When Will Africans Ride in Their Trains?

The new zeitgeist in Africa is the development of rail and trains. It is not a new technology. Nigeria had its first rail line in 1896. But all of a sudden after years of neglect African leaders have woken up from their slumber.

The sad reality is that despite over 100 years of rail technology in Africa, Africans can’t still build their own rail. What makes it so sad that we cheer at new rail lines when we are 100 years behind.

Most of the rail lines are from China. The sad part is that when the Indians were building the first rail lines in Africa over 100 years ago, China barely had a rail link but today China is now developing our infrastructure for us and giving us loans for good measure while we celebrate.

Recently a new rail line was opened in Senegal, the cost is over $1.7billion but the GDP of Senegal is less than $20 billion. I must repeat if African must grow, African trains must be built by Africans or the supposed development will be another tranche of slavery.

We must spend money on education and research so we can build our own infrastructure and develop at our own pace. We need do this quickly so our infrastructure drive doesn’t become an infrastructure trap.