It is sometimes hard to understand the bedeviling omen that has befallen Africa which has rendered not only the countries in the continent to be poor but majority of its people to be battling with poverty. This sad status quo which is undesirable has resulted in a lot of young Africans drifting to Europe in seek of greener pastures.
A research indicates that, in Africa 422 million Africans live below the global poverty line which represents more than 70% of the world poorest people. It also shows that approximately 377 million Africans live less than a $ 1.90 a day.
Upon a close assessment of the situation below are some of the reasons why Africans are battling with poverty.
- Putting hopes in Politicians
Politics in Africa has been a huge business and a game for political figureheads who use the ignorance and desperation of the people to divide them and set the citizens against each other. These people who are mostly the youth loyally bind themselves and become stalwarts to these political parties and can sometimes even get into a dogfight just to register their allegiance to those political parties. They sometimes do this just because of ensnaring and juicy promises assured them by political gaffers.
They put all hopes on the politicians and later on get to realized that they have been used by these politicians as tools just to meet their own greed, parochial and selfish interest and dumped.
Also most of the youth put a lot of hopes and trust on political leaders to solve their problems for them: offer them jobs, good living conditions, to get support from politicians when they find themselves in dire financial situations. They don’t mind lining up in front of the politician’s house early in the morning to meet or greet him and ask for favors.
When they don’t get these hopes, they turn to point bitter accusing fingers at politicians for their failures in life. This as a result has rendered a lot of young people unambitious and lazy as they refuse to understand that their destiny lies in their own hands and not politicians. They refuse to understand that they have potentials beyond just been offered jobs by politicians or depending on politicians to solve their problems.
2. Post-colonial mentality
Post-colonial mentality is the internalized and inherent believe that the Religious, Social and Cultural values of the colonizer are superior to one’s own. This has become a mind poison and has put a lot of Africans into mental slavery.
Africa unlike Asian countries like Malaysia, North Korea, South Korea, China etc. that are doing well, has lost our traditions and culture to foreign influence which has kept on dwindling and waning out.
Africans sees everything of the colonizer to be of perfection and they think that locating oneself to Europe or America is the surest way to financial fortunes, and are ready to do whatever it takes to make it to the Whiteman’s land. Some can sell a whole family property and additionally take an illegal risk of passing through unapproved routes in the deserts through Libya and other places to enroute to Europe. They live by the delusory belief that, living in Africa blurs one’s financial fortunes and that wealth is only found in the west. If they lose the chance of making it to Europe, they get disillusioned and frustrated and throw their hands in despair and decide to get comfortable with their state of struggling poverty.
They tend to reverence and respect white tourists who find themselves in Africa and see them as symbols of wealth. What they lose sight is that, some of these white tourists are just students or workers who sacrificed and saved money or even picked student loans to be able to make their trip to Africa. These trips are sometimes used as learning grounds to help them get back to their various countries and start something productive for themselves.
They also refuse to understand that one can make it anywhere provided you take responsibility for yourself and by doing away with low self-esteem, excuses and denigration of oneself, and with the right positive attitude one can achieve anything anywhere.
It is this self-esteem industriousness and attitudinal sense of responsibility that has put the western countries and some Asian counties ahead of Africa.
3. Over dependence on Religion and Magic powers/Superstition
It is widely known that most Africans are religious and belong to diverse faiths. Though this is good as there is freedom of faith, beliefs and associations, which I totally support, some can over burn the candle. Instead of working hard and creating opportunities for themselves, they search for shortcuts by relying on black magic powers, superstition, voodoo, necromancy among others.
Others spend much of their productive time running from prayer camp to prayer camp in search of miracles, and this has become a fertile ground for fake, self-acclaimed men of God as they have taken advantage of this and making brisk business in disguise as men of God. They docile these people and they lose their reasoning and thinking ability as they wholeheartedly submit themselves to these fake men of God.
This situation has made many people lazy as it kills their drive to think. They have the mental illusion that wealth is easily obtained through black magic power, luck and miracles, they don’t put in the balance as they neglect taking up responsibility and creating their own opportunity but believing that one day it shall be well, and it never gets well.
4. Too much hope in School and Job
‘Education (school) is the key to success’ as it is always put, and a lot of Africans console themselves with this allusion. It is common to hear categorical statements that sends warning to young ones that- “you are from a poor background study hard so you can land yourself in high paying job and take care of your family, school is your only hope”…sad!
With this mindset orientation, school+job=salary is what sticks in the mind as a way to get out of poverty. One might think there is nothing wrong with this, but the reality is, the era of school=job=better-living is over in this 21st century. Once school has prepared graduates with skills and hopes to work in job, they come out and meet stiff competition in the job market because the number of available jobs does not march up with the large number of graduates from the growing number of Universities and Colleges. Besides, the courses they study are not employable and does not march up to current technological job needs.
These graduates spent time upon time scouting for jobs which are non-existent or meet stiffer competitions with the fewer ones available. They eventually get frustrated in their quest to get jobs and give up in life. They suffer disappointment in life because they have not be trained to create jobs, but to work as tools in jobs.
Africa has been doing well in churning out so many graduates with ‘big Certificates’ with the orientation from school to become tools for job, but ignores or lack the orientation needed to imbue into young people the need to create or own businesses or companies for themselves.
The continent has a lot of “book-long” professors who can’t create or invent anything new.
The high rate of unemployment not only in Africa but globally attest to this. Document reports by the World Bank indicate that of the world’s 28 poorest countries, 27 are in sub-Saharan Africa with poverty rate above 30 percent.
5. Inferiority Complex
In Africa seeing a rich and wealthy person, what quickly comes to mind is- oh he comes from a privileged family, he was born lucky, he probably might have gone in for money rituals. These among others are some of the reasons people postulate and assign to rich and wealthy people. It is ingrained in their minds that to be rich and wealthy is near impossible, and that it is a reserve of certain “special” persons.
They find it hard to accept that a person they have lived together with in the same standard of peasantry life can be rich and wealthy.
They do not see that possibility that a person can be rich and wealthy as a result of taking up opportunities, believing oneself and making it through a dint of hard work.
The need to be ambitious and successful in life is quenched and replaced with the pathetic consolation that ‘cut your coat according to your size (poverty is embraced).
They reverence and place rich persons on high pedestal and even sometimes tend to fear and idolize them and do not see themselves capable of marching up with them. This is even serious at the more rural areas where in most cases when you find a group of young folks in a chit chat, the conversation is centered more on peasantry way of lifestyle and less of becoming wealthy and successful.
6. The believe that Rich and Wealthy people are Evil
Though Africa has in record a lot of poor and struggling population, it does not mean there are no rich people. The continent has an appreciable number of wealthy people and even billionaires and millionaires; below is a list of some billionaires in Africa according to Forbes rating (2020)
Slide to watch full table (mobile device only)
There is a whole tall list to affirm that Africa has produced some billionaires. Aside the billionaires, there are also millionaires and normal wealthy people in African societies. However this is insignificant considering the huge gap and the percentage of people that are stricken with poverty.
African societies easily have that conventional mindset that most rich and wealthy people are evil. Why this assertion? Africans still have strong believe in superstition, black magic power and divination and therefore assign explanations to happenings. They have the belief that most people that are wealthy have sought after some rituals to embark on their riches and wealth creation venture. It is common to hear conspiracy theories labelled on certain wealthy persons in society such as; he has sacrificed his child for money rituals, he used his manhood for money rituals, he has buried live humans for money rituals, etc
Per this, they easily suspect and tag rich and wealthy as evil who has some dark forces backing them. The unfortunate thing is that, this mindset perception kills the drive for one to pick up opportunities and become successful because they are ingrained with the mindset that been rich and wealthy is only possible if one has spiritual backing.
7. Hanging Blame on Colonialism
A lot of times the tendency for Africans to lay blame on the colonizer as excuses for their financial struggles becomes an unfortunate mindset for they think that the exploitation colonization brought to the continent is responsible for their personal financial woes. Sad!
Though it is true that the continent has been raped and exploited of both its natural and human resources, it is not a justifiable reason for one to pathetically pity oneself and throw hands in despair and point to that as an excuse.
The mentality that the colonizer bagged away the continent’s resources that has rendered the people in the continent to be poor is a pathetic farce.
In actual fact, it is not only Africa that has with it scars of colonialism, countries like India, Malaysia, and even China which is now gaining grounds as world economic superpower was once colonized. These countries have enviable number of successful people who are making waves and turning the tide of technological industrialization and economic fortunes. They left their colonial past which would have created inferiority complex among them behind them and blurred out those lines by picking up opportunities and registering their mark in the world.
This state of mind has further put the individual into a mindset of inferiority complex. Until Africans rise up to the task and put the past behind them, most Africans will continue to look up to the west as the place they should relocate to for financial fortunes.
Summary
Africans could do well considering the abundant of natural resources the continent is blessed with however paradoxically that is not the case as poverty has weigh down not only the continent but its people. Sad to say, Africans have allowed the scars of colonialism to have a better part of them and they are entrapped into that. Until Africans deal with inferiority complex and change of imprisoned colonial mindset, the people and the continent will continue to be drenched into poverty.
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