Africans living in the United States are twice as likely to graduate from college as the average American.
These African students often come from families who value education as a way to get on in life and place a high value on working and studying hard.
Sara Tsegaye, a straight-A student at UCLA, is one example of that success. Her parents fled Ethiopia in the late 1980s, first to Sudan and then, when Sara was one year old, they moved to San Jose, California.
Sara’s father works on a mobile ice cream truck in San Jose and her mother used to be a factory worker before she got laid off.
“We manage to pay for school because I’ve been working since I was 11,” Sara told Reuters Africa Journal. “I’ve been working with my dad on his ice cream truck, he’s been paying me and I’ve been saving the money. Also I had two jobs in high school and I saved up a lot of money. I understand the value of money.”
Sara wants to work with an NGO or a non-profit organisation after she graduates. She wants to travel and she wants to make a difference in the world. Other African students say they want to go home once they get a bit of experience in their careers.
But Africa is suffering from a massive brain drain just now and it’s questionable whether enough of those highly motivated students from America will return home in large enough numbers to really make a difference.
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“Brain drain” is not the problem. That is apparent even from the remote corner of Alaska where I live.
Their problems are the same faced by our Natives (Indians and Eskimo). Tribalism, nepotism, clan favoritism, a belief that the twits romanticizing the “primitive and simple life” know what they are talking about (it excuses their failures), and the untrustworthyness of everyone in the area. (Note the lecture on “Trust societies” by Drake in “The Last Centurian”.)
Add to this the tribal economic system that requires a person support his relatives, no matter how lazy he might be, that prevents people from being able to build capital to use to build wealth.
- Posted by Phillep HardingIf I could come to Africa and be assured of keeping a reasonable portion of the wealth I generate and know that the government would protect my property rights, I’d be making plans to migrate. Right now, Vietnam is looking more hospitable to business and entrepreneurs than any western country so plans are in that direction.
- Posted by katzAs an African who have had an opprotunity to study abroad, i honestly was looking forward to coming back home (in Kenya), and make a difference, and i did come back. I did get a rude shock. First employers were not willing to hire me. Their reason, i was too overqualified with my European degree, second the politics, bureaucracy, and bad economic has seen my ideas shoved aside. I am currently waiting to start my PhD abroad and trust me, coming back home to work will be the last thing on my mind!!
- Posted by PaulineWe need to change the teachings at our universities and schools, teach our children to be producers of goods, ideas, business, etc. Teach them not to be consumers of everything they come across….In South Africa, a new graduates first major purchase is a car, not shares/something that will create money…but more liability and debt. This must change.
- Posted by BonganiThey should call it a skills drain because that is really what it is and Africa probably has the least skills in the world such that the little it loses it shows. For those who think African students are gettting equal education to the western world think again. Nigeria which used to have some of the best universities on the continent did a survey and found that the average graduate from one of its top universities in 2009 scores LOWER than his/her peer in 1980. Try building a house in Africa and you will quickly realize just how unskilled people are. They cant even keep things in a straight line anymore.
- Posted by NwabuI agree that the matter of ethnicity is too important in Africa, especially in South Africa. Here in SA I see the politicians giving more and more importance to race, up until the point where many skilled whites do not feel welcome in their own country any more. They are leaving, and the politicians are celebrating.
- Posted by dp