From victims to architects: Reimagining Africa’s place in the world

By Aminu Oluwaseyifunmi John

Perhaps the most important question for our generation is not simply, “What has the world done to Africa?” We must also ask, “What will Africa do with the future that remains in its hands?” Our ancestors endured. Previous generations fought for independence. Our generation has another responsibility: to build.

We must build institutions. We must build industries. We must build knowledge. We must build peace. We must build justice. We must build economies. We must build confidence.

Most importantly, we must build a future worthy of the generations yet unborn.

For generations, Africa has often been described through the languages of suffering, darkness, retrogressive and barbaric. We have been called the continent of poverty, conflict, corruption, famine, underdevelopment and instability. Our history is frequently narrated through slavery, colonialism, exploitation and political crises. These realities are important, and they must not be erased from our collective memory.

However, there comes a point when people must ask a deeper question: Are we going to remain permanently defined by what happened to us, or are we prepared to become architects of what happens next?

This is not an argument for forgetting Africa’s painful history. It is an argument for refusing to allow that history to become the permanent definition of Africa. History should explain where we came from, but it should not determine the limits of where we can go. A people can acknowledge the wounds of yesterday while still possessing the courage to construct tomorrow.

Africa has experienced enormous historical disruptions. The transatlantic slave trade removed millions of Africans from their societies, while colonialism reorganised political and economic systems in ways that primarily served external interests. Artificial colonial boundaries divided communities and brought different peoples into new political arrangements. After independence, many African states inherited institutions and economies that presented serious challenges for nation-building. These historical trajectories matter because they help us understand some of the structural difficulties that African societies continue to confront daily.

But history must be used as an experienced teacher, not as a permanent prison. There is a dangerous point at which historical consciousness can become historical dependency, where every contemporary failure is explained exclusively by what happened centuries ago. If we constantly tell the African child that poverty exists only because of colonialism, that weakness exists only because of foreign interference, and that development is impossible because the international system is against Africa, we may unintentionally teach that child that Africa has no agency. A continent that believes it has no agency will struggle to create its own future.

We therefore need to move from victims to architects. An architect does not simply complain about a building. An architect studies the land, understands the weaknesses of an existing structure, develops a design and begins construction. Africa needs that mindset. We must move from asking only, “Who caused our problems?” to also asking, “What are we going to build now?” The first question belongs to historical investigation, while the second belongs to leadership and responsibility. Africa must remember its past while developing the courage to design its future.

Development cannot simply mean waiting for another country to invest in Africa, or looking at other country structurs to improve ours. It cannot mean depending permanently on foreign aid. It cannot mean exporting raw materials and importing finished products. It cannot mean educating our brightest minds only to watch them leave because opportunities at home are inadequate. It cannot mean measuring progress only by the number of skyscrapers in our cities. True development must involve institutions, people, knowledge, industries, justice, infrastructure, technology and human dignity.

Africa must increasingly become a producer of ideas, technology, research, capital and policy, rather than merely a consumer of them. Our natural resources are valuable, but our greatest resource is ultimately the African mind. The question should not only be, “What resources does Africa have?” The greater question is, “What can Africans build with what Africa has?” The difference between being a resource holder and being a value creator is the difference between possessing potential and transforming potential into prosperity.

Imagine an Africa that does not merely export cocoa but develops globally competitive chocolate industries. Imagine an Africa that does not simply export crude oil but develops competitive energy, petrochemical and manufacturing industries. Imagine an Africa that does not merely export minerals critical to modern technology but develops the knowledge, industries and value chains surrounding those resources. Imagine an Africa where young people do not have to leave their communities simply to find meaningful opportunities. This is the Africa we must begin to design.

But there is another uncomfortable truth: we cannot build a new Africa with weak institutions. If justice depends on wealth, development becomes unequal. If public offices become instruments of personal enrichment, development becomes fragile. If citizens cannot trust their institutions, social stability suffers. If young people have no meaningful opportunity to participate in governance, frustration grows. If laws exist only on paper, the rule of law becomes an illusion.

Therefore, the African transformation we seek must also be an institutional transformation. We need institutions that are stronger than individuals, institutions that survive changes in government, institutions that protect citizens regardless of their social status, institutions that reward competence and accountability, and institutions that make public service a responsibility rather than a personal opportunity. This is where SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions becomes deeply connected to Africa’s development. There can be no sustainable transformation without justice, no lasting prosperity without peace, and no effective development without strong institutions.

Perhaps the greatest opportunity lies with Africa’s young population. Young Africans must not see themselves only as victims of unemployment, bad governance, inequality or historical injustice. They must also see themselves as participants in reconstruction. The young African should be asking, “What institution can I improve? What problem can I solve? What knowledge can I contribute? What community can I transform? What policy can I influence? What business can I build? What injustice can I challenge peacefully? What kind of Africa will my generation leave behind?”

That is the beginning of architectural thinking.

An architect does not wait for a perfect environment before designing. An architect begins with what is available and builds toward what is possible. Africa may not have perfect institutions, perfect economies or perfect political systems, but we have people, resources, knowledge, culture, creativity and an enormous young population. The responsibility is to transform those assets into sustainable progress.

Africa also needs to change the conversation about itself. We do not need a conversation that denies our problems, nor one that romanticises our past. We do not need a conversation that blames foreigners for everything, and we do not need one that blames Africans for everything. We need a mature conversation that can acknowledge colonial exploitation while examining contemporary governance; recognise foreign interference while demanding African accountability; celebrate African culture while encouraging innovation; remember historical injustice while pursuing institutional reform.

We must be able to say, “Yes, history wounded us, but history will not be allowed to decide our entire future.” That statement does not deny history. Instead, it recognises that the future is also shaped by the choices we make today.

The Africa I envision is not an Africa without problems. It is an Africa with the capacity to solve its problems. It is an Africa where justice does not belong to the wealthy, where leadership is measured by service, where young people participate meaningfully in governance, where African universities produce globally influential research, where African industries create value from African resources, and where African countries negotiate internationally with confidence.

It is an Africa where peace is protected through strong institutions, where history is taught honestly, where indigenous knowledge is preserved and developed, where African creativity is transformed into economic opportunity, and where Africans are not simply asking the world for a place at the table but are building tables of their own.

Perhaps the most important question for our generation is not simply, “What has the world done to Africa?” We must also ask, “What will Africa do with the future that remains in its hands?” Our ancestors endured. Previous generations fought for independence. Our generation has another responsibility: to build.

We must build institutions. We must build industries. We must build knowledge. We must build peace. We must build justice. We must build economies. We must build confidence.

Most importantly, we must build a future worthy of the generations yet unborn.

We are not merely descendants of a difficult history. We are designers of the next chapter. Africa must move from being merely a subject of history to becoming an active architect of history. The transformation begins when we stop asking only to be rescued and start asking a more powerful question: “What are we going to build?”.

Aminu Oluwaseyifunmi John is a Public Affairs.