Africa's Vision of Change Must be Anchored on Research

Any such analysis on Africa’s complex security, rule-of-law and development issues should be directed at informing policy and practical responses not only at the highest levels but also in stirring horizontal broad-based processes that can transform societies. At 50 years of internal self-rule Africa and Africans must wake up to the reality that it is time for a different and uniquely African perspective to global debates and decision-making. Africa must generate and possess its own vision of change, led by Africans with African for Africa. This vision should inform and shape continental, regional and national processes both at the bureaucratic and people-people levels.

At the base should be an overarching and continuous process of capturing, documenting, telling and re-telling the stories of change for, by and with Africans for Africa. We must be ready to disallow aliens to tell the African story. They have told it wrongly for so long. The narrative must change and Africans must grab the global stage, and set a new tune and dance and vigorously so to their tune.  

Africa is of age, the continent must now learn how to harness the available resources, create and innovate and deploy all within its legitimate means to build knowledge and skills that can secure Africa’s future. This involves but not limited to independent research, credible policy advice, practical training and technical strategies for progressive leadership and governance at all spheres.

Africa's leadership must adopt strategic thinking based on sound policies that emanate from quality research. Sound research and analysis underpins any strategy for emancipation of Africa. Continuous research properly designed and aimed at generation of knowledge that shapes policy, will help those who genuinely and legitimately have the mandate of the people to manage African polities to grasp in detail, the processes, the main threats to human security and provide evidence-based advice on how best to respond, for indeed this is how this continent can move to another level since we know that to ignore threats like terrorism, corruption and organized crime, or to respond without a good understanding, could just make them worse. How the continent understands the exiting threats will certainly greatly shape how it responds. Research must be brought down from the skies and dwell down here among and with the people. Africa must be ready to invest heavily in continuous strategic, priority-based and policy-inclined research. This entails, in part, demystifying a people’s conception of research, whether academic or otherwise.