Mutumwa Mawere

On 1 November 2009, I wrote the first of 20 articles under the theme: "Pushing the envelope of knowledge" focusing on the concept of capital and its role in human progress and nation building.

I was acutely aware that what I may consider knowledge might not have the same meaning to others.

Notwithstanding, I felt it was important for me to add my voice to the kind of debates that we must have as Africans if we have to discharge our generational responsibilities to make tomorrow a better and brighter day in the full knowledge that we may not be there to enjoy the fruits of our labor and input.

On 15 February 2010, I completed my 17th installment and decided to pause and reflect on what insights should be in the last three articles.

Only last week, the Africa Heritage Society (AHS) hosted Hon. Minister S. Kasukuwere, Minister of Youth, Economic Empowerment and Indigenization of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

I had the opportunity to interact with him and his team who visited South Africa to familiarize themselves with the country's experiences on the question of democratizing the economic space.

South Africa is the youngest African state and yet on the question of black economic empowerment appears to have made more progress.

God was so kind to Africa and yet some feel that he was mean in not revealing to the natives the knowledge, capital and skills required to exploit his gift, resources, without the intervention of foreigners.

From 1866 to 2010, South Africa's journey has been characterized by setbacks, progress, pain and immense opportunities for the few. How did it all begin?

It was in 1866 that God through an Afrikaner farmer first revealed the South African modern day diamond story in a remote inland region who noticed his neighbor's children playing with pebbles called "klip-klip".

History records that it was not a geologist who discovered diamonds but this farmer who took one of the stones to a geologist who then confirmed that it was, indeed, a diamond.

Notwithstanding the confirmation, there was skepticism about the significance of the find and it was only in 1869 that a shepherd found a much larger gem and the first miners made their way to find what God had deposited in the area.

The first discovery of diamond deposits was in 1871 at a site originally known as New Rush. The area was then named after the British colonial secretary of the day, Kimberley.

In the 1860s, South Africa was no different from any contemporary African state. The British were only interested in the Cape to safeguard the sea route to India.

It is easy to argue in hindsight what could have been the trajectory of South Africa's development had diamond and gold not been revealed to the generation of settlers that lived during this period.

The pastoral republic of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State established by the Boers after the Great Trek inland in the 1830s were underdeveloped.

It took a small group of adventurers, financiers and even con artists to build South Africa's mining industry in the 19th century and in the process set the foundation of modern South Africa.

I have tried in the last 17 articles to identify some of the key players.

Some of these individuals were evil but creative. In writing about them and their exploits, I had no intention of glorifying some of the heinous actions that resulted in the crystallization of racial segregation but to acknowledge their role in transforming South Africa into what we see today.

We have no choice but to appreciate and acknowledge the input of those who came before us.

The Randlords were dreamers and they were as conspiratorial and manipulative as the new Randlords.

They were not agents of anyone but did what they did for their own self-actualization and progress.

They swindled investors, proletarialized African peasants through an oppressive and undemocratic constitutional order as a mechanism to convert natives into dignified slaves (laborers), and created monopolies and appropriated to themselves the best land and what lay beneath it.

Although God created all of us as equal, this class of settlers believed that they were superior and could play God through undermining the rights of the majority.

In writing about the Randlords, one cannot be blind to the thuggery that characterized the British Empire and how the need for cheap labor undermined the morality and principles that settlers purported to hold.

The complex and interesting business and political history of Africa's economic powerhouse must be told so that those who want to rise to its level must know better about the challenges and opportunities of nation building.

The conversations about national patrimony and foreigners must then be located in the context of power.

Objectors to the glorification of the role of the Randlords, for example, in South Africa claim that mineral and other resources are exhaustible and if the hegemony over the resources is not democratized such resources will evaporate with no benefit to the native population.

Mineral resources are part of the heritage of any nation. The history of Africa has not produced the kind of balance in terms of benefit sharing that is required for stability and national progress.

Even if the right to resources is vested in the state on behalf of the people, this will and has not guaranteed prosperity. How can prosperity be guaranteed?

The experience of South Africa in which a few wise but devilish men controlled the means of production while the rest of the population was reduced to workers and spectators has to be understood in the context of the experience of other progressive societies.

All human beings deserve a better life and any progressive society has to pull everyone along but notions of broad-based empowerment using God's gifts to mankind can be counterproductive.

God was so kind that he created minerals and hid them. Even when one finds them one needs resources to know the geology better and exploit the resources more efficiently.

However, God was smart enough not to assign minerals to human beings but what he gave was the right of human beings to explore and exploit resources not for the purposes of extending life but to have a better life.

If the resources ultimately belong to God, does it matter who exploits them? Exploitation of resources is ownership neutral. It does not matter who has title to shares but who can efficiently and effectively extract and process the resources for common good.

Being rich in a poor environment is also risky compelling any rational rich person to invest in uplifting the community in his or her own interest. However, fear of the known can generate anarchy.

The future of Africa can only be as secure as those who believe in it what it to be. We are the Africans of today confronted by the same choices that confronted the generation that commenced the journey from Kimberley with no promises and no guarantees.

We have to invest in building a knowledge base about the players and how they conducted themselves. How did they construct capital and deploy it in their own interests? Is it desirable to vest all the brainpower and resources in the state? Do foreigners pose a real threat to the national patrimony?

We have to challenge ourselves in the interests of building a democratic and progressive Africa. Tomorrow is the last day of the month before the kick off of the World Cup. There can be no better time to reflect on our obligations to Africa than this defining moment in our history.

Our past is pregnant with lessons and all we need to do is to learn from our historical experiences because it is only in doing so that we can be better citizens and hopefully make choices that will see a friend in a foreigner who decides to make Africa a home from home.

Any economic enterprise generates its own energy and benefits in the value chain. Africa that is not working is not good even to those who believe that Africa belongs only to people who look like them.