ECON-AD 213J | Class 4 Reflection: The cheetahs and the hippos

We talked about three key articles today:

1. Collier, Paul and Jan Willem Gunning, 1999. Why has Africa Grown Slowly? Journal of Economic Perspectives 13:3, 3-22. 
2. Mandani. M. Citizen and Subject, Princeton University Press, 1996. 
3. Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou, National Institutions and Subnational Development in Africa, Quarterly Journal of Economics. 

These articles offer multiple explanations to Africa’s current underdeveloped status: ethnic fractionalization, detrimental postcolonial institutions, autocratic regimes, etc. The list appears endless. Collier argues that some of these explanations are even outside of the continents’ control (i.e. external destiny or domestic destiny factors). All these explanations offer satisfying intuition, but I think more quantifiable explanations are needed. Only through technocratic analyses do we find actionable solutions to specific questions about Africa’s development. My intuition tells me that the site of transformative change are the country’s cities. Cities are where power, capital, and labor are centralized, and where we can therefore anticipate the most change. This is why urban studies is critical in finding the most significant answers.

We also watched a short film from TED Talks, George Ayittey's Cheetahs vs. Hippos for Africa's Future. Ayittey distinguishes Africa between two types of people: cheetahs, who are the proactive agents of change in Africa's postcolonial future; and the hippos, who simultaneously complain about colonialism but also benefit from its persistence. He calls upon the African cheetahs to focus their dynamism into the informal and traditional sectors, where most of Africa's population continue to operate. Ayittey cites an example of a local Ghanian fisherman who, with no assistance from the government, built a bigger boat by investing capital he has accumulated over time to increase his fishing capacity and employ more fisherman.

While this example is noble at first view, it does raise questions that are not addressed by his talk. Competitive fishing activity does not only represent local Ghanian ingenuity, but also a glimpse into the tragedy of the commons that Ghana will inevitably face. If more fishermen continue to improve their fishing boats and thus their capacity, then overfishing poses an increasing threat to the marine ecosystem. In this view, government intervention is necessary; only the government can regulate fishing quotas by enforcing property rights for all.