The Challenge for Africa

As I read “The Challenge for Africa,” by Wangari Maathai, I can relate to so many things that the Ms. Maathai discusses. She starts the book discussing the various issues the African continent faces and how the Western world has treated these problems. Not only that but also how the people of Africa have treated these issues themselves. She discusses the terrible legacy of colonialism that has left Africa in disdain, and the sad lack of leadership post colonialism. She discusses how leadership is important, but also how people must stand up for themselves and help themselves out if they wish to move out from poverty, injustice, and suppression.

Africa faces issues of not just poverty but also a lack of education, leadership and a feel of nationalism. The continent got its freedom from colonial powers a long time ago; however, it is still marked as a nation of people who have made no progress. This is because the countries lack sincere leadership. Most leaders have betrayed the trust of their people and have been lost to the greed of power and money. They no longer care about their people. Not only that but on order to maintain their power, they also suppress their own people and take away educational opportunities and guidance so these people cannot rise to the top.

The Western World plays a role where it prefers not to look at this as injustice and often supports this injustice for its own political and economic reasons. The people who wish to help are focused on a level that is far more macro when the problems of Africa need to be resolved on a micro level. The problems of Africa can only be solved by living among the people, the farmers, and the workers. Most non-profit organizations work on a governmental level, speaking with leaders and it leads to no change at all.

She also discusses how the people of Africa have to help themselves. Nobody will come help them out. They have to understand that they cannot exploit their own resources. They have to think long term and not short term because if they think of only short term, they are going to lead to their own destruction. Their land will lose its nutrients and the farms and forests they rely on will be gone very soon if they exploit it for the short term.

In conclusion, we realize that Africa has had a hard time since independence but that is due to a lack of leadership and education about the long term. Post colonialism, the people trusted in leaders and these leaders betrayed the trust of the people. This led to a more destruction of the community when Africa really needed to build itself back up. The West has turned a blind eye to this for its own economic and political benefit, and as Wangari Maathai like to put it, there has only been a change of faces after independence. Most of the economic and political factors are still controlled by the West. We can help out by understanding the micro issues and spreading education in the community, but we will not succeed if we only look at the problems at a macro level.