For a long time, Africa’s people have been viewed as a “time bomb” waiting to explode or “white man’s burden.” Today, students are taught through government approved economics textbooks that population is a source of poverty. It is ironic that many environmentalists, who would herald similar growth in population of some endangered species as a very good indicator of environmental health of the planet, see the success of man as a forerunner of environmental doom. Statisticians document an increase in GDP when a calf is born or more steel is produced but reduce the per capita income when a child is born.

This is a false worldview that is typically elitist and snobbish because it is usually the poor who are accused of uncontrolled expansion. The worldview delights in calamities as they reduce human population. 

Human beings can generate enormous amounts of wealth and adjust their numbers to available resources without interference of the state. Property is the result of human beings acting upon market signals to better their circumstances. It is in this regard that Africans and Friends of Africa will meet at Lake Naivasha Simba Lodge from 26th to 29th November to brainstorm on Turning African People into a Resource.

It is hoped that by the end of this 4th Africa Resource Bank Conference, Africans will no longer be looked at as a scourge but a huge market, and engine to Africa’s wealth that can unleash creative potential. 

Various authors in this issue bring to light diverse ways in which populations have been preyed upon and underdeveloped through lopsided policies and defective laws that work against human productivity.