In 1962, the French agronomist René Dumont published Black Africa is off to a bad start. If the author is benevolent, he nevertheless delivers a severe methodical indictment on sub-Saharan Africa, condemned to underdevelopment by its elites. In his diagnosis, he deplores the absence of agricultural and educational policies, and denounces the weight of corruption and nepotism which erode the springs of prosperity.
To read
Corruption: the state can be stolen and eaten
His reflections will cause a scandal, so much the voice of René Dumont is once morest the tide of the post-colonial euphoria dominant at the time, which predicted a radiant future for the African continent. The debate will be settled later, Dumont’s analyzes proving to be prophetic and, more than half a century later, they ring still fair.
Staggering potential
The first part of the book is devoted to agriculture, characterized today by under-investment and the inadequacy of the systems. Yields suffer from rudimentary means, half of food production is lost, cocoa, coffee, cotton occupy masses of farmers for a meager income who nevertheless divert them from essential crops for the plate.
If the continent holds the majority of unexploited arable land in the world, the agricultural sector does not achieve the performance that we are entitled to expect from it in view of its dizzying potential. In food, recourse to imports is preponderant, for an annual bill exceeding 50 billion dollars. A phenomenon all the more surprising as the region, in addition to the land, has an abundant and idle youth.
To read
Agroecology, the future of Africa?
The situation is hardly more encouraging with education, also in the viewfinder of René Dumont. Despite dynamic demographics, African countries are still lagging behind. According to UNESCO data, nearly 60% of young people aged 15 to 17 are out of school, and illiteracy figures are reaching frightening proportions. Of the 10 countries with the highest rates in the world, 9 are in Africa. Statistics as alarming as they are depressing, increased tenfold by armed conflicts and the divestment in education, perpetuated by the authorities.
Unrealistic goals
The cohort of craftsmen of the lost decades, pointed out by Dumont, retain important positions and the presidency is sometimes passed on from father to son. Africa stands out among the oldest heads of state on the planet, their renewal often occurring in a dramatic way, imposed by a death or by the army. Coups d’état, which had experienced a slight lull from 1990 to 2010, are making a resounding comeback in French-speaking Africa, where there have been around ten since 2020. In the various barometers, electoral fraud, the change of constitution and corruption still hold the upper hand.
To read
Sub-Saharan Africa must focus on agriculture, health and education, according to the World Bank
By brilliantly revealing all these handicaps, the prolific agronomist had a common thread: the fight once morest poverty. On this level, the observation is bitter: while poverty has declined in the world, it has increased in Africa. The ax falls in 2018, when the World Bank declares that “extreme poverty is becoming a predominantly African problem” and in 2021, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (Unctad), finally considers that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in 2030 for the least developed countries are totally unrealistic. The story remains to be written and this construction site is far away to be started.
