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May 25 was Africa Day!
I say, Viva Africa!
Incidentally, the last stanza of my old school song starts with “Africa will surely rise”.
Therefore, Africans and their friends in Africa or even abroad will be justified in asking whether the continent is actually rising or being repositioned.
Africa is definitely a continent of contradictions. I say that because the co continent is rich yet dependent, youthful yet underemployed, politically independent yet often externally constrained, culturally influential yet e economically vulnerable.
Africa is the youngest continent on earth. While much of Europe and parts of Asia face aging populations, African societies are experiencing rapid expansion. This gives the continent enormous long-term value. Ironically, it also gives it a great duty.
Africa has a growing labour force, but are the jobs there?
Africa has expanding consumer markets, but are the goods there? Even if the goods were there, where are the jobs that would enable people to buy goods?
Africa tends to urbanize, but are the urban societies being maintained?
How many Africans recognize that culture is dynamic?
Granted that countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt are becoming demographic giants, but demographics can become a dividend of disaster. When a youthful population have no jobs, infrastructure, or social mobility, it may lead to instability, migration crises, crime, extremism, and political anger.
Africa’s future may therefore not depend on population growth itself but more on whether states can convert human numbers into human capacity.
Africa possesses extraordinary natural wealth, such as oil, gas, gold, cobalt, lithium, uranium, fertile land, and strategic minerals essential for modern technology and green energy.
The paradox is that many African states export raw materials while importing finished products. The continent often remains positioned near the bottom of global value chains.
The Democratic Republic of Congo exports cobalt. Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire export cocoa. Nigeria exports oil. Meanwhile, the highest profits are frequently captured elsewhere through refining, manufacturing, branding, and finance.
Africa may therefore be described as the ultimate supplier while it struggles to industrialize itself.
It is therefore no surprise that debt dependence, currency weakness, corruption, capital flight, and infrastructure deficit worsen the problem. Yet there is hardly any sign of change.
Africa cannot do without some fintech growth, manufacturing, regional trade integration through a continental free trade area, and a rise in local entrepreneurship.
Politically, many African states still carry the structural wounds of colonialism. This is because they have borders drawn without regard for ethnic realities, centralized institutions, weak national cohesion, and economies designed for export dependency.
Africa is yet to heal itself from military coups, one-party states, civil wars, electoral manipulation, and personality cults.
However, the political situation is not uniformly bleak. There are functioning democracies in a few states, peaceful transfers of power, growing civil liberties, investigative journalism, and increasingly politically conscious youth populations.
Many African governments inherited the state but not always the trust of the people. In some countries, people identify more strongly with ethnicity, religion, or region than with the nation-state. This weakens national unity and makes governance fragile.
Meanwhile, most African states are entangled in foreign influence: Western financial institutions, Chinese infrastructure financing, Russian security involvement, Gulf investments, and multinational corporate influence.
Africa’s independence may not be worth the paper on which it is written because a continent may only be regarded as truly sovereign when it is economically and strategically so.
Africa faces multiple overlapping security crises, such as terrorism in the Sahel, insurgencies, separatist conflicts, coups, piracy, organized crime, and communal violence.
The Sahel, for instance, has become known for state fragility. Countries with significant military spending still struggle against relatively decentralized armed groups. Many African states possess flags, armies, and international recognition, but limited capacity to project authority evenly across their own territories.
The security problem is tied to unemployment, poor governance, corruption, climate stress, weak institutions, and loss of public trust.
Culturally, Africa may be stronger globally than at any point in modern history.
African music, fashion, literature, film, and digital culture increasingly shape global trends, Afrobeats, Amapiano, Nollywood, African literature, and diasporic influence are now popular on the globe.
Figures such as Fela Kuti helped establish a tradition where African art also functions as political commentary and resistance.
This cultural expansion matters because power is not only military or economic; it is also narrative power – the ability to shape imagination, identity, and global perception.
The world needs Africa for its minerals, markets, labour, and geographical alignment. But when will Africa industrialize, deepen regional integration, build stronger institutions, retain more value from its resources, and develop strategic autonomy?
Will Africa remain primarily a supplier of labour and raw materials in a world controlled elsewhere?
