According to statisticians, Africa has just crossed the threshold of one billion inhabitants: one out of every seven human beings dwells here, while it was only one out of every 10 in 1950 and in 2050 it will be 2 billion people. It is only one of the signs that Africa, principal place of misery, constitutes a source of growth as well as the possible chance of our future.
Africa is above all the place of suffering: a lifespan of 15 years less than the world wide average; infant mortality 20 times higher than in Western Europe; the highest rate of rural exodus in the world, with the rapid expansion of shantytowns and infrastructural dilapidation; half of its territory, which is home to half of its population, is desert; permanent famine and lack of water, which will worsen with climate change, will lead to immense movement of populations.
Africa is also the planet’s ecological lung: of its forests, which cover about 22% of the continent (and 45% of Central Africa, especially the Congo basin, the second-largest forest in the world) depends on the reigning in of greenhouse gases, protecting diversity, soil stabilization, the quality and flow of water.
Africa is also a motor of global growth, with, for years now, a higher annual growth rate than the global average, still above 2% in 2009 compared to 5% beforehand, which is still not enough however to prevent millions of Africans from falling into extreme poverty.
Finally Africa is the place of all promises: the continent most endowed with raw materials (oil, minerals, agricultural products), it’s the youngest continent (43% of Sub-Saharan Africans are under 15, in Nigeria alone there are more children born than in the entire European Union; Uganda is the youngest country in the world with 56% of the population under 15) a veritable explosion of schooling, a more controlled birthrate especially in Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, South Africa and Kenya; a life expectancy greater than 16 years old since 1950; trading markets that are opening up everywhere, advancing universities, internet access bolstered by the installation of two subterranean ocean cables; incredibly rapid changing of mentalities, improving governance, despite the maintenance, all too often, of nepotism and corruption.
Also we in Europe, especially in France, should consider Africa as a tremendous potential for growth, much closer than all the other giants that fascinate us. If only we knew how to organize partners to develop natural resources there rather than leaving it to the Americans and Chinese, once again allied against the Europeans. If only we knew how to complete the Zone Franc with other cooperative institutions, stabilize the commodity markets, and develop the tremendous potential of the continent. If we knew how to do such a thing, beyond all altruism, for which it is no use to wait, to prepare our future, in grabbing on to this tremendous locomotive.