The following has been edited to meet Solving Africa’s guidelines. A link to the original article is provided at the bottom. You’ll understand why I haven’t simply linked to the article if you’re patient enough to read through. Compare this ending to the original. The author, Field Ruwe, is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Zambia.”

“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”

“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”

“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”

My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.

“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.

“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”

He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”

Quett Masire’s name popped up.

“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”

At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.

From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.

“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”

I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”

He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”

The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”

“There’s no difference.”

“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”

I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”

For a moment I was wordless.

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”

I was thinking.

He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”

I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.

“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”

I held my breath.

“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.

“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”

I was deflated.

“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”

He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”

At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.

“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”

He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

The article should have ended here. It didn’t.

What’s vexing me is that after everything Mr. Ruwe, heard Walter say, his reaction was to deflect the blame from himself (ourselves) where it rightly belongs and to point the finger at government! Madness! How does a leader stop you from inventing something? How does a leader stop you from being the change you want to see in your country and dealing with the everyday problems that are fixable without the government’s intervention? A stone crusher, better textiles, a water purifier, and other household needs. Instead, we are proud to wear our designer clothes, play on our iPads, chat on our BlackBerries and feel just that much special because we are linked – either by education or consumption – to the inventions, ideas, and achievements of the West and now, Asia.

How does government stop you from returning to Africa with your fancy Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD and the contacts you’ve made abroad to transform your so called beloved country into a place that will no longer shame you?

You see the wahala again? See how swiftly he moved the blame to the government? Mschew!

Until we start taking personal responsibility to change the crap that is our heritage, we won’t see any changes in this generation. While we may not be the reason that Africa is what it is. We definitely will be the ones to blame if it remains as it is. I know what I have to do. And as much as I can, I will do it. What’s your move?

Friends,

It is with such great pleasure that I’m writing to introduce Wairimu Gitau to you. It’s thanks to her that I got to meet Sammy Gitau and the guys at the Mathare Resource Center. Since that meeting two years ago, Wairimu has graduated from Daystar University – partly thanks to Solving Africa folks helping out!!!(yay!!) and thanks to her go-getter attitude to raise funds through donations to complete university. She’s now studying for a master’s in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Her current goal is to set up a radio station in Nairobi’s Mathare slum. She already has a team of 12 people – some who live in Mathare and others in Holland and Germany. Solving Africa is proof that the world is often on the side of crazy ideas. So let’s give her support and help get this project off the ground.

Wairimu will give us an overview of her project, and tell us the progress she’s made thus far. I look forward to a future update with a photo of an up and functioning radio station.

Let’s do this!

Possibly the least appreciated star of the commodities world, iron ore is an extremely crucial ingredient in the making of steel and hence a staple of the construction industry amongst others. After oil, it is the second most traded commodity, however, there is only one African country in the top ten iron ore producers – South Africa.

This is not because Africa has a dearth of deposits, but is hobbled by scant infrastructure. Whereas a train can easily take cargo (measured in metric tonnes) from the large deposits in Kogi to Port Harcourt (central to southern Nigeria), the lack of sufficient rail routes necessitates loads of trucks navigating treacherous roads, or slow barges crawling along shallow inland rivers. This is quite inefficient, particularly for a high volume low margin business, and illuminates another aspect irresponsible governance restricts economic growth.

The importance of iron ore to the construction industry – or the general economy cannot be overstated, as despite China being the number one producer (mining more than the next two countries – Australia and Brazil combined), still accounted for 59% of global imports in 2010. With thermal coal and coking coal – all crucial in the construction industry, iron ore will account for more than half of miners’ earnings before tax and interests for the next three years.

Despite other base metals [i.e. not precious metals like gold, silver, etc], having fallen 20.5 percent through this year in price, iron ore has only dropped 0.7 percent, showing its resilience and necessity. This is accounted for by the fact that it best reflects the underlying supply and demand of the industry. For example, the weak economy in Europe has depleted demand, but this is complemented by India, the fourth largest producer clamping down on illegal mining and reducing production by 35% from 117m tonnes in 2009 to 75 m tonnes.

The cost of iron ore is currently about $170 per metric tonne (although this is dependent on certain things like iron content with 65% being optimal, and other such impurities like aluminium and silicon dioxide). However as recently as 2008, the price had stayed at the $10-$50 a tonne range since 1980. In addition to the macroeconomic supply and demand issues, iron ore follows a journey that affects the price including cost of concentrate (including and determined by amount of impurities), freight cost, cost of logistics (transportation), and cost to suppliers, whether selling at departure (FOB) port or destination (CFR) port.

The more than tripling in price over the last three years begs the obvious question of what is being done with the excess cash. Often traders are berated for buying and selling commodities, but we often forget that they belong to the country of origin, and it is these governments that should be queried about the non-existent rails and lack of proper investments.

Firstly, I must apologize to readers for the long hiatus. The travails of a Masters’ program were tough but have been duly conquered… and hopefully with aplomb. Assuredly, the time off has broadened my horizons and added to my bank of knowledge, which should result in a better and more informed read.

The headlines still carry their messages of woe and doom, but recently a new [and I believe little understood] agent has been taking a lot of the dissension. This new scapegoat is of course the lifeblood of most African nations – commodities – making it essential that we understand the basics of it, and its necessity to everyone at large, and Africans in particular.

This will probably be the least technical of all the posts, which I hope to make a weekly series, so I will keep it as simple as possible so the basics are understood.

A definition is required before I ramble on about the exciting world of commodities. Commodities are essentially inputs in the creation of other goods; they range from the easily identifiable like oil (essential to every country’s economic development) to the more looked over items such as sugar (crucial for fuelling the unflagging energy of children). Basically, commodities are what make the world run. Today, even intangible assets such as electricity and carbon emissions fall under this broad umbrella.

Over the past decade, Africa has posted incredible growth statistics, fuelled mostly by commodity sales such as metals to China, and oil to the West. The futures trading of agricultural products are possibly the most maligned occupation currently, but if properly assessed, we realize it and other commodity trading are an integral part of gauging the health of the economy. For example, the price of gold is the inverse of consumer confidence in the economy; the price of oil is a measure of production and manufacturing capacity; and the price of agriculture in markets, when properly linked, highlight crucial things like the potential of a drought, etc. Rather than seeing these as simple exploitation of resources, we should view them as a reflection of the economy we have created.

How intricately Africa’s destiny is aligned with the global performance of commodities cannot be overstated, and time permitting I shall explore further, examining them in the following categories: Energy (oil, gas, etc); Base metals (Aluminuim, copper, etc); Precious metals (gold, platinum, etc); and Soft commodities (Cocoa, sugar, etc). For each article I will give a brief overview of the category, hone in on a particular commodity, and a possible country profile might follow.

If there are particular issues you will like discussed or clarified for this series, please feel free to post in the comments section below.

According to the World Health Organization, the top 5 killer diseases in Nigeria besides HIV/AIDS are: lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia, bronchitis and complications from the flu; malaria; diarrhea, yes, diarrhea; and measles. It’s also kind of obvious that it will take us quite a while before Nigeria will be having uproarious congress discussions regarding free healthcare or health insurance reform or any other thing of the sort. Here’s an idea: Mobile clinics! This idea is replicable throughout Africa and is already in use in Swaziland to reach HIV/AIDS patients.

Equip a van to diagnose and treat these 5 diseases. The van will drive around a city or into remote villages. You don’t even need doctors. It can be called “Nurses on Wheels!” Mobile clinics could charge standardized prices for their services. For instance, the first 15 minutes of a consult are free. Consults lasting longer than 15 minutes cost $1 per 15 minutes. A prescription for drugs would cost $0.50 and patients could instantly fill their prescription at the van if the drug is available. Various lab tests would also have their respective prices. A general checkup could take say 20 minutes and cost $5.

People can sign up to get significant savings if they pay a monthly or yearly fee – essentially providing them basic health insurance. The mobile clinic can be linked to hospitals to which a nurse can email, call or send a note to refer a patient. The clinic would also keep records of every visit and thereby create electronic health records that can be accessed from any mobile clinic van. So say you’re downtown but you live outside the city, the mobile nurse or doctor you run into can easily look up your name and find any needed information to help you.

What are your thoughts? I’m not a health professional so feel free to correct any unfounded notions about providing healthcare that I may have.

Links:

http://www.mobileclinics.co.uk/index.php

http://www.usdfa.org/index.cfm?views=Proj_MobileClinicAfrica

http://www.starafrica.com/en/news/africa/article/china-gives-zambia-53-million-dollars-fo-71285.html

http://www.medifit.co.za/

I’m not sure why we don’t already do this in the dryer parts of the continent. This would speed up and standardize house construction significantly and could be a cheaper alternative to traditional brick houses and a better alternative to poorly constructed mud houses. Drywall/Plasterboard has been in existence for over 100 years, I think Africa can get on board. Nigeria has large gypsum deposits for making cement. We could manufacture plasterboard for use at home and for export abroad. This would open up an entirely new industry, one that would employ thousands of people and could potentially lift thousands out of poverty. If you know more about drywall/plasterboard, or understand why this hasn’t been implemented around Africa, please comment below.

Often we get young entrepreneurs with charitable hearts eager to help Africa. Unfortunately, they often forget the basics. Such as a school without quality teachers is simply a building; a classroom without adequate textbooks is merely a room full of children.
These charities erecting buildings make it easy to forget the essential problem – unequal access to quality instruction. I commend their noble ideals but their misunderstanding of the actual problems detracts from creating substantial solutions.
Here are a few ideas to tackle these shortfalls.
1. Online syllabi – this is not a novel idea, in fact there is already an industry waiting in the shadows, hoping it becomes a viable market so they can jump in. While they wait for this major breakthrough, which will be soon giving the advances made in electronic reading devices, they should forge ahead with charity organizations. They should find a way to create curriculum that provides standard equitable education while remaining region sensitive and ensuring local content is adequately taught. I know more about Western history than my African past because the books available were tailored to that.
2. Laptops – the hundred laptops per child is commendable, but their marketing has not been. The way airlines provide the option to erase your carbon footprint at the end of each transaction is the way these guys should collaborate with major computer retailers. This way if you buy a laptop, you can simply add $100 to your transaction and one is sent to a little kid in the developing world. Equally as important, I feel the creation of notebooks is timely in ensuring compact computing units at a cheaper cost. I believe all major makers of computers should look into tailoring this technology adequately because even children in the developed world from poorer neighborhoods also face technological disadvantages.
3. T.I.A – similar to the Teach For America scheme, this Teach In Africa, will bring expatriate graduates home on teaching assignments. Not only does this bring an influx of quality personnel with novel ideas and dynamic methods, it also brings fresh ideas to local problems. Although I feel this should initially be restricted to émigrés and their home countries for the simple sake of building interest and empowerment, it can later be broadened to all those qualified and interested.
If we have all these in place, we have hit at the root of educational pitfalls. The cost of schooling will be greatly reduced as a child can be sponsored with a laptop and download textbooks at no cost. In addition, there will be improved Internet access that creates an avenue of necessary exposure in a rapidly globalizing world.

Young African Professionals networking evenings are held every month in Washington DC area and the event attracts over 50-100 professionals interested in Africa. The theme for the April 30th event was “Home Sweet Home: How to successfully relocate to Africa”. The evening was meant to address the many concerns of young Africans in Diaspora.

To lead the invigorating discussion, three panelists were invited from different fields- Mrs. Edith Haizel, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Ghana, and former member of Parliament; Mr Julius Kliza, University Lecturer, Makerere University, Uganda; and Alban Bagbin, Minister for　Water Resources, Works and Housing, Ghana.

Speaking from a University Lecturer’s perspective, Kliza said there were many factors pulling and pushing young professionals from home. He however encouraged youths to remember that there was no place like home. “Your countries and families need you and your ideas” he said.

The panelists admitted that things back home in African were not as rosy as they would have loved it to be. Among others they noted that roads are not good. No good electricity and ATM machines are not reliable. All these challenges are enough to discourage anyone from relocating.

A packed Suitcase photo by Sandra Beijer

To avoid frustration, the speakers suggested “relocation strategies”. “Before relocating, identify someone to entrust your wealth or ideas”, Africans in diaspora were advised. This person will be very helpful in helping you integrate into the society eventually.

Take out sometime to test the waters. If you can, carry out some local projects in order to be able to understand how the system works. The panelist noted that you must not relocate because of people’s pressure. “Make sure you are ready”. Meanwhile, relocating can also be a simple decision to invest in the country. “Look for innovative fields, do not join the bandwagon” said the Ugandan.

Bagbin, Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing Ghana, reaffirmed the urgent need for young talents to return home and invest in their countries. However he said even after relocating, it is important to keep in touch with Diaspora. “Africa is said to be the future of the world, not because of natural resources but because of knowledge- brain gain”.

Bagbin noted that you could make a difference wherever you are. “If you think of Africa’s development, then you can make a difference” he said. And urged everyone to embrace the 3 C’s of leadership- Character, Care and Competence.

Source: The Nation newspaper.

Robert Litan, director of research at Kauffman Foundation – a firm that specializes in promoting innovation in America said, “Between 1980 and 2005, virtually all net new jobs created in the U.S. were created by firms that were 5 years old or less”. “That is about 40 million jobs. That means the established firms created no new net jobs during that period.”

Due to globalization, every existing job or position has either been taken or outsourced. In these times, the necessity of start-ups cannot be overstated. In Africa, it means we need the private sector to step up. We need the creative talents that have fled the continent to return with their acquired expertise.

This does not excuse the government of its responsibilities. In a developing society, they are the premier source for generating employment. However, the reliance on them for innovation is misplaced. We saw with the GSM that all the market needs is an enabling environment; expediency and profits handle the rest. In Nigeria, the government simply granted licenses, in a couple of years, business transactions were made more efficient, and thousands of jobs were created.

Due to the continental lack of infrastructure, there is a huge avenue for government induced job creation, both in building the amenities and in maintaining them. But soon enough that number will stagnate. I am more interested in what happens next.

For every four blacks on the African continent, one is a Nigerian. This means (like it or not), the proportion of able bodied, adequately educated, aptly funded individuals possible of sustaining job-creating start-ups will favor that country. I say this because of the shenanigans pulled in Ghana last year. Due to the electricity shortages in Nigeria, Nigerian business flocked there in droves and helped spur the economy. International organizations soon followed, and suddenly Nigerian licenses were being revoked.

The difficulty faced by non-Kenyan Africans in starting and sustaining a business in Kenya is ridiculous, yet Indians own the majority of industries – land, manufacturing, and retail. I would have no problem with this but the profits are sent to India and the hired labors are imported from India – none of this is good news for our continent.

The point of these illustrations is to state that African countries need to be more business friendly towards fellow Africans. It is imperative. Mo Ibrahim, the wealthy Sudanese businessman has been often quoted as saying individually African countries cannot be competitive on their own.

War between two nations usually stems because of money, because people care about their money. We need Africans to have financial stakes in the continent so they would care about what is happening in it.

Finally, I am not a protectionist by any means, and I think Ethiopia is taking it a bit far (you can’t buy Kelloggs in the supermarket), but I really think the rest of the continent like them need to start contemplating import embargoes. We should take the China route; our markets are young and should be protected. Inter-African trade should be developed and protected. The borders should be opened for people, goods, and businesses. Little known fact, Canada is the only country that can service all their current needs without imports. Perhaps it is why they never war.

Pan-Africanism has been whispered and then shouted the world over as a solution to Africa’s ills and a refuge for blacks the world over. However, I am hesitant to join this bandwagon especially when Ghaddafi, who just called for Nigeria to be split into two, is its current champion.

There is no doubt we need a more united market, more open borders and inter-regional trade but perhaps we must be a bit more cautious in how we try to attain this. The crisis with the Euro shows the difficulty of creating a regional monetary market and currency. Too many countries have different principles and agendas to make it easily fluent.
Without a doubt, we do need united representation on the global stage. Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia has gone some way in providing a unified front for African demands, particularly when it comes to the issue of climate change. However, it was rather disgraceful to watch the African envoy sitting in Copenhagen, hats in hand, asking for money. No concrete plans as to their intentions, no reform strategies, nothing. Frankly, they looked rather silly and very greedy.

We need to present the continent as a place of serious ambitions, and for that we need well thought-through plans and programs. So here is a policy for them. The approaching World Cup in South Africa has brought to light the difficulty of inter-Africa travel. We have always known this, but it seems the international community was rather shocked at the costs of flights. People will barely be able to make it to the bottom of the continent much less take the opportunity to explore our beautiful lands. I honestly believe a train system that runs through the continent is necessary.

All countries can chip in and it will definitely provide a useful outlet for spending climate aid. Pros and cons? Here goes.

Cons:
Being overrun by refugees (economic, social, etc) is probably the biggest fear in this situation, but it happens anyways. I feel any Nigerian who had landed in Nairobi before the recently changed ridiculous rules and saw Europeans and other whites being fast tracked while they went through all sorts of loopholes will agree with me that something must be done. There are other issues – corruption, who will run it, etc, but the Pros outweigh the Cons.

Here are some positives:

1. Since the continent is blessed with abundant sunlight, we should go for a solar assisted, energy efficient train. This promotes clean technologies research on the continent, is good for the environment, and will be cost effective in the end.

2. An open market:  It’s shameful how we continually import from non-African countries when we need markets for our own goods. I know that there are many reasons underlying this trend but publicly a lot of blame is attributed to cost of transportation.

3. Tourism among Africans. It is about time Africans started spending our excess cash on our continent. Does anyone have a clue how breathtaking Namibia is? I do not either but I have heard from a foreigner and I will appreciate if it was easier for me to confirm.

There is of course the reason that started this line of musing – cheap transportation. It should not cost 400 dollars to go from Nairobi to Addis Ababa when their countries touch!

So, this is not the alternative to pan-Africanism but I feel it is a more practical approach to stitch the continent together – something we are in dire need of.