Youth Forum: Poverty in Africa

Simisola: Today we’re going to be talking about the issues of poverty and economics in Africa.  And I have a panel of young Africans here with me.  Welcome.

All: Thank you.

Simisola: My first question is for you, Faith. I know that you are a doctor of clinical psychology. Africa, it’s so rich in resources but so many people are living in poverty.  In your opinion, do you think it’s an economic problem or spiritual?

Dr. Faith Chilongo: Yeah, I think that it’s both.  I don’t think we can really separate the two.  In terms of my work and the things that I hope to see in Africa, I think it really comes from a spiritual perspective.  I really believe that there’s such a great inheritance in Africa and that God has such a great plan for the whole continent and I think that’s why we’ve seen such a devastation from the beginning of time.

I think us understanding the reasons why we’re seeing the corruption or why we’re seeing the poverty, is going to be really important.  So, I would love it, even as a people, if we really just encouraged each other to understand our history and understand the prophetic significance to some of the things that have occurred.

And so, I think it’s both.  We really have to look at the economics, but first we really need to look at the history of why we’re here.

Simisola:  So does anyone else have thoughts about that?  How do we move forward from poverty and what are the solutions?

Billy Ekofo:    You know,  coming from the film background, a friend of mine, his name is Mike, told me that proper planning prevents poor production, the 5 P’s.  And I think a lot of that is that we don’t plan well.  In other words, we have this great vision to help our country, to come up with all kinds of plans to implement, but we don’t have any accountability.

And I think that also speaks about the spiritual, you know, that we’re not accountable to God in the first place, therefore we don’t want to be accountable to anybody else.  So, you know, we go through great length about making all these, you know, plans and we have nobody to make sure that the money goes where it’s supposed to go, that the projects get done, so in the end, you end up with again, the powers having all the resources and the people keep dying from hunger or, you know, just being destitute.

Simisola: Now, Kwabena, I know that you’re studying international politics.

Kwabena Asamoah:      Yes.

Simisola: Can you speak to a young person who maybe they see this situation, the economic difficulty, the poverty,  can you speak to them?  Where should they put their hope?

Kwabena Asamoah:            Well, I would say first of all we know that the Bible says in Matthew that with God all things are possible.  And, a lot of the problems that young people face as far as unemployment in Africa is a consequence of our aid-dependent development model.  So that’s a problem.  However, practically speaking, what can a young person do?  I would always say, we need to look back at some of our indigenous structures that allowed our societies to properly function.

If our grandparents and great grandparents were able to prosper way back in the day with certain basic cottage or agricultural base industries, we need to go back to some of that.  It would be great for us to be able to walk into downtown Accra, apply for a job at the Google office, but that doesn’t exist.  And the reality is we need to look back at some of the indigenous structures that allowed us to properly function and go back to maybe some of those cottage industries that don’t require a lot of investment, but still allow for economic progress.

Simisola: That’s good.  For an aspiring doctor or lawyer or professor, Njiba, I want to ask you because I know you’re studying pre-medicine.

Njiba Kasonga: Right.

Simisola: What should other young people do if they want to be a doctor as well?

Njiba Kasonga: Just kind of going back to what he was saying, to go back to the basics, I think we need to apply the knowledge that we have and try to see what works for us.  You can’t be, for example, living in a village and you’re, like, “Oh, today, I’m going to make up this internet world,” when you know you don’t have electricity.  You know.  So the first step would be starting to work towards finding electricity, then go to the internet.

And so if you’re studying medicine, you can use some of the basics that you know, like, okay, trying to go the villages and talking to people, this is what you need to do to be healthy.  And with that, if you work with other students, for example, bringing your ideas together and trying to start something, it would, I think it would definitely grow.  Starting small, it will always lead to something bigger.

Simisola: Start small.  That’s good.   Funmi, I want to ask you; we start small, with small solutions, but , Bono, he’s a famous musician, he said that our generation could be remembered as the first generation to eradicate extreme poverty.  Do you think among Africans this is possible?

Funmi Akinyele: Absolutely.  I think Africans, in general, are some of the most creative and innovative people in the world because of the limitations that we have, and because of that, I think, just like Njiba was saying, in terms of coming together, bringing ideas together, starting small and building together, planning strategically and implementing that plan.  I think that’s going to be very important.  And accountability, just like Billy was saying earlier.

Simisola: Yes.  Well, thank you guys. You’ve brought up some excellent points.