We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little. We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
-On a piece of paper I found somewhere.

The African survivalism phenom emerges in the face of unusually harsh living conditions, social inequities and economic inadequacies prevalent in that clime -- extremely high rates of unemployment (Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) 2nd highest in the world) and under-employment. How does the African go about meeting his/her individual economic needs? How desperate is the economic situation? Answers can be quite difficult to read, as the good and bad outcomes of "survivalism" are so closely interwoven. On the good side – sparks of creativity and ingenuity abound – necessity and invention are pretty close relatives. And of course, breeding right alongside the sparks of genius are trampled egos, dashed hopes, unrealized dreams, seething frustration, disease, superstition, weak intellectual property protection – bootlegging ad libitum...whatever.

The African "system" in keeping with the first law of thermodynamics, has evolved to accommodate the pressures in two obvious ways – migration and avid angling for foreign investments. As regards migration – SSA Diaspora has been steadily increasing all over the world in search of education, fame, and fortune or just for sheer cussedness. However, migration is a luxury for the somewhat privileged – given that the émigré has to come up with inordinate (Avg. per capita SSA GDP about $5000 for 10% minority and less than $100 for 90% majority) amount of funds required for travelling papers, airfare or to pay waterfront rats for stow away passage in the belly of some Euro-bound palm kernel freighter.

On the foreign investment front -- the great African hope lately, has been offshore outsourcing of jobs from the west. Outsourcing of jobs by high labor cost regions like the US, to low-cost regions has worked very well with some renowned third world economic clubfoots – notably the nascent IT outsource market in India and most other Asian and pacific countries. Nothing says SSA can’t enjoy the proceeds of outsourcing when her networks get more robust and quality of service improves. But then again – the immediate beneficiaries would be the somewhat privileged – the educated and the skilled.

The third option lies in technology itself – there should be a concentrated effort on developing technologies that would promote/enable power shifts in favor of Africa. We have witnessed over and over again how relatively small changes in technology can redefine technical marketplaces and flip the script on age-old empires overnight – making kings out of paupers and reducing sovereigns to beggars in a flash.

So, what technologies can we change and how?

Here’s an analogy on the redefinition of modern society by the proliferation of paper: Imagine the people who long ago toiled to preserve knowledge by creating the art of writing -- on stones and blocks of wood. Then imagine the smart Alecs who came afterwards and figured they could make reading and writing a more portable activity (Read: evolution of main frame computers to Desktop computers to laptop computers to handhelds/PDAs) by creating paper. Then imagine the stampede which followed in the paper industry to improve quality while reducing the cost of paper to dirt cheap – so cheap that knowledge ensconced in books were no longer confined by prohibitive cost of paper to Kings palaces and Bourgeois’s libraries only, but became bountifully available to commoners. And thus armed with knowledge, ordinary citizens could now challenge authorities, argue their rights under the law and assert their liberties as humans. Thus, power shifted to the people as a direct result of technology improvement.

Here are some more examples of power positioning via "Trojan horse" business models:

A software company could sell you a piece of software with bundled service plans for a one-time down payment and subsequent licensing fees year after year as long as you use their product. Mobile phone service providers give away mobile phone sets to customers once they signup for service contracts, knowing they’ll recoup the cost of the giveaway phones in no time from the service/usage charge. Blood sugar monitors for diabetics’ cost next to nothing, but you keep coming back to buy expensive test strips for the life of the device.

Bottom line: beware of "they" who can give you everything, for "they" can also take everything away from you.

Back to African economics and power positioning -- natural resources abound in most parts of SSA, but for the machinery and the know-how to tap, market and reap profits from these resources; we must depend on some other people. So with the dearth of indigenous capabilities to harness resources – what powers exactly does Africa have in the African economic resource marketplace?