Establishing the 4th Missing Link

The cause of the fourth mental darkness is traceable way back to the colonial era. For in Africa, colonialism did not stop at territorial acquisition. The local mind was colonized too. Approaches employed in colonising the African mind included the devaluation of everything from pre-colonial Africa, the belittling of anything African while glorifying everything European, the killing of the artisan class, the restriction of natives to primary production, the exploitation of education to cultivate and promote contempt for one’s culture, language, people, etc. among the enlightened Africans.

Mental colonisation transformed Africans into ideal producers of raw materials, on the one hand, and consumers of finished products from the outside, on the other hand. In this way, Africans became reliable players in the sustaining of the ‘colonial economic model’. But more importantly, mental colonization hindered the African mindset from growing the attitude needed to take full advantage of production as part of the growth process of an economy. The resulting mental darkness ‘blinded’ the post-independence sub-Saharan countries, particularly in business, technical and decision-making spheres.

In the business sphere, native entrepreneurs flocked into non-production sectors of the economy. Of the few who ventured into production, the majority rarely went beyond primary production. In the technical sphere, various policies embraced and implemented failed to industrialise sub-Saharan economies, even despite the direct involvement of the state in business. In the decision-making sphere, sub-Saharan countries failed to translate the huge trade opportunities into golden moments for turning around their economies (e.g. the European Union’s ‘Everything but Arms’ policy, the USA’s African Growth Opportunity Act). Clearly, unless sub-Saharan countries overcome this mental darkness, their prospects of realising and sustaining inclusive economies will remain dreams.

This book guides learners at tertiary institutions in their transit from education towards meaningful employment or work. In the process of providing the guidance however, the book helps freeing the upcoming generation of the fourth mental darkness. In other words, it develops and promotes the mental clarity needed of their country in order to realise and sustain an economy, which is increasingly able to provide for the majority of its working-age population.

At the end of the book, learners are linked to three complementary e-resources. First resource presents potential business opportunities to learners, in form of solvable needs or challenges in their society. Second resource inspires learners into excelling in their local business environment. The last resource promotes acquisition of additional skill(s) during or after the leaner’s completion of university education.

Proceeds from selling you the opportunity for remembrance, described in the video here, are largely for (i) revisiting the developed complementary e-resources so that they acquire meaning and relevancy in line with your country’s cultural and socio-economic perspectives (ii) offsetting the production costs.