Times are still not very encouraging for the cradle continent. As a matter of fact, they never were, nor did we expect it to be, so are the common and diverse realities, and also the set of situations for which discussion is urgent for good or bad. Africa cannot stop, nor bend before the enormous current and future challenges. The short, medium and long term challenges lead us to great reflections, even progressive ones, of what we are and want to be, presently and in the future, without putting aside questions from the past that still erode us under penalty of losing our foundational base.
Paulo de Jesus*
The new generations of leaders, loved and hated, many umbilically linked to the old and audacious political guard of the current of the fathers of Pan-Africanism, unfortunately betrayed in its ideological matrix, did little to revert the sad scenarios that Africa bears, marked by a rampant corruption, asymmetries and extreme poverty resulting from the collapse of Western-inspired economic models.
Today, in addition to the restructuring of their economic systems, African democratic models, based on the absence of a democratic culture, volatile to vested interests, to the detriment of a very poor population majority, which still faces epidemics, illiteracy and desertification, have to be reinvented.
However, without detracting from the cruelty with which most Africans still live, it is precisely the future and the opportunities that will come from it that matter most - occasions outside the framework of the traditional extractive industry, namely in the technological, innovation and education sectors, in those of production industry, which grows beyond the world average, and could create millions of jobs by 2025, as well as in engineering and construction, renewable energy, agriculture and agro-industry. So let's hold on to the good and optimistic side of that Africa!!!
* Paulo de Jesus, lawyer, journalist, football agent registered with FIFA and consultant in international business related to Africa. He is a doctoral student in Public Administration and has a Master's in Public Policy Management; Bachelor of Law and Political Science/International Relations. Among other specializations, he also holds a post-graduate degree in Public Procurement and Sports Law.
