Fifty years ago, Britain granted Ghana her independence. We celebrated that occasion last week in Denver, looking back at the past 50 years of Ghana's existence and wondering what the next 50 years might hold in store for Ghana and Africa.
A second African milestone was President Robert Mugabe's 83rd birthday, the observance of which cost Zimbabwe's bankrupt treasury 300 million Zimbabwe dollars, or about $1.2 million in U.S. currency. (Zimbabwe's inflation rate is 1,700 percent.)
Zimbabwe and Ghana are at two extremes of the African spectrum. Ghana is resurgent and hopeful; because of Mugabe, Zimbabwe's star is fading fast.
Ghana was the first country in Africa to gain independence from Britain. But its first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, mismanaged the country with nepotism, cronyism and poor economic planning. His attempt to establish a communist state led to disaster and an army coup replaced him in 1966.
Many coups afterwards, 2007's Ghana is stable, a democracy of sorts. Like other ex-British colonies in Africa, it's worse off than it was under colonial rule. At independence, the average Briton earned 39 times more than a Ghanaian. Today, an average Ghanaian earns $1.33 daily; a Briton earns 93 times more. And yet, because Ghana is peaceful and stable, there's genuine hope that the next 50 years will bring more prosperity than the last. Ghana's celebration, I surmise, was more about the future than the past.
Across the continent, Zimbabwe's petrified Mugabe presides over a dying nation, pushing his land further into disintegration and an economic abyss and destabilizing the region. It's more the pity because until a decade ago, Zimbabwe had a vibrant, stable economy thanks to her large white farmer and business community. When Mugabe began evicting whites from the farms they had worked for generations, the country's economy plunged.
Rigging elections and suppressing political opposition have become the norm. Mugabe's celebration culminated in bloodshed. After the police's violent assault, Morgan Tsivangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, sustained a fractured skull. It's the hope that Mugabe will soon exit the stage and that Zimbabwe, like Ghana, will once again have peace and security - absolute essentials if countries are to prosper.
The future that Ghanaians were celebrating and dreaming of - and that Africans everywhere hope for - has several ingredients: rational, honest leaders (a rarity in Africa), self-reliance, motivation and trust.
For four decades, Africans have depended on foreign aid; but foreign handouts have led to corrupt leaders and a dependent, unimaginative populace. Africans must learn to rely on themselves.
Above all, Africa should be encouraged to develop a common market, to become a common economic unit. For greater stability, to grow jobs and more opportunities, America and the West should help Africans develop trade between countries - by improving the infrastructure, communications and education. Africans also need to protect their environment.
Many Africans, individually, send large sums of money home. Given trust in each other, I urge my Ghanaian friends to join together to invest in Ghana - to increase opportunities and jobs for others at home.
That said, the West should be a helper, fully aware that sometimes it's best not to stand in the way of progress. Africa received massive foreign aid in the form of arms and munitions in the Cold War years. There's little to show for it but for the ongoing internecine wars and physical and psychic scars. Had that aid been in the form of food and education, Africa would be a different place today. In the next 50 years, we must concentrate on education, especially that of girls upon whose shoulders the burden of raising and shaping future generations rests.
This late in Africa's history, there are still countries without a university. I propose establishing a transcontinental university network where research could find solutions to African problems.
If the 50 years since independence has been marked by intertribal wars and endless coups, Africans must eschew violence and destruction. We must stop blaming our troubles on colonial powers and white people.
The solution to Africa's ills lies in Africans' hands.
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