{"id":522371,"date":"2024-02-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=522371"},"modified":"2025-04-06T21:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T19:09:14","slug":"les-africains-meritent-de-retrouver-la-liberte-economique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/economy\/les-africains-meritent-de-retrouver-la-liberte-economique\/","title":{"rendered":"Africans deserve economic freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The continent enjoyed free trade and decentralized institutions for centuries before the arrival of the colonizers. Today, Africa's revitalization is in the hands of its citizens.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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L\u2019original article<\/a> <\/a>is published in German in <\/em><\/em>Schweizer Monat.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For many, it seems that the history of Africa began with the arrival of Europeans and, later, Americans. Yet Africa was home to great civilizations for thousands of years before these events. I'm delighted that Henry Louis Gates, a renowned Harvard professor, recently produced a six-hour documentary for PBS entitled Africa's Great Civilizations. This documentary gives an overview of over 200,000 years of African history, and presents it in an enjoyable and colorful way. This is an invaluable asset, as most of the other resources available are academic and therefore often boring or even off-putting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gates points out, for example, that all human beings have African roots. All eight billion of us are cousins! Gates also points out that Africa is the origin of much of what makes us human, including writing, art and music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take Mansa Musa, the 14th-century emperor of Mali. At the time, he was the richest man in the world - and probably ever. It was largely thanks to the gold and salt trade that Mansa Musa acquired his wealth, which he used not only to conquer new lands, but also to create in Timbuktu not only a great commercial center, but also a city of universities and scholars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the world's first university was founded in Fez in 859 CE (predating Oxford by at least a hundred years), the University of Sankore in Timbuktu (present-day Mali) evolved from a mosque founded in 989 CE and, under Mansa Musa, developed one of the world's greatest libraries - the largest in Africa since the Library of Alexandria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Gates puts it, these and other magnificent achievements provide a \u00abprofound denial\u00bb of the belief that Africa had no history before the arrival of Europeans: \u00abThis continent has always been dynamic, interconnected and an integral part of world history.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa and free trade go hand in hand<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This interconnection was built and maintained as it still is: through trade and commerce. African civilizations developed on the east coast thanks to trade with Asia. Between 800 and 1600 CE, an estimated 500 tons of gold, much of it from the interior of the continent, passed through eastern ports. The west coast linked up with Europe and the Americas, and trade enabled our early empires to prosper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, African states all have high tariff barriers. What's wrong with this picture? The African Free Trade Agreement, which has been signed by most African nations in recent years, will finally reduce trade barriers (if it is actually implemented as promised by African leaders). But really, why did we have to wait until 2021 to get free trade within Africa, which was our birthright?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse still, this agreement only concerns trade. inside<\/em> of Africa. Unlike the great African kingdoms of old, which traded on a global scale, African nations will almost certainly continue to maintain high tariffs on goods from outside Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the late economist George Ayittey wrote, freedom of trade existed for centuries before the arrival of the colonists; indeed, it was a fundamental way of life for virtually all the inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa. The blood of individual freedom runs deep in the veins of African history, from the time when African tribes used a decentralized governance structure totally different from the modern African state (which is essentially a European colonial import).<\/p>\n\n\n\n