Wow what's a hurrible article,i've ever come acrose in my life.morrison/anyomi i don't no which part of the world you guys have travel to and fro or live.i thank God for the grace upon my life which has enable me to travel mu ... read full comment
Wow what's a hurrible article,i've ever come acrose in my life.morrison/anyomi i don't no which part of the world you guys have travel to and fro or live.i thank God for the grace upon my life which has enable me to travel must of the so call developed world.in this world there is no genocide,people who have gone throughout pains,a continent which has suffered humiliation like black people in the entire world.i wish i can see you guys face to face to wash the kind of mentality injected into you guys brains.all the same i need to points some things out.1.you don't form a nation without one common language.2.you don't group tribes together without their common understanding.3.you don't impose another continent language on people with their own language.....more to come.
Sam 7 years ago
Nice piece.
Nice piece.
KONKONSA 7 years ago
Misinformed and unexposed bunch. You are handicapped in your own history and overfed with religious mumbo jumbo. Get a grip and do some proper research!
Misinformed and unexposed bunch. You are handicapped in your own history and overfed with religious mumbo jumbo. Get a grip and do some proper research!
lalas 7 years ago
And we are usually using our history to make excuses and justifications why we arent successful.
And we are usually using our history to make excuses and justifications why we arent successful.
Aj 7 years ago
Lalas.you should come out clean,history is very important to any society but to cut acrose on a stop and go is neither here nor there.the so called jews who were in europe in time of aldorf hitler's genocide their generations ... read full comment
Lalas.you should come out clean,history is very important to any society but to cut acrose on a stop and go is neither here nor there.the so called jews who were in europe in time of aldorf hitler's genocide their generations still lament bitterly whiles the usa,european union still pay huge compensation amount to lsrael.i'm not saying we demand the same but aleast the world should allow Africa to decide their our own destiny.then poping their nose in our afairs all the time,helping to impose wrong leaders on Africans.
The Ruler Is Back 7 years ago
Some are lazy and shapeless, some are willing but clueless, some are none of the above.
Some are lazy and shapeless, some are willing but clueless, some are none of the above.
PARKA 7 years ago
GOOD TO KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE ALSO SEEN THAT WE AFRICANS HAVE A PROBLEM. THE SAD THING IS MOST OF US DON'T SEEM TO KNOW THAT WE HAVE A PROBLEM. THAT PROBLEM IS NOT ONLY IN AFRICA. IT'S THE SAME IN CARIBBEAN OR EVEN MOST OF THE B ... read full comment
GOOD TO KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE ALSO SEEN THAT WE AFRICANS HAVE A PROBLEM. THE SAD THING IS MOST OF US DON'T SEEM TO KNOW THAT WE HAVE A PROBLEM. THAT PROBLEM IS NOT ONLY IN AFRICA. IT'S THE SAME IN CARIBBEAN OR EVEN MOST OF THE BLACKS IN AMERICA, CANADA, UNITED KINGDOM ETC ,ETC. THEY SAY SOUTH AFRICAN'S INDEPENDENCE WAS A MISTAKE. MANDELA, FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT, BUT HE MADE A MISTAKE BY HANDING OVER POWER TO THE THE BLACK PEOPLE. HE SHOULD HAVE SAT THE WHITE DOWN AND HANDED THE POWER BACK TO THEM, BUT THEN LET THEM KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT GOING CARRY ON WITH THEIR TERRIBLE APARTHEID THING ANY MORE. JUST LOOK AT JACOB ZUMA, AND MOST OF THESE NATIVE SOUTH AFRICANS ATTITUDE OR LOOK AT SOUTH AFRICA, IN THOSE DAYS AS AGAINST NOW AND TELL ME IF WHAT I AM SAYING DOESN'T MAKE SENSE?
Aj 7 years ago
Parka,i can relate to your comments some how.but there's saying in Africa that you don't point your left hand at your father's house.as i said before you don't build a nation with many languages is not going to work as the bi ... read full comment
Parka,i can relate to your comments some how.but there's saying in Africa that you don't point your left hand at your father's house.as i said before you don't build a nation with many languages is not going to work as the bible says in Genesis 11:6-9.,2.,you don't build a nation only on varsites alone with out keeping a strong skilfull artisans to meet the demand or only building offices without factories.blacks are suffering world wide due to the depicture of africa situations,the chinese had the same problems until there was a massive change in china,china emback on common language,massive building of skilful artisans and varsities to enhence growth on every aspect of their needs.even if one south sahara africa nation can adopt such style i my good friend it's would serve as role model for the rest of africa and the respect which every black person need would be garantee.thanks
ayi ayi 7 years ago
our leaders are selfish and corrupt and the people are uncreative therefore there are jobless youth suffer the more
our leaders are selfish and corrupt and the people are uncreative therefore there are jobless youth suffer the more
G. K. Berko 7 years ago
You are right about our leaders and their incorrigible corruption. But I disagree with your notion on our creativity.
It, for instance, only takes someone to honestly examine how folks survived the Kalabule era of Kutu's ... read full comment
You are right about our leaders and their incorrigible corruption. But I disagree with your notion on our creativity.
It, for instance, only takes someone to honestly examine how folks survived the Kalabule era of Kutu's and Akufo's to appreciate the ingenuity of Ghanaians. Besides, creativity is inspired. It just doesn't happen in a vacuum. And when invention is made, it ought to have investment to develop it into a viable Economic venture.
Just think about all the thousands of Research Papers Students at KNUST, for example, produced over the decades. Would say none of them could have been a successful trigger for a sustainable Business?
Dr. Thomas O. Mensah, the inventor with 7 US patents, is a full-blown, thoroughbred Ghanaian. But I wonder if his inventions in the Fiber Optics and others could have been possible without the facilities that the USA environment offered him.
Dr. Opeyemi Enoch, an extraordinary Mathematician who solved the Riemann's Hypothesis to land a $100,000,000 award in 2015 was also thoroughbred African and Nigerian. Once again, his feat was done overseas where facilities and encouragement were abundantly supportive.
So, our problem is not the lack of ingenuity or creativity. It is the cultural enslavement to corruption and and mismanagement by our Political elite that deprive our Nations the necessary environment to flourish.
Long Live Ghana!!!
Mr Bond 7 years ago
African are not lazy but they greedy pull him down selfish self-centred avarice and non-thinking fools.Apostle Safo has demonstrate that African are capable of doing things of their own but our stupid president John Dramani M ... read full comment
African are not lazy but they greedy pull him down selfish self-centred avarice and non-thinking fools.Apostle Safo has demonstrate that African are capable of doing things of their own but our stupid president John Dramani Mahama who is like a damn school boy always at last never seems to get things right stealing every money that comes to his hand and steal it and return it to where it comes from.If Anerican vote for Trump his policies will force our leaders to support our inventors to produce to rebuilt our economy like what Cameroon is doing supporting his inventor of cardio monitor device.
G. K. Berko 7 years ago
I see much of the Authors' argument as based upon symptomatic manifestations of much deeper causes, and thereby missing a significant chunk of the reality in characterizing Africans as lazy.
If the reader would indulge me ... read full comment
I see much of the Authors' argument as based upon symptomatic manifestations of much deeper causes, and thereby missing a significant chunk of the reality in characterizing Africans as lazy.
If the reader would indulge me a little bit of his/her patience, I would like to respond extensively to the Article by first rejecting outright the stereotypical tagging of Africans as lazy.
There surely is the predominant outlook of mass idling in Africa. But it surely does not sum up the totality of our productivity as continental citizens. Our Youths have been largely the focus of such notions. And there seems to be little improvement in the trend leading into their future.
Summarily, I would blame the inconsistent Economic management of the African countries, often with the suspiciously incapacitating IMF/World Bank impositions, for that continental outlook.
Yes, our youthful most energetic folks are much less engaged in gainful employment than we would like to see, or than in other parts of the World.
The real unemployment statistics would reveal African Nations have one of the highest rate of Youth unemployment globally. Nevertheless, does that truly reflect our willingness to work? Truly, many among us have horrible work ethics with which only meager proportion of our maximum productive capacity is applied at work. But then, again, does that accurately depict our general desire to work?
There is nothing wrong in criticizing a dangerous rising trend among us like laxity at work. But that is totally different from characterizing that laxity as an integral trait of ours.
Once we are viewed that way around the World, we become more vulnerable to others who would use that excuse to deny us all kinds of opportunities.
Now, I would like to touch on the causes of the symptoms in which the Authors have anchored their derogation of us as being lazy.
Without making it as an excuse, the Authors have to acknowledge the fact that there are simply not enough jobs for our Youths to engage in. That is an undeniable fact! Even though the Authors would not like us to say so, the truth is that it takes a certain capital to invest; it takes a certain set of inputs to turn an activity into an economically gainful endeavor. And the Youths, in particular, have not been adequately resourced in that sense to take the due advantage of.
This factor above reflects directly on the most deplorable Political leadership we have endured over the decades. It is almost the sacred code of every Capitalist that Governments do not create jobs. Having said that, it takes a certain economic environment to start a stream of viable, sustainable and profitable productive ventures. Coming out of our Colonial era, much emphasis was placed on Education as a means of living and to wealth. The oppressive environment under which our ancestors had to work under the Colonial Governments gave birth to a certain notion among our folks that our Youths ought to be encouraged to only occupy the Offices and loci of Authority that the Colonial Powers left behind. It is the white-color jobs that to our folks then projected unto the Youths as being the real way to uppity living and success. Hence, the wealth from Agricultural endeavors like in Cocoa and Coffee Farming and Artisan enterprises began to suffer condescension.
Our Youths may have had some help along the way from their families to acquire Education with which to find jobs, or create their own entrepreneurial ventures. Yet, after graduation from the various Institutions of learning, the Youths either would not find the jobs, or fit in the jobs available for lack of the requisite skills. For the latter part of the problem with being entrepreneurial, the onus then fell on the poor Academic curricula in the Schools that the Youths had to attend. The fault of the unemployability of the Youths would then not be theirs, but our that of our leaders. With poor leadership, we failed to inculcate into the Youths the laudable principle of looking wider and beyond the Offices for employment.
Hardly, do we have any apprenticeship for any kind of business in these days. And the few businesses that still maintain that system of preparing the Youths or the unemployed for a new job could barely survive for lack of reliable markets for their services and products. Many artisans, for example, have remained either perpetually idle, or only sporadically engaged, because the general demand for their services is scanty. Such rarefied demand for services and goods are predicated upon our anemic Economic environment. It is only for a few years in the past that our Economies have shown any consistent growth. Even so, the growth has been from the larger harnessing of our extractive Resources, and a short-lived boom in our Cocoa, Coffee, and Mining Industries.
It has often been argued that our Youths could resort to Agriculture to make a living and succeed. But the it takes a certain capital to go into Agriculture beyond subsistence farming. A certain amount of land space, for example, is also needed to make any successful Farmer of anyone. And our Land acquisition in these days have become a nightmare that our Political leaders have failed to legislate to ameliorate. In South Africa and Zimbabwe, for instance, redistribution of Land to offer the real, native owners any access to substantial arable land is still unresolved.
Governments still apply unfair political controls on business opportunities and restrict award of Contracts and procurement bidding, keeping most Youths light-years away from ever gaining any opportunity in many businesses.
I dare say that some of our Governments deliberately discourage, or refrain from helping local manufacturing so that their Officials could have full control on the importation of basic needs that could have contributed immensely in hiring our Youths, and enrich themselves from. Import Licenses, for example, are restricted to cronies or others who are capable of greasing the palms of Officials who process the Licenses. And unbearable taxes are imposed on those who might be able to find other sources of importing other goods like second hand clothing, even as our local Textile Industries have been snuffed out of competition.
There has been a few periods in our History, in Ghana, in particular, of influx into our internal trading environment of Youths, some of whom even quit School at midstream to engage in petty retail businesses. One such period is Ghana's days of the Kutu Acheampong's NRC and SMC I and Akufo's SMC II. Secondary School kids abandoned School to become peddlers of various items like Razor blades, Boxes of Matches, Ball-point Pens, etc. Or, they would turn into direct sales-pitchers for other traders with hoarded consignments of goods. Some of the Youths would spend a whole day, seven days a week, doing this just to earn enough bread for themselves and help with their family upkeep. The other period of such influx of Youths into petty trading is now.
These Youths engaged in trading of this sort can hardly be said to be lazy, without having been presented a better option of permanent positions in other areas of employment.
The above scenario would apply mostly to our Youths in the urban areas. In the rural areas, the Youths have barely any access to such items to sell in the first place. And, that is when we might be suggesting that they ought to engage in Agriculture. And, again, the lack of capital would be their greatest hindrance.
When our Youths have dared take the challenge to become farmers, and done all they could to produce the crops of their choosing, the Produce had mostly gone waste for lack of Market. Tomatoes have been known to suffer such a fate among our exuberant farmers. The recent example in the Northern Ghana where the Palugu Tomato Factory was abandoned to be sustituted with massive importation of Tomato Paste from China is a common phenomenon where generation of local production is stifled by Government misguided policies, only to preserve foreign-exchange depletion importation of goods.
Ghana is currently importing Wood with which our Artisans could be plying their trade in Carpentry and Construction. With the high prices of Wood, how could our folks afford to buy that raw material to produce anything, and hire employees in their trade?
There have also been many instances of Purchasing Officers at various Government Maize and Cocoa Purchasing Depots turning farmers away for lack of funds to purchase their Produce. I have personally experienced that before among numerous other farmers. That resulted in both a surge of smuggling of the harvest across our boundaries and total abandonment of Farming, altogether by those who feared to be caught smuggling.
The time our Youths returned from Agege upon their mass deportation by Nigeria is a typical period of such gross disappointment to those who ventured into Corn Farming, for instance. The J.J. Administration did even encourage the Forestry Department to make land available in our Plantations to all Youths who would choose to grow food crops and Corn in particular. The response was overwhelming and the Youths did their part. When the crops matured, and the Corn was harvested, they could not be purchased by the Depots. Some of the young Farmers had to abandon their whole harvest on the farms to rot. Meanwhile, the Government had banned the Malian and Guinean 'Kayakaya' private purchasers from buying our Maize. Some of these young farmers who had taken loans to cultivate their crops but could not find buyers ended up committing suicide, rather than face their debtors.
Did the Authors of the Article extend their research that far to understand what the real causes of the presumed laziness among the Youths are?
More, our historical exclusive high-honoring of white-color jobs versus all others continues till today. Our sheer psychological appreciation of what constitutes a proud employment had been woefully tainted. The massive corruption among our elitist Officials, especially, in Government, has consistently made millionaires out of inept nonentities, most of whom might have had their respective positions through nepotism and cronyism. Best qualified Youths are often by-passed to employ others who have 'Connections'. The corruption and looting among our Officials entice our Youths to such elitist government positions, and deepening their preference for only white-color jobs. When at work in Government, the workers then take to the culture of not working hard but creating dubious opportunities to skim the system to become wealthy overnight.
So, while the Governments in Africa have failed in charting viable Economic maps for the Citizens to fully utilize their potentials to produce at their highest capacities, the few gainful opportunities available to employ the people in are reserved to only a minor section of the Societies. These few then skim, pilfer, and loot our assets to become rich overnight. And that serves as a path that the Youths, generally, would like to tow to become wealthy as well. The culture of corruption has therefore a big part to play in the idling of the Youths in Africa.
Our perceived laziness, is, thus, not an innate characteristic of the African but a result of a number of factors, many of which could be, even, blamed on the macro-economic imposition of the very Nations whose experts would often call us lazy.
I apologize to the reader for this response that could have been a whole Article in itself. But I felt obliged to put all the above out here to generate the discussions on the Article in point. I believe I still left out a few more reasons to negate the ultimate impression the Authors painted for us on African productivity. But let us leave that for some other time.
Wow what's a hurrible article,i've ever come acrose in my life.morrison/anyomi i don't no which part of the world you guys have travel to and fro or live.i thank God for the grace upon my life which has enable me to travel mu ...
read full comment
Nice piece.
Misinformed and unexposed bunch. You are handicapped in your own history and overfed with religious mumbo jumbo. Get a grip and do some proper research!
And we are usually using our history to make excuses and justifications why we arent successful.
Lalas.you should come out clean,history is very important to any society but to cut acrose on a stop and go is neither here nor there.the so called jews who were in europe in time of aldorf hitler's genocide their generations ...
read full comment
Some are lazy and shapeless, some are willing but clueless, some are none of the above.
GOOD TO KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE ALSO SEEN THAT WE AFRICANS HAVE A PROBLEM. THE SAD THING IS MOST OF US DON'T SEEM TO KNOW THAT WE HAVE A PROBLEM. THAT PROBLEM IS NOT ONLY IN AFRICA. IT'S THE SAME IN CARIBBEAN OR EVEN MOST OF THE B ...
read full comment
Parka,i can relate to your comments some how.but there's saying in Africa that you don't point your left hand at your father's house.as i said before you don't build a nation with many languages is not going to work as the bi ...
read full comment
our leaders are selfish and corrupt and the people are uncreative therefore there are jobless youth suffer the more
You are right about our leaders and their incorrigible corruption. But I disagree with your notion on our creativity.
It, for instance, only takes someone to honestly examine how folks survived the Kalabule era of Kutu's ...
read full comment
African are not lazy but they greedy pull him down selfish self-centred avarice and non-thinking fools.Apostle Safo has demonstrate that African are capable of doing things of their own but our stupid president John Dramani M ...
read full comment
I see much of the Authors' argument as based upon symptomatic manifestations of much deeper causes, and thereby missing a significant chunk of the reality in characterizing Africans as lazy.
If the reader would indulge me ...
read full comment