When African leaders look at Africa, they see poverty. When foreigners look at the continent, they see resources and wealth.

This perception saw more than 10 million Africans (some estimate it at 60 million) herded into slave ships, bound for the new world to provide labor. It has also led to foreign interest and involvement in places with strategic minerals.

Blaming this great human catastrophe that put Africa’s economic potential in reverse gear will not extricate the continent from ravages of disease, illiteracy and poverty while the continent still harbors a slave mentality that holds that the continent can not make it unless external forces intervene. This mentality has hindered the continent from being a pace setter, choosing to surrender the goal setting responsibility to the international community.

Africa has to be proactive. She should assess where she is, why she is where she is, where she wants to be fifty years from now and how to get there. If Africa fails to plan, she shall fit into somebody else’s agenda and never have time to plan anything profitable for herself.

A good place to begin is to create an environment that will view African populations as a resource instead of a “time bomb” and allow them to freely crisscross African borders, exchanging ideas and goods. Africans went to the New World fettered. Let us reverse this by allowing more economic freedom in Africa.