The 3TU.Center for ethics and technology organized a meeting about innovation and sustainable development in preparation for the New Manifesto. This is meant to give direction to the discussions on development and sustainability. Being part of the meeting I was triggered by the contribution of Jasper Grosskurth on Africa. He showed beautiful examples of what technology is doing in Africa in line with the base of the pyramid approach. If NGOs and government institutions cannot solve the persistent poverty in Africa, shouldn’t business come in, especially business ventures creating jobs and new products at the base of the pyramid? This was also the message of the Base of the Pyramid conference, which took place in Delft, organized by the Department of industrial design a week before.
Of course, from business people you expect some optimism. It belongs to their professional attitude. They know how to sing in the dark, and why not also sing in dark Africa, as the Africans themselves do too? But, again, one remark of his triggered me: if we cannot reach the very poor people, he said, we can help out those who can and want to take initiative, either rich or poor. They will help the others.
This remark implicitly shows what maybe is the core problem of Africa: the rift between traditional African life and modernity. Generally speaking Africans know how to enjoy life. They live in the present. They enjoy the group they are part of. Family loyalty, respect for the elderly and for those of high status and authority is paramount. The individual is submerged in the group, participating in deeply rooted traditions. Personal face to face presence goes before regulations. There is always time. And the enjoyment of the communal spirit also takes time. It is allowed to interrupt any other activities. And such a communal spirit also implies divisions between we and them, tribal factions, clientele or patronage systems.
Such a value system clashes with the values of modernity, inevitably. The Western educational system and the media etc. do introduce modernity in Africa. Planning, individualism, competition, a sequential ordering of time, becoming interchangeable as functional agents within big companies or state apparatuses, intelligent and important people who don’t avoid hard work, participating in an open civil society in which criticism and opposition belongs to the political system, an analytical approach to problems etc.: without such values a modern state as well as competitive companies cannot be run.
There is change, and more people do participate in modern life. Those who can form the upper layer of the societies in Africa. Or they leave the country because they find a better job in Europe or America just like the average investors of Africa rather prefer to invest in Europe or in America than in Africa itself. But the overwhelming majority cannot bridge this huge gap between rural traditions and modernity. It is this gap which actually produces the economic problems of the bottom billion. Not the other way around.
I’m fine with it, if instead of NGOs and government institutions businesses come in to play their part. They should! But they will be confronted with the same problems NGOs and government institutions could not solve. And: did not even try to solve! To talk about the necessity of cultural transitions for Africa has until now been taboo in development debates. Wasn’t it the West, which had exploited Africa starting with slavery and colonialism and ending up with taking away the rich resources of Africa of which the large majority of Africa did not benefit, because the money disappeared into the pockets of the rulers and their Swiss bank accounts? This in itself once more reflects the real problems of Africa in that politicians rule modern nations in Africa with the mentality of old chiefs, who’s patriarchical and autocratic attitude suited small communities, but not nations of millions provided with all sorts of modern technology, not the least also military technology.
Indeed technology is value laden and changes the society. But the society also needs to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity in order to deal responsibly with modern technology. This implies cultural change and this could better take place deliberately and consciously. Actually it does not matter whether this happens as part of a development project or as part of a business strategy or as part of the educational and regulatory system of the government, if it only is addressed.
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