Africans are justifiably angry over the blanket slandering of their continent. Over the last few months, Africa has been pilloried by the western press over events in Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, and the whole of Africa has been termed a ‘basket case’, a ‘hopeless continent’. This loaded reporting is not simply an unacceptable blow to an African’s pride and self-esteem, it threatens to wreck African economies. Who would want to invest in a hopeless continent? Who will spend holidays in a basket case Africa?

But even if others are not, let us be rational. Is there any justification to these claims? Let us examine the facts.

There are 53 states in Africa which is the second greatest land mass on earth. Sudan alone is larger than the whole of Western Europe; the DRC is larger than all the European member states combined. If you could place all European, North American and Latin American states into Africa, you would still have room to fit the Gulf states.

If Europe has problems dealing with its minuscule states, imagine the challenge that governing countries the size of Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, the DRC, South Africa poses. If Europe has still come to terms with its ethnic diversity - despite two world wars in the last century - imagine the challenges facing leaders of a continent which has a far greater ethnic diversity in one country, Nigeria, than all of Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East and some Asian countries put together.

If Europe still has economic and employment problems after three centuries of the colonial era, industrialisation, and trade monopolies, image the task facing Africa which at independence had practically no industries, few schools, the worst of possible terms in overseas trade, and a population that had no opportunity to accumulate meaningful capital.

Add to this a burden of debt for loans which many countries were forced to takeout, the structural adjustment programmes which the IMF now admits led to increased poverty, and the destructive impact of the Cold War whose legacy is still being felt in the on-going conflicts in Angola, Sudan and the DRC.

Then look at the all the problems that confronted African states at independence in the 1960s and compare them to the problems Western and even East European states faced at the same time, you would be forgiven for thinking that Africa had no chance. It would be like asking the driver of a beaten-up taxi to enter a Grand Prix contest against a million pound state-of-the-art Ferrari. No contest.

Yet, incredibly, a surprising number of African states have and are succeeding against the odds. They may not be in a position to challenge for the Grand Prix, but the cars they have concocted with their own means are still on the circuit and registering ever faster times.

Botswana and Tunisia have recorded the fastest growth rates in the world this year. Africa, according to the African Development Bank, will grow by between 4% and 5% this year. This figure is greater than for any other region of the world.

The vast majority of African countries now have democratically elected governments. African stock markets, despite their modest size, were the most profitable last year. The return on investment is higher in Africa than anywhere else in the world.

Is this the profile of a basket case continent?

But there is more. Even taking into account African countries in the slow lane, never has so much formal education been spread so fast to so many people as in Africa., despite structural adjustment programmes that have slashed spending on education. Can this really be the hopeless continent that the critics would have us believe?

If the Afro-pessimists in the media and elsewhere were to tour Africa and look at what has been realised instead of what is yet to be achieved, they might have to eat their words. Since independence, millions of new class-rooms, housing units, offices and clinics have been built. Air and seaports have been developed and hundreds of thousands of kilometres of new roads have been laid.

Starting from point zero, several African countries, Mauritius and Tunisia to name just two, have become among the most competitive industrial centres in the world.

Are we still talking about ‘basket case’ Africa?

But the most surprising statistic is still to come. We are told that a tiny country like Belgium has a greater GDP than scores of African countries. True, but this is a false comparison. It would be like comparisng the per capita income in Belgium with the per capita income of Brunei. Using this yardstick, the Belgians would come out as poor as church-mice!

Belgium, like many other Western countries has a long history of industrialisation. In fact, Belgium’s current wealth was founded on rubber from the Congo. The majority of the working population in Belgium, over 90%, is engaged in industry or services. This forms the country’s GDP.

There is one irreducible economic fact of life. You do not become wealthy by simply producing primary raw materials. You become wealthy by working on primary commodities and producing a wide range of products, i.e. industrialisation.

So, for Belgium to have a high GDP is nothing unusual. To find our how well it is doing, you have to compare it to other indusrialised countries, not to countries in which there is little or no industrialisation.

In Africa, the vast majority, some 80%, live a rural life. Most are subsistence farmers. Their income does not come into the calculations of national GDP. On average only one percent of Africa’s population in engaged in industry, compared to 90% of Belgium’s. Thus, Belgium’s GDP should be 90% higher than Africa’s - but it isn’t. So either Belgium is performing well below par or Africa is performing exceptionally well.

Those Africans who do pay taxes live in the urban areas but on average, they do not form more than 11% of the population. The national income derives mainly from commodities whose prices continue to decline. The only jobs to be found are in the few industries and in government. It is estimated that fewer than 5% of Africans pay taxes. The cost of collecting taxes from the further 6% or 7% probably eligible to pay tax would certainly exceed the amount of tax collected.

Tiny tax base

From this tiny tax base, the government has to finance its budget. A quarter to a third of national income goes to paying interest on debt. No wonder African professionals and civil servants are so poorly paid. Yet they expect and aspire to better lifestyles. No wonder parallel, corrupt systems develope.

Africa has few industries because there is no capital base for industrial growth. Prior to independence Africans were not allowed, by law in many countries, to accumulate capital. Even today, in countries like Zimbabwe, the majority are locked out of the mainstream economy because they cannot obtain title-deeds to the only form of collateral they have - land.

Without capital, or the means to accumulate capital, because most businesses and property were and still are held by expatriate settlers or commercial communities, the only route out of poverty is through employment in government. This was the closest most Africans could get to the commercial flow of their own country. It is hardly surprising that some used their positions to accumulate capital corruptly.

Since the government is the main employer, getting yourself or your party into government becomes a matter of survival. This is why elections in Africa are such passionate affairs. In other parts of the world, countries have gone to war over matters of economic survival. The Gulf war is a case in point.

But this does not change the basic fact that for most African countries, income from commodities is declining while their expenditure, particularly in view of high population growth rates, is increasing.

Africa’s problem is making the transition from a suppressed peasant economy into a modern industrial based one. This involves massive social, cultural and psychological changes. No continent, not even Asia, has had to make such sweeping changes, with so little resources and in such a short time, as Africa.

To expect this to happen without social and political turmoil is to expect more than a miracle. Yet, considering the furies that were unleashed when similar massive changes were made following the Russian and French revolutions or the World Wars, Africa has come off lightly by comparison.

Under such circumstances, it should not have been be possible for Africa to register any growth at all. To produce more tea, coffee or cocoa would only drive the price down and make income even worse. Yet incredibly, African countries have been growing. Of course, growth is not even but on average, there is real growth. This growth has been achieved despite Africa having one of the narrowest industrial bases in the world. It has been also been achieved despite the fact that the bulk of Africa’s population is still shut out from the world’s economic mainstream.

If Africa has been able to achieve so much despite the terrible start it got at independence, imagine what it will be able to do when the majority of its citizens are able to join the economic mainstream.

But the farmer will not abandon his fields to go and look for non-existent jobs in the city. Jobs will only be created with greater industrialisation. Industries will only be set up if markets can be accessed. And markets can only be accessed if the trade barriers on Africa’s industrial goods are lifted.

South Africa and other African countries are fighting tooth and nail to get a bigger share of the global market. They are being fiercely opposed by some industrialised countries but have the support of others.

We believe that sooner rather than later, Africa will win and get the markets. In the meanwhile, it needs investments to add value to its products and gear itself up to enter the industrial mainstream.

Despite its problems, including endemic diseases, wars and famine in some parts, outright looting of national resources in others, Africa’s performance from less than a standing start 40 years ago has been exemplary. Many nations, including the US, are now prepared to invest substantially in Africa. Some voices, such as those of Jesse Jackson and even President Clinton, are calling for a Marshal Plan for Africa. They want to see an end to the sticking-plaster approach to Africa’s problems. They want to see Africa given a fair opportunity to stand as an equal in the community of nations.

Other voices, unfortunately equally powerful, can see nothing good emerging from Africa. It is therefore our duty, and that of others with a voice that can be heard, to make sure that Africa’s many achievements are trumpeted at least as loudly as its shortcomings.

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