Jun 01 2008
Africa’s Brain Drain
Recently I wrote a blog about whether or not Africans in the Diaspora should return home, or stay where they are. Well, if this beginning quote from an article in Zimbabwe’s Sunday News then all Africans have a strong incentive to go home.
DESPITE a general upward trend in economic and social growth in Africa, massive brain drain continues to its take toll on the continent, with analysts claiming that it has the same effects as the slave trade and is worse than colonialism.
For those of you who don’t know, brain drain is defined as the large emigration of people with technical skills or knowledge. Usually the drain happens as a result of conflict, lack of opportunity, political instability or health risks. For most Africans, I think lack of opportunity and political instability are on the top of the list for why they have left their homes.
According to Wikipedia, little has been discussed about the brain drain in regards to Africa. Only, since it’s listed as one of the main biggest issues facing the developing countries in Africa … I think it’s being discussed a lot. Maybe it’s not as researched.
Either way, it’s a big concern for the United Nations right now. One officials estimated that in 25 years, Africa will be void of most of its skill and intellect.
But how do we reverse Africa’s brain drain? And is it really a brain drain? I mean, there are A LOT of very very smart people in Africa. Very innovative and absolutely ingenious. What they lack is a platform and opportunity. Which, again, is why many of them find themselves overseas — getting good educations and making more money than they would be at home.
But if that keeps happening, what happens to Africa?
I won’t say that every African in the Diaspora needs to pack up and return back to their homes. But in some way we must aim to return the expertise we are gaining elsewhere.
As I have spoken about on my blog, I think the huge proliferation of telecommunications and the internet basically means that the most important component of “the brain drain”, intellect and knowledge can be easily transferred back to Africa regardless of whether or not people choose to immigrate over.
A simple and timely example of this is the example of David Kobia and Erick who are both in the United States and created Ushahidi to map the violence taking place in Kenya and South Africa.http://whiteafrican.com/?p=1028
My thoughts on this are that we should form think tanks or simply chose an issue that we feel can have the most impact on the continent, formulate plans of attack and send people back home on the basis of the requirements of the project.
Some thoughts on the issue