What should the role of the state be in the war against poverty in post colonial Africa?  

After 52 years of independence, the experience of state ownership of economic assets in post colonial Africa is mixed and what emerges is that there exists no empirical evidence supporting the proposition that the state can be a more reliable and efficient manager of assets.  

The absence of black corporate role models in post colonial Africa is not accidental but is largely a consequence of policies that were put in place to exclude blacks from meaningfully participating in the formal economy.

Thirteen years ago or a year after the end of apartheid, I made a decision to make South Africa my home not because I had given up on my Zimbabwean heritage but believed then as I still do that South Africa was uniquely positioned to play a critical and defining role in the economic renaissance of Africa.

With a sophisticated and well developed industrial, financial, agricultural and mining infrastructure, South Africa offered the best example of what could be possible in Africa. The post apartheid state was bequeathed with a complex heritage of a dualistic economy that had at its foundation a belief that only the white tribe could through hard work and sacrifice, realise the promise.

Post colonial Africa is now 52 years old and the promise of independence in terms of human development has largely not been realized. The statehouses are firmly under the control of the "majority?" in the 53 countries of Africa but the economy remains under the control of a minority.

The founding fathers of post colonial Africa were in the main well educated but not affluent. The colonial experience did not expose the few intellectuals who were privileged to be the founding fathers of post colonial Africa to the intricacies of corporate civilization. The most visible form of oppression was in the political and civil rights spheres and hence the struggle for independence took a political context.