Africa’s future is up to Africans?

July 21, 2009 - In his article Dr. Hassan B. Sisay respectfully I submits that the president’s semi - hands off approach is too simplistic, and may be a recipe for disaster.

Dr. Sisay states that economies are in shambles, debt crisis is escalating, and many African nations still produce primarily what they don’t eat, and eat what they don’t produce. Some African problems are so ingrained and intractable that they cannot be solved without the forceful intervention of the international community preferably led by the United States.

In his award winning book, Africa in Chaos, George B.N. Ayittey, a renowned Ghanaian economist, and professor at American university in Washington D.C., identified two schools of thought (the externalists and the internalists) regarding Africa’s economic and political crises. He noted that “Externalists believe that Africa’s woes are due to external factors …such as Western colonialism and imperialism, the pernicious effects of the slave trade, racist conspiracy plots, exploitation by avaricious multinational corporations, and unjust international economic system, inadequate flows of foreign aid, and deteriorating terms of trade.” Internalist factors, according to Ayittey include: “misguided leadership, systemic corruption, capital flight, economic mismanagement, senseless civil wars, political tyranny, flagrant violations of human rights, and military vandalism.” Like Ayittey, President Obama believes that “internal factors are mostly man-made or artificial” and can be solved by Africans themselves. He forcefully told his Ghanaian audience that “the world will be what you make of it. You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people.”

Read original article HERE.

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What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is an non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. CIYDA currently has a network connection of over 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.