I discussed the need for African people to engage more in the manufacturing and distribution areas of business. In order to become a major economic force on a global level, African people must begin to own, control and produce.
Both Dr. Claud Anderson and Dr. John Henrik Clarke stated that we should use Japan as a model of how industrialization and vertical integration can be used to become a major political and economic power.
For example, if African people chose to own and control the coffee and cocoa industries, they would control the farming, the processing of the coffee and cocoa nuts, the shipping, distribution and retail. They would have a single corporation (or cartel of corporations) controlling all aspects of those respective industries. What strengthens their grip on the industry is linking vertical integration with their cultural value systems as their competitive edge and creating a barrier of entry to prevent competitors from easy entry.
Now, what industries can we choose to dominate on a vertical integration level? Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu gives 5 areas to consider:
1. Food
2. Clothing
3. Music
4. Sports
5. Movies
Claud Anderson states that African people should dominate as producers where they are the primary consumers. Since these 5 industries find us as the primary consumers, then we should find a niche within those industries to control as our own. The American Sports Empire is a $262 billion industry, yet we’re satisfied with being the labor force and raw material.
In closing, I think we need to look towards what we can produce. Nations are not built on barber shops, hair salons and network marketing. Service and sales cannot generate the type of wealth needed to become self-sufficient on a collective level. With a purchasing power of $1.2 trillion, the time is now to shift our minds from being consumers to producers. We’ve never been a poor people; we just make poor decisions with our resources.
Nature rewards the producer and punishes the consumer. At some point, African people should grow tired of economic ass-whippings. Unless they’re into S & M…
