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State of Africa – Parameters and Legacies of Governance 245 PART 4 Conclusion CHAPTER 15 Conclusion Confronting Africa’s Developmental Challenges Katabaro N Miti, Monica K Juma and Korwa G Adar The picture painted by this volume reveals that Africa is not moving forward; it remains the poorest continent on earth, having been left far behind by Asia with which it was almost at par in the early 1960s. In some analyses the situation is painted as worsening. This gloomy picture is captured by the statement in Chapter 10 that ‘life in most African countries except in North Africa remains nasty, short and brutish with a life expectancy that has marginally improved since the 1970s’. Life is made nasty and brutish by the continuous conÁicts in which civilians are killed, maimed and raped at will by the various contenders for power. Among the consequences of this are large numbers of refugees as well as millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs), who have nowhere to Áee as the borders of the neighbouring countries are closed to them. The problem of IDPs and refugees is highlighted in Chapter 4, which deals with human security. To the above picture of suffering, one should add the millions of people dying from the HIV/Aids pandemic that is running like wildÀre across the continent and taking with it the youngest and strongest, just as slavery did in the 1800s. Thus, people in Africa are left helpless and frequently hopeless as they are crushed under extreme poverty and starvation , disease and slaughter from the gun. In this concluding chapter we raise two basic questions. The Àrst question is: who is to blame for Africa’s plight? The answers to this question are many and varied depending on one’s ideological position. But overall, this volume offers two broad answers to the question. At the one extreme, colonialism and imperialism are blamed for Africa’s poverty. This is the position of Petrus de Kock in Chapter 2. At the other extreme, the blame is placed on African leaders and their greed. They are accused of assisting the continuous rape of the continent’s resources by outsiders, giving credence to the concept of the elite consensus/compact, as elaborated by Margaret Lee.1 This argument is underscored by the evidence of the massive embezzlement of the continent’s products, resources, and larger proportions of whatever comes from outside in the form of aid, to support it. Furthermore, African leaders are accused of lacking vision and commitment to move the continent forward. It is this lack of leadership that is blamed for the failure of the African integration project. The second question is: what is the solution or the way out of the 246 Africa Institute of South Africa PART 4 Conclusion Conclusion underdevelopment pit? The second question is interlinked with the Àrst. The answer given to the Àrst sheds some light on the answer to the second. In all honesty, there are no straight answers to the two questions. What will be offered here are some suggestions and points of departure from which one can develop the way forward. Our discussion starts by noting three important facts about the continent. First, one has to acknowledge the fact that Africa is a fragmented continent and therefore there is no single answer for the entire continent. This does not mean that one has to abandon what has been termed ‘continental solutions for continental problems’, which lies at the heart of the African Renaissance discussed in Chapter 7 by Okolo, but to accept the existing realities that limit the creation of pan-African governance (discussed by Uzodike in Chapter 6) and the growth of inter-state relations, particularly in the form of trade mechanisms that are at the centre of regional organisations. Secondly, one has to acknowledge that the state remains a critical piece in the puzzle of Africa’s development project. For this reason, unless the current state weakness and fragility is addressed, progress on the continent will remain uncertain and slow. The changing vision of the role of the state in Africa, its reach, sovereignty and legitimacy remain central to Africa’s future. Matlosa in Chapter 1, ‘Managing Diversity and Competitive Politics’, and De Kock in Chapter 2, ‘African Post-Colonial/Post-Adjustment State’, both address the central question of the role of the state in Africa. Ogom in Chapter 3, on the other hand, addresses how the state has responded to the challenges to its power by...

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