HEAL THYSELF: Change in Sub-Saharan Africa must come from within.

• Author: Ayeni, Sylvanus A.
• Position: WORLDVIEW

AFRICA, the second largest continent on Earth, is the most dependent on other continents for economic development, building of infrastructure, education of its citizens, and support for its health-care systems. Despite its enormous natural resources, and more than one trillion U.S. dollars in foreign aid over the past 60 years, Africa remains the poorest continent in the world. Most of the very poor live in the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Although each one of the ancient Sub-Saharan African civilizations--like Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and Benin Empire--had its own peculiar challenges, the defining commonalities among them were survival and self-actualization. They had to survive, which they did, flourishing for centuries. There was no World Bank; International Monetary Fund; World Health Organization; United Nations Children's Fund; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; United States Agency for International Development; Rockefeller Foundation; Doctors without Borders; Bill Gates Foundation; Jimmy Carter Center; nor activist celebrity pop superstars.

This ethos of development from within in these ancient civilizations was lost somewhere along the road to modernity. It is completely absent today in most, if not all, of these poor-performing countries.

During discussions about Africans by those outside the continent, talk of extreme poverty, the poorest of the poor, corrupt leaders, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and lack of clean water is not uncommon. Then, quite often, these assertions and impressions about Africans are followed by a kindhearted response--often a clarion call, asking people to donate money, clothes and shoes, new or used books, and old computers.

There are those ubiquitous advertisements in the media in developed nations of the world: images of Sub-Saharan African children on television, half-naked with atrophic muscles, sunken eyes, flies hovering menacingly over their dazed faces. Then a gentle voice rolls in with an irresistible emotional appeal: "Please send your donation of $7.50 per month; that is a mere 25 cents a day--less than the cost of a cup of coffee. This is enough to feed each of these children and their families for one month. Please help; time is running out."

The irony is that the expectations of many Sub-Saharan Africans for the solutions to their myriad problems are in sync with the stereotypical pronouncements and the decades-long strategy of outside benefactors: "We need...