THE West often argues that despite massive investments, African economies have still not taken off.
The question is: What have the Africans been doing to build the economies of their countries?
A look at the education systems may provide some clues.
Colonial education systems prepared the Africans to service the colonial systems.
At independence, the colonial systems remained in place.
The Africans appear to have expended their energies on matters other than building their own economies.
It must have sounded preposterous for Nziramasanga and his group of consultants to recommend that Zimbabwe’s education change radically to reflect the people’s African identity and to include development of practical skills in areas such as building and carpentry to name a few.
These last two areas of activity require physical labour and in a society where education supposedly liberates people from doing physical work, they are undesirable.
The educated keep these ‘sweating’ subjects at arm’s length.
The Africans seem to have believed that all whites were educated, and that speaking English was the sign of being educated.
But today the educated youths roam the streets.
They are looking for jobs, comfortable painless office jobs.
If you offer the individuals work on a farm, even a white-collar job, but on a farm, they will consider it an insult.
Why would someone who passed Form Six be expected to do physical work?
Then we ask: “This Form Six of yours, what did it teach you to do?”
The ready answer will be; “To speak good English.
“You see I have five ‘O’ Levels including English.
“I am better than Nyarai, who despite obtaining several ‘A’ and ‘B’ grades failed English language!”
Nyarai and thousands others who failed ‘O’ Level English are still languishing at home!
She has re-written three times and three times she has failed English.
It is the key to further education in Zimbabwe!
All national development appears tied to the English language or so it seems!
Even with eight ‘O’ Levels which exclude English, Nyarai and others like her will not be allowed to enrol at any college of higher education in Zimbabwe.
She cannot do apprenticeship or train as a teacher.
University is out of the question!
By failing to pass English at ‘O’ Level, her chances of advancing her academic career are doomed!
That is the Zimbabwean education system, but is it true that those who cannot pass ‘O’ Level English have nothing to contribute to the economy?
Bill Gates, one of the richest people on earth and even the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein had poor academic records.
Their contributions to the world rank among the most impactful!
A Chinese who can hardly put two English sentences together will stand by a roadside and make a fortune selling T-shirts, shouting something that includes ‘T-shirt’ and ‘dollar’.
Generating goods and services does not require passing ‘O’ Level English.
It requires ability to communicate and to think ‘business’.
They teach in English, you pass; then they change the goal posts and say no, you must pass the language itself.
Which economy is tied to English?
Chinese students who go to America, do three month long English course, enrol for masters and doctorate degrees and receive their authentic degrees three or four years later.
All they need is to acquire enough English to understand and follow the lectures.
Not in Zimbabwe; even the queen could learn a thing or two from ‘Zimbo-black’ English speakers!
Not communication, but English language! Hah!
In Zimbabwe, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for an African without ‘O’ Level English language pass to proceed with formal education!
By excluding those who fail to pass English language at high school, Zimbabwe is depriving its economy of high calibre manpower who could drive it to higher levels.
We have been urging government to ease the process of doing business to entice investors.
Equally we should boost our human capital by easing this ridiculous requirement that a person is not capable of further development unless they master the language of the queen of England.
In the village, the person who can speak English is highly regarded.
This person has the same status as a white Englishman.
He does not need to display any specific skills, just ability to speak English!
Mastering the English language is an indicator of equality to white people that has become institutionalised, with some mistakenly calling it ‘maintaining standards’.
This is a false argument; nations like India, Japan and China maintain some of the highest standards in various areas of human endeavour relying on their local indigenous languages without a word of English!
To the ordinary Zimbabwean, the struggle for independence has largely been a struggle to be equal to the Englishman.
There are many indicators of equality to white people that blacks use to compare themselves.
Unfortunately most of the indicators have little or no economic value.
We have not been putting our money where our mouth is in terms of building our economy.
Take the consuming desire to have a light skin such as that of a white person as demonstrated by the pre-occupation, especially among black women, with skin-lightening cosmetics like the notorious ‘Ambi Special’ and numerous preparations on the local market.
The second-hand clothes industry is largely driven by a desire to dress like white people to the extent of even going half-naked in public, especially our mothers and sisters.
When ‘guvhu-out’ became popular, I remember President Robert Mugabe remarking that all our wives have navels, so what was unique about those who walked about guvhu-out for all to see.
Using today’s teen lingo, it is considered ‘cool’ because that is how whites go around, half-naked.
Many white societies have become decadent, with homosexuality, drugs and vice dominating!
Are those the standards that we Africans also want to achieve?
Let us imitate their economic prowess, not social decadence.
Another standard involves eating and drinking white people’s food.
Today we speak of ‘lifestyle diseases’.
For Africans we are plagued by our desire to be ‘equal’ to the whiteman even if it means eating unhealthy food!
And we are dying from it yet healthy traditional dishes are waiting for us!
Studying at a school for whites is also considered a great achievement or privilege, by many blacks.
Many parents will scrounge for money to send their children to exclusive white schools.
I still take this to be an effort to be equal to the whites.
This phenomenon is particularly pronounced among the so-called rich and the ‘chefs’.
They shun local schools and send their children abroad even to institutions that may not be reputable in their countries.
Some people have even speculated that instead of improving our own schools in Africa, we have opted to send our children abroad where they acquire a culture of despising their own.
They return as misfits who contribute little or nothing to build the economies of their home countries?
As long as it is an overseas school it is better, the Africans seem to argue.
Deep in their psyche is the desire to be equal to the whiteman.
And in Zimbabwe, especially, it means speaking the Englishman’s language!
So the argument is that we as Africans have not exerted ourselves to build our economies so as to generate goods and services that compete with the rest of other nations.
We have not concentrated on creating wealth.
Instead we have focussed on trying to be equal to the whiteman in areas that are not essential to economic upliftment.
We need a paradigm shift.