Timau: Mkwezalamba right on AU replacing West with China
Almost everyone agrees that Africa has got the factor endowment-land, labour, minerals, climate, in short, both movable and immovable natural gifts are found in Africa.
The bad news is that Africa is deficient in intellectual capacity and with all these resources still depends on other continents to survive.
Africa Union (AU) economic chief, Maxwell Mkwezalamba has said that Africa must end reliance on western donors and deal more with China. Nkwezalamba’s comment ignited an outrage from Nyasa Times readers who thought that the economist was just being silly and driving Africa to an absolute begging continent.
To be honest, the AU chief economist should have been saying, “guys, look here, let us work together. We have got what can make Africa a great continent. Name it. Oil in Nigeria, Angola, Libya and many more countries, minerals in South Africa, Zimbabwe, DRC and many more endowments elsewhere.”
However, as an economist, Mkwezalamba might have had a point. His thinking seem not to differ from that of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. Cameron is quoted in Britain’s The Sun newspaper of 28/07/2010 as having lunched a mission to India to drum up support for UK business.
“Your country has the whole world beating a path to its door. In the US, they used to say ‘go west, young man’. For today’s entrepreneurs, the real promise is in the East, the Sun imagined Cameron telling the Indians.
Our own Mkwezalamba told the AU summit meeting in Uganda that, “For Africa’s development and integration we have depended on the western world- we cannot proceed like this”.
The Man (AU economist) emphasises on the fact that, “we need to diversify our partners that we work with and hence for us, working with China is something that we have welcomed”, concludes the Malawian born AU chief economist.
Cameron, the British Prime Minister wants India, and the Africa Union Chief economist wants China. What’s the excitement here? Why are Malawians in disparagement with Nkwezalamba? Your guess is as god as ours!
We, The Timau Crew strongly think that maybe, Maxwell Mkwezalamba, the Africa Union Chief Economist, is after all right. Mr Cameron, according to the Sun Newspaper has vowed to build a ‘special relationship’ with India in his first trip to Asia, in the same line, Mkwezalamba has promised to stick to China, “We know that there could be some difficulties that some financial Institutions may have with some of these partners (like China) but for Africa I think this is the way to go”.
David Cameron said to his new found love, India, “To show how serious I am, I have brought the biggest visiting delegation of any British Prime Minister in recent memory”. Cameron did not stop there; he wants to gain more from India just like Nkwezalamba wants Africa to gain from China.
The British Prime Minister concludes by saying, “This trip is a trade mission, but I prefer to see it as a jobs mission. I want to see thousands more jobs created in Britain and thousands more in India”.
In his analysis, the AU chief economist observes that “By getting support from China and other countries we strengthen our position in dealing with institutions such as the world bank, which tends to impose huge conditions”.
The AU chief economist views that these institutions, “tell you that you are going to get $100 million until after maybe two years because the whole question of processing the loan takes a long time”.
Now, our question is, Cameron has chosen his way and Mkwezalamba has selected his. Is it because Mkwezalamba is your own son that you are hauling over the coals without doing your homework? Or is it spot on that we Africans shall remain brainwashed by the west and find faults in one another?
Maxwell Nkwezalamba, The Africa Union chief economist, maybe is right one way or another.
sembegondwe@yahoo.com
It was not Mkwzalamba’s comment that ignited outrage from some Nyasa Times readers, it was the Nyasa Times’ headline that they were reacting to. The headline stated: ‘Mkwezalamba says AU must replace Western partners with China.’ The word ‘replace’ is repeated in the headline of this article. However, this is not an accurate paraphrase of what the article quotes Mkwezalamba as saying. He says that Africa should ‘end reliance on Western donors and deal more with China.’ This is obvious. Nobody wants to be reliant on donors, and everybody wants to deal more with China. He goes on to say that ‘[f]or Africa’s development . . . we have depended on the Western world – we cannot continue . . . like this . . . . We need to diversify our partners . . . .’ Once again, there is nothing that anyone would argue with here. He is not saying that Africa should REPLACE the West. He is saying that we must develop mutually-beneficial economic relationships with as many nations as possible, including Western nations and China, so that we can end the humiliation of aid-recipient status.
Your sub-editor should be either more careful or less mischievous.
It happens often on Nyasa Times that the original article may be vague and misleading, but the discussion it provokes is extremely valuable. Well done Luka! Well done Nyasa Times!
(This does not always happen, however. The dog-biting story was bad but it became worse in the discussion!!)
Jean Ping is Half Chinese and half Gabonese so why not? The wise men in the Bible came from the East not west. So Maxwell is right because wisemen coame from the East. Look at the Parliament Buliding and a University for Bingu’s home from the East, the west are full of war mongering.
China! I say we should deal with Iran and North Korea, they need our uranium!
Wrong thinking and mentality
What is wrong with Mkwezalamba is his wrong thinking and dependence mentality. Moving dependence from the west to China cannot help Africa in anyway. The argument that Africa has difficient intellectual capacity is wrong and erroraneous thinking.
The truth is that Africa has as rich intellectual capacity as its natural endowment. Africa has one of the finest professors, doctors, lawyers, administrators and other professionals.
What is wrong with Africa is that wrong people with wrong mentality and thinking are in strategic leadership.
What Africa needs is right people with right thinking in all strategic leadership.
Leadership which will focus on utilising, the now abused and despised, rich African mental talent on adding value to its natural resources for competitive and profitable exports to the west and China.
Boycott and sanctions taught the apartheid leadership in South Africa to self reliant. They looked into themselves instead of the east or west.
You have given the example of David Cameron, he is the wrong example. He has scarcity and inferiority mentality. The British media is complaining that he is downgrading their country in international relations.
European growth economic indicators show Gordon Brown took the right decisions in dealing with the reccesion. david cameron is doing the opposite.
From the above you can see he is not the best example for Africa to emulate. Africa needs an abundance and self-reliance mentality. It has all it needs for its prosperity.
Thank you, smwemnda, for picking up the point you make in your first paragraph. Every human being on this planet is either a resident of Africa or an African of the diaspora, regardless of their physical characteristics. We all inherited our intellectual potential from the same stock. The ancestors of some of us stayed home while the others wondered out of Africa and gradually changed in appearance as they adapted to different conditions. If you go back far enough, everybody has a home village in Africa – or for some it may be a home cave.
All groups have the same intellectual potential; however, whether or not we achieve our potential depends on our being adequately nourished when we are young, and being intellectually nourished within an effective education system. We do not lack intellectual capacity, but many of our children do lack good food and good schools.
Establishing the conditions that will enable us to provide these to every child is one of the primary functions of government. No government that fails to do this should consider itself successful.
Correction: ‘wondered’ should read ‘wandered’.
Sembe did you expect Malawians to be commenting on Cameron’s trip to India? As you have rightly said, this was a business trip not sort of Aid seeking or asking for a loan. To prove that this is the business trip, Britain is going to sell India 57 Hawk fighter jets. So your comparison here does not hold water.
adding to XYXb’s comment, the west wants Africa to be buying fighter jets, they’re happy when we are at war so they can exploit us further, however don’t agree with the mindset of donor reliance. Switching sides won’t change africa in this case!
It happens often on Nyasa Times that the original article may be vague and misleading, but the discussion it provokes is extremely valuable. Well done Luka! Smwemnda! Well done Nyasa Times!
(This does not always happen, however. The dog-biting story was bad but it became much worse in the discussion!!)
Folks!
I totally agree with this article, but of course with the exception of the use of the word replace. The issue Max is talking about here is not about begging. Far from it. He is talking about partners in development.
IF THERE IS ONE THING THAT WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IS THAT THERE IS A LOT OF HYPOCRISY TOWARDS AFRICANS.
Africa is still regarded as very poor and is used to justify programmes meant to help Africa of which 80% of revenue goes to administration costs. In other words, this is creating jobs for themselves in the name of Africa.
All the wars in Africa are funded by the west. The west do not care at all whether people are fighting or not. For instance, what happened in the Gulf of Mexico (BP oil spill) happens all the time in the Niger Delta. Hypocrisy at its best . No one has made any noise about oil pollution…WHY?? Because no western reporters find it news worthy because it is Africa…and not America.
That is why when an African leader is addressing the UN, half the seats are empty.
The above are but a few examples what the so called WEST are to Africa.
Max’s remarks should be taken seriously. China built stadiums in Angola for 2010 Africa Nations cup and good Infrastructure is badly needed in Africa.
China has the technology and also wants to put its mark as a force to reckon with….I would in front of the queue any day.
For now I agree with Max.
Tell me what more we have gained from the parliament building, when all the cement and nails and half the labor force came from China. The Chinese come so they can have a place to take their stuff and in the long run its their economy improving. The west comes and creates employment, deal in issues such as health and education and democratic values. Why do you then have a lot of chinese still entering the US illegally. China is just a big bully of poor people. Where have they created employment in Africa. Where have they improved peoples lives. They will fool us with all these infrastructures. In Karonga they brought prisoners to be building the road. They are hoodwinking us and we are buying it. Its an overpopulated communist nation looking for where to dump its overgrowing and population. In a few years all they will be saying is “we did this, you owe us this” Just watch. They dont even get along with Taiwan. But as Africa, there we go again looking for a new person to beg from. Lets just get the buildings and not get carried away. The west will rule forever trust me. Lets be neutral like Saudi Arabias and them. They are very crafty in their alliances.
If Mkwezalamba stated that we should end our dependency on the western aid then he is correct but if he said that we should completely cut all contacts with the West then he is naive.
China is an emerging country and while its economy is third biggest in the world, its still not big enough to challenge the west yet. This can be seen from the price of raw materials. There is a slump in the price of raw materials at the moment because the western economies, which normally absorb most raw materials, are in a recession despite the Chinese economy experiencing growth and purchasing huge amounts of raw materials on the world market. Their activities are yet to drive the prices of raw materials up. A clear indication on who actually rules in the world markets. Much as I agree that we should increase our contacts with China and India and we should not get too excited and throw stones at others in the process. Another factor driving up the Chinese economy is heavy investments from Western companies.
Dealing with China does not necessaryly mean cutting oneself off from the West. Mkwezalamba should know this being an economist. The world’s economy is now linked so much that one cannot ran away from another. If you want cut off any dealings with the West, I may suggest that we establish relations with North Korea. I think that probably the most isolated country in world at the moment.
I think Mr Mkwezalamba has been beaten by the Chinese bug which has most Malawians excited with the Chinese. Its a high time we Malawians shake ourselves off from this Chinese bug.