We Are Africa’s New Hope

Want Africa to Prosper? Here’s What Not to Do.

Have you ever been to an African zoo? 

I’m not talking about a zoo with giraffes and lions and chimpanzees, but a zoo full of real, live African people.

I can hear what you’re thinking: WHAT?! That’s offensive. Revolting. That might have taken place under nineteenth-century colonialism, but it would never happen in Africa today. 

Well, think again. Because that’s exactly what Jeffrey Sachs’ Millennium Villages project in Rwanda was like: a zoo full of African villagers. 

Let’s take a look at the first rule from one of the tour brochures: “Please do not give anything to the villagers—no sweets, cookies, empty water bottles, pens, or even money.” 

Tell me how that’s different from a “don’t feed the animals” sign. And even more to the point, tell me how in the hell people thought this kind of attitude was acceptable. No, not just acceptable, but laudable. Allegedly, this project was a shining beacon of philanthropy. 

Jeffrey Sachs near Ruhiira Millennium Village in 2007. Photo by Guillaume Bonn/Corbis, via The Lancet

These American professors spent tens of millions of dollars telling villagers how they should live their lives—and then had the audacity to invite American tourists to watch the well-behaved “natives” in the zoo. 

When highly educated people—like Sachs’ Columbia University colleagues—can objectify the African people this way, the only explanation is blinding arrogance. They believe they’re noble for helping us, the ignorant chimps, without recognizing how humiliating their language is. 

If this is how Sachs supports African entrepreneurship, is it any wonder that foreign aid efforts fail miserably? 

This kind of “aid” does nothing to help our people. It demeans us. It reduces us to an image of inferiority. It objectifies us and treats us as objects of pity. 

We deserve more. 

And frankly, we know more than they do about entrepreneurial expertise and talent. Most academics and NGO types have no appreciation for the art of selling, much less a clear understanding of the complex ways in which Africans navigate the marketplace. 

There’s something surreal about a group of famous, mostly white male, professors claiming that they know how to make Africans more entrepreneurial. Is that all Black Africa is to them—a learning laboratory for white academics in New York? 

As much as these self-important saviors say they want to lift Africans out of poverty, they’re going about it in all the wrong ways. I'd respect Sachs more if he stopped experimenting on rural villagers and started supporting African entrepreneurs because that might actually move the needle on African prosperity. 

Poverty in Africa will be eliminated not by aid, but by entrepreneurial job creation—by real entrepreneurs creating scalable enterprises that will ultimately create millions of jobs. 
—Magatte Wade

If philanthropists really wanted Africa to prosper, they wouldn't waste time telling tourists not to give us “sweets, cookies... or even money." They would invest real money in real African entrepreneurs, supporting us to create opportunities for our fellow Africans.   

Here’s what I’d like to see instead of this back-patting NGO nonsense: a new generation of Americans focused on respectful collaboration with African entrepreneurs.

Because here’s the truth… Africans have the power to create new businesses and thrive, but it won’t happen if every dollar keeps getting poured into ego-driven handouts—the same handouts that directly compete with our local products. And what business can compete against free goods? 

African prosperity will only happen when everyone (including people from the West) invests in our companies, buys our products and services, and sells us their products and services—in other words, works with us as respected business equals.

Magatte Wade, Founder of Skin Is Skin.

My fellow entrepreneurs, let’s demand more from investors. We are not tamed animals to be confined, observed, and experimented on. We aren’t objects of curiosity or beasts to be trained. 

We are proud, strong, and fierce businesspeople. We are innovative and committed to excellence. We are Africa’s new hope. 

My beloved, now-late professor, Dr. George Ayittey, said he put all his bets on us. He called us the cheetahs—the fast runners of Africa. We will not wait for anyone to get the job done, and the future of Africa rests on our backs. Dr. Ayittey urged us to have the runs of our lives, to be bold and take leaps and bounds, because the time for catching up is over.

We are here for it.

Let’s make the whole world sit up and take notice of all we have to offer. It will be fun. And I promise, it will be win-win-win.