Most of Africa’s talent is frustrated

On Friday April 19, Monitor had a story about Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja’s bodyguard who went missing in the US. Reading the story, I started to think that the man is lucky. Who can blame those who disappear when those who did before seem to have peace and possibly prosperity too? 
After more than a week without water at my house because National Water and Sewerage Cooperation is still looking for meters to replace mine which was stolen over the Easter period, I am ready to disappear too. 

The day before that story, everyone I spoke to only got to work after several hours in traffic. On average, some people spent seven hours to-and-fro work. The journey was tortuous. The amount of fuel they used, time spent and the frustration. The money lost in man hours of productivity, are all astounding. And all that, because it rained in the morning. Some roads were flooded. Many people literally walked to work, only while sitting in their cars.

It is easy to understand why traders strike about taxes. It takes a lot of courage to strike in this city. If you doubt, ask the Walk-to-Work crew of years ago. The traders have shown resilience, and some quotas managed to pay attention. Road users also suffer a lot. This is particularly the case with those who buy cars. First, after spending huge sums on taxes buying a car, largely because getting around for the most part, without a functional public transport system makes owning a car a necessity. 

Then you start visiting the garage because parts of your car can easily fall off under the stress of our roads. Your back and shoulders begin to hurt because driving for the most part, is now a health risk owing to the status of our roads and how long one sits in the car on a daily basis. 

Most people leave their home before 6am in order to escape horrendous traffic, then they occasionally find that they still have to spend hours in traffic for a distance that ordinarily should take under an hour. I do not need an alarm because the school bus that picks up my neighbour’s child arrives at 5:30am on the dot, hooting loud enough to wake up the sleeping dead. And just like that, my wake-up time was determined by that. 

Before you enjoy your car, you begin to regret owning one. It is some sort of bottomless financial pit. You could lose your engine after a car service. Then fuel, service, repairs after boda boda knocks and reckless drivers, all keep filling that pit. 

As if that is not enough, the owners of the road keep pushing you off the road while blowing your eardrums off with sirens. I cannot count anymore, the number of times some government vehicle has literally thrown me off the road, and my car still bears the scars. 
Besides the usual irritations that make life really difficult in this country, all man made to say the least, some things make people who disappear and choose to just go away, rather enviable. It is not possible not to commit the sin of envy.

When I first attended the African Studies Association Conference in the US, 10 years ago, I was overwhelmed by the numbers. Fooled by the name of the Association, I had assumed that this was perhaps a large gathering of African scholars. I was wrong. It was a gathering of people dedicated to African Studies as an area of scholarship. It was the largest gathering of people I had ever seen. Many of the speakers were from North America and Europe. Researchers of all kinds, experts on Africa in all areas of scholarship were there. 

That was not the most surprising thing, Of the scholars from the African continent in the room, majority were actually based outside the continent. They were experts researching on Africa from outside the continent. Much of the work is critical of the continent, largely because they enjoy a descent level of academic freedom and incredible investment in research from their northern institutions. 

It all made sense. Hundreds of Africa’s talents that get scholarships to study abroad do not return. The academic institutions in the south take a lot of sacrifice to even consider remaining an academic. The political and economic situation makes scholarship a rather painful pursuit. Again, it is easy to envy those who choose not to return.

Most of Africa’s talent is frustrated. It may seem, we are allergic to brilliance. When you look at what we do to our brilliant lot, and how we often do everything to push them away, it is not surprising that we are a continent in distress when it comes to our human capital and economic progress. There is so much the human spirit can endure. Even the most patriotic can give up. This frustration is common place, especially in our republic. 

Ms Maractho (PhD) is a senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                       [email protected]