The myth of indigenisation and economic empowerment in Africa
Friday, May 31, 2013
By definition it seeks to increase of local participation in or ownership of established entities. The bottom line is that colonialism was responsible for the creation foreign ownership of the means of production in most Third World countries that created invariably blatant economic, political and social imbalances that initially precipitated wars of liberation and ultimately a call to repossess the productive resources that had entrenched the colonial regimes in most third world countries.
So the process of indigenisation has been viewed as a great tool for economic empowerment, with the goal of restoring economic power to sections of the population that social discrimination processes had previously excluded from decision-making based on race and gender among others. While the terms have become trendy and popular in post-colonial Africa, their results have left much to be desired.
The BDP as a party known to have ample resources has always held its primaries well in time, but this time around that was not the case. The first leg of the primaries was held last weekend, with the final leg being billed for the coming weekend. This time around, the BDP failed to shine in its primary elections. The elections were chaotic; most if not all polling stations didn't open at the specified time of 6am. Loyal BDP members braved the...