U. official discusses African growth

Sandra Barnes, the University's director of African Studies, shared her knowledge and dreams with a small gathering of students Monday in Vance Hall. As Barnes moved her chair to within a few feet of the students, the scheduled lecture began to assume the intimate feel of a discussion group. She expressed hope that at least one of the major structural impediments to African growth -- the lack of accountability of African leaders -- would eventually be countered by growing dissatisfaction from the poor. But despite her cautious optimism, Barnes admitted that there are myriad obstacles remaining to economic growth in Africa. She said that unlike their Western counterparts, the accumulation and retention of monetary resources is of less importance to African business people than the acquisition of friends and influence. "People don't necessarily accumulate monetary capital," she said. "People want to accumulate social capital." Barnes said the legacy of Africa's colonial days also contributed to its developmental difficulties. "The administrative loci and the economic loci of power were all in the bureaucracy," she said. "There was no separation of access to resources from government." Barnes said that business in Africa is further complicated by the lack of a common language through which business people can communicate. This is an especially critical impediment to Western business interests. "You learn how to operate in the culture through the language," she explained. Barnes added that individual initiative, so critical to Western business, is not necessarily as prized in African culture. "Everybody looks to someone else as senior to them, and they will only act if the senior tells them to," she said, adding that against this backdrop, it has been easy for the United States to conceive of Africa as a "bottomless pit" where invested money simply disappears. She expressed concern that this attitude could leave America floundering in the race to open and develop the continent. "The U.S. is marginalizing Africa while other nations are bringing Africa into the center of their foreign policy," Barnes said. While her knowledge of the developmental problems facing Africa was the primary focus of the forum, Barnes hopes the new African Studies World Wide Web page will make the University a center for African research. "My dream is that the Web will really establish Penn as an information broker, as the place to go for information on Sub-Saharan Africa," Barnes said, adding that the page has gained international attention. Barnes appeared as the first speaker in the "Penn Professors on Third World Development" lecture series presented jointly by AIESEC -- the International Association of Students in Economics and Business Management -- and the Philomathean Society. The series continues through Thursday -- each day at 4:30 p.m. in Vance Hall B-2. The other speakers include Legal Studies Professor Phillip Nichols, Economics and South Asian Regional Studies Professor Alan Heston and Research Associate Douglas Ewbank of the Population Studies Center.

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