Jean-Jacques Pluchart
Management in post-colonial Africa has long been reduced to the management of SMEs or domestic cooperatives and the administration of subsidiaries of Western groups. Recent African literature [1] shows that the continent is going through a period of transition marked by the redeployment of sectors of activity such as agri-food, energy, construction, tourism, as well as health and telephony sectors. These transformations are being driven by a new African elite, itself stimulated by a youth that refuses to be condemned to emigration and wishes to adapt to the changes of the contemporary world. This elite is aware that Africa is the richest of all continents in terms of its raw material resources, its youth (more than a third of the population), its social structures (more than 2,000 ethnic groups) and its cultures.
This elite, trained in European and American universities is striving to ease the tension between the legacy of post-colonial traditions and post-modern models based on innovation, individualism and freedoms. It notes that too many African states are still victims of political instability, institutional precariousness, social inequalities and lack of funding.It is confronted with struggles between governments that are rarely democratic, but above all, between local castes for the appropriation of income from the exploitation of natural resources. It is confronted by certain Western (increasingly less European), Asian (increasingly Chinese) and Russian multinational groups. African nation-states are traversed by convergent and divergent dynamics. They are striving to settle the legacy of colonisation, to consolidate their access to independence, to achieve their full sovereignty and to influence the balance of power between the continents of the west, the east and the global south.
African youth want the emergence of an original managerial model, the advent of an “active African modernity”, conceived as an adaptation of Anglo-Saxon models, and as a “plural construction, combining science and conscience, but also reflecting the realities of the continent”. It perceives modernity as “a historical construction aimed at freeing the individual from certain social and cultural constraints “. This modernity is characterised by a loosening of traditional practices, a search for pragmatism and above all, an appropriation of the technologies of the digital economy – and in particular of AI and crypto-assets – as well as by the development of large environmentally friendly infrastructure projects. It seeks new types of alliances, cooperation and investment, based on more balanced exchanges.
The priorities of the new African leaders and managers are to ensure more stable, inclusive and transparent governance, better regional integration and a stimulating dynamic for young people. The new management methods are oriented towards the creation of companies by African youth, aiming to better exploit local resources and to develop skills in the professions sought by international investors. Another priority of the cooperation is to train Africans in specialities that contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 1 (“No poverty”), SDG 2 (“Zero hunger”), SDG 5 (Gender equality), SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities and social inclusion) and SDG 13 (Combating climate change).
The impetus for this dynamic is collaborative research and educational innovation, in which French-speaking teacher-researchers must take part.
[1] Literature commented on each week on clubturgot.com.