By George Bamu

Oftentimes I am asked by people-why all the fuss about Africa and why anyone should care about what goes on in the continent. Such questions leave me stupefied and at times amused because, most often, though the people asking are of African descent, they have no idea how vast and resourceful the continent of Africa truly is. The Africa I know is filled with talented individuals, a rich culture and tradition that are emulated around the world, amazing leadership, natural resources, agricultural produce and limitless investment opportunities.

In this column, I tell the story of an Africa that most people do not know. I point to the scores of successes, small and large, achieved by African leaders and the ordinary citizenry in every part of the continent. If the saying “what does not kill you makes you stronger” is true, this Africa will only get better in time, despite its economical and political challenges.

Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s foremost writers on social change, penned the novel Things Fall Apart in 1958. In this writing, he predicted that change on the continent was inevitable and that the people of Nigeria should guard their traditions with care while embracing new things. Achebe somehow knew in the colonization of Africa, his people would be pushed to embrace European religious images and values, and that the erosion of traditional ways of living and thinking would come to pass. Today, that novel remains a classic and is the standard against which most things African are being measured.

In the Africa of yesterday, no one had cell phones, ipods, laptops, blackberries or even cars. But traditional African society was orderly and truly democratic with the existence of traditional councils that were part of the decision making process. Citizens were literate, adultery was an abomination and everyone had their eyes open to the coming change that was being talked about.

It has been over forty years since Achebe made his predictions about Africa. The continent is surviving the throes of civil war, neglect through foreign exploitation, poverty and the desperation of out-of-control disease. But like the proverbial lizard that fell from the top of a tree, Africa has not been destroyed nor was it terribly handicapped. It may have sustained some bruises, yet it has risen and is shaking its head to meet new challenges and new friendships with the world.

What does this mean? If globalization, which involves trade, democracy and economic development is meant to bring the world closer and make it friendlier, easing the daily burdens of existence, it also involves the abilities of nations to respond to change accordingly while absorbing the shocks that come with it. Africa leads these changes.

Africa Leads in Technology

In Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Botswana, and all over, recent trends confirm a growing bubble in the dot-com and telecom business is moving across Africa. According to Balancing Act, a telecom project management consultancy in London, the years 2001 through 2005 saw a spike in broadband access all over the continent. The same period saw a surge in the number of investment firms doing business on the continent leading to offerings in wireless solutions by an array of ISP’s (internet service providers). Already there is plan for fiber infrastructure and the legislation of Voice-Over-IP, which involves the transmission of voice messages over internet lines in many countries.

In today’s Africa, businesses are thriving. Citizens are blogging. Chat rooms are full. Millions of people use cell phones as their primary mode of communication. While this isn’t the image we see on TV, in Africa, technology is booming. It’s all about content and convergence, pulling the web and television into one and providing more technological options and choices to residents. The Poynter Institute for Media Studies reports that the company media conglomerate Multi-choice Africa is already broadcasting throughout the continent via satellite and is pioneering the synchronization of internet and satellite while leveraging and customizing its use for both TV and the web in South Africa.

Africa On the Path of Peace

America has a picture of Africa that is engulfed in wars and disease. But the truth is, conflicts have ended in Liberia, Angola, Sierra-Leone, and a peace agreement was recently signed in the Sudan. The United States Agency for International Development reports that there is progress in the cross border tensions in Uganda, the Congo and Somalia, respectively. The last five years saw free presidential, municipal and parliamentary elections in South Africa, Senegal, and many other nations. The latest victories come from Liberia, where Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, Africa’s first elected woman president who is already called “Africa’s iron lady,” addressed a joint session of the U.S. congress in March. This year, Uganda held its first multi-party elections in 25 years.

Women Lead Development in Africa

Today, every Africa nation is partner to the United Nations Millennium Development goals, and the UN is placing emphasis on Africa with a new embrace of diplomacy to accommodate all interests. In 2005, the Blair Commission on Africa and the G8 group of nations put Africa at the top of the Agenda. Most recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Women’s Leadership Forum heard from top African women leaders from Nigeria and other parts of the continent. The next Economic Forum for Africa slated for Cape Town, South Africa, has big plans with increased emphasis on Africa’s competitive advantage, development priorities and south-south collaboration.

Africa is Still Rich

In Washington, D.C., the Millennium Challenge Corporation issued reports on collaboration between the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which has created resources to help reduce poverty through economic growth in Africa. Several qualifying African nations are geared to receive assistance. By an act of the U.S. congress in May 2000, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was passed, and since 2005, with guidelines to open African economies and promote free markets with the United States, two-way trade with Africa has increased and imports alone totaled about $38.1 billion.

Thirty-three African countries exported products to the United States under the agreement, while U.S. total exports to Africa rose 22 percent to $10.3 billion. While Africa has been trading with America for decades, and while the Dream liner, Boeing’s newest line of aircraft is expected to start flying in 2008, Kenya has already placed advance orders worth about $878 million, the BBC reports.

Africa’s Oil is Pumping

With the jump in oil prices in the global market, OPEC, the cartel of oil producers is being led by a Nigerian, Edmund Daukoru, minister of state for Petroleum resources.

Nigeria is not only a modern day nation of 33 states and over 120 million people, it is also a regional giant that is seeking a permanent seat on the UN security council and is being watched by China and the United States of America. While holding the current presidency of OPEC may not be the deciding factor for how much oil will cost, it nevertheless means there is seriousness in the air for Africa. In addressing the US National Press club recently, many are startled that it is someone from Africa who is the top oilman on earth, and that means a lot. As the eighth largest producer of oil and with fears of instability in the Middle East, Nigeria holds the keys to the energy sector, and that is why it is being courted by giants such as Chevron-Texaco and Shell.

Africa is not only talking speed, capacity building, competitiveness and new capabilities of the new century economies, doing more with less, but its press is fighting back with those governments that want to curtail its powers. Leaders are being held accountable to their constituents and a new breed and style of leadership is emerging, with many leaving the United States to start high tech firms and universities in the Motherland.

African Media Controlled by the People

In Cameroon, Victor Epie Ngome, CEO of Civil Initiatives for Development with Integrity, is leading the pack by unifying and coordinating media action to fight corruption. The same holds for many other nations like Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania. It’s the journalists, lawyers and citizens that are checking for government abuses and excesses as part of the democratic process.

Africa Leads in Business

With new and increased technology, trade and democracy, has come peace agreements and diplomacy, such as the transformation of the organization of African Unity to the African Union (AU). With the AU has also come the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and other watershed initiatives. It is the ECOWAS that helped stop the bloodshed in Liberia, and it is the African development Bank, supported by 77-member nations, that is at the forefront of development, pumping and disbursing funds to tackle poverty and improving the lives of Africans through loans, equity investments and technical assistance.

In the background of all this is a wave of reputable organizations on Africa right here in America: think tanks, non-profits, African-centered radio and television corporations such as the Corporate Council on Africa, Africa Action and Foreign Policy in Focus, all drumming for support and actively engaged in the process, not for themselves, but to make sure Africa looks and feels better.

America Recognizes African Media Market

There is now 24 hour cable TV for Africa outside Africa. With many Africans realizing that what they read or see on foreign TV does not reflect the realities on the ground, they are turning to African-run TV networks and internet sites to savor real news and music from the continent. In Saint Paul, MN, the African Broadcasting Network, founded and operated by a group of Africans and offered as pay-per-view on the dish network, is the center for non-stop home-grown African music. In Los Angeles, the Africa Channel, started by former NBC reporter, James Makawa, has reached agreement with Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, to carry its content and programming starting in Atlanta this spring.

I think it is high time that African-Americans and Africans living in America recognize the real power of Africa, as many Europeans have for thousands of years. Africa is ours; she belongs to us. We must begin the work to sustain the greatness that she has always been and still is.

Editor’s note: George Bamu is the founder and president of Africa Agenda, one of Colorado’s leading organizations working to redefine and sustain the power and beauty of the continent of Africa. For more information about Africa Agenda go to www.africaagenda.org.