Transcriber: Andrea Mussap Reviewer: Denise RQ
Right here is my home, you can see that there are two cooking stoves.
I come from a very large family, as you can imagine.
My father has 42 children
and I am one of the eight he had with my mother.
Today I want to talk to you about how Africa can save herself.
Not only how Africa can save herself as I believe,
but as natives believe it too - that Africa can save herself.
And this paradigm is not simply a concept or a model,
nor is it a theory,
it is a life commitment, that has led me to this belief.
And this, if you look under this paradigm,
there are five specific principles that must apply.
What am I trying to say?
I am trying to say that economics can liberate Africa.
And through these economic activities,
both Africans themselves and external entities
that participate in Africa through this process
must apply these five principles.
The first of these five principles has to be comprehensive sustainability;
that is anything that must be mobilized
out of the continent of Africa must be ecologically sustainable.
Equally important, it must be culturally sustainable.
Often we don't think about culture
when we are trying to create economic opportunities for people.
And I give you an example.
In the 70s, in my village named Kambolé, the Germans came and said,
"Well, we think you people are hungry.
We are going to plant a lot of corn, bring a lot of machinery and fertilizer."
But what wasn't taken into consideration -
and that was a good intention, to say, "Let's feed them";
nothing wrong with that -
but what should have been taken into consideration
was the traditional skills that these people had
because we knew that the Germans
were not going to move to Togo, they'd go home one day.
So, what do we have, if the Germans were to go back,
that we could still feed ourselves?
And what we had was yams, not corn,
and we had sorghum, not corn.
And what the Germans did on thousands of acres
was to clear the land and plant corn.
By the 80s, the structural adjustment [programs] came about,
so the Germans went home,
and the land, those vast lands, were left [uncared for].
So, what I'm trying to say is that we must have
the skills and traditional knowledge that apply to our own society,
not an imported knowledge.
Second, African resources and labor
must be compensated at a fair price.
As you can see here, an increase of 1% in the African export values
results in an increase of 70 billions.
And these 70 billions are five times the amount
that Africa receives in aid.
And I can't imagine anybody wanting this aid
- and me personally, I don't think we should keep people hungry,
or not feed them -
but this idea of aid takes away our well-being from ourselves.
And third: in my opinion, out of my paradigm,
the third principle is the most critical;
that women must be given full economic rights.
As you can see in this picture
those women are crumbling black silk.
And the way it is throughout the whole continent of Africa
is that a woman that has not participated in the Western education system
has no place or has no opportunity toward economic benefit -
women like my mother because they can't read and write.
And I don't think we can get out of poverty
if half of our population are those women,
and simply because they can't read and write
they can't participate.
So again, we need to look at that
and give those women opportunities today.
They don't need to be retrained,
or go back to school or learn,
what they need to do is to be able to use their skills right now.
And again, I do believe they do have a place in the global market.
Fourth: and what I should tell you
is that my paradigm is for both ourselves within the continent of Africa,
and for the people outside.
But specifically, this fourth principle has to do with us, ourselves,
I'm talking about Africans.
The ethnic unity is critical.
Right now, the way it is,
is that we look at our ethnic differences as a division,
and what we need to do is
look at our ethic differences as a combined force.
Let's look at central Togo for instance.
Togo has more than 42 different ethnic groups,
and each of those ethnic groups has specific skills and knowledge.
And within the center of Togo,
we have the Fulani ethnic group that is the best in making Shea butter,
and we have the Kotokoli who are the best in making black soap.
What I'm trying to say is that if we combine those two,
we see that, in the given time, we can play a role in the global market.
If the black soap is not the best thing to sell in the market,
we know that Shea butter may be.
But there are [issues] with this,
and the reason I said I'm talking to Africans
is that when you have one ethnic group
that rules our society and denies economic opportunities to others,
we'll never get out of poverty
because we cannot have one ethnic group have everything
and the rest of us be poor.
So, if we accept each other then we can rise together.
Lastly, I call this capital equilibrium.
It's very clear to all of us that in the past 600 years
more has left the continent of Africa than has come back in.
And you can't expect people to get out of poverty
when nothing goes back in to balance it out.
Therefore, I believe that any commodity or knowledge
that's mobilized out of the continent of Africa,
needs to go back equally to balance it out.
In this case it should be funds.
Funds should go back and permanently be invested in education and health.
I'm going to tell you why I believe in this for the past ten years
and why those five principles, if we abide by them,
then Africans can save themselves.
Ten years ago we identified a resource that is ecologically sustainable:
the Shea trees that grow wild.
Equally important, we identified
that we have traditional skills and know how to make it.
And because of that,
we have 4,000 families who are able to have an income today.
And at the same time,
when we get those Shea nuts we'll make them into Shea butter,
and when we make them into Shea butter
we'll compensate the workers with fair wages.
And as you can see,
this is three times the amount that they will otherwise get,
and that means no handouts, that people work,
and that what they receive compensates for their sweat.
And at the same time,
we'll place those products on the global market,
and the funds that come for those products go back into education and health.
And as you can see here, by investing in mothers it means you have healthy babies.
What I'm trying to say is that we need to build human capital,
that if we invest in mothers, they will have healthy babies,
and healthy babies means those who can possibly learn.
It seems that is a quick time period to understand:
Can Africa truly save herself?
And I'll tell you, over and over, that it is possible.
Why is it possible?
It's because I have lived it myself,
and at the same time,
there's a benefit to all of us if Africa is able to save herself.
African resources and traditional knowledge are
healthy options for all of us,
even if you don't live within the continent of Africa.
But at the same time, I think that people don't simply want handouts,
people want to work.
And if people can work, that creates human dignity for what they receive.
But at the same time, we must understand that we cannot -
that if we want to get out of poverty, we have to give up our culture.
We should be able to retain our culture
and at the same time participate in the global market.
But there's something even more important that we all know about:
Capitalism specifically talking about
the industrial process, the industrial revolution.
That should not be the path that the continent of Africa ought to choose.
We have tried that for over 150 years and it hasn't worked.
Why should we continue along that path?
It only makes sense to me that if something doesn't work,
then we need to do something different.
And to do something different, again, means we could use economics,
and, through our indigenous ways of life,
participate in the global market and save ourselves.
But we shall also ask ourselves: Why do we live as humans?
And to me it is so that we can build morality.
And this morality, it only makes sense if we can make it happen.
So I therefore urge everybody - when you buy things,
when you have enterprises, wherever those enterprises may be -
to think about the impact that they have on the communities.
And I'm not saying people cannot make money, people can make money.
But it only makes sense to ask
what makes us humans and how we can contribute to others.
And I thank you.
(Applause)