The pain of inequality in Africa

The "Africa Rising" story is a tale that is being told virtually everywhere, and which even the Afro-sceptics are gradually coming to terms with.

However, at the same time, it is a story that has its dark side, such as the growing levels of economic inequality that have accompanied Africa's "rise".

Africa is the second most inequitable region in the world, after Latin America.

According to a 2012 publication of the African Development Bank, "inequalities have not diminished over time. In 2010, six out of the 10 most unequal countries worldwide were in sub-Saharan Africa, and more specifically in Southern Africa".

While the rich are getting richer, the poor are wallowing in need, and the backlash of this trend may threaten not only the little progress our continent has made, but our collective sense of humanity and decency which defines Africa's ubuntu philosophy - of community solidarity, care and responsibility that seeks expression in the phrase, "I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am".

The benefits of economic growth have been skewed and disproportionately shared. A tiny group of less than 4 percent captures a large chunk of the income and wealth in Africa's changing tide of capitalist progress. In this landscape, a nouveau niche has arisen, a transnational capitalist elite class who are the primary beneficiaries of Africa's economic growth.

Out of Nigeria comes Africa's richest person, Aliko Dangote; while in South Africa, as Ben Turok rightly noted in his latest book "With My Head Above the Parapet", the number of dollar millionaires grows. From 2007 to 2013, the numbers swelled by 14 percent from 2007 to 2013 even as the value of the South African rand depreciated markedly.

Addressing inequality can be a win-win situation both for the powerful and powerless in society.

Africa's bubbling white-collar middle class has not been left out in the growth trajectory. The new consumptionist culture in African cities, with the mushrooming of shopping malls and large supermarkets, suggests that purchasing power is increasing, if only for a small, yet important part of the population.

This is good news because without a national capitalist class, which in the Marxian parlance is referred to as a national bourgeoisie, and without a thriving middle class, neither capitalist transformation nor liberal democracy can be achieved or institutionalised.

But this is where the good story ends. Beyond this, the large majority of Africans are disconnected from whatever we call economic growth in our countries; they do not see it; they do not feel it; and they do not live it.

Many wonder that if Africa is growing, why are some Africans desperate to escape to Europe by sea, at great risk to their lives? To add insult to injury, some see the Western media reports of these desperate migrants as containing an element of sarcasm. If Africa is growing, one would have thought that the incentive would have been for its people to stay at home and contribute to its transformation.

If Africa is growing, why are conflicts escalating on the continent? In classical economic theory, growth is supposed to open up economic opportunities, stimulate economic and social empowerment, and thereby reduce tensions in society.

Conflicts in the Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan, Libya, and Nigeria remind us that Africa is not yet out of the woods. Those conflicts, though mostly context-specific, have varied reasons, which include the growing problem of deprivation.

Spatial, gender and income inequalities all coalesce to deny people their basic socio-economic rights and a stake in the system, which sometimes fuels political conflict.

The warped motive of the Boko Haram insurgency may not relate to inequality, but its combustive elements may be. Ignorance and deprivation are two factors that may have made it possible for the terrorist group to recruit young people to kill and maim their fellow citizens.

With good education and decent jobs available, Boko Haram might have been denied the young foot soldiers that it deploys in its heinous crimes.

In the CAR, Christians and Muslims who have lived together for generations in relative harmony are suddenly at each other's throats as enemies. Scarcity, deprivation and inequality, the triplet sisters, breed hatred, anger and conflict amongst friends, brothers and communities.

Africa's growth pattern, driven by a commodity boom, provides only limited opportunities for employment and inclusive economic progress. It enriches the state, but does not transform the lives of the citizens.

Indeed, de-industrialisation is the flip side of Africa's growth pattern as more cash-fuelled greedy imported appetites, of goods from China, Brazil, Singapore, South Korea and other new emerging economies.

In South Africa, the textile industry is struggling to breathe, let alone survive, as the country is awash with cheap clothes from other parts of the world.

The textile industry had long collapsed in many other parts of the continent in the late 1980s under "structural adjustment programmes".

Cheap imports dwarf, if not destroy, local industries, export jobs, stunt diversification, and exacerbate poverty and inequality.

But let's concede that inequality is now a global phenomenon, and that it is not only an African challenge. Other parts of the world are equally grappling with it. The Occupy Wall Street campaign is no different from the agitations of young people in Tunisia and Egypt or the service delivery protests in South Africa.

The difference is that given limited resources and opportunities, Africa's capacity to absorb those shocks and the pain of inequality is limited, hence, it is more visible, with greater impact on the continent.

As global capitalism grows, it breeds its own discontents. Global capitalism, in its unabashed neo-liberal form, continues to appropriate and consolidate wealth for a few, and poverty for the rest.

Capitalism, as Karl Marx once noted, is the most progressive social system ever invented by man, but it lacks a face, a conscience or a heart. It can be daring, ruthless and enslaving.

For it to recreate itself, it has to mitigate its negative consequences by expanding opportunities for the weak and powerless in society, showing care and affection to the vulnerable, and including everybody in its growth process, even while giving more to some, than others.

This has been the strength of the Scandinavian model of capitalist development.

As Africa seeks to claim the 21st century, it must do more than the present. It should diversify its economies from commodity production to the industrial sector, and to small and medium-scale industries that create jobs and add value to the production chain. The focus should be on unleashing creativity.

This should include the agro-allied sector and beneficiation in the natural resources industry. Training and skills development should also be attuned to the modern economy.

The educational system inherited from colonialism cannot keep pace with the drive and technology of the 21st century; it requires a drastic overhaul.

Finally, the state must take its rightful place not only in driving development by creating policies and regulatory regimes, it should be the force to mitigate poverty and inequality in society.

Inequality is not only an economic malaise; it is also a social and political liability to any society. If it is not tamed, it can consume whatever gains that the capitalist system might have accumulated.

Addressing inequality can be a win-win situation both for the powerful and powerless in society. It can create social harmony, mutual trust, and confidence between the haves and have-nots. It is a step towards a collective dream that another world - fairer and just - is possible and desirable for us all! - NewAfrican.

* Said Adejumobi is associate professor of political science. Dr. Adejumobi taught at the Lagos State University in Lagos, Nigeria for about two decades, and was formerly governance adviser of the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja, Nigeria. Dr. Adejumobi is currently chief of the Public Administration Section and coordinator of the Africa Governance Report (AGR) for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

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