Slipping the destructive grip of living in the past

Published on:

25 Jun 2014, 8:22 am

I received a good fix of Afro-Optimism yesterday. Breakfast with a good friend who's having fun building a business north of the Limpopo. Among the benefits, he says, is how those he works with don't see skin colour, just the skills he brings. That was followed by an interview with one of the US's top CEOs, Marriott's Arne Sorensen. He reckons the R2bn paid to buy Protea is only the start of his group's African investments.

With all the politicking, social engineering and misguided economic experiments, living in Zumaland makes one forgets we live on earth's fastest growing continent. That we're in the box seats of the next great economic story. One with decades to run. Africa is rising. It houses many rapidly developing economies with business sectors driven by hard working, highly educated expatriates who've returned home to be part of the adventure.

No human ever born has been able to change history. Nor been able to extract sufficient retribution for past wrongs. But those who focus on the future tend to slip out of its destructive grip. Around 950m Africans understand that reality. Pity about the handful who lead 50m in its southern extremity.