I beg to disagree with the author. Foreign technology and money aren’t the panacea. As long as Africans keep looking to the northern hemisphere, praying for our survival in the present and in future life, we’ll keep under- and malnourished, completely in the hands of those who feed us.
Editor, RE: "Africa has vast agricultural potential – so why are we due to import $110b worth of food annually by 2025?” (The New Times, April 27).
I beg to disagree with the author. Foreign technology and money aren’t the panacea. As long as Africans keep looking to the northern hemisphere, praying for our survival in the present and in future life, we’ll keep under- and malnourished, completely in the hands of those who feed us.
The geographically small Rwanda can feed 2 to 3 and more times its actual population as long as we all are not longing to eat western diets such as French fries… We have an abundance of bean leaves (umushogoro), sweet potatoes, taro (amateke), ibikoro….but they are not promoted as foodstuff. And those who possess the know-how to prepare them are no longer around, and no one is encouraged to replace them.
That is the real plight of Africa—we are systematically distracted from ourselves and from our physical surroundings. Francois-X. Nziyonsenga