The Desperate Youth of Africa - Part 1

Africa’s unemployed youth is growing in number, in desperation and in depression. Nearly one billion (that is 995.3 million) of Africa’s population of 1,341 billion in 2020 were below age 35. In percentage terms, the number of Africans below age 35 in 2020 was 74 percent.

The total number of Africa’s youth population in the age group of 15-34 in 2020 was 455 million, representing 34 percent of the total African population, and 22.7 percent of total world youth. Of every 10-12 million youth that entered the work force, only 3 million jobs were available in the formal sector, indicating that more than 70 percent of every 10-12 million youth would remain jobless for sometime. Many of the remaining number of 7-9 million have to seek low paid jobs in the informal sector or face the horrors of joblessness.
Eva Penar (Jan. 23, 2021) writing on “Youth Unemployment in Africa: An examination of Recent Data.” states that current youth unemployment stands at 56% in South Africa; 51% in Egypt; 47% in Eswatini; 41% in Namibia, 38% in Botswana; and 31% in the North African countries. The rates in West African countries are estimated to be less than 10%: in Ghana (5.3%), in Nigeria (9.1%), and lower still in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone and Liberia. In Kenya, the youth unemployment rate is estimated at 7%.
What is happening in such low unemployment countries, especially in West African countries, is the incidence of underemployment. Some of the youth may work two weeks in a month; and some may take jobs such as photocopy clerks, coconut sellers etc., jobs that pay the equivalent of 50 US dollars a month; a salary that hardly covers a simple lunch and transportation costs to and from work. Unemployed university graduates, bankers, teachers and other trained persons with high qualifications may with luck, find jobs as taxi drivers, and some may find employment as illegal miners in the interior parts of some of the countries of the continent. Underemployment is a phenomenon that is not easily captured statistically, but exists in many African countries. Underemployment is just veiled unemployment.
Of the total African population of 1,341 billion in 2020, people in the age group 0-14 (where 0 represents children who have not attained the age of one year) accounted for 541 million persons, representing 40 percent of the total African population, and higher than the youth population percentage of 34 on the continent. This means that a bigger youth unemployment problem is yet to come.
Youth unemployment threatens to get worse in the years ahead unless creative strategies and policies are thought out in quick time, implementation plans laid out, and resources organised for solving this long standing problem.
Youth unemployment has become a world-wide problem particularly in countries that for generations have been exporters of natural resources to the developed nations of the world. The problem has existed on the African continent for over hundred years without any significant solutions. Desperate people do not wish to listen to reasons why they cannot get jobs in their countries. But without getting to the causes of the problem, it becomes difficult to find appropriate solutions. Continuing unemployment of African youth and underemployment of many adults on the continent arises from a number of external and internal factors. One of the external factors was the enslavement and subsequent colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa, Colonialism was basically an exploitative master-servant, lord-serf scheme and not a partnership in its intent and effects. Both slavery and colonialism together form an indirect factor in the current youth unemployment problem.
The direct factors leading to current joblessness are essentially internal to Africa itself. These factors include population growth in Africa from 1960 to the present time; the increasing number of persons completing secondary and tertiary education institutions each year; urbanization; decline in the number of industries and factories; slow growth in African economies; excessive imports from overseas countries, especially imports of used goods; and the marginal attention to the ever present prospect of unemployment by all African governments from the period of independence starting from 1960, the year that is generally recognized as “The Year of Africa” since it was in this year that fully 17 African countries obtained their independence.
While recognizing 1960 as the scheduled year of African independence, we must be aware that the North African countries have existed in their present location for over 400 hundred years; that Ethiopia has existed as the sovereign Kingdom of Abyssinia since the 13th century CE, transforming itself into the Ethiopian Empire through a series of wars; and that Liberia has also existed as a sovereign state since its foundation in 1822.

External factors leading to unemployment in Africa

The enslavement and colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa is considered an indirect cause of the mass unemployment in present-day Africa because throughout the period from 1443 when the Portuguese first set foot on African soil up to the present time, an image of the conqueror against the conquered has been set up in the minds and soul of Africans. Some have called this image “Colonial Mentality,” and others have called it “Slave Mentality.” Whatever one may call it, slavery and colonialism inculcated a dependency mentality on the African continent, the effects of which will continue to hold back the development efforts of the continent unless supreme effort is made to nullify this mentality to clear the way for genuine development.

Sugar Cane plantations and the beginnings of slavery

Sugar cane is a tropical crop that was introduced and cultivated by Arab planters in the area around the Mediterranean beginning from the year 700 CE. The sugar industry in the Mediterranean region reached high levels of production in the 14th and 15th centuries but began to decline when European merchants became interested in the industry during the 15th and 16th Centuries.

Origins of the word “Slave”

The sugar industry was lucrative but it was both capital and labour intensive requiring large amounts of capital and large numbers of workers. Besides these two requirements, the industry needed large tracts of land.

Sugar cane cultivation is considered a tedious and dangerous occupation and it was therefore difficult for planters to get the number of workers they needed. Planters therefore resorted to buying and capturing any persons they could get; Christians, Muslims, Europeans and Africans. But these were still not enough.

Under such difficulties, planters turned their attention to the Slavs or Slavic people who occupied the vast area of Northern Europe from Western Europe to the end of Eastern Europe and farther to the Pacific Ocean. The Slavs lived in the large area above Northern Asia and are the largest ethno-linguist group in Europe. Presently, the Slavs form 50 percent of the population of Europe with an estimated number of 350 million. Slavs are presently Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Serbians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Slovenians, Macedonians and others.

For reasons of geographical closeness, the Arab planters were more interested in the Slavs living in the area of the Black Sea which is much closer to the Mediterranean region. Captured or purchased Slavs therefore formed the largest percentage of sugar cane plantation workers in the Mediterranean region. Without distinction to ethnicity or tribal origin, all sugar plantation workers were referred to as Slavs. Purchased or captured persons who were not Slavs were “enslaved.” The word “slave” is therefore directly derived from the original word “Slav.” A slave (where the “a” in the course of time, changes to different accent) then became the term used for all persons purchased or forcibly captured for work on the sugar cane plantations in the Mediterranean region.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks seized Constantinople and denied access to the Black Sea region. The closure of access to the Black Sea region forced European entrepreneurs interested in the sugar industry to look toward Africa in the south for slave labour in the 15thcentury, and increasingly in the 16th Century after the discovery of the Americas where there was available large tracts of land for sugar cane cultivation.

By the close of the 16th century production of sugar in the Mediterranean region had become a thing of the past. Attention had turned to Brazil and the Atlantic islands of Azores, the Canaries and the Caribbean, as sugar cane growing territories.

Contact with the Western World

Before the Ottoman Turks blocked access to the Black Sea region making it impossible for European sugar cane planters to obtain Slavs and other available persons in the Mediterranean region for sugar plantation labour, the sugar plantation business had already started collapsing. It was in this period of the 15th century that the Portuguese made a definitive effort to establish trade contact with West Africa; and this is where the Trans-Atlantic slave trade had its beginnings.

Note:
This paper starts with the slave trade in West Africa, including Cameroon and Gabon; moves to the slave trade in Ethiopia, Egypt and North Eastern Africa, then discusses the slave trade in Eastern Africa; continues discussing the slave trade in Southern Africa up to Brazil, ending the slave trade topic in Central Africa, principally the Congo. Ending the slave trade discussion in the Congo provides a better chance for moving into the issue of the Berlin Conference which was the starting point of the colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa.

West African Slave Trade

La Cote d’Ivoire: The Portuguese arrived in La Cote d’Ivoire in 1442 and traded in pepper, gum Arabic, ivory and gold. When the establishment of American colonies started in the period 1600-1763, making it profitable to supply slaves to America, the Portuguese made agreements with local chiefs in the coastal areas of Cote d’Ivoire to procure slaves from the interior parts of the country for Portuguese and other European slave traders.

The trade in ivory became more profitable than the trade in slaves sometime in the 17th Century, The area between Cape Palmas and Cape Three Points provided lots of ivory. The area also supplied 3,500 slaves a year for the Trans-Atlantic shipment. The shift of attention to the ivory trade led to the decline of elephants, consequently leading to the end of the ivory trade by the beginning of the 18th century. Cote d’Ivoire became a French colony in 1893.

Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Ghana: In 1445, the Portuguese arrived in Mauritania where they traded in gold and slaves. In 1460, they reached Sierra Leone from where they took a number of slaves to Portugal. While in Sierra Leone, the Portuguese learnt that much of the West African gold was located in Upper Guinea and in the area in the lower parts of the Volta River. In 1471 the Portuguese made another voyage to the West Coast of Africa, this time journeying farther down to present-day Ghana, stopping in a town they called El Mina (or The Mine) because of the abundant gold in the area.

Upper Guinea: The Portuguese had their eyes on Upper Guinea and started establishing trading posts in Guinea in the 15th century, buying and transporting slaves. Before the year 1500, the Portuguese had transported 150,000 slaves and a total of 2 million slaves in the period 1440-1870 from Guinea.

Mali: Slavery was a cultural institution in Mali, becoming a major occupation after the collapse of the Mali Empire in about 1600. Slaves were transported to the Americas during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade period of 1526-1867. Besides the Americas, slaves were also traded across the Trans-Saharan route for sale to the Berbers and Arabs in North Africa. The slave trade was abolished by the French in 1905. Various accounts however, indicate that slavery still exists in Mali in some form.

Why the Portuguese came to West Africa

The Portuguese came to West Africa to purchase gold directly from West African sources, avoiding the North African middlemen who bought gold from West Africans and sold to the Portuguese at higher prices. Their second reason was to purchase slaves, and thirdly, to find a sea route to India and the Far East to trade in spices, silk and gems.

The Portuguese faced a lot or resistance and fights in West Africa using the practice of

capturing local people for sugar plantations labour, as had been the practice on sugar plantations in the Mediterranean region. It became easier for them to acquire slaves when they offered manufactured items in a trade system, exchanging their goods for captives acquired in tribal battles, for offenders who would have served jail sentences, and trouble makers in their communities.

Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon: The Portuguese reached Ghana in 1471 as indicated earlier, and stayed in a town they called El Mina trading in gold and slaves. They reached the Niger Delta in 1472 and exported more West African slaves from the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. In 1483, a Portuguese explorer travelled inland into the Benin empire and unexpectedly found “a large and advanced country with a city comparable to those in Europe,” indicating that the African society had already reached a respectable level of sophistication even by European standards in the fifteenth century.

The Portuguese arrived in Cameroon under the leadership of the explorer Fernão do Po in the same year 1472 that they reached the Niger Delta. Cameroon provided a good source for slaves brought into the trading ports at Bimbia, Douala and other ports by Bamilike, Bamoum and other kingdoms from the interior parts of the country. By 1800, slavery had declined considerably in Cameroon, and was therefore largely replaced by trade in palm oil and rubber.

It is estimated that 60% of slaves exported across the North Atlantic to the Americas came from the West African region from Senegambia to Cameroon, with the following estimated percentages: Senegambia to Sierra Leone (15%); Ghana (20%); Benin Region

(35%); Cameroon and the Niger Delta (29%).

Gabon: In the same year 1472, the Portuguese reached Gabon. The Portuguese developed sugarcane plantations on the off-shore islands of Sao Tome and Principe. By 1500, other European nationals including the English, French, Dutch and Spanish had arrived in Gabon trading in cloths, firearms, alcoholic drinks, ivory and slaves. Due to increased demand for slaves on the sugar plantations of Brazil and Cuba in the years between 1760-1840, the slave trade picked up considerably in Gabon with supplies coming from the Orungu clan which controlled the trade on the Ogooué River; Mpongwe clan which controlled the trade on the estuary of the river; and the Vili clan which controlled the slave trade in the sourthern part of the country.

In 1482, the Portuguese returned to the Gold Coast, now Ghana, to establish their position firmly by building a castle called Sao Jorge da Mina on the shores of the town, Elmina. Other European nations that followed the Portuguese to West Africa later were the English (1553), the Dutch (1593), the Danes (1642), the Swedes (1650), the Germans (1682) and still later the French who colonized Senegal in 1840. Merchants from these nations came to West Africa to compete in the trade for gold and slaves and to sell items such as ready-made dresses, pots and pans, jewels, alcoholic drinks, fabrics, shoes, guns and other manufactured items. It was from the European castles in Elmina, Cape Coast, Accra and other coastal areas in Ghana that European merchants conducted their trade in gold and slaves. It was principally from these castles that slaves started their journey of “No Return” to the Americas during the period of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Ethiopia, Egypt and North Eastern Africa Slave trade

Slavery had been part of the cultures of many races and countries for thousands of years. War captives became slaves to their conquerors. People who could not pay their debts would serve as slaves in payment of their debts. Criminals and miscreants could be sold into slavery; and Non-Christians could be sold into slavery. Slavery is estimated to have existed in Ethiopia since 1495 BCE, that is, over 3,500 years ago. Muslim Arabs sold Ethiopians in Egypt, in the Arabian Peninsula, in the Persian Gulf, in India, the Far East and in the islands of the Indian Ocean. Muslim Arabs conquered Egypt in the years between 641 and 646 CE and were then able to sell Egyptian slaves in North Africa and in the Middle East. In 1517 the Turks conquered Egypt taking over the trade in slaves from the previous conquerors.

The migration of Bantus from the area of Nigeria and Cameroon to North Eastern Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa started from 2500 BCE. The Bantus became minority groups in the areas they settled. Together with the indigenous Africans who lived in the Lower Nile Valley, they easily became vulnerable to Ethiopian, Nubian, Egyptian, Berber and Arab slave raiders who exported them to North Africa and the Middle East. Ethiopian and Nubian slave raiders also sold slaves in the various ports along the coast of the Horn of Africa and on the islands of the Indian Ocean to Arabs and Turks. Until the fall of Christian Nubia in 1504 to the Musllm Arabs, the Nubians conquered and enslaved Libyans, Egyptians and Canaanites, selling their slaves in Egypt, Arabia, Persian Gulf, India, the Middle and Far East, and in the Indian Ocean Islands. Somalia was converted to Islam by Muslims from Arabia in the 7th century, Somalis were captured or purchased and exported as slaves to Yemen, Damascus and Baghdad by Arabian slave traders.

Before the Turks conquered Nubia, the Nubians, Egyptians, Berbers and Arabs purchased Sudanese slaves from the Lower Nile Valley for work in North Africa and the Middle East. The Funj also called the “Black Sultanate” emerged as the governing body in the southern section of Sudan in 1504. The Funj captured slaves in their wars and used them as soldiers to strengthen their armies.

Eastern Africa Slave Trade

Muslim Arabs had been sending captured slaves from East Africa for sale in Egypt and the Middle East, using the Trans-Saharan route to North Africa, for many years before the Portuguese arrived in West Africa. Toward the south, a slave market had been set up by Muslim Arabs in Zanzibar and until 1909 when the East African slave trade was abolished, Zanzibar was the thriving market from which European merchants could purchase slaves.

Why was the Muslim Arab Trans-Saharan slave trade an intense business?

The Muslim Arab Trans-Saharan slave trade was as equally intense as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Slaves traded on the Trans-Saharan route were essentially used for the following purposes:

They were used as porters in the Trans-Saharan trade
They were sold in Europe as domestic workers
They were sold for sugar plantation work in the Mediterranean region
They were offered for sale in the Islamic Empire

Southern Africa and Brazilian Slave Trade

In the year 1500, Brazil became a colony of Portugal. In 1575, Angola, in Southern Africa, became a colony of Portugal. From 1575 till 1836 when Portugal abolished the slave trade, Angola became the major source for transportation of slaves to the sugar cane plantations in Brazil. The Portuguese encouraged and equipped capable Angolans to fight, conquer and capture slaves for sale to Portuguese slave merchants. These became the Local Slave Lords who battled, conquered and enslaved their compatriots for money, guns and alcoholic drinks from their European paymasters, totally unmindful of the common African-identity that bound them with their victims.

The same scenario was being played-out in West Africa at that same period: Africans warring against other African tribes, killing and enslaving the conquered for delivery into the hands of European slave merchants in exchange for money, guns and alcoholic drinks. This had been the tragedy of the African continent even before the fifteenth century.

In the year 1690, gold and diamond deposits were discovered in Brazil increasing the need for more slaves for the sugar plantations and for the gold and diamond mines. The slave trade was abolished in Brazil in May 1888, the last country outside Africa to abolish the inhuman trade. It is estimated that 5 million Africans were transported to Brazil alone in the period 1501-1866.

The Dutch established the Western Cape Colony in South Africa in 1652 mainly for wine and wheat farms, and secondly, for growing food crops for their ships bound for the spice islands of Indonesia. Getting adequate number of slaves from South Africa itself was not easy since the people of the region were mostly pastoralists. The Dutch colonists therefore had to implement a system of forced slavery. In 1657, some of the officials of the Dutch East India Company were released from their contracts, allocated land in South Africa and required to turn into agricultural producers. These became known as Boers, also known as Afrikaners. Since agricultural labour was still insufficient, even with the system of forced slavery, the Dutch settlers had to procure slaves from Mozambique, Madagascar, India and Indonesia for work on the increased number of farms belonging to the settler farmers. By the early part of the eighteenth century, the number of slaves from India formed 80 percent of the total slave population in South Africa. In January 1834, slavery was abolished in South Africa.

Central Africa exploitation and slave trade

Portuguese reached the Congo in 1483, the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, in 1488, and reached India in 1498. In the Congo, they incurred the displeasure of the Kongo King in their slavery practices in the country. There was a long period of disagreements during which the Portuguese got involved in kingship succession issues, and in dispute issues with the Dutch. In 1665, the Portuguese joined one of two warring factions and in the process killed the Kongo King paving the way for them to increase their slave trading ventures.

The land of Angola was already inhabited by a number of ethnic groups including Bantu immigrants from Western Africa. Over a period of 400 years, the Portuguese gained control of the various tribes and states in Angola, till 1915 when the whole of Angola became a Portuguese colony.
We leave the complications of Portuguese involvement in the political and trade matters in the Congo and also in Angola to focus on the evolution of the Congo from the early 1880s.

In the early 1880s, King Leopold II of Belgium had been busy implementing plans for exploiting the resources of the Congo in Central Africa. The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, In an article titled “Berlin West Africa Conference,” with sub-title “Congo Free State (Historical State, Africa),” write as follows;

In Congo itself, Leopold had earlier in the 1880s created a holding company for European investors, with Leopold as chairman of the group to exploit the resources of the Congo. By 1890, Leopold had established a military control over the interior parts of the Congo, putting down rebellion, linking the interior parts of the Congo
with railways and shooting the ruler of the mineral-rich Katanga region.

The Berlin Conference (1884-85)

The Berlin Conference was proposed by Portugal, but convened and chaired by King Leopold II (1835-1909) of Belgium from Nov.15 1884-Feb.26 1885 in Berlin, Germany. The conference was attended by 14 European nations and the United States of America to discuss Portugal’s claim to exclusive control of the Congo River estuary and other matters relating to trade rules among European traders in Africa. After dismissing Portugal’s claim, the conference declared the Congo estuary a neutral zone, and then came to the agreement that the Congo Basin was a Free State to be called Congo Free State under the rule of King Leopold II himself.

A second important matter on the conference agenda involved settling the disputes among European nations on their colonial ambitions by formulating the ground rules for colonial expansion and trade in Africa. The conference effectively implemented “The Partition of Africa” in a process that divided Sub-Saharan Africa into colonies for seven European nations that emerged as the colonial powers for respective sectors of the vast African continent.

An amendment to the agreement reached at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 was made in 1890. While the European colonies were mostly established in the coastal regions of their territories, the amendment urged the European powers to extend their influence into the interior parts of their territories. Merchants and soldiers from the colonial powers including France, Portugal, Britain and Belgium now ventured into the African interior to claim more territories, sign protectorate agreements with local chiefs, and define the borders of their colonies in an event that has been referred to as “The Scramble for Africa.” We note from the statement of the Encyclopedia Britannica editors above however, that by 1890 when the amendment to the Berlin Conference agreement was made, King Leopold had already started controlling the interior parts of the Congo.

Legitimacy of King Leopold’s Rule over Congo

It seems quite clear the Berlin Conference was called by King Leopold of Belgium for two main purposes: To dismiss Portugal’s interest in any part of the mineral-rich Congo Basin in order to prevent any competition; and secondly, to seek legitimacy for his authority and rule over the Congo Basin including its interior regions.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica continue (op. cit):

“The regime, under Leopold’s unrestrained personal control, became notorious for its treatment of the Congolese. Forced labour was used to gather wild rubber, palm oil, and ivory. Beatings and lashings were used to force villages to meet their rubber-gathering quotas, as was the taking of hostages: one method employed by Leopold’s agents was kidnapping the families of Congolese men, who were then coerced into trying to meet work quotas (often unattainable) in order to secure the release of their families. Rebellious actions by the Congolese elicited swift and harsh responses from Leopold’s private army, the Force Publique *(a band of African soldiers led by European officers), who burned the villages and slaughtered the families of rebels. Force Publique troops were also known for cutting off the hands of the Congolese, including children. This mutilation not only served as a punishment and a method to further terrorize the Congolese into submission, but it also provided a measure (the collection of severed hands) by which the soldiers could prove to their commanding officers that they were actively crushing rebellious activity. Brutality was widespread in mines and on plantations. The population of the entire state is said to have declined from some 20 million to 8million.”

The writers state further that “nearly 60 percent of the population of the Congo had been exterminated within a period of about 20 years under the authority and supervision of Leopold.”

There is no record that Leopold traded in slaves. Rather, he encouraged Arab slave raiders and traders from whom he obtained tires slaves for his private army in their trade. His wealth came from ivory which at the time was used for creating jewelry, false teeth, piano keys, statuettes etc. In the1880s when rubber tyres were needed for the new motor cars that were being manufactured, rubber became his other commercial interest. Rubber was also needed for manufacture of insulation for electric cables, industrial tubing material, gaskets etc. Leopold enacted a law that empowered the government to take over all vacant lands as state lands. And he was the government and the state. He used this policy to give land concessions to European investors from whom he collected taxes.

From the breadth of Leopold’s business interests, it was inevitable that he would meet Tippu Tip (1832-1905). Born of Arab and Bantu parentage, Tippu Tip was a renowned trader in ivory and slaves operating in the Congo at the same period when Leopold controlled the Congo, now Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tippu Tip obtained and supplied slaves to both European slave traders and to clove farmers in Zanzibar where he maintained 10,000 slaves on his own clove plantation. A clash occurred between the forces of Leopold and the forces of Tippu Tip in 1892. The forces of Tippu Tip were defeated leading to the collapse of the Arab slave trade in the Congo.

The level of sadistic brutality that Leopold unleashed in the Congo and on its people - burning villages, cutting off people’s ears, and cutting off people’s hands for not meeting unattainable targets in palm oil, ivory and rubber collection - raised the collective conscience of churches, people and organizations in Europe. Led by an organization called Congo Reform Association, established in Britain, Leopold was forced to give over his authority in the Congo to the Belgian government in 1908. He died in 1909.

Slave trade and colonialism

A lot of time and space have been spent on discussing the slave trade because we wish readers to realize that no square metre of the African soil was spared in the ravages of the slave trade. The slave trade was thorough in its inhumanity. We still have to remember that the trade in slaves had existed for over a thousand years in the Northern and Eastern sections of the African continent. There are no records, or at least no credible records on the numbers and origins of the slaves and the destinations to which they were taken for sale by Muslim Arabs and the Christian Nubians of Northern Sudan, who lived in the area originally called “Cush’”. Apart from the 12-15 million of recorded African slaves taken by European slave traders during the Transatlantic slave trade period, there could have been another 10 million Africans who had to trek the route from Eastern and North Eastern Africa through Egypt destined for the Middle East and the Far East under the guard of Muslim Arab slave traders over a period of at least one thousand years.

Some Africans say that the slave trade is past, gone and done and we should therefore forget about it. Some also say that we cannot judge the past by the rules and laws of the present. Laws are generally prospective but they can also be made retrospective in special cases. The human conscience is eternal. It considers the past, the present and the future. In all things that is what we should cherish. The slave trade is gone; but what we should worry about is the dependency mentality that it has left on the people of Africa: North, South, East and West.

Effects of slave trade and colonialism

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade is presumed to have started in 1443 and to have ended in 1865 when the United States of America passed the constitutional 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Slavery did not however, end abruptly in 1865 since it continued far into the twentieth century and still continues on smaller scale in pockets of the world.

Destruction of African Entrepreneurial Spirit

Two things happened within the period of more than 400 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the period of European colonization and domination of the African continent. The first was the destruction of the African entrepreneurial spirit. In Ghana for example, the people of the present Northern and Western Regions where iron ore has existed for these many years, fabricated iron instruments for farming by smelting iron ore with charcoal long before the westerners arrived in Ghana. In the era of the slave trade, Africans who smelted iron ore and used iron for fabricating farm implements now began to use iron for manufacturing implements of war. It became more lucrative to conquer and capture slaves for money, guns, domestic items and alcoholic drinks than continue with the tediousness of farming.

Similarly, the people of the Central Region of Ghana cultivated cotton before colonialism. But this business was stopped by order from the colonial government on the reason that if cotton growing was allowed in the colony, there was no way of telling what could happen next. The people of Upper Guinea, as another example, were already accomplished craftsmen and women in agriculture and in other trades before the arrival of Europeans whose trading system completely supplanted local goods and local production systems.

Inculcation of Dependency Mentality

The dependency mentality in Africa had its start before the time of Christ. The term“400 hundred years of slavery (1441-1865)” is only an euphemism because it does not take account of the slavery of Africans by Muslim Arabs in the Eastern Africa region over the many years before the Portuguese first came to Africa.

Africa has certainly not gone through an industrial revolution, but the earlier entrepreneurship shown by basically illiterate forefathers were the beginnings for the gradual changes in thinking, ideas generation and transformation of the continent. This process, and the emergence of the Sahara Desert seven million years ago, limiting trade and communication between the Northern and Southern states of the continent, was abruptly stopped by the slave trade and colonization, creating a mental vacuum that would be filled by dependency mentality.

With the boundaries of the colonies surveyed, mapped and legal agreements concluded by the end of the nineteenth century and in some cases by the beginning of the twentieth century, colonial administration and general trade were conducted as monopolies by the colonial masters. Virtually all goods sold in shops in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and in all British colonies, were British-made; virtually all goods sold in shops in La Cote d’Ivoire, Benin and in all the French colonies were made in France. Bred and nurtured through mental dependency and believing in the superiority of the European, the African would prefer a product made in Britain, in France or in Italy to a similar product made locally in an African country. This was a major problem, though the situation has been better since the last 50 years.

Modern Nature of Western World Production and African Dependency

Dependency of Africa on the western world has become more accentuated due to the very significant changes in work processes and production in Europe and America. Apart from the railways, the steam ship and other machines that were invented during the first industrial revolution, 1750-1850, other industrial revolutions which have not been clearly recognized have occurred. From 1850 to the present time, electricity has replaced steam power, the energy source that powered the machines invented in the first industrial revolution period; automobiles, the telephone, computers, the application of electronics in the manufacturing and services industries; jetliners, container shipping and many more inventions and services have emerged from the western world after the first industrial revolution.

The pace of inventions and development from Europe and America from the 1950s has been too fast and bewildering. All these inventions and services have had positive effects on life all over the world, but have also had negative impact on job opportunities in Africa. High-tech production relying on the application of mathematics, electronics, artificial intelligence and robots have replaced manual work, severely reducing the extent of work opportunities previously available for Africans in their home countries. Countries and people who have for a long time lived under the dependency mentality now find themselves in a situation where they cannot cope with the fast spate of changes in work processes.

Emergence of Euro-American Work-at-Home System

One other factor that has severely led to decline in job opportunities in many parts of the world, and even more in Africa, is the Work-at-Home system. The spread of the internet in every corner of the world has made it possible for persons who would otherwise have sought employment with a company, to personally set up their own businesses at home, hold meetings with their clients on various platforms of the internet, use various application programmes to help them in their work without having to engage other persons and pay them salaries and allowances. This system means that one business person operating alone has now replaced more than thirty people who could have been employed to work in a company, hence drastically reducing the number of job opportunities that could have been available for young people as well as adults who need jobs to earn their living.

The work-at-home trend is going to continue cutting down development and operational costs of doing business and in the process reducing job opportunities for many people around the world unless various countries of the world get the message and begin making important and alternative plans for providing jobs in their countries for the youth.

Benefits of Slave trade and Colonialism to Africa

Despite the inhumanity of the slave trade and the subservience nature of colonialism, we have to admit that colonialism introduced Africa to modern European life and facilities. Africa existed in tribal units which in some cases had expanded into empires; rich and powerful empires before the arrival of Europeans. Following the Berlin Conference, nations were forcibly carved out of Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the benefits Africa derived from colonialism, we have to remember that it was the riches of Africa that built much of Europe. We also have to remember that it was the ancient Babylonians, ancestors of the people of present-day Iraq, who invented the wheel about 3,500BCE that made the movement of goods possible; that made inventions of all types of vehicles, watches, engines and the first industrial revolution possible. We have to remember that it was the same Babylonians who invented the sailboat, the plough, the concept of irrigation ditches in agriculture, town and city life as far back as 8000 years ago, and who invented the mathematical concepts of algebra and decimals, and worked out the measurement of time; introducing the world to the concept of 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in an hour. Africa just has to learn from others and learn fast.

Internal factors leading to unemployment

Some of the significant internal factors that have led to increasing unemployment in the African continent are the following:

Population Growth

Populations in Africa began to increase at a faster rate under the colonial system when modern clinics providing medications for malaria and other ailments began to be established. Mortality consequently started to decline while fertility remained high. Increasing population growth therefore, continued from the 1960 period till the 1990s when family planning training and efforts started to be carried out in a number of countries.

The population of the African continent in 1960 was 227 million by UN records. By the end of August 2021, that is 61 years after independence, the total population in Africa had increased to 1,377,004,728, that is approximately 1.4 billion people accounting for 16.72 percent of the total world population’

In 61 years of independence, the population of Africa increased by slightly over six times between 1960 and 2021, going from 227 million to approximately 1.4 Billion. Such rapid population growth is one of the major drivers of the unemployment problem in present-day Africa.

Writing on the issues raised under the topic “The challenging problem of labour and youth education: A wake up call for Africa,” at the meeting of the 2018 African Transformation Forum (ATF2018), a division of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), George Boateng states the following:

According to the United Nations, Sub-Saharan Africa boasts the world’s youngest population with more than three fifths of its inhabitants under age 25. The region’s working age population is estimated to rise from 522 million in 2015 to 600 million, an increase of 45 percent by 2030.

The above statement indicates that 60 percent of Africa’s population is under age 25. The median age of Africa’s population is stated by the UN as 19.7 years. This means that if 19.7 years or 20 years is taken as the midpoint of the ages of all the people on the continent, the ages of 50 percent of the people of the continent will range from Age 0 to Age 20. It means secondly, that 10percent of the remaining 60 percent will be in the age range of 21-25, with people from age 26 and above forming the minority group of 40 percent on the African continent; making Africa the most youthful population in the world after Asia.

Growth in Formal Education

A number of European Missions arrived in West Africa and in East Africa in the early nineteenth century. These included the Basel Mission, later changed to the Presbyterian Mission; the Bremen Mission; The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Lands, also referred to by the acronym SPG; The Methodist Mission; the Catholic Mission; and the Church Ministry Society (CSM).

Primary Education

In Nigeria, the first primary school was established in 1843 at Badagry by the Methodist Mission. In Kenya, the Christian Ministry Society established the first primary school in 1846. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, primary schools were started by Catholic and Protestant Missions from 1880 onwards. In South Africa, the earliest school was established by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1829. In Ghana, the first primary school was established by the Basel Mission in 1843. In the Cameroon, the earliest school was established by the British in 1922, and the first secondary school established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1939. In Angola, the first primary schools were established in the 1950s by Roman Catholic and Protestant Missions.

Africans embraced education with fervor from its earliest time. Worried that the Missions were not setting up enough schools as rapidly as possible, John Mensah Sarbah, a lawyer, patriot and Pan Africanist and his colleagues for example, formed the Fante National Education Fund in 1903 to establish primary schools in Ghana and in other parts of Africa. The group was expecting financial contributions from the mining companies. This did not happen; and the group therefore could not go beyond the borders of Ghana after establishing two primary schools.

In Kenya, the development of primary schools took a slightly different turn. In their 2016 journal article, Mackayiami, Imbovah, Imbovah and Gakungai of the University of Nairobi refer to the work of Bogonko and Otieno (1988) who had “noted that early British policies on education in East Africa and elsewhere in Africa were inspired by racial debate concerning the educability of African natives. The debate concentrated on the study of cranial capacity of Africans… and concluded that Africans were not educable.”

These were just racist statements coming from the Phelps Stokes Commission Report of 1924, and which were accepted by the Missionaries. How the size and shape of one’s head can determine the capacity of their brain and mind beats basic human understanding. However, the primary schools established by the Missionaries were consequently aimed at training artisans such as carpenters, masons etc. In opposition to such racist policies, the Local Native Councils of Kenya collected taxes for constructing and expanding educational institutions including provision of more acceptable primary school education system in the years between 1925 and 1934.

Secondary and Tertiary Education

Immediately after independence, many African nations focused on the establishment of secondary schools as the essential drive for development, followed closely with the establishment of universities.

Nigeria had its first secondary school in 1859 established by the Christian Missionary Society and its first university in 1960; Ghana had its first secondary school in 1876 and its first university in 1948. The French and the Portuguese were rather apprehensive of providing good secondary and university education systems in their colonies. Cote d’Ivoire for example, had its first secondary school established in 1928. Cameroon had its first secondary school, Sasse College, in 1939, a tertiary institution, the National School of Administration and Magistracy in 1959, and the University of Douala in 1977. Angola had its first university (University of Luanda) in 1968.

By 2020, Nigeria with population of over 200 million, had 170 universities; Ethiopia, with population of 112 million, had 160 universities; Kenya,with population of 53 million, had approximately 100 universities; Egypt, with population of about 100.4 million, had 43 universities; South Africa, with population of 60 million, had 61 universities; and Cote d’Ivoire, with population of 26.5 million, had 27 universities and about 200 Higher Institutes for Learning.

The combined number of graduating classes in six African countries, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire was just about 2,800,000 by 2019 records. In India, 12 million people enter the job market in recent years. In Ghana, it is reported that 150,000 university students graduate in recent years; And these numbers do not take account of students completing post secondary Technical-Vocational Institutions (TVET), Distance Education courses, post secondary courses in Nursing and midwifery; and many other private post-secondary certificate courses in business and commerce.

If we hazard a projection of the total number of new university graduates that presently come into the job market each year from all the 54 countries of the African continent, the total number will probably be about 15 million, that is, including new graduates from TVET institutions, Distance Education and the others mentioned above. Population growth and the yearly output of secondary schools and tertiary education institutions are the two major internal drivers that fuel the joblessness problem.

Does this mean we should stop educating the youth of the continent? No Sir!; But we must change the nature and type of education being offered in the education system today.

Increasing Urbanization

The percentage of people living in urban areas by UN reports was 43.8 percent at the end of August 2021. This means that just about 56 percent of the African population lives in the rural areas. Rapid urbanization implies that many people who leave the villages for jobs in the urban areas will usually face disappointment; because job opportunities are more difficult to come by in the urban areas than in the rural areas. Joblessness is more severe in the urban areas than in the rural areas.

Decreasing Number of Industries and Factories

Many industries that were set up in the early years of independence collapsed in the first twenty to thirty years. This was due to the fact that African governments did not plan for Business Management training as an important factor for senior staff of the new industries and factories. A lot of financial losses are incurred when whole industries and factories collapse. Many people, men and women, junior staff and senior staff are all thrown out of work increasing the number of unemployed persons and swelling up the jobless roster in their countries.

Slow growth of African Economies

Many African economies grew rather slowly in the immediate years after independence and are still growing slowly except the oil producing countries. The slow pace in the growth of most African economies cannot be able to provide job opportunities for the many youth and adults of today, and certainly not for those expected to come out of the school systems in the coming years.

Excessive Imports of Overseas Goods

The Western World has been at the forefront of inventions and industrial production since ancient times and has now reached unprecedented levels of production and exports.

Due to Africa’s inability to produce basic modern goods and services for their respective countries, and secondly due to the dependency mentality, the level of importation of goods from Europe and America to Africa has now reached excessive levels. Prodigious amounts of overseas goods arrive in African countries each year from overseas countries: Complete furniture sets, making it impossible for African carpenters and furniture makers to apply their trade and make a living; Garments and footwear, new and used ones, especially used ones; trousers, skirts, shoes for men, women and children, all come in huge container ships completely taking away the jobs of tailors, furniture makers, shoe makers and all sorts of artisans. The interesting thing is that buyers agree that the price of used items from overseas countries is just about 20-25 percent of new ones. In a situation of this nature, many artisans have now become repairers of used and discarded overseas goods. Without available suitable jobs, many artisans stay unemployed for long periods of time while their countries’ business men and women are permitted to import excessive amounts of used and unnecessary goods.

Work Ethic

Low work ethic is probably the most significant drawback in production on the African continent. Coming out of a long period of the agrarian era where agriculture accounted for over 75% of the annual production value, and into the modern industrial and technological era, many workers in Africa have not yet acquired the appropriate work ethic and naturally do not fit into the present high-tech production era. It is not effective management alone that sustains a business; it is more the work ethic of all employees that sustains and provides jobs for successive number of persons. Low work ethic leads to:

Low production
Lay-offs and dismissals from employment
Collapse of industries and factories
Increasing unemployment

Inattention to Prospects of Unemployment by Respective Governments

It is doubtful if any African government has ever planned a programme for new types of work; their associated job positions, their education and training requirements, expansion in existing types of work; personnel training for new types of work, and staff re-training for existing but expanded types of work over the next ten to fifteen years. This is the reason why serious unemployment as is happening now has reached catastrophic levels. Our governments have not considered forecasting levels of looming unemployment and consequently planning the jobs and measures to be taken presently to prevent such catastrophes and at the same time increase the national revenue.

Writing on the topic, “Africa’s Youth: Action Needed to Support the Continent’s Greatest Asset,” the writers, Camilla Rocca and Ines Schultes, from their research findings, state that

"While 18 million new formal jobs would be needed to absorb new entries into the labour market, only 3 million is currently created”.

The writers state further that, 16 million Africans faced unemployment in 2019 and that the number of persons expected to enter the job market in Africa by 2030 will rise to 30 million.

It is only through research and projections using precise processes that African countries will be able to reach reliable unemployment data for now and the next 10-15years.

Dependency mentality

Dependency mentality is a disease that clouds the mind, making it impossible for Africans and particularly African Leaders to move the continent beyond the past. Our economies are still based on the production of raw materials for export to European factories, as it was under colonialism; and our daily living needs are obtained from finished imported goods. Our exports are still cocoa, coffee, tea, sisal, bauxite and other minerals. One of two African countries that exports bauxite sells its bauxite at 35 US dollars a tone; the other sells its bauxite at 32 US dollars a tone, while the world market price for bauxite is just about 150 US dollars a tone. If we would carefully think through this, we could leave bauxite prices at these same price levels while not disturbing our export arrangements, but then find ways for increasing the value of our bauxite deposits to be able to earn more than five times the revenue we are presently getting from bauxite and the other natural resources that nature has bountifully endowed the continent.

Effects of Youth Unemployment

In an Agence France Presse (AFP) interview report with the Cameroonian sociologist Professor Francis Nyamnjoh on the issue of “Youth Explosion,” Professor Nyamnjoh made the following statement:

The most striking change for me is the increasing reality of disaffected youth; a younger generation that is ready to explode at the moment. They are hungry for political reforms, they are hungry for economic opportunities and they are hungry for social fulfillment.

Professor Nyamnjoh continues:

“Joblessness is a major peril. Unemployed youths are an easy prey for armed groups, particularly jihadist movements in the Sahel, or may be tempted to risk clandestine emigration, often at the risk of their lives.”

A survey conducted by the World Bank in 2011 indicated that “about 40% of those who joined rebel movements said they were motivated by lack of jobs.”
The research findings of Camilla Rocca and Ines Schultes (op. cit) also state the following:
In 2017, 53.0% of members of extremist groups in Africa were between 17 and 26 years. Employment offer was the incentive for joining such groups.

The World Bank survey results, as well as the research findings of Rocca and Schultes exactly echo what Professor Francis Nyamnjoh sees as the reality of “disaffected youth.” A significant number of unemployed youth join “armed groups,” not by desire, but mainly because of the job opportunity to earn a living.

Persons with post secondary school training are not getting jobs; people with

tertiary level education degrees, bachelors’ degrees, masters’ degrees and even Ph.Ds. have no jobs to go to. Carpenters, masons, mechanics and many artisans are not getting jobs. Desperation is the worst state of mind and many times leads to the wrong actions and measures including joining armed groups, robbery groups and other such destructive groups.

Joblessness of persons in the age group 15 to 35 in any nation is a serious dislocating factor of the human soul. Joblessness takes away a person’s power to free life; making one feel restrained by some invisible chains. The effects of joblessness are varied depending on the person’s strength, temperament and needs. Some are left with only the hope for a better future; but hope soon leads to hopelessness and desperation. Some recoil into their shell and are never able to capture their inborn talent and capacity. Some others become depressed by the fact that they have to stay home and be catered for by their parents with no chances for earning their own living. The depression from this situation leads to a sense of worthlessness that may erupt into joining all sorts of protests, demonstrations and criminal gangs that fuel insecurity in any country.

Historical and Present Effects of Youth Unemployment

Youth unemployment has a long history, as indicated earlier. By the year 1920 in Ghana for instance, there was a large number of young men and women who had completed primary school and some who had completed secondary school but had not obtained any substantive jobs. Many of these unemployed youth started forming Youth Clubs to discuss the politics of the day and also consider various available job options.

The West African Youth League

Wallace Johnson, a Sierra Leonean living in Ghana at the time, was consumed with the passion for African independence from colonial rule. He launched the West African Youth League in 1934, organised the workers in Ghana and called for the overthrow of the British colonial rule in West Africa. The youth, comprising those employed but dissatisfied with their working conditions and those unemployed, equally wanted self-government and rallied behind Wallace Johnson. With the support of the youth, many branches of the Youth League were formed in many towns of the country. The British Colonial government became alarmed at the activities of Wallace Johnson and deported him and his friend Nnamdi Azikiwe, a Nigerian politician who owned a newspaper called African Morning Post in Accra, in 1938. But that was not the end of youth political action.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Committee of Youth Organisations (CYO)

Kwame Nkrumah broke away from the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in 1948 and was immediately assisted by the Committee of Youth Organisations (CYO) in establishing the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP). Nkrumah referred to members of the youth clubs as “Verandah Boys” and “Verandah Girls”, that is jobless young men and women who had no homes of their own, had no money to rent rooms, and who were forced by circumstances to sleep on verandahs. It was the energetic verandah boys and girls who constituted the battle ram Nkrumah and the CPP used to overthrow the colonial system in Ghana. The youth still form a strong force for political change in all parts of the African continent.

Increasing Crime and Violence

Joblessness in many cases makes normal people lose their effective decision making ability. They lose their patience to listen attentively before making decisions, and may in many cases resort to unnecessary violence. Secondly, joblessness among the youth is a recipe for increased crime in a country. Without any source of income, some youth join criminal gangs sometimes using murder as part of their robbery system.

Turning to Money-Doublers and the Sangoma

Many depressed youth eventually give up and form the view that life is really not worth living; and this view could lead to suicide in some cases. Many unemployed youth turn to spirituality engaging the services of money-doublers, the Sangoma, or the Fetish Priest for direction on what to do, not realizing that the way of the money-doubler, the Sangoma, or the Fetish Priest is the way to the devil, to destruction, and possible death.

The illegal migration option

Some others take the illegal migration option to seek greener pastures in Europe; journeying across the Sahara; travelling in trucks and pick-ups and many times losing their money and vital documents to criminals along the way. Some stay in the villages and towns along the ancient Trans-Saharan trade route hoping to work and save some money to continue their journey to Europe.

Displaced people from Northern African countries such as Libya, Syria etc, travel across the Mediterranean to find job opportunities and better living conditions in Europe.

At mid-day of July 1st 2021, BBC broadcast some news on an advertisement placed in newspapers in Sierra Leone requiring interested young females to travel to Senegal to meet an employer who would provide them with visas and airfare tickets to a country in Saudi Arabia for jobs that would pay salaries of 500US dollars per month. On reaching Saudi Arabia their passports are ceased by the employer as the first step. Second, the young women are placed in homes to work as house maids. One of such young women, age 21, interviewed on BBC said she had worked for five months for a family and had been paid half of the expected $500 for only two months; indicating that she had been paid only $250 for five months work.

The head of the family to which the recruited Africans are assigned is referred to as the “Sponsor”. The sponsor family pays half of the promised salary to the immigrant employee and the other half to the employer. The young woman said she is required to work from 4.30am to 12 midnight, a total of 19½hours; 18½hours of continuous work a day with one hour break, and no other rest or vacation. Besides, she could be slapped by the mistress and even by the children for simple things such as not understanding some instruction.

Some of such women run away and roam the streets begging for food and money and are eventually arrested and put in jail. An organization sponsored by kindhearted individuals and charities has lately organised return trips back to their home country for women suffering such abuses. The trick of luring women from Africa to take jobs in the Middle East has been practiced over many years. People are tricked to go to the Middle East for jobs as restaurant workers, super market workers and other such commercial jobs but this is really not true. It is unfortunate that unemployed youth and even adults still fall for such degrading tricks.

For persons who make it to Europe or to some Asian country with very little money, those with no work skills, take jobs as domestic workers who in some situations have to live with families who sexually molest them and sometimes beat them for minor faults. Some others, completely alone and without money in North Africa or arriving somewhere in the Middle East could sell themselves as slaves to some families. This is the most humiliating of all the effects of joblessness.

This is a continuation and an exclamation mark on the impotence and helplessness of many Africans to fend and lift themselves up from oppressing hardships. This is an emphasis on the image of the Black African as a helpless and marginalized individual to be treated anyhow and by anybody. This is the continuing embarrassment and stigma that Africa as a people and a continent have faced since 1443 when the Portuguese first started exporting African slaves en mass. This is a continuation of the humiliation Africans have suffered long before the 15th century when Muslim Arabs sold captured persons from East Africa in Egypt and in the Middle East.

The effects of joblessness are summarized as follows:

1. Pervading State of Depression

The general confusion and normlessness, or what is equivalently called the state of anomie by sociologists; The state in which people get confused about the purpose of life, getting depressed about life and in many cases either committing suicide, or wanting to commit suicide.

2. Grounds for Protests and Demonstrations

Joblessness creates a fertile ground for protests and demonstrations for political change in a country.

3. Increased Crime in a country

A number of youth turn to crime as a way for improving their own lives; destroying businesses through crime; destroying what many hard-working individuals have worked for and created; and generally making commercial activities unsafe in a country.

4. Increased Spirituality

Many people turn to God and consequently become regular members of churches. The number of people who begin to patronize the services of the Sangoma, the Fetish Priest, and the Spiritual Money Doublers also increases.

5.Illegal Migration Compelled by Desperation

The attitude of desperation compels many youth to embrace illegal migration, with all the hardships it involves, as the alternative way for building a better life.

6. Increasing Number of World Refugees

The number of asylum seekers and other refugees become the constant problem of the United Nations High Command for Refugees (UNHCR) and many governments around the world.

7.Atmosphere for Higher National Debt Leading to Increased Joblessness

Higher national debt leads to high unemployment. High unemployment means there will be fewer people and businesses to pay government taxes for national development. This situation occurs in times of weaknesses in the Velocity Principle of Money in a country as explained below.

Velocity Principle of Money

Where there are jobs for people available to work, each worker receives a salary or wages. From this amount of money, workers will purchase the items they needed from provisions shops. Retail provision shop owners will use the money received to purchase more items from their suppliers; suppliers will generally also use some of the money received to purchase more supplies from a wholesale or a factory. Workers in each of the places mentioned will also be paid with some of the money received from clients of their respective companies. Each person who receives a salary or wages will use some of the money received to pay for electricity and water consumed; pay transportation expenses to work and back home after close of work; pay for household expenses as well as school expenses for their children.

We realise that part of the money each person receives from their work, directly goes to retailers, and indirectly to a supplier, wholesaler or factory owner, and to electricity company workers, water company, and directly to transport drivers and to school authorities. The principle of money going from one person to another person; from one company to the other, or from hand to hand is referred to as the “velocity principle of money”, or simply as “velocity of money”. The velocity of money typically states that “money makes the world go round.” Where there are many jobs and each person and each company pays taxes to the government, the government collects a lot of tax revenue, part of which it could use for national development purposes. Where there is massive unemployment, many people do not have money; cannot spend money, and cannot pay taxes; businesses cannot expand their operations and employ more people; and the government is consequently unable to acquire adequate tax revenue for national development.

Where unemployment is high and government tax revenue is consequently low, governments generally borrow money to be able to finance development activities. And where governments borrow money, taxes go up. We therefore have a nasty situation of business stagnation, high unemployment, high government borrowing, high government debts and high taxes; all of these creating demoralized and suffering citizens in their countries.

But there must be ways and solutions for getting the youth and the people of the African continent out of this helplessness into a supreme status that can be crafted by the governments of African countries and by the youth themselves.