“Maxwell”

“Madam?”

“Bring the car around to the front”

“Yes madam, which one?”

“The Mercedes should be fine”

“Yes madam, right away”.

This isn’t a scene from New York’s Upper East Side, London’s Park Avenue or even Beverly Hills. Conversations of this nature are a routine occurrence in several modern African households. This kind of luxury is typical of an emerging class on the African continent, the super rich.

Their lavish lifestyles include frequent trips abroad, luxury foreign automobiles and colossal mansions. With the kinds of incomes they earn, what else can be expected? In the 2008 listing of the world’s wealthiest individuals, four African’s ranked in the top 100.

Forbes magazine, 2008 (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank_3.html)

Even in South Africa, where the apartheid system worked to systematically exclude non-white South Africans from participating as full citizens, for 46 years, has managed to produce a black South African billionaire, with enough wealth to be ranked on the Forbes list.

This type of success is largely attributable to the absence of colonialism and external domination whose former presence restricted the access many Africans had to various sectors of their economies. With self-governance came the right to manage and control their own resources. This in turn has led many Africans to explore the untapped sectors of their economies and create goldmines for themselves.

This has however come at a price. Those who enjoy this measure of financial security are but a select few. The term middle class in Africa is virtually non-existent. The ever-widening income gaps give rise to only two classes with respect to income, the haves and the have-nots. The fabulously rich and the ridiculously poor. The princes and the paupers. No matter which way the term is coined the reality of it still remains the same. The income disparity in Africa is alarming to say the very least and the gap seems to be widening everyday.

According to Fortune 500 magazine, in 1990, only 2 Africans, King Hassan II of Morocco and Harry Openheimer and family of South Africa were ranked on the world list of billionaires. Their respective net worth’s were valued at 1.3 billion USD each, nearly half that of the lowest ranking African billionaire in 2008.

The rich, in my opinion are feasting on poverty. They are directly and indirectly contributing to the concentration of resources and opportunities within a select segment of the population to the exclusion of the majority. The poor are now slaves to their economic situations. Their masters this time around however are their fellow countrymen. There is no trickle down effect for the poor, for even when hired in the jobs which are rapidly being created they are paid meager wages. In Nigeria for example, as of May 2000, those who were lucky enough to work in formal sectors of the economy and earn minimum wage, made just 5500 naira per month, the equivalent of 55 USD. Compare this to Aliko Dangote’s net wealth of 3.3 billion USD.

The concept of social responsibility is almost completely absent. Very little is done in terms of reinvesting resources. The indigenous wealthy make no efforts to direct their abundant resources towards education, healthcare and infrastructure. This in turn facilitates a downward spiral for the poor, an unending cycle of poverty which begins with a lack of a basic foundation. A lack of good education means limited skills. Limited skills in turn mean limited job prospects. Limiting job prospects puts a cap on earnings and by the time children and extended families come into the picture it becomes vicious, endless cycle of deprivation and poverty.

One might ask what about the government? Isn’t it the duty of the government to serve the interests of the people who put them in office? Why not blame them? Perhaps we could lay the blame for Africa’s problems on the shoulders of the governments. After all, African governments are amongst the highest ranking when it comes to corruption. Government officials self-servingly use resources meant to benefit the state as a whole to line their pockets, without fear of having to account for this behavior. According to Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index, the highest ranking African country, Botswana, ranked 38^th and had a score of only 5.4. The lowest ranking African country and in fact the lowest ranking country overall (it tied with Myanmar for 179^th), on the list was Somalia with a score of 1.4. **

Governmental corruption probably does account for a significant part of the persistence of poverty in Africa.  The most powerful citizens within these countries tend to be the wealthy and since the existing system of government works to their advantage, they neglect their social responsibility. They choose to have governments create systems that serve their own personal interests rather than those of the population at large.

It is interesting to note that many of Africa’s wealthy themselves come from humble backgrounds. They have witnessed first hand the hardships and despair associated with poverty, but, through opportunity and sometimes luck, have been able to rise above it. The irony of this situation lies in the fact that many upon attaining wealth turn a blind eye to their harsh background. Africa for them is transformed from the famine ravished regions in the Horn of Africa and the war torn region of Darfur to a bubble of high society life. They either forget their roots all together or accuse the poor of being plain lazy. This is not to say that all individuals are equally ambitious and motivated. Some are content with having few achievements in life. However others have just as much perseverance and diligence as the super rich but simply lack the opportunities to take advantage of this. But these successful individuals fail to realize that in addition to their determination and hard work they were given opportunities. Why not extend the opportunities they had to others? Are they afraid that there isn’t enough wealth to go around?

Possible solutions include establishing educational and community outreach programs, geared towards providing the underprivileged in African society with basic amenities such as electricity and water. Programs could also be set up to target the most vulnerable groups: women, children and the elderly and provide them with a means of gaining access to job and educational resources. Scholarship funds could be set up to assist especially gifted underprivileged students in fully exploring and exploiting their talents. Investing in human capital in this way would be an important contributor to the progress of Africa as a continent.

This article is by no means written to pay homage to Robin Hood’s motto of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Many of the wealthy have worked hard and struggled to attain their level of success and are simply enjoying the fruits of their labor. In fact many individuals in institutions of higher learning, myself included, have directly benefited from this kind of African success. In seizing these opportunities however, we have made no effort to recognize the fact that they do not exist for the majority of Africans. We have indirectly contributed by our inaction.

There is no easy solution to this dilemma but ignoring it most certainly does not ameliorate the situation. As the income gap continues to widen and abject poverty becomes more commonplace in African society, the successes and steps taken forward by Africa’s wealthy are being nullified. Stories featured on international news programs on Africa address not the wealth, but the poverty. The success of a select few to the detriment of the majority may plunge Africa into further turmoil. Sooner or later the perfect world of Africa’s super rich may just come crashing down.

** Transparency International is a Berlin based organization which ranks countries, based on independent poles and research, on perceived levels of corruption amongst politicians and public officials, on a scale of 0 ( highly corrupt)  to 10 (no corruption).