Africa: Why Should Our People’s Wealth Migrate Abroad?

Yaounde, Cameroon—In a sonnet titled “Africa Crying”, former Mauritius Culture Minister and current member of the African Peer Review (APR) Panel of Eminent Persons, Joseph Tsang Mang Kin questions why our (Africans) wealth is stocked in western banks whereas the people who own the wealth are languishing in hunger, poverty….see sonnet below.

Dr. Joseph Tsang Mang Kin

Africa Crying!         

Africa! Africa! You are a continent

With savannas, forests and lakes bubbling 

With animals, birds, fruits and a belly

Packed with riches enough to feed the world. 

Africa! Africa! Unnamed, faceless millions

Displaced by floods and drought, hunger and wars

Diseased with malaria, HIV, you name it

No job, no money no future! Written off!

How can some sleep and the most go hungry?

While most will drown under poverty line

Why should our people’s wealth migrate abroad?

Where it grows fat in private bank accounts

Can somebody tell us what’s wrong with you?

Is there no one to want to change all this?

By Joseph Tsang Mang Kin

Member of African Peer Review (APR) Panel of Eminent Persons