Africa’s future must necessarily lie in underpinning its moral capital with supporting and reinforcing institutions.
Ultimately, the accumulation and retention of moral capital is and should be inextricably linked to institution building.
Reputation of moral conduct determines the value of moral capital as human existence and experience has not been able to produce a mechanism that can read people’s minds.
What lies between the ears of a human beings is so complex and hidden that observation and experience are the only reliable instruments for predicting behavior.
It is impossible to rely on a person’s …

On 15 November 2009, I wrote my first installment of 30 articles with no idea of what the full collection would look like.
Today’s article is the last one and for those who have followed the series, I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed the journey and more importantly the joy of sharing my own insights into the complex issues that challenge us as we try to advance the cause of human development and progress in Africa.
Knowledge is power and as Michel Foucault, the late French philosopher, sociologist and historian correctly …

In 1980, Howard Zinn, the late American historian and political scientist, published a book entitled: “A People’s History of the United States, in which he sought to present the American history through the eyes of working people rather than that of political and economic elites.
He eloquently observed that: “The power of determined people armed with a moral cause is, I believe, the ultimate power”.
Most societies are pyramidal in power structure with a select few at the top commanding a large …

April is special month for Southern Africans.
South Africa, Africa’s economic powerhouse, achieved independence from Britain on 31 May 1910 informed by an idea that in Africa a little Europe could be created founded on the principle that Dutch and English settlers could appropriate this part of Africa; a unique geology, topography, and geography; to themselves as dominant drivers of the project to extend the tentacles of their way of life and worldview to foreign states through conquest.
It took 84 years of relentless efforts, …

After 54 years of independence, many African countries remain among the least developed and yet paradoxically are richly endowed with mineral wealth.
How could God be so unfair to Africans?  Why place minerals in the geology where black Africans are in the majority and yet alienate the natives from the exploration, exploitation, beneficiation and distribution process of minerals?
It is important to pause and reflect on the political aspects of the African economy.
In particular, we have no choice but to locate the impact of party …

In 1995, Little Brown and Company published an autobiographical work that began as scrapes of paper buried under the floor of former President Mandela’s prison cell with the title: “Long Walk of Freedom.”
In this book, President Mandela describes his life journey.  After all, life is nothing but a journey that has to be traveled but whose true meaning is complicated by the fact that humanity has not found an answer to its impermanence.
Although we are born equal, the journey of life takes us through different addresses and each day of …

Who is to blame?  Where should we start to make it right?  Who should change in order to make Africa the kind of continent that we want to see?
We all have a lot to say about what has gone wrong in Africa and, indeed, the world.
When interrogated for solutions, it is not unnatural that we defer to other human beings in the sincere belief that someone out there owes the world and the future more than we do.
So when the late Michael Jackson (MJ) and …

We are privileged to live in a world that is more wired than in any previous generation.
The digital revolution is here to stay and any nation that finds itself excluded from this revolution faces the risk of suffering from a new form of poverty i.e. information poverty that has more devastating implications on human development and growth than biological hunger.
The web has and continues to shake world politics.  The Internet has unleashed a new toolbox that can easily be used to bridge the knowledge divide that has made it easy …

What time is it in Zimbabwe?  Is it indigenization time?  If black economic empowerment is good for South Africa, why should indigenization be bad for Zimbabwe?
If the three principal political parties agreed that at this defining hour in Zimbabwe’s history, the country’s cabinet needed a portfolio a portfolio to deal with indigenization and economic empowerment, who has the place and standing to be a critical of the implementation of laws that are already on Zimbabwe’s statutes?
At the core of the indigenization/economic empowerment debate is the unresolved issue of the impact …

President Mugabe celebrated his 86th birthday last week and Zimbabwe will celebrate its 30th independence anniversary in a few weeks.
President Mugabe is the oldest head of state and government in Africa.  He has been privileged to have a long and eventful life.
Zimbabwe does not know of any other leader than President Mugabe and, therefore, it is difficult to imagine what kind of society Zimbabwe would be if it had had another leader.
Zimbabwe was born out of the womb of Rhodesia and its history, challenges, and prospects have been similar to …