recommendations made to grow the African economy and improve wellbeing. It is reported that Africa is experiencing an increase, as well as more severe tropical storms, droughts and floods, all of which have devastated African communities and economies.

Adekeye Adebajo⁹ made a point that Africa, as he put it, is resilient and, despite continuing challenges, is currently on the move in the areas of economic development, conflict resolution and democratic governance. Africa has been the second-fastest growing region in the world after Asia, particularly during 2010-2020, and its population of nearly one billion consumers will provide an important future global market. Europe and the UK have been slow to adjust to the rise of an Africa powered by economic growth and a burgeoning consumer boom. China, unlike the West, is investing heavily in Africa’s infrastructure sectors – roads, railways, electricity – and has established a strong presence in its extractive sectors.

Mzukisi Qobo¹⁰ explains that African countries must seize all the opportunities created by US-China tensions because US-China power rivalry bears a striking resemblance to the tensions between the US and the Soviet bloc during the Cold War years. Back then, African countries were positioned like pawns on a grand chessboard. Their social and economic progress was hampered because they expended energy aligning themselves with either of the superpowers in the battle for world supremacy between communism and capitalism.

In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, Africa’s Pulse¹¹ indicated that the growth story in Sub-Saharan Africa in the past few years has been one of recovery from the worst economic crisis of the past two decades. It reported that growth in resource-intensive economies was buoyed by stronger commodity prices and higher mining production, but also benefited from higher agricultural production and more public investment in the necessary infrastructure to connect people and goods to markets.

Indeed, as Siphamandla Zondi¹² writes, few can dispute the fact that Africa has been a victim of ‘global progress’ from the inception of the modern world arrangement in the ١٤٩٠s, when Vasco da Gama circled its southern-most tip, to the post-Westphalian colonial expansion of Western nation states that encountered Africa through the curse of Berlin¹³. This is arguably a concern for the Global-South as a whole. Mzukisi Qobo’s stance about Africa taking advantage of the US-China tension can also apply to the Global-South as a whole.

Talking about the Global-South, the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, the term is a description of mostly (though not all) low-income, and often politically or culturally marginalised countries.¹⁴ These regions have not progressed well, or in particular, their respective wellbeing remains fragile. The coronavirus pandemic has worsened the situation and it is going to take a long time for the Global-South to return to the levels of socio-economic development before the outbreak of the coronavirus, hence the need for a robust development agenda for the Global-South is even more critical now than ever before. The Global-South should work as a bloc and engage the Global-North with some muscle. At the centre of the agenda of the Global-South should be the wellbeing of peoples the world over, not only in the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

The world indeed remains uncertain and volatile. It has been like this for a long time. It is in desperate need of thought leadership. The global relations need to be changed and a better socio-economic development approach is overdue. Countries such as South Africa find themselves in difficult situations also because of these global relations and the behaviour of capital locally and globally. It is no wonder that many intractable issues, such as the land question, or the national question, remain unresolved, although with proper leadership countries should be doing much better than they are currently.

I endeavour to deal with all these critical issues in this book. For Africa, it is evident that without pan-African unity not much can be achieved. This does not mean that Africa should not be partnering with other regions. As part of the Global-South, Africa should pursue what is necessary to make this world a better place.

CHAPTER 1

TOWARDS A BETTER DEVELOPMENT AGENDA FOR THE GLOBAL-SOUTH

Most countries in the Global-South have not progressed much in many social and economic indicators. The lasting common feature of Global-South societies is underdevelopment and misery; exemplified by high levels of poverty, hunger, inequality around race, gender, and class differences; environmental degradation; disease; and pervasive injustice. In modern times neo-colonialism, coloniality, and more plunder, have replaced the Global-South’s shared historical experience of colonialism, brutal enslavement, imperialism, plunder, and exploitation – particularly of Africa. As a response, the United Nations (UN) continues to develop and coordinate multilateral frameworks for sustainable development such as the 2000-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which have been replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and secure peace and justice by 2030. ¹⁵ This also includes South-South Cooperation (SSC) emanating from the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (BAPA), adopted by UN member states in 1978. The SDGs (and MDGs before them) demonstrate, among other things, that our leaders continue missing the point on what global society desperately needs, or what is to be done to advance wellbeing globally.

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the situation in the Global-South and it is going to take a long time to return to the levels of socio-economic development before the outbreak of the coronavirus. Therefore, a reconfigured development agenda for the Global-South is even more critical now than ever before.

Global-South refers to the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. As are the terms Third World, or the periphery; regions outside of Western Europe and the US. The term describes mostly (though not all) low-income, and often politically or culturally marginalised countries.¹⁶ Although the entire world has been facing challenges of development, the Global-South suffers most, or its human development has remained low. In the 1950s and 1960s, the economist Raúl Prebisch popularised the distinction between ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ in terms of the global economy and analysed underdevelopment and the struggle for reform of the world trade system. This struggle brought the ‘North’ and ‘South’ distinction into global political dynamics and developing countries (usually former colonies) started articulating the idea of a Global-South whose interests conflicted with those of the industrialised powers, both capitalist and communist, cutting across Cold War divisions.¹⁷

On the other hand, Immanuel Wallerstein forged a ‘world-system approach’ that made the concepts ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ alternatives to the ‘modern/traditional’ binary, ideas which also dominated Marxist economics.¹⁸ This opened up for post-colonial arrangements to emerge in cultural studies with Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and others as the leading architects.¹⁹ By the 1990s the concepts were reinforced by intersectional perspectives in northern sociology, especially among African-American scholars such as Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera. Towards the end of the Cold War, the terms Global-North and -South spread in academic fields, including international relations, political science, and development studies.

Some contend, take Luciana Ballestrin for instance, that the term Global-South became popular in the international lexicon around 1980 and the emergence of globalisation discourse.²⁰ The North-South language provided an alternative to the concept of globalisation, contesting the belief in a growing homogenisation of cultures and societies. The idea of a powerful Global-North and a resistant Global-South was promoted by the Zapatista revolt²¹ and later transformed into a political project.

There are many different meanings for both North-South categories which should not be understood exclusively in a geographical or territorial sense.²² Both terms were capable of projecting a subaltern geopolitical identity, presenting different ways to belonging in the international system, and the Global-South exists beyond the metaphor of underdevelopment.²³ The 20th century anticolonial movements, the Bandung Conference (1955), the Non-Aligned Movement (1961), and Cuba’s Tricontinental (1966) were some examples which influenced the notion of the Global-South and activated the concept as a symbolic designation meant to capture the semblance of cohesion that emerged when former colonial entities engaged in political projects of decolonisation and the move towards the realisation of a postcolonial era.²⁴

The term also alludes to the history of imperialism and colonialism, as well as to the violence suffered by its different members. Members of the Global-South are not necessarily nation-states, they can be defined in transnational social terms²⁵ or even through a set of practices, attitudes, and relations.²⁶ Therefore, it is imperative to recognise a variety of actors, discourses, institutions, and political movements that constitute it. In addition, is not a monolithic, cohesive, coherent, and homogenous entity characterised by the absence of conflicts and interests.²⁷ For the purpose of analytical and political thinking, it is important to not simplify or romanticise the idea of the Global-South and to acknowledge the existence of a south in the north and a north in the south which highlight the (re)production of (neo)colonial and (neo)imperial power, especially in the current context of increasing global inequalities and marginalisation.

The structural underdevelopment of the South is not only