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Why Africa needs 'cheetahs,' not 'hippos'
By George Ayittey, Special to CNN
* Africa suffers from a monumental
deficit of leadership, writes George Ayittey
* The new "Cheetah Generation" are angry young
African graduates and professionals
* The old "Hippo Generation" are "stuck in their
muddy colonialist pedagogical patch"
* Cheetahs "look at African issues and problems from
a totally different perspective"
Editor's note: George Ayittey is a Ghanaian
economist and the author of several books on Africa,
including "Africa Unchained" and the forthcoming
"Defeating Dictators in Africa and Around The
World." In 2008, Ayittey was listed by Foreign
Policy magazine as one of the "Top 100 Public
Intellectuals" of our time. He writes for Africa 50,
CNN's special coverage looking at 17 African nations
marking 50 years of independence this year.
(CNN) -- Currently, Africa -- a continent immensely
rich with mineral resources and yet mired in poverty
-- suffers from a catastrophic leadership failure or
monumental deficit of leadership.
Since 1960, there have been 210 African heads of
state, but just try to find 10 -- just 10 -- good
ones among them. Names like Mandela, Nkrumah,
Nyerere easily come to mind but then rapidly fall
off.
But there is hope in what I call the "Cheetah
Generation."
The Cheetah Generation refers to the new and angry
generation of young African graduates and
professionals, who look at African issues and
problems from a totally different and unique
perspective.
They are dynamic, intellectually agile, and
pragmatic. They may be the "restless generation" but
they are Africa's new hope. They brook no nonsense
about corruption, inefficiency, ineptitude,
incompetence, or buffoonery.
They understand and stress transparency,
accountability, human rights, and good governance.
They also know that many of their current leaders
are hopelessly corrupt and that their governments
are contumaciously dysfunctional and commit
flagitious human rights violations.
The Cheetahs do not look for excuses for government
failure by wailing over the legacies of the slave
trade, Western colonialism, imperialism, the World
Bank or an unjust international economic system.
To the Cheetahs, this "colonialism-imperialism"
paradigm, in which every African problem is
analyzed, is obsolete and kaput. Unencumbered by the
old shibboleths, Cheetahs can analyze issues with
remarkable clarity and objectivity.
The outlook and perspectives of the Cheetahs are
refreshingly different from those of many African
leaders, intellectuals, or elites.
--George Ayittey
RELATED TOPICS
* Africa
* Civil War
* Elections and Voting
The outlook and perspectives of the Cheetahs are
refreshingly different from those of many African
leaders, intellectuals, or elites, whose mental
faculties are so foggy and their reasoning or logic
so befuddled that they cannot distinguish between
right and wrong. They blame everybody else for
Africa's problems except themselves.
This is the "Hippo Generation," intellectually
astigmatic and stuck in their muddy colonialist
pedagogical patch. They can see with eagle-eyed
clarity the injustices perpetrated by whites against
blacks, but they are hopelessly blind to the more
heinous injustices they perpetrate against their own
black people.
The Hippos are of the 1960s-era mentality -- stodgy,
pudgy, and wedded to the old
"colonialism-imperialism" paradigm with an abiding
faith in the potency of the state.
They lack vision -- hippos are near-sighted -- and
sit tight in their air-conditioned government
offices, comfortable in their belief that the state
can solve all of Africa's problems. All the state
needs is more power and more foreign aid. And they
would ferociously defend their territory since that
is what provides them with their wealth. (Hippos
kill more people in Africa than any other animal.)
They care less if the whole country collapses around
them, but are content as long as their pond is
secure.
The Cheetahs are not so intellectually astigmatic.
Whereas the Hippos constantly see problems, the
Cheetahs see business opportunities. The Cheetah
generation has no qualms about getting their hands
"dirty." Africa's salvation rests on the back of the
Cheetah generation.
I have identified several Cheetahs -- both men and
women -- in many African countries: Ghana, Kenya,
Nigeria, Togo, Zambia and even Somalia.
They are operating in many fields: agriculture,
informal sector, IT technology, manufacturing and
even in government.
But now is not the time for the Cheetahs to take
over. They will be ripped up by the ornery and nasty
Hippos. Rather, they should build up on their
skills, strength and accumulate knowledge and wealth
-- in the private sector -- while methodically
draining the swamp of the Hippos.
Soon, they will find themselves "homeless" and then
the Cheetahs can take over.
Dr. Ayittey, the author of "Africa Unchained," is
the head of the Free Africa Foundation in
Washington.
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