So goes the cliché: Africa's greatest wealth is the Africans. Why not... But let's be
precise. Does this wealth arise from the overcrowded amphitheatres of Dakar and Abidjan or from the mines of
the former Katanga? Does it appear in Zemidjan at the corner of the streets of Cotonou or helmeted on the platforms
Gulf of Guinea oil companies? Does it manifest itself expatriate and assimilated, in New York and Paris, or in
the cotton, coffee and cocoa fields of Benin, Kenya, Ghana
Long deaf, the dichotomy between those who think about Africa and those who live it seems more visible in
this end of the decade. I remember Jim Yong Kim, eighteen months ago, recommending to countries
Africans to be inspired by the South Korean model (bet on human capital), not to mention the aggressive
Seoul's industrial policy for half a century. That was before he abruptly left the Presidency of the World Bank for a richly remunerated sinecure among the investor Global
Infrastructure Partners. I also remember the response of the head of the African Development Bank
(AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina – strangely constrained for this communication expert – saying this
It is simple to see that South Korea is poor in natural resources, while Africa is full of them. "On
can only develop with what we have," said the AfDB President.
When it's not about apocalyptics haranguing about African demography, it's about the
climate change that the dividing lines are most clearly affirmed. It's not only from the babil of the corridors of Brussels, Paris or Washington, where the "agents of development"
are moved by the "delta" of fossil energy consumption attributable solely to poor countries and
Emerging. "If only Africa and Asia consumed less...", they lament between two espressos.
In early August, Sim Tshabalala, Managing Director of Africa's largest banking institution,
Standard Bank, had to explain itself in the middle of the conference with investors from the Johannesburg
on financing for the extractive industries. If he insisted on the respect by the South African giant of
'Article 4 of the Paris Agreement [which recommends] reducing the carbon intensity of development
economic and human in our countries of operation", the soweto native did not hesitate to impose a few
Truths. "Africa is our home; we are the engine of its growth," he noted, before insisting:
"We are an African financial services group serving the real economy. Our balance sheet exists
to meet the pressing needs of our continent. We will therefore finance gas pipeline pipelines, we will support mineral exploration and extraction and, in some cases, we will fund
coal-fired power. »
At the beginning of November, it was the turn of Andrew Herscowitz, coordinator of Power Africa – a rare initiative of
development launched under Barack Obama to survive under the presidency of his successor – to defend
a "technology-agnostic" approach to energy in Africa. "In matters
of megawatts, the majority of [our projects in Africa] have been fossil fuels, especially gas, which
is a cleaner technology than the others. But in terms of the number of projects, we have
supported more renewable energy projects," he tempered.
Off-grid projects are multiplying on the continent, applauded as a panacea, while – who can
forget it? – "600 million people do not have access to electricity south of the Sahara". Can we note that it
it takes "700 W of power to boil a saucepan," according to Andrew Herscowitz, when
Photovoltaic panels distributed on the continent provide barely a flow of about 80 W, "of which
power a TV or mobile phone" but not much more. Of course, this is always better than
nothing. Which of the zealots of such energy solutions would accept them, if only for a residence
secondary in Arizona, Jura or Piedmont? But do not doubt it, all these experts, financial,
volunteers and other people with good intentions wish only the good of the continent. In fact: we don
is never wary enough of people who love Africa.