An African Solution

Fire of Liberty

While the people who attended the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland listened to the constant speeches of experts calling for the expansion of broadband, less war more peace and condemn the governments of the West for not spending enough money to fight hunger, poverty and AIDS, there are several folks in Africa pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps and finding well working solutions to their nation or region's problems. One individual that seems to demonstrate this self dependency is Glynyns Chinkhuntha, a farmer from of Malawi who is featured in this article in the Christian Science Monitor, has found a way to build an efficient and healthy farm that produces ample amounts of food that is indeed the key to keeping 18 million folks in Africa well fed into the near future. As the ex-accountant notes, the folks of Africa need to pursue in attaining a good education but they also need to get back to farming the land and put Africa on a path to well being. In fact Chinkhuntha has laid out some pretty great prescriptions on what the folks in Africa should do to get the region back into the farming game and get themselves out of a bleak future:

First, the continent needs greater independence from western donors. "This is the way America developed," he says, referring to perseverance and innovation required to develop his farm. But by providing aid and free food, rich nations are "enticing us away from going through the same thing." It's a controversial stand in a region where so many depend on donor handouts. But he argues all the aid "is killing us, well-intentioned though it may be" by creating a culture of dependency.

Second, in farming - as in life - principles are key, he says. One he's stuck to would ring true for America's Depression-era generation: Never take out a loan. Debt "robs you of the freedom of the mind," he says. Instead of "thinking about developing your own small resources you're only thinking about how to repay."

Another rule of thumb: "We consume 25 percent of what we produce, and reinvest 75 percent." But this requires patience, he says with a grandfatherly smile - "an ability to defer gratification."

Maybe the folks who shuttle to Davos need to look at someone like Chinkhuntha before the offer up their tired ole solutions to the problems in Africa. Sometimes the locals know what they need and can do much better than such "big wheels" of the world.