Tau Tavenga, Edgar Pieterse and I presented a short film at the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (#(IABR) that I think represents the most satisfying depiction of the really extra-ordinary complexity, dynamism, vibrancy, pain, struggles and potentials of the continent that I have ever seen. I have for so long felt oppressed by the traditional tropes – Africa as slums, Africa as corrupt, Africa as entrepreneurial, Africa as rising, Africa the basket case, Africa the unlit, and so on. How to capture the real complexity and multi-dimensionality with all its contradictions and inspirations. I think Tau did a really excellent job in this ten minute depiction of so much that accords with the Africa that I know, sense, smell, relish, cry about and so so love! Treat yourself, watch this or click HERE. (Password for access: thisisnotatest1476)
While this video is vibrant and often visually compelling, I become frustrated, and then angry, at the fact that in 2016 the need for a sound business environment remains invisible. Most African nations are at the bottom of the World Bank’s Doing Business index. As long as it remains impossibly difficult to do business in African nations they will remain poor. The one African nation that provides its citizens with significant economic freedom, Mauritius, is now middle income rather than poor.
Sadly, this video repeats the same old cliches about more education, more infrastructure, better trade deals, etc. These are all good things, no doubt, but until and unless African nations democratize access to legal entrepreneurship and protect investors in legal enterprises, African nations will remain poor.