Had Africa ever truly stood on its own feet, what marvels might have risen from its red earth? What industries might have thrived beneath its scorching sun? Some think it would be like Wakanda, the fictional high-tech African kingdom from Marvel Comics, but the truth is, we don’t know, because Africa, a land ever prey to colonisation, has never truly built itself.
While the continent has proven its ability to adapt, with solar microgrids lighting up villages, local fintech initiatives rewriting banking, and drones delivering medicine, where are its grand visions?
Africa is being built but, once again, not by its own hands. This time, the continent’s railways, roads, and digital lifelines bear a signature written in Mandarin.
Shackled by Chinese Infrastructure?
China did not come to Africa in warships, like other foreign empires before it, but inserted itself through trade agreements. It does not demand land, only access. It does not plant its flag, only lays cables. And yet, the effect is very much the same: a continent shaped by those who do not live on it.
China does not occupy Africa—it constructs it. In return for infrastructure, both conventional and digital, it takes resources. African leaders, desperate for development, sign agreements that may deliver highways today but spell the continent’s obeisance to another power tomorrow.
The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not simply an economic project; it is how Beijing influences developing nations. It offers ports and railways but also debt and dependence. Huawei dominates Africa’s telecom sector, and local fintech transactions run through Chinese-backed platforms. Each cable deepens Africa’s dependency on China, which now accounts for USD 21.7 billion invested all over the continent, mostly on roads and energy.
But this infrastructure doesn’t maintain itself. Roads crumble, lights flicker, and railways rust—not due to Chinese negligence, but because Africa itself has not taken ownership of what it received. The Chinese know the struggle of building in Africa, and the 2011 documentary Empire of Dust captured their frustration: roads, once built, were subsequently abandoned. Machinery, while delivered, proved to be woefully mishandled.
China does not make moral arguments about Africa’s future—it builds what it agrees to build. The question, thus, is not who funds Africa’s development, but who ensures that that development is a sustained one.
Africa’s Struggle To Innovate is Due to Its Own Lack of Responsibility
Africa does not lack resources. It does not lack manpower. What it lacks is structure, discipline, and effective governance.
Before Africa can dream of any tech revolution, it must first become self-sustaining. For years, the continent’s development has been stifled by reliance on aid. Nations rise through an internal transformation, not charity from outside.
But in Africa’s case, foreign aid has become the go-to way for financing most governments, which have received, collectively, over $2.6 trillion in aid since 1960, without improving any conditions in their nations.
There are exceptions, though: Rwanda, under Paul Kagame, has rejected the “starving African child” narrative, choosing dignity over pity. Botswana, too, has defied expectations, refusing to be another cautionary tale of mismanagement. Some African leaders recognise that the greatest innovation Africa can achieve is a change in attitude.
The problem is not Western or Chinese patronising—it is that Africa has given the world ample reason to patronise it.
A Few Innovation Stories Do Not a Wakanda Make
Much is said about African ingenuity, but what passes for “innovation” is often but a clever adopting of other people’s technology.
For instance, Kenya’s Safaricom, through their M-PESA service, turned mobile banking into a necessity; not by inventing new technology, but by using existing tools in an environment where traditional banks failed. Nigeria’s Flutterwave and Andela are also digital successes, the first in fintech as well, the second in software talent acceleration, but their software ecosystems still rely on and serve to Western platforms.
These are however outliers, not the rule. Africa has had decades of self-rule to start manufacturing rather than importing their technology, to export rather than remain a consumer.
Some do entertain larger dreams though. Afrofuturism, a movement blending African culture with speculative visions of technological advancement, imagines an Africa that does not merely adopt but creates. It envisions a continent that leads in technological development, rather than one that just consumes what others make.
But Afrofuturism remains a vision which is yet to materialise. It is a useful ideological tool—a way to reframe African identity—but until the fundamental issues of governance, education, and infrastructure are resolved, it will remain just that: a vision.
Statement
Africa remains a continent built by others; its infrastructure shaped by foreign hands, its economy dependent on external investments. China’s Belt and Road Initiative goes where previous empires left off—constructing railways, telecom networks, and power grids that Africa does not control. In-house innovation remains a distant dream without stability, governance, and responsibility. Afrofuturism envisions a technologically sovereign Africa, but vision alone does not build industries. Until Africa takes charge of its development, it will remain a passive recipient of progress, forever waiting for the next investor rather than shaping its own future.