PLO: Those With Ideas Have No Power

For anyone that spends more than a minute studying Africa, one glaring contradiction stands out: the continent is abundantly endowed with sharp minds, brilliant ideas and natural resources - yet it is poor. Africa’s unimaginative leadership must take some share of the blame for this. As Pan-Africanist scholar PLO Lumumba puts it in this clip, the ones with ideas lack power, those with power - ideas.

One reason is the presence of neocolonial puppets. Colonialism was - at its core - about extracting Africa’s wealth. Western puppets have an incentive to maintain the status quo. The crumbs acquired from auctioning off their people matter more to them than the development of the continent.

Without a history of innovation, African ideas and the people who carry them are a threat to the elite and their positions. It’s unlikely that a corrupt, unenlightened minority would be in charge of affairs in an environment that rewards work and wit over tribal affiliation.

What else explains the disconnect between those with ideas and those with power? Let us know in the comments.