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device charging, virtual top-ups and
low-cost connectivity; and
• Waxy II technology (Tanzania), which recycles and transforms post-consumer waste plastic into durable and environmentally friend- ly plastic lumber using a chemi- cal-free and energy-conserving technology for building, construc-
tion and furniture production.
Clearly, Africa lacks neither the creativ- ity nor the capacity for innovation. The building of enduring institutions and capabilities, however, requires more attention to the political economy and the reproduction of combined, yet un- even, development. Efforts towards colonialised curricula, sustainable de- velopment, and the defence of dem- ocratic advances offer the peoples of
Africa a wider canvas upon which to inscribe a real new dawn, one which redresses the “premature de-indus- trialisation” of most of the continent’s economies.
Initiatives that revitalise civil society also hold much promise. Africans Rising, for example, is a pan-African movement of people and organisations working for peace, justice and dignity. It emerged from a bottom-up series of on and off-line consultations and dia- logues between and amongst social and social justice movements, non- governmental organisations (NGOs), intellectuals, artists, sportspeople, cul- tural activists and others, across the six regions of the African Union and the inter-state efforts towards trans- continental integration.
All these progressive ideals, however, remain moot if economic orthodoxies, neoliberalism and corrupt governance retain the inordinate power they now exercise over society. The systematic destruction of indigenous knowledge demands redress, opening the possi- bility of co-constructing a harmonious relationship with nature, bound togeth- er in solidarity and cooperation, for a shared moderate prosperity for all. The young people of Africa are building the road whilst they walk. We should all be supportive and ensure intergeneration- al empowerment for creatively destroy- ing the constraints of post and neo-co- lonial Africa, and for midwifing the birth of a really new Africa that works for all its peoples.
FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Volume 12 No.3 of 2019 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 27