Beyond tribal

We must realise that we have greater enemies than the tribe next door. These are primarily HIV, lack of education, poverty, environmental degradation and what I call continental pillaging. Development calls for us to rise above personal, historical, environmental or genetic circumstance. We must forget the smaller divisions. We need to unify, become beyond tribal, become African, then walk with pride as global citizens.

Development in Africa - Questions on buildings

The concept of development in Africa conjures up images that are interesting to scrutinize. There is the usual before and after picture that we come across consistently. We appear happy to see images of what was once dry, "barren", bush with the odd acacia tree here and there, suddenly replaced by images of the most basic of buildings usually painted khaki or green or shades of brown. Why the khaki or dull green paint? Is it a theme hanging over from the usual military struggles that are in the history of most Africa countries? That history etched in most of our flags constantly brought to our attention by our leaders who were in "the struggle"? Is it  perhaps so that the wear and tear that appears to be inevitable will not be as apparent as quickly as had the walls been painted white or baby blue? Is it perhaps because there are not enough women making the decisions on what colour paint to buy or enough women envisioned to be empowered to manage the projects from the onset? Do we dare build beautiful structures with big windows and plant flowers outside them as a sign that we are committed to the daily maintenance and nurturing of this project? Is it impractical to add a little beauty there because it will shortly be dilapidated? What are our chances of success if we plan dilapidation into the projects even as we begin them? Is it that external changes bring about internal changes or is it that internal changes bring about external changes? Why don't we plant some flowers at the development project site and measure the success of the project and the efficiency of the management team on the state of the flowers outside. Think on it.