By Jocelyn Tchakounte
It is often asked: “What is the missing link for the food system in Africa? The answer is in who tells the story for smallholder farmers in Africa.
The missing link for Dr. Florence Odiwuor, a Kenyan Agricultural Economist, and visiting scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. is “empowerment of women Smallholder farmers.” https://africaupclose.wilsoncenter.org/women-smallholder-farmers/
Governments simply don’t bridge the “gender equalities,” Odiwuor would have us know. She says this:
“The UN and development partners have continued to advise African governments to formulate policies and put in place reforms that address gender inequalities. While there are some steps being made toward the betterment of women smallholder farmers, several factors still hinder innovations in agriculture to work for women smallholders. Lack of an enabling environment and political will, compounded by advancement of immediate development solutions, have left smallholder farmers impoverished and food insecure. Strengthening women smallholder farmers is a critical component in efforts to improve food security in Africa. Policymakers should develop or implement national plans to scale-up sustainable support to women smallholders and to create an enabling environment.”
She is partially right, of course. However, Odiwuor’s seemingly reasonable argument is a variation of the narrative told by the African elite, who are nurtured and groomed to repeat the narratives of the Left. Those narratives have since permeated the World organizations, the non-profit organizations, and the universities. Their false narrative goes like this:
- Blame the African male for every economic dysphoria.
- establish the woman’s reproductive system as an asset belonging to the woman, rather than a gift from God.
- Insist that malnutrition and food insufficiency in Africa derive form bad gender policy.
- focus on “Mindset” and “language” of Africans, not on the state of their physical economy.
In other words, their false narrative on Africa is always about sex, gender, male domination and virtual reality.
None of that is true.
The author of the article above actually points her finger to the real problem that requires a common-sense solution; but she does not develop the idea, because she is blinded by the false narratives that are sexier and widely accepted by the financial elites that she serves. The real story, ladies and gentlemen, is access to credit and absurd customs policies in Africa.
In the picture in the article cited above, a young woman carried a hoe on her shoulder and her grandmother carried a hoe on her shoulder; The question we should be asking is: “Why is she still carrying a hoe on her shoulder today?” She should be driving a tractor! If she drove a tractor, then she would be producing more yams, and hunger in Africa would be solved. That’s common sense. Better tools help to increase production. And, as a starter, don’t buy new and expensive tools, get used ones.
One problem is that the bank in Africa would not lend her $8,000 to purchase and ship a “newsed” tractor from America.
The other problem is that, even if the bank lent her money to purchase the tractor, she would have to borrow another $8,000 to clear customs in her own country. It’s an absurd policy that would tax the very instrument that would improve productivity and lift the country out of poverty.
Folks, that’s the story. Hunger in Africa is not sex, not gender, not LGBTQ, not African men spending their time impregnating girlfriends and drinking palm-wine…. hunger in Africa is access to credit. If credit bureaus were created, and African countries passed laws that would allow national savings to remain in the country and be used to fuel the national economy, hunger in those countries would be reduced significantly.
—Jocelyn Tchakounte, a Cameroonian-born resident of Northern Virginia, is President, African Diaspora International Trade Association, Inc (Empowering African Small Business with American Technology).
