What Is Africa’s Problem

17. What's Wrong with Africa?

SEVENTEEN What's Wrong with Africa? I was not given any particular topic to speak on, so I shall choose afew things I consider important for Africa. With that in mind, I shall put my topic as follows: What is wrong with Africa? What is the problem? This is what I am going to try to establish. My years in Dar es Salaam were very useful for me because I had left Uganda deliberately to pursue politics, not so much studies. When I was in the sixth form in Uganda, I put all my three choices at this university . The reason was that at that time, there was some political activity in Dar es Salaam that was not taking place in any of the other East African countries. First of all, President Nyerere was talking a certain political language, and although I did not understand it thoroughly at that time, I found it attractive. Second, there were movements in Dar es Salaam that were fighting for the liberation of the countries of Southern Africa. I, therefore , thought that Dar es Salaam was a more attractive place not so much for the learning they were offering at the university,but because there was a progressive political atmosphere. I used my time here to try to discover what Africa's problem was. I was aware that something was definitely wrong, but I did not know what it was. In the 19605, I used to hold discussions with my father, who is a peasant, and he would say: "You young men are looking for trouble. How can you be independent of these Europeans when you cannot Address at Dar es Salaam University, Tanzania, July 11,1986. 143 144 What's Wrong with Africa? make guns, needles, or even razor blades?Youhave to depend on Europeans in everything. So, how will you be independent?" I told him he was a confused old man who did not know what he was talking about. Later, however, when I thought about it, I realized that he had a fundamental point. You see peasants are realistic—they have the capacity to know what is wrong in a given situation, although they may not know the reasons why the situation is not ideal. So the question was: how can you have a viable nation when that nation has no viable independent economy? That was the reason for my father's skepticism. How can you have an independent nation without an independent economy? Soon after independence , I could seethat things were not going well. Uganda shared the general African problem, although the country had its particular problems arising out of its history, like the problems created by the political parties that had taken charge of the preindependence struggle. I could see that we were getting nowhere, but I could not see the solutions . So I thought it would be good to spend some time investigating what could be done about the situation. That is why I was attracted to the University of Dar es Salaam. When I came, I made a reasonably enlightened study of politics. The Youth and Politics This brings me to my first point, which is about the consciousness of young people in Africa, the consciousness of the elite.Asyoung people in the university,your role is to ensure that you discover what is wrong with Africa. Some people think that what is happening in Africa today is merely an accident—but this is not the case. That sort of thinking will not get us anywhere. Everything has a cause. I can, for instance, explain how I come to be here now. Yesterday, I came from Kampala and flew here for a reason. I am not here by accident. Africa is in its present situation because of previous phenomena, which we must understand. Therefore, the ideological consciousness of the young people, the elite, and of the population in general is very crucial. A university like this should be the center of that activity. I am not impressed that somebody is an engineer or a doctor if he does not want to know anything about politics. We struggled against that kind of mentality until we in- What's Wrong with Africa? 145 troduced a course called Development Studies. I hope it is still being taught. This course was supposed to equip the student with knowledge about socioeconomic affairs, so that whatever qualifications he attained, he would...