The Challenge for Africa: Blog Post 1

The Challenge for Africa: Blog Post 1

When reading the beginning of The Challenge for Africa, chapter 2 in particular stood out to me. I liked Maathai's description of leadership as "an expression of a set of value; its presence, or the lack of it, determines the direction of a society, and affects not only the actions but the motivations and visions of the individuals and communities that make up that society". This description somewhat deviates, but in a more in-depth way, from the traditional definition that we've all come to know in which it is simply the ability of an individual or organisation to lead others, and was intriguing to me as it made me reflect on what set of values specifically our leaders encompass today.

Delving deeper into the chapter provided me with new insight on what events shaped Africa to what is has become today. Having spent little to no time studying Africa in-depth, I knew little of the politics/society surrounding Africa; I could only assume that much of the political/economic turmoil was due, like other developing countries, to an immense income inequality as a result of corruption and greed. However, after reading this I learnt that many of the factors that plague Africa today were actually brought about from external players. Firstly, the modern leadership dilemma in Africa was initially brought about from the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, where the then-great European empires simply used Africa as a display of influence and power. Even after this era had passed, it seemed like Africa was never given a break as the Cold War proved another impediment to genuine autonomy. During the Cold War, the countries of Africa were once again broken up in their efforts to side with either the East or the West, the effects of which are still very obvious today.

Chapter 2 provided me with lots of new insight into how Africa has come to be. With so many foreign countries tapping into the African system (which some may argue as beneficial), it had significant negative effects in breaking countries apart and adding to both the economic and social tensions which are visible to all of us today. The last sentence of the chapter sums it up best, "The challenge continues for each new generation of Africans". It seems like, for now at least, current and future generations will have to battle the hardships that continue to plague from the past.