Mankind has always communicated using verbal and non-verbal language in its engagement with self, the other and its environment. Language and its accompanying structure has morphed into complex communication infrastructure that allows it to initiate, cement relationships; exchange information, build and weave webs of social networks that are essential as it navigates complexities of life.

When Dr Catlin Powers--currently a researcher at Harvard University--decided to undertake research on climate change in Qinghai province of China, some years ago, she relied on the infrastructure in the engagement. As with most research, you’re never certain with what you find on the way. Her initial interest and concern as regards the challenges of external pollution and the consequent climate change was to take a different emphasis--after engagement and exchange of information with “a local family of Tibetan nomads.”

According to Sarah Lazarus’s Innovation To save Tibetan Lungs Gets A Second Wind In The US (The Financial Times, 10 October 2014), the main concerns to the ancient people was the internal pollution in their tent which not only stung the eyes, but had profound health implications. Dr Powers’s air monitor revealed “that the air inside the tent was 10 times more polluted than the air in Beijing. The smoke was produced by the family’s cooking stove....fuelled by yak dung and wood”. Further, the fumes “had a disproportionate impact on the women and girls,” given the length of time they spent inside the tent inhaling the noxious smoke.

Dr Powers’s interest in sustainable technology proved an inspiration in her quest to mitigate the plight of these Tibetans. She teamed up with Mr Scot Frank a Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineering graduate who is an entrepreneur in his own right. In fact, Mr Frank made the list of Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs. The duo part of a social enterprise-- One Earth Designs--created a solar cooker--SolSource. This zero-emission cooker is not only in demand in Qinghai province, but other parts of China and farther afield--Australia, Haiti, etc. The villages confessed to a massive difference in their way of life.

Making a Difference

One Earth Designs is not only geared towards reducing climate change and its impact, but at a more retail level of its vision, is its determined deliberateness to make a difference in the lives of ordinary people, particularly those who live in socio-economically challenged environment. A case in point is its differential distribution and pricing strategy skewed in favour of those in the developing world.

My interest in sustainable technology in comparable socioeconomic regions as sub-Saharan region informed my research on innovative ventures such as One Earth Designs. I was impressed by their positive impact in some developing regions of the world. It was this that informed my initial contact with the organisation and my subsequent telephone conversation with Mr Frank. During our discussion, I was taken aback by his candour and easy manner, particularly for someone vaunted by Forbes Magazine as one of the young influential entrepreneurs. He informed me about their other products in the pipeline.

There is a real need for innovative power and energy solutions in sub-Saharan Africa, given the impact of climate change, particularly desertification in Africa; and the level of deforestation that presage the change. Deforestation for commercial and domestic reasons has continued to decrease the available arable land due to aridity and the loss of habitat and biodiversity on the continent. Further, Al-Shabab, the Somaliland Islamist group has remained potent all these years, partly by controlling swathes of Somalia where it is involved in logging and harnessing the wood for charcoal which is in great demand in the oil rich Gulf countries.

There are serious health implications from denuding the forest of its wood and using it for domestic energy generation, besides respiratory diseases. A case in point is the current mood music--Ebola. The relative ease the virus crossed the species barrier--from non-human to human--was made salubrious by the level of deforestation that brought humans in direct contact with animal reservoirs.

It has to be said that at a very domestic level, alternative energy generation like SolSource will make a significant impact in Africa where sun shine, a requirement for its source of energy, is in abundance. One Earth Designs in some ways shows what can be achieved through engagement, which relies on the language of our common humanity; and innovation that relies on insight, conscientiousness and diligence in the search of solutions to make a difference.

Why has One Earth Designs made such a difference in the lives of the socioeconomically challenged? Why did it come naturally to the group to make a difference in the lives of the community they came in contact? The straightforward answer is: it cares. Why is this straightforward response to the suffering of the other so difficult in our time, particularly in Africa?

Africa's leadership, at present, is bent on a new narrative--Africa rising--when this neither resonates nor is it recognisable in the everyday life of its teeming population. This new narrative lives in the minds of its handful of elite and in the slew of statistics spewed out by the likes of the International Monitoring Fund, the World Bank and their co-travellers, consultancies like McKinsey who are evangelical about trickle-down economics. They can be rest assured that even this pernicious economic ‘theory’ hardly operates in vast swathes of Africa’s political landscape. Crony capitalism remains alive and well on the continent and defines every human endeavour in that part of the world.

Some Sobering Statistics

The recent publication, Crony Capitalism: Friends in high places (The Economist, 11 October 2014) provides some perspective. In 2011 after the Arab uprising, it was reported that the deposed President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, his relatives and associates had businesses and assets worth $13 billion dollars which consisted of 550 properties and 48 boats and yachts. Similarly, in Egypt Hosni Mubarak was linked to at least 469 businesses.

Further, in a very unique study by World Bank economists to highlight the extent of the problem attributable to crony capitalism in Egypt, the researchers found that among medium-sized and large firms, “the politically connected ones made 60% of all the profits in 2010.” This was in spite of this group having a very small slice of the economy and provided only about 11% of private-sector economy. These statistics among many other sobering statistics negatively impact innovation and attempts to scale-up products of creative endeavours.

I have argued elsewhere--The African Executive 19-24 March 2014--that in order to accurately diagnose a problem, be it individual or social problem, requires full disclosure and truthfully acknowledging and accepting the present--a comprehensive formulation--prior to seeking solutions or remedies. (Denial of the uncomfortable present will not in any way diminish its reality and impact).

That was just what Japan did after the second world war--it looked itself in the eye and told itself the inconvenient truth. This cathartic moment was no thanks to the fact that it was not only defeated in the Second World War, but it was excluded from the Marshall Plan, when its fellow travellers, Germany and Italy were beneficiaries of the plan. Japan went about its business of rebuilding, reshaping and repositioning itself by engaging its citizens and creating enabling environment that presaged innovation. The salubrious environment it created attracted amongst others Deming and Juran who were relatively unknown managers and academics in the US. This marked a watershed moment in Japanese miracle in manufacturing which relied heavily on competitive advantage over its competitors. Enough.

I can understand why African leadership is desperately in search of a new song and a positive narrative--it is very desirous to loosen the current millstone around its neck: milestone of abject poverty of its people, diseases, corruption, weak governance and inept leadership. But Africa rising may not be the starting point of this new narrative. The only thing that rises unhindered on the continent at present with clock-work regularity is abundant sunshine--which it ought to have harnessed to its advantage. But it has not. Although Africa is hardly a homogenous society, but its past and future outlook--viewed from the long lens of the international community--are perpetually yoked together to the extent that it has accepted this as fait accompli. That said, Africa should learn a thing or two from the wise advice of Deng Xiaoping which for decades influenced China’s foreign policy: shun brightness and nurture obscurity. It is difficult to see how its current Africa rising narrative can be taken seriously, regardless of the so called fastest growing economies of some of its states when these do not reflect in everyday reality and experience of its people.

Africa can rise above its current stereotypes if it realises that its most vital asset is its people; and harness its demographic dividends, the aspiration and invest in the islands of entrepreneurial energy found across the continent to bring about economic growth and development. Its overreliance on extractive economy unwittingly and permanently maroons it in the kingdom of the instantaneous that leaves it bereft of a vision for the future.

By Dr Anayo Unachukwu

The author is a psychiatrist in the UK. He was formerly a consultant psychiatrist at Ansel Clinic Nottingham, England. He has interest in inequality and its impact on health.