The year is 2009 and all of the African nations have yet to harness their very valuable resources and build wealth among its people.  God has truly blessed this continent with gold and diamonds laying on the ground; oil burping from under the ground; the purest farm land in the world and the most scenic landscape known to man.  Yet, the world knows no worst poverty, famine and struggle than this, the venue of the beginning of man.

When Europeans mastered sailing and learned the power of organized armies, they quickly targeted Africa as a place for labor recruiting via human bondage, aka slavery.  It is ironic that when the United States emancipated slaves in 1863 that same year, via the Treaty of Berlin, Europe formally divided up the African continent into colonies for pillage of its resources.  The formal colonization began to crumble in 1957 when Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana to official independence.  Yes, Africa actually began democracy before it was realized by African Americans.  Vice President Nixon journeyed to Ghana in 1957 for the inauguration ceremonies.  He approached a group of African Americans sitting at the ceremony and mistook them for Ghanaians.  He exclaimed, “How does it feel to be free?!”  They replied, “We don’t know, we are from Alabama.”  Wasn’t that profound?

When you sit down with Africans and frankly berate them for their dismal state they will come up with a hundred reasons for their plight.  The simple reason is fear and the old “crabs in the barrel syndrome”.  A few tribal leaders find a way to get to the top and then suppress the rest of the people so that they can enjoy their temporary status for as long as they can.  The Kikuyu in Kenya won’t step down from power just because they lost the election.  The Hutu, in Rwanda, decided to kill over a million Tutsis rather then turn over the leadership to them.  It goes on and on.  Europe and the rest of the world are far too willing to feed this predatory system with stupid loans and deceitful aid designed to keep them confused and in terrible debt.  Meanwhile, the diamonds, oil, gold, etc. gets pulled out for pennies on the dollar and to no benefit of each nation and its people. 

The first thing Africa needs to do is get rid of the tribal thing.  We are all God’s children and there is no section of us better than the rest.  Let’s have one big tribe and call it mankind. Even China has over 32 different cultures and tribes but they found a way to blend them all together.

Next, and most importantly, African nations must control their own resources and add value to them.  For every crop such as tomatoes, cocoa, pineapples, mangos, etc. they must process them there and control and own that process.  What good is growing cotton when you don’t own one cotton gin?  Why does a gallon of gasoline in Nigeria costs more than in Amsterdam?  It is pumped out of Nigeria so why isn’t it refined there and controlled 100% by Nigerians from well to refinery to gas station.  It is insane.  Why do white South Africans and Europeans have a monopoly on gold and diamonds when you African nations possess the raw minerals?  Seize it, manage it and profit from it.  The models of Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil clearly show how rich a nation and its people can become if they only start controlling its own resources that God has blessed them with.

If a sack of Coltran is bought in the Congo for $100 and is shipped to Belgium where it is cleaned up and sold to international telecom companies for over $100,000, I say let the future sacks of Coltran become void of the middle man or exploiter and the people of the Congo begin enjoying this money for themselves.  If Africa gets its act together then the millions of educated Africans living in the West and Europe would return and offer their talents to their homelands.  For God’s sake Africa, WAKE UP!!!

Mr. Alford is the co-founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc.  Website:  www.nationalbcc.org.