BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
of property and investor rights, than in other regions as a serious chal-
lenge. It states:
“Despite sharp improvements in revenue collection, 11 governments in
Sub-Saharan Africa still collect less than 15 per cent of GDP in the form of
public revenue, a level considered as a minimum needed to cover the state’s
basic functions”.
Also in Africa, the needs of people without a voice are important. There
are many people in Africa who do not have the ability to speak for them-
selves; the widows, the orphans, the children on the streets, the elderly,
women in many instances and it is therefore a severe challenge to help
these people to gain a voice.
2.6 Poverty, women and children
The Africa Progress Report (2010:25) emphasises the needs of women
and states that awareness has grown over the last decade of the impor-
tance of women’s empowerment. There are positive signs, e.g. new
national laws ranging from tackling violence against women to equal pay
and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as President of Liberia as well
as Rwanda’s parliament who was the first in the world in which women
took over half the seats (56 % including the speaker); two African coun-
tries (South Africa and Lesotho) feature in the top ten of the World Eco-
nomic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Index; both are sources of
pride. The challenges however remain immense.
2.7 Why is Africa poor?
There can be no doubt that colonialism played an important role in the
challenges facing Africa. Therefore there can be two aspects to the prob-
lem of poverty facing Africa. One is the colonial past and the present
inequalities stemming from that past. The other is the present leader-
ship in Africa.
Colonialism in some instances led to the destruction of the African
community. Any community suffering such a total onslaught struggles
to heal from the problems brougth about by these influences. Van der
Walt (2003:10 in reference to Khapoya (1994:145-147)) refers to issues in
the colonial rule that led to the destruction of the community. In many
instances there were massive exploitation of labour and resources while
prohibition on inter-Africa trade also led to many negative aspects. Eth-
nic rivalries were often misused by colonial powers for their own benefit.