The Challenge for Africa Part 3

In “The Challenge for Africa,” Wangari Maathai continues to speak about leadership and how Africans need to believe in and help themselves because no one else will come to help them. She mentions the role played by Western nations in Africa since her independence and how these nations have continued and will continue to spoil African resources as long as possible. She speaks about the organizations such as World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and how these organizations created by Western powers have only benefitted the West and no one else.

Wangari Maathai continues to talk about leadership and the African culture. She mentions that leadership does not mean that one has money or power but rather it means making the right decisions that will benefit the society at large. However, she realizes that Africa will need a person in power as well to bring people forth and accept that they all can be leaders in their everyday lives. This she believes is the hard step. The current leadership exists only to exploit its own people and has done nothing good. All they seek is to hold power so they can have the money coming into Africa by selling her resources to developed nations. She believes that in order to bring true leadership back, Africa has to go back to its own roots rather than looking at Western cultures and traditions. She mentions how current constitutions of many African nations are based on Western constitutions and laws. Such laws were liked by Europeans because it allowed them to retain control during colonialism; however what this has done in Africa is create laws that allow the same corrupt people to sit in power for over 40 years. What it has also done is remove the idea that leaders should be experienced and knowledgeable, rather today if one wants to be a leader in Africa, they only need to spend money and get in a favorable position with the current regime and they will hold significant power as well.

Wangari Maathai also mentions how the West has spoiled Africa’s resources. Large sums of loans have been given to Africa for years, when the West knew this money will only go in the pocket of leaders and never reach the people of Africa. However, they continued to loan because today they use these loans as a way to have power in these nations. They create laws to exploit resources such as demand privatization or trade treaties that favor Western markets in order for Africa to continue as sovereign nations. What ends up happening is that resources of these nations are spoiled immensely. A lot of resources are bought in for cheap due to the favorable laws, and then sold back to the African nations at a higher price. For example cocoa is purchased from African nations for cheap and then converted into Chocolate and sold for a much higher price in Africa. IMF and WTO are huge part of this as they include all nations as equal when we all know that is not true. Nations are not treated equally and Western powers are given privileges and rights that make them stronger everyday as Africa continues to struggle.

Over the years Africa has struggled to achieve social and economic success. It is finally starting to see some strong activity but it has taken so long because of the lack of leadership and the influence of Western leadership that has done everything to spoil Africa’s resources as long as possible. Africa has to stand up for itself, return to its own cultural roots, bring leadership from within rather than looking outside to continue growing and becoming stronger every day.