Akon’s audacity-of-a-white-man is something we need to learn

About two years ago, a friend, Carol, was helping me work through a strategy for an investment proposal. When we got to the numbers, I mentioned what I was thinking – goal and investment – she stopped me in my tracks.

She asked, “If you were the bank executive and someone walked in asking for investment capital of Shs20 million, and another came in a little after with the same idea, but asking for Shs100 million. Who would you take more seriously? Who would you believe has potential to create the greatest value for your money?”

No prizes for guessing what my answer, was but that day, I learnt a vital lesson that I purpose to live by and pass on. The reason I was setting a low goal was because I was making plans based on my circumstances. I was seeking investment that was commensurate with my bank balance, which at the time was near-zero.

 So, there was no way I’d have wondered how much difference I would make with if I had a million dollars – because I didn’t believe that I could get a million dollars.

It’s easy to see why, if you consider that I am black and Ugandan – which often comes with the constant reminder to tone down your ambition. It’s what we are taught to do; and in fact, regard those who are loud about their dreams with a certain suspicion and disdain. It is a hard complex to overcome for most, because it is rooted in our socioeconomic fabric.

It is also something you notice comes easily for whites or people who have grown up in and around wealth. It’s as if colour, passport and money suddenly inject Vibranium and audacity into their skins. Notice how they get access to people and places, pitch crazy empty ideas and get away with it; or sign lucrative consultancy contracts even with next-to-no expertise?

I am referencing this conversation because I have spent time trying to make sense of the recent visit to Uganda, by global superstar, Akon. It’s hard to find an angle that hasn’t been covered, in analysing his outrageous dream to build his futuristic Akon City.

My interest in behavioural science and economics has therefore tilted me away from the discussion about whether it’s possible; if it will be affordable; how it will work; who brought him and might be reaping from the con; and all the other questions being asked.

Akon, might be black, but because he has the right passport and net worth, he doesn’t even have to offer much by way of specifics on how the entire thing will work. Yet, he’s still somehow managed to get to the very top with it. It’s not just him. Across the continent, you can pick names of shady foreign “investors” and entrepreneurs with abstract ideas about reimagining the future, who have found favour from governments desperate to appease the West.

In most instances we have discovered that they are all-talk and no action – this after we have lost land, money and sometimes even had our justice systems run through their backside. So, it’s not hard to figure out why Akon is managing to get governments and investors to believe that it’s possible to build a real-life Wakanda. If he were white, he probably wouldn’t even need that much money to have his way with us. Even more, his dream looks unachievable, making it all the more alluring – because it gets to wonder, ‘What it?’.

You can also find millions of citizens with actual plans and brilliant ideas, who are oft frustrated and sometimes sabotaged by those same governments. Without the right colour, passport or net worth, they have no entry-point – even at home. Which leaves one option – to cultivate the audacity-of-foreign entrepreneurs – if we are going to make any headway.

In early 2020, I started to write a book – Unbound: The Career Guidance Bible for Young People. Its release is intended to coincide with my 35th birthday, next week. I mulled over having the word “Bible” in the title, and have repeatedly been asked if  “I am sure about the claim” and want to be that bold about my work.

Each time, I have gone back to that conversation and responded, “Would you be so skeptical about it being called a ‘Bible’ if it was written by a white person?”

Mr Rukwengye is the founder, Boundless Minds. [email protected]