LETTERS

THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER

African - Americans

APOLOGISE FOR LETTING US DOWN

I am writing in response to Johnson Danko's letter, in the March 2004 issue of African Business, entitled 'African-Americans:

Generally speaking, I concede that the world-view of African-Americans is primarily influenced by US television. That view, however, is also impacted by the indifference of Africans to African-American existence, which fosters hopelessness in any effort for reconciliation.

In the African world community, propaganda masquerades as education; mistrust is the mortar that builds walls; and passivity is the strategy of choice. Africans would do well to speak with an African-American who doesn't have the stars of the American flag in his or her eyes. But such a person is a rare find and interviewing every African-American is not feasible, so I will speak.

I have heard the 'come and help us' plea from a few individual Africans who now live in America or who frequently travel between the two continents.

I've also read online news articles reporting apologies by African governments for their participation in American slavery. The apologies and pleas represent sentiments of a few non-influential people or governmental political strategy that is not followed by any meaningful action.

The US propaganda machine - government schools and biased media broadcasts - effectively maintains the 'slave' mentalities of at least 35m people. African-Americans trust it as the only source of truth - doubting even the Bible and their own personal experiences and refusing to watch international newscasts or read books by foreign authors.

This machine overtly and covertly teaches that Africans have 'minimal capacity for western-style civilisation, innovation or government' - and, added to the resulting resentment against Africa, African-Americans accept or at least allow their American education to colour their view of Africans.

Africans do little to combat these misrepresentations. This leads to the issue of trust. African-Americans continue to bear resentment because of Africa's complicity in the African holocaust. There is a huge need for transnational dialogue that explains Africa's actual historical behaviour, as American textbooks omit the truth of this matter.

Then there's the suspicion that Africans have not engaged themselves in defending African-Americans against injustice, nor have they permitted African-American involvement in African causes.

African-Americans are wary about entangling their economies with people with whom they have no social engagement. You call for African-American participation in African affairs. However, your lone, informal call will not be heard or read by most African-Americans.

And if only a few African-Americans realise that the American education process teaches many falsehood and do everything they can to embrace the truth about their African ancestry, is this enough to effect change? Perhaps, but only with the development of an effective strategy.

Africa does itself an injustice by not viewing all Africans, in every country, as an extension of the African economy. Africa must first view African-Americans as a nation - Africa-America. (This nation-validating view should be taken toward all groups of African descendants of the slave trade.) Only then will Africans be able to comprehend the impact of Africa-America's gross domestic product upon the African continental economy.

Reconciliation of these nations should be preceded by a formal call by the African Union for the uniting of African economies worldwide and should be followed by a penetrating marketing campaign that includes an explanation of historical behaviour, an apology, a vow of repentance and a proposal for the interaction of our economies.

I've greatly simplified the solution to keep this letter brief; but we must move beyond writing news articles and letters and issuing apologies that only reach a minority of African people around the globe. A call for our economic integration must include a call for our social integration.

A strategic effort on the part of African governments to welcome, request and facilitate social interaction and economic cooperation with African-Americans is the only way to reconcile the generational disconnect between our nations.

Telhare'sha Dawkins

Diplomatic Gateways, Fort Worth, Texas, USA.

Africa's top companies

IS THIS AFRICA'S CENTURY?

The cover story of African Business' March 2004 issue, 'Africa's Top Companies' is unique and pioneering. It is unique because African Business is bringing to light an emerging and potential force that could possibly unlock alternative sources of foreign investments long sought by African governments and businesses. It is also pioneering because, for the first time, a major and reputable business magazine is forcing the business world to take cognisance of the business and financial opportunities present in a continent that most consider nascent when it comes to wealth accumulation and profiteering.

As Anver Versi rightly pointed out, even amidst ranking criteria difficulties, "the time was nigh to compile a companies ranking for the continent...." Despite the impressive returns registered by some of Africa's Stock Exchanges, few Non-Resident Foreign (NRF) investors partake in some of Africa's stock markets.

With the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) registering US dollar returns of 144% in 2003, one can only ask why wealthy Western investors and wealthy investors from developing countries are not rushing into the African capital markets to take advantage of the high dollar-denominated returns.

As an optimist and a young African professional with much vested interest in seeing the continent transcend its rather unfortunate mishaps, I can only identify with South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki's opening remarks at the 'Africa 2025' forum: "Africa does not have the divine right to succeed in her endeavours in the current age. Nor is there a supernatural force that can will us to fail. How events unfold over the next 20 years or so depends in large measure on what we Africans do."

It is almost banal, but for illustrative purposes, I will make use of an old adage that says, "A glass half-empty is one half-full." We, as Africans, can either choose to identify with Africa as President Mbeki does or be preoccupied with another quote that I would like to present:

"The process of accumulation in the continent has not yet truly begun; Sub-Saharan Africa remains locked in a pattern of high indebtedness, is marginal to international trade and investment flows, and has a huge informal economy."

The above two quotations, adopted from the African Business issue of February 2004, are truly contrasting positions, both of which give a snapshot reality of the opportunities and challenges the continent faces.

At the turn of the century, renowned economists and financiers, the likes of Lawrence Summers and George Soros, dubbed the 21st century as belonging to Africa. Four years into the century, though prematurely, we can ask if this dubbing will possibly prove to be true come the year 2099.

If financial economic theory is right then we should have witnessed an influx of foreign capital into the Africa's stock exchanges in search of healthier returns relative to the US's 2003 S&P 26% return, Europe's MSCI 32% return, or Japan's Nikkei 36% return.

But perhaps there is another aspect of financial economic theory that I am not accounting for - that of information availability and access - which could be the reason why the African stock markets have failed to see an influx of NRF investments lining up to take advantage of these high returns. Hopefully that process of information might just have begun with African Business' first launch of pertinent insights into Africa's top companies.

While the market capitalisation of regional African companies is small relative to their Western counterparts, it would be interesting to know what the NASDAQ, S&P, Nikkei, or the FTSE 100 returned in their first 13 years of existence.

At least we know the GSE gave us a 344% Cedi denominated average nominal return over its 13 years of existence (Dec. 28, 1990 - Dec. 31, 2003). If that is not impressive in the world of finance I do not know what is.

If I may, I would like to congratulate African Business for this rather revealing insight into the continent's capital markets and companies.

I can only hope that we will see the profiles of other African companies in African Business magazine. This I believe would be a major complement to the excellent 'country profiles' that you publish.

Benjamin A Roberts, Serrekunda, The Gambia.