Obama, Ghana and John Atta Mills

Prior to President Obama's recent trip to Ghana, Africa Agenda founder and CEO George Bamu hosted a discussion on engaging Africa about economic growth, development and democracy. Africa Agenda partnered with the Africana Studies Department of UNC and the East African Community Center in Greeley, CO where the event was held.

Bamu was joined by Lucas Shamala, an Africana studies professor at Metropolitan State College in Denver, and Emmanuel Eliason, pastor of World Gospel Tabernacle in Aurora as the featured speakers. Both spoke on themes of Africans doing for self rather than waiting for outsiders to solve the continent's problems.

Shamala praised Obama as a gifted man, but he also cautioned Africans against placing too much hope on the American president. "There is a tendecy among Africans to think Obama is an African president. He is not." Shamala pointed out that Obama is in Africa for American strategic interests, which include access to Ghana's recently discovered oil reserves.

"Why do we as Africans place so much hope on outsiders?" he asked, "There is no dignity in begging if you can do it for yourself." Shamala encourage Africans to fix their own problems, quoting a Kenyan saying: "That which bites you is inside you."

Pastor Emmanuel Eliason picked up on some of Shamala's points saying "There will be no change until the mentality of the continent changes." He spoke of changes that needed to take place continent-wide as well as within each individual. He cited the difficulties of passing from one African country to the next as a barrier to economic growth. He also noted that blacks remain the poorest even in the richest countries in the world. "It's not because our color is bad," he said, "it's a mindset."

Eliason finished on a note of optimism for the future of Africa "African problems will be solved in African ways by Africans. It didn't take the U.S. for Ghana to have peaceful elections."

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What do you think Africans on the continent and in the diaspora can do to further economic growth, development and democracy? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Read the Greeley Tribune's coverage of the event here. 

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