Charities Holding Africa Back?

A quote that a famous US-based rapper stated caught my attention, he said, "Personally, I don't think that charities in Africa really work. I think that it just holds the people down longer than it should." The rapper in question is Akon (someone who I have never heard of me, forgive my cultural ignorance), and while some may argue what is his business commenting on such subjects, one has to take into account his upbringing in Senegal.

According to The Guardian article, "600 million Africa people still live without access to electricity, and 3.5 million people die each year from inhaling toxic fuels or house fires..." Bringing electricity to Africa will help facilitate growth within Africa, and quite frankly I can see the point that Akon is trying to make having some significance. Don't get me wrong, what the NGO's are doing is noble work, however we as a nation understand well enough that when we put our own people to work, that is when we grow the quickest. This was evident following the Great Depression under FDR's economic stimulation plan known as "The New Deal."

Africans need to be put to work, they need to be trained on utilizing new technology, most notably solar. NGO's may come and go, their workers while they may care are not as fully invested as someone who lives and breathes in Africa every day, who grew up in Africa and wants to see their own continent and individual country within that continent grow and prosper.

Africa was and still is a country of great natural resources, there is a reason that the continent was colonized after-all. Africa was significantly hindered in its own development as a region of the world due to colonialism, and is further stagnating due to its reliance on NGO's and donations when what it should really be doing is putting itself to work, understanding technology and growing to be the "new China."

Source(s):
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/05/akon-charities-africa-lighting-energy-access
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/07/strategies-for-sustainable-energy-development-in-africa/
http://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/south-africa-lead-the-solar-energy.jpg