Blog #3 Emerging Africa and Rep. of Congo

By: Rachel Brunts

Part I: Questions on Emerging Africa

a)         As explained in Ch. 7 of Emerging Africa, the meaning of a “Cheetah” or the cheetah generation, is a new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs rising, in the early 2000s, to government bureaucracies, civil society, organizations, and businesses. Author Steven Radelet, described this generation as, “Africa’s new generation, a nebulous yet palpable group across the continent that is seeking to redefine Africa through democracy, transparency, and a dynamic private sector, and by fostering strong connections with each other and with the rest of the world.” (126)

            Concerning the meaning of a “Big Man” or the hippo generation, were essentially a single man dictatorship in the mid-1980s. Radelet explained in Ch. 2 that, “Governance was dominated by strong-man presidents who faced few constraints on power–other than the threat of violent overthrow – and who could easily ignore inconvenient constitutional restrictions and laws with impunity.” (pg. 50)

            The hippo generation and the cheetah generation definitely refer to a different way of looking at democracy and civil society. Cheetah’s people valued and fought for their right to democracy within their government leaders; while the Hippo’s people wanted democracy, but they were suppressed by the power of one individual leader. As far as civil society, the cheetah generation had a fairly similar interest in creating a new Africa by demanding their civil rights. I believe the civil society of the hippo generation always wanted to live in a country with democracy. Although, since the government was so powerful, they were not able to achieve their rightful freedom until their government was either overthrown violently or in some cases bankrupted out of power.

b)         Reiterating Radelet’s positive view in Chapter 6 on the African ICT, he states, “Today thanks to the rapid expansion of mobile phones, Internet connections, and other forms of information and communications technology, the opportunities for technology to help lift people out of poverty and change the economic fortune of Africa have never been greater.”(pg. 110) A journal article by the International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology on

  The Impact of Internet on African Education and Culture finds that there are both positive and negative effects the internet processes in terms of education and social networking:

“It is true that the Internet has moved the continent forward by improving it businesses, educational and cultural sections; nevertheless, the halting effects have proven to be detrimental to the region’s educational and cultural aspects. If the region decides to stick to its old norms, then it will lose the benefits that the Internet age has brought.” (76)

I agree with Radelet that information and communication technologies have helped African countries grow stronger. However, at the end of the day, a poverty strikin’ country is no different than any other country; such as the United States. We are all subject to the negative and positive effects technology inevitably brings to any nation. To prove our nations similarities, the journal provided a potential solution to technology in Africa stating, “Adequate awareness about the Internet is crucial. People must be made to understand that the Internet can be a very enlightening platform, fun to surf, as well as damaging to character if inappropriately utilized.” (76)

Part II: explore one country as assigned in class

a) Yes, it is possible to get trapped in poverty. The Economic Times defines poverty traps as, “a spiraling mechanism which forces people to remain poor. It is so binding in itself that it doesn’t allow the poor people to escape it.” As described in Banerjee & Duflo’s Chapter 1, “There will be a poverty trap whenever the scope for growing income or wealth at a very fast rate is limited for those who have too little to invest but expands dramatically for those who can invest a bit more.” (pg.11) Found within the Republic of Congo Poverty Assessment Report, poverty traps in the Republic of Congo are present in all areas including geographic region, education, occupation, and household size

b)   Republic of Congo progress of SDG #1

In 2004 50.4% of the population was living below the national poverty line. As of 2011, that percentage dropped just shy of 4% at 46.5%. Personally, I do not see that as much progress toward ending poverty in all its forms.

Trading Economics data on Republic of the Congo GDP per capita PPP was used to source the following paragraph.

While the Rep. of Congo’s crude oil production increased from 347 to 307 BBL/D/1K in July of 2018 they scored 19 points out of 100 on the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 165^th least corrupt nation of 175 countries. Also, their GDP is at -42.80%.

c) Is Human capital an issue in your country?

As defined on the Economic Help blog, “Human Capital is a measure of the skills, education, capacity, and attributes of labor which influence their productive capacity and earning potential.” Human capital is, unfortunately, an issue in the Republic of Congo. Thankfully, The World Bank stated, the “National Development Plan (2018 to 2022) lays out its intention for a change of focus to improving governance; building human capital, and diversifying the economy.”