Africa
is often referred as a broken, devastated continent. Researches, books and
reports always enlist reasons causing the devastation of the continent. In
order to solve problems that affect Africa, it is important to understand the
roots of the problems. However, I believe that much time has been wasted in studying
and investing on what seems to be the roots of Africa’s problems such as: colonization,
lack of democracy, bad governance, corruption, human rights violations, ethnic
tensions, war, famine, drought, diseases, infant mortality, among others. I
believe these are mere manifestations, and not the roots of Africa’s problems.
In
this article, I assess the mindset of Africans as a root problem for the
continent. When I say Africa’s mindset,
I refer to mental attitudes of the majority of Africans that determine response
to situations; which can be changed to serve individual needs and the continent
as a whole. I believe the key to political, social, economic and cultural
transformation lies in the transformation of the mindset of the people. “As a
man thinks in his heart, so is he,” says the Bible. I believe what is true for an individual is
also true for a nation. A nation can have a common mindset that determines realities.
According to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) World Economic
Outlook, published in October 2012, 11 of the world's 20 fastest growing
economies are in Africa. The leading cause that is said to contribute to
Africa’s development is resource exploration. Africa has always been rich with resources. If
Africa has failed to use resources for the past hundred years, but then now that
resources are extracted and put into use, credit shall not be given to these
resources that have always been present but rather, for the people that engage
in the extraction and employ proper utilization. I was not able to identify any
studies done on the mindset of African’s related to its impact on the
development of the continent. However, I will share my opinion on how mindsets
in Africa affect the continent’s development.
There
are two kinds of mindset: fixed and growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, people
believe that basic qualities like intelligence or talent are simply fixed
traits. Such people spend documenting entire lifetime intelligence or talent
instead of focusing on developing such traits. They also believe that talent
alone can create success, without effort. On the other hand, in growth mindset people
believe their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication,
learning and hard work; intelligence, skill and talent are just the starting
point.
For a
vast continent like Africa, it is impossible to conclude citizens generally
have growth or fixed mindset. Though Africa is a continent of people with
growth mindset like Nelson Mandela (a South African anti-apartheid
revolutionary and politician who served as President of South Africa), Desmond
Tutu (a South African social rights activist) , Kofi Annan (a Ghanaian
diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Wangari Maathai (a Kenyan environmental and political activist), Emmanuel Yeboah
(born in Ghana with a severely deformed right leg and achieved to be an athlete
and activist to the plight of the disabled), and many more, it is also true that
the continent is land to people of fixed mindsets. In this article I only
assess the fixed mindset in Africa based on personal experiences and overall
observation of other Africans.
People with fixed mindsets say,
‘we will always live in poverty,’ ‘things
will never get better in Africa,’ ‘we will never grow,’ ‘we will never be able
to use our resources,’ ‘we can’t avoid war and disputes,’ and so forth. Such people
often do what they are naturally good at. For people with fixed mindsets, it is
difficult attempt new engagements. People with fixed mindsets adopt
non-changing skill for fear of risks, mistakes, image consciousness, and general
difficulty to try new things. In a recent personal encounter, I visited the national
museum of Ethiopia. One of the items in display at the museum is the ard, a primitive ox-drawn plough. The
ard has been the only tool known to almost all Ethiopian farmers for tilling
land for thousands of years. Poverty is often cited as an excuse for these
farmers to use ard for thousands of years. Is it not that poverty itself a
mindset that has a potential to keep people in bondage of fear for a change,
for trying new things and taking risks?
I
believe most of us have found ourselves in a conversation with ordinary people
where the discussion aggravates with opinions like; “this is who we are,” “Why
should I be concerned? I won’t change anything,” “I can’t get my life better
unless I start all over somewhere in Europe or the United States” “there is no
option for peaceful election processes in Africa,” “what is there to do?” “Africans’
always fight; it is in our blood” and so on.” Lately, I read news that Ethiopia
discovered commercial reserves of crude oil; I shared the news with friends,
colleagues and family. Though they are happy with this news, there is always a
‘what if’ to their opinions. ‘What if we go to war over the oil like other African
countries?’ ‘What if leaders go corrupt because of this?’ Poverty mindset primarily
gives reasons to why things do not work out and how things could go wrong.
Disputes
have actually been largely part of African history. These disputes are often said to result from
resources like oil and minerals, culture, ethnic nationalism and religion. However
disputes, wars and conflicts primarily originate from the mindset of citizens. I
believe tribal mindset is a fixed mindset prevailing throughout Africa, and a
reason behind many disputes and conflicts in the continent. We live in a
continent where politicians use tribe issues as a vote earning point. Kenya,
Rwanda, Ivory Coast are some of the many African countries with such incidents.
It is also common that if a president or a prime minister is voted from a
certain tribe, the people from that tribe automatically assume they're superior
to the rest of the people of the country.
For a continent, that is the origin
of ‘Ubuntu’ philosophy, ‘I am who I am because of who we all are,’ tribal
mindset is extremely unfitting. The mindset of citizens that thought of tribal
differences had the same potential to think of commonalities. The mindset of
citizens that thought of disputes actually had the same potential to think of
peaceful negotiations over disputes or any other better means. The same
thinking that paved the way for millions of deaths has the same potential to
pave the way for development.
Africa
remains in the bottom 25 ranking of the United Nations quality of life index.
Most of the world’s poor are in Africa. Over 400 million people in Africa live
on less than a dollar per day. In other words, 400 million people in Africa
live in poverty which I primarily mentioned as a mindset. This is evident in
most cases as we lack the initiative to change our situation, easily give up
when faced with a challenge, and tend to only focus on risks and negative
assumptions. This does not mean that citizens purposely choose to be poor while
they are rich potentially. A given mindset develops from childhood of citizens
and grows accordingly. This process begins during child-hood of our parents and
grandparents. Most of us develop a mindset during child-hood that implies things
will not work out for us both as individuals and as a nation. Mindsets are also
often shaped by past experiences. For instance citizens that are often affected
by disputes and conflicts like Mali, could face difficulty in developing a
growth mindset of peace and stability. Citizens of a country that faced bankruptcy
like Zimbabwe could develop a bankrupt mindset. Likewise, many African counties
with past and current experiences of aid dependency could develop a dependent
mindset.
This
shows that if Africa’s root problem is citizen’s mindset, Africa’s problem can
be resolved by renewing the minds of the people and developing a growth
mindset. The growth mindset says, ‘I have
a choice,’ ‘I cannot sit in my misery, ‘I will not remain in poverty,’ ‘I can
change my life,’ ‘I can get more educated,’ ‘I can influence millions of
people,’ ‘I have a contribution for my country’s growth’ and so forth. In my opinion, education can
be used to change the mindset of the continent. According to Alfred Binet, the
inventor of the IQ test, without denying individuals difference in intellect,
education and practice could bring about fundamental changes in intelligence. Many
African children today do not have access to sound education. In addition, most
children who have access to education are only made to be rooted in academic knowledge
without being uprooted from the wrong mindset they developed from their
upbringing environment, culture, tradition and religion. Children and young
people’s mindsets can be impacted by using the education system. Citizens need to be educated about their potential, civic rights,
duties and democracy. Here,
it is good to note that the majority of Africa’s population is made up of
youth.
Also,
the media has great potential to reach and transform the mindset of people. For many years, representation of
Africa on the media has been dominated by crisis, war, conflict, famine,
dictatorship, etc. Even worse, the media’s representation of Africa does not only
affect the West but Africans self-image has profoundly been affected by the
media to be only associated with poverty, war, sickness and corruption. This
image has affected how citizens lead respective lives and how leaders lead respective
countries. According to a research by Carol S. Dweck (PhD), a globally leading
researcher in the field of motivation, ‘the view you adopt of yourself
profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you
become the person you want to be and whether you commit to and accomplish the things
you value.’
The
other area that builds growth mindsets is relationships. It is necessary to
note here, that thoughts, feelings and ideas are contagious. Leaders for
example, tend to become like the leaders they spend their time with. Continental
meetings by organizations like the African Union Commission also have a great
contribution in this regard. There are even chances that, leaders follow the
same election process and set up similar policies much like other peer leaders.
This is also true for citizens, who tend to remain quite against dictating leaderships
for decades until an opportunity arises to change the mindset. When one individual with a different mindset,
like Mohamed Bouazizi, a young man in rural Tunisia has an idea to pour
gasoline on himself to protest mistreatment by a government functionary and also
a deep expression of helplessness in the face of a lack of opportunity, the
entire citizens of Tunisia, follow-up on his idea to topple the ruler of the
country. The same happened in Egypt and Libya within the last year. The
individual’s idea, which is contagious, especially in this time of open and
fast communication access such as social media, shall never be undermined.
In conclusion, in this time of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the
African Union Commission, I believe, the Commission can play a great role in developing
a growth mindset of citizens by transforming education systems, promoting good
governance and exercising media freedom and democracy of the people. However, changes
need to begin within, for an organization that relies heavily on external
sources for funding cannot make independent decisions on policies, let alone
create aid-independent countries. It is my wish that the 50th anniversary of
the African Union Commission herald an era where citizens are changed by the
transformation of their minds, develop a growth mindset that result in the
growth of the continent.
(This article is also published on EchoAfrica magazine, Issue 3, 2013)
.png)
.jpg)
