Potentials of the AfCFTA to Transform Africa’s Economy
There have been calls to boost intra-African trade to help mitigate the effect of unfavorable tariffs that are being imposed by the United States on African imports. Professor Ronney Ncwadi, full professor of Economics at the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, discussed with Pan-African Frequency the potential benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area in more detail. He highlighted the steps that can be taken to build more robust and competitive manufacturing hubs across the continent.
“We need to have inward-looking policies. We need to improve our production. We need to add value to our production, not be dependent on primary exports only, but to ensure that we trade with one another within Africa. We need to ensure that we improve our transport [...] and also the cross-border payments. We need to improve on that. We need to ensure we remove all the non-tariff barriers that block trade amongst ourselves. We need to start thinking of joint ventures in agro-processing, automotive components, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and green energy. We need to look at that. We need to start localizing value chains and retain more wealth on the continent and shield ourselves from the global shocks,” the professor emphasized.
Demands to Reclaim Africa’s Looted Artifacts
In explaining how colonialism enabled the systemic looting of the cultural heritage across Africa, Abera Anjulo, the CEO of Heritage and Invention Standardization at the Ministry of Tourism in Ethiopia, pointed out that the African cultural heritage, which is now displayed in museums across the United Kingdom are not just museum pieces — they’re symbols of stolen identity.
“They want to show the hegemonic period of the colonial period. So still the collection of British museums shows us how much they extracted and how much they looted from Africa,” he explained
Furthermore, in opposing the argument that African artifacts are relocated under the pretext of preservation, Yamb Ntimba, a political philosopher and the founder of the Kheper think tank said that the West’s refusal to return African artifacts—despite making billions from them—reveals a deeper legacy of theft repackaged as heritage and justice postponed.
“They use African artifacts as means to remind Africans that they dominate Africa and that they colonized Africa. They show it to their population to tell them this is what we got from far away, where we went and conquered. We were victorious, we are great warriors, and in those days, we brought this back home. And this is to entertain a feeling of domination in the European population, the domination of Africa in the European population. That's how they use African artifacts [....] I think there is an end to everything and the end is already there. They have to bring it back [....] If they don't, one day Africa will take it back,” Ntimba asserted.
Dogs Help in Conservation of Geometric Tortoises in South Africa
To conclude this episode, we delve into the innovative approach of conserving South Africa’s endangered wildlife. Esther Matthew, a senior conservation officer at the Wildlife Endangered Trust, provides insight into the methods her organization is taking to preserve the endangered geometric tortoises with the help of dogs and why it is important to protect these species on the verge of extinction.
“The important thing to note is all species have a value and there's a ripple effect when one species goes lost and in this example the geometric tortoise or all tortoises are very niche-specific on the habitat where they live, but they also play a role in ecological function. They move nutrients around in the environment, and they move seeds around [...] development is going to happen in expansion due to human populations growing every day. And I think what we can do is look at how do we plan better? You know, how do plan developments around key habitats and species? How can we modify the development or infrastructure to be more eco-friendly? I think that's all we can do, and I think that's where environmental impact assessments come in,” the expert highlighted.
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