Malawi: Chakwera Highlights Superstitions, Colonial Occupation As Africa’s Barriers to Development

Malawi President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has highlighted superstitions, colonial occupation, oppressive regimes and wars as some of the major contributing factors to underdevelopment in most of African countries.

Chakwera made the sentiments at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe on Wednesday during the opening of the sixth Transform Africa Summit.

The Malawi leader observed that efforts by the African countries to lift themselves out of poverty have suffered setback due to what he termed as ‘a new scramble for Africa between the West and the East.

Chakwera stated that the West and East are both seeking to dominate the industries of tomorrow using Africa’s rich minerals and metals in collaboration with corrupt governments that are willing to sell their nation’s birth right to development and economic sovereignty for a song’.

“The result of all these delays is that Africa has been left behind. We have been left behind in agricultural production, in standards of education, in tourism, in mining, in health, in security, in infrastructure development, in trade, and many other sectors.

“In fact, I submit to you that we have been left behind so much that we will never catch up if our approach is to take the same path as those nations that are hundreds of years ahead of us in development,” he said.

Chakwera therefore challenged the African Union (AU) member states to use utilize available resources to develop themselves without waiting for the West and East to help.

“In any race, if you are too far behind your competitors who started the race long before you, the only way to have a fighting chance is to abandon the racing track and take a short cut.