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INTRODUCTION:

Generally speaking, sustainable development focuses on improving the well being of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In order to maintain sustainable development, the social, economic, and environmental aspects of a society must constantly be working simultaneously in order to benefit it. When one of these three constituent parts fails to function properly and stops from “harmonizing” with the rest of the parts, problems within a society begin to occur, affecting its people. This is exactly what we see today in Africa. The breakdown of the aforementioned constituent parts has led the continent into a whirl of turmoil. The authors of this paper argue that it is the disintegration of the institutions of education, medicine, family, agriculture and business that have caused the breakdown of the social, economic, and environmental components of African society. This paper will discuss one way to combat and improve the dissolution of sustainable development in Africa: educating the African people on what steps they need to take (with respect to the EDUCATION SYSTEM, MEDICAL ISSUES, FAMILY STRUCTURE, and AGRICULTURE/BUSINESS) in order to move forward towards a more sustainable society.

For several hundred years, the only main European presence in Africa was in port towns along the coast. These ports were used for trading with Africans and as a stop along trade routes to further destinations. However, in the late 1800s colonization within the region accelerated rapidly and led to what is known as the “scramble for Africa." At the Berlin Conference in 1884, European powers met to decide on a way to partition Africa so that each European country had at least one piece to control. These new boundaries were drawn arbitrarily according to European desires and did not take existing tribal boundaries into account. This foreign control has led to internal conflict within nations as well as conflict between different nations with effects that can still be seen today. However, to gain more control over the region, the imperialist nations actively underdeveloped the areas they controlled to cause the countries to be more dependent on them. This is a problem the world is facing in much of the “global south” (Africa, India, Southeastern Asia, and South America), which contains most of the areas that Europe conquered and controlled with this underdevelopment tactic. When Europe decolonized Africa, they did not prepare the colonies for independence and did not set up any sort of framework for political development of governmental structure. This has in turn caused many of the challenges the world is now facing on the African continent.

EDUCATION SYSTEM:

The arrival of Europeans on the African continent resulted in many challenges as European standards were placed upon traditional practices. The areas of practice this has been most noticeable in is education. Traditional African education was focused around raising the young of the tribe to have the skills necessary to take their place in African society upon adulthood. Boys and girls were generally taught separately as boys followed and mimicked their fathers and girls stayed around the home with their mothers. According to an article by John K. Marah, Ed.D., "Girls were socialized to effectively learn the roles of motherhood, spouse, and other sex-appropriate skills. Boys were socialized to be hunters, herders, agriculturalists, blacksmiths, etc., depending on how the particular ethnic group, clan or family derived its livelihood."

Another key purpose to African education is to ensure that youth are prepared for marriage and the challenges of supporting a family. It is important that when a young woman is old enough she gets married and starts a family to ensure that the tribe or clan population continues. She must have the skills necessary for this. Likewise, her husband must know how to hunt to provide for the family, or learn a particular trade to earn a living off of. Clan rituals, values, and ceremonies have also been critical in the upbringing of African children. Learning particular dances, songs, stories, and beliefs is essential to the continuation of cultural heritage. As is evident, this is not the "reading, writing, and arithmetic" pedagogical mentality that has been engrained in Western culture as the basis for education. As well, much of this education took place on a daily basis in the everyday life of the family and was not separated as a specific time for learning within school walls.

While some may say that because of this history, European education systems do not make sense in African society, the fact is that countries within Africa are trying to enter the global system. The problem lies merely in the fact that the African people just do not know what they need to do in order to make education a serious institution. It is necessary and utterly crucial that the children of Africa have the proper schooling to not only take their place among African society, but the global community as well. Until this occurs, Africa will never be able to succeed as a developed region. In fact, according to WorldMapper, which explores varying aspects of development around the world, African countries are consistently at the bottom of the list in ratings such as primary school enrollment, girls in primary school, and adult literacy.

Because the people are just not aware of how important education is in a child’s life, both intellectually and socially, many African governments spend very little money on their education systems, thus there are very few places that provide a decent place for children to study or even books to use. In the United States we are used to classrooms being fully equipped with computers and Internet access, every child having the necessary books and supplies, and grappling over whether the school bus is late. However, in Africa, many times children are simply concerned about whether their school "building" will be standing that day. This often means that the cost of education falls to the parents who may or may not be able to afford it. Countless charities, missions, and non-governmental organizations (NGO) have set up camp in Africa with the goal of building new school buildings and improving the overall education for the children.

It is not only important for children in Africa to receive a quality education to learn the skills that other children around the world have, but it is equally important to educate them on the world outside their own village; their country; their continent. If they never consider the "outside" world, they will never try to achieve goals beyond where they are; they would simply continue the cycle of learning tribal rituals and skills that are important in maintaining, what they believe is, a sustainable village and tribe. Opening young eyes to greater opportunities is the key to development because it shows them that they can reach higher and push their family and their nation toward change, which would lead to a better, more sustainable life.

MEDICAL ISSUES:

Not only is the education system deficient because of their lack of knowledge and awareness of how the system should be run in order to promote a more sustainable society, but this same lack of knowledge also has a great impact on their health. Not knowing how to properly take care of their bodies and not knowing how to prevent themselves from acquiring the numerous diseases (i.e. HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and meningococcal meningitis) that are ever so prevalent on the continent, it is nearly impossible for them to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in Africa. Caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a very fatal disease. HIV destroys a person's defense system, which, when working properly, fights infection. A person with HIV eventually loses the ability to fight illnesses and their body gets weaker until death. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection. A person is diagnosed with AIDS when it is found that they have an opportunistic infection . Imagine your life this way. You get up early in the morning with your four children and eat breakfast. One of your children is bound to die in infancy. Your husband works 300 miles away, comes home three times a year and sleeps around in between. You gamble with your life when you engage in every act of sexual intercourse. You go to work every morning passing a house where a teen lives alone trying to take care of younger siblings with no source of income. At a near by home, a spouse was considered to be a whore because she asked her husband to use a condom. As a result, she was horribly beaten and dumped into the streets. Just around the corner lies a man very ill without access to a doctor, medication, food, or a kind word. You eat with the rest of the people you work with and just about every third one is ill. You whisper about a friend that has admitted to having HIV/AIDS and whose neighbors threw rocks at her. Your free time is occupied by funerals every Saturday. You go to bed wondering if adults your age are going to make it into their 40's. You, your neighbors, and your political leaders act as if nothing is happening. Across Africa this nightmare is real. There are more than 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Of this number, 68% (about 28.5 million) of them are in Africa. The majority of adult populations with HIV/AIDS are women. Ten people are infected with the HIV virus every minute and about 6,000 people all across Africa die each day from this stalking disease. This number is higher than the combined number of deaths caused by wars and floods.

This mentality, the one that believes that using a condom suggests your partner is promiscuous, is a very ignorant one; but this ignorance is not the fault of the African people. It is the result of a lack of proper education in the school systems. These people do not have the opportunity to take a health class in school and learn about the benefits of having safe sex and the consequences that can result if it is not practiced. It is incredible to imagine that it is this ignorance that is killing so many innocent and young lives; lives that, under different circumstance, could have been of great benefit to the global society. All they needed was someone to teach them.

Malaria is another of Africa's deadly diseases. It is a potentially fatal blood disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted to human and animal hosts by the Anopheles mosquito. Malaria take lives of over one million people annually, most of which are children under the age of 5, and approximately 90% of people that live in Africa. It is responsible for one out of every four childhood deaths in Africa.

Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is yet another devastating illness that takes the lives of innocent individuals in Africa each year. It is a deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria. TB usually attacks the lungs, but it can also attack other major organs. The disease spreads through the air when people, who have the disease, cough, sneeze, or spit. Because parts of Africa are dealing with extreme poverty, it is much more likely for those areas to come into contact with it. TB lives in areas that are overcrowded and poverty-stricken, such as Africa, where the conditions are ideal for transmitting the disease to others. People dying of TB are literally ‘consumed’ by the disease, which is why it was known as ‘consumption’ in the past. Untreated, most people with TB become feverish, exhausted, and emaciated to near skeletons; as their lungs are destroyed. Those with the disease die of asphyxiation, or virtually drown in their own blood.

Africa, home to 11% of the world's population, carries 29% of the global burden of tuberculosis cases and 34% of related deaths, and the challenges of controlling the disease in the region have never been greater. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the average incidence of TB in African countries more than doubled between 1990 and 2005, from 149 to 343 per 100,000 populations. In 1990, the African countries of Mali and Togo had an incidence greater than 300 per 100,000. By 2005, 25 countries had reached that level, and 8 of them had an incidence at least twice that high.

The unprecedented growth of the TB epidemic in Africa is attributable to several factors, the most important being the HIV epidemic. Although HIV is Africa's leading cause of death, TB is the most common coexisting condition in people who die from AIDS. Autopsy studies show that 30 to 40% of HIV-infected adults die from TB. Taking this statistic into account, imagine how much improvement could be made with respect to the number of people who die of both AIDS and tuberculosis if people were educated on simply how to prevent themselves from contracting AIDS. If this were done, not only would the percentage of people with AIDS decrease, but so would the percentage of those with TB.

Sub-Saharan Africa is known as the "meningitis belt" because the highest burden of meningococcal disease occurs here. This region is an area that stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. There is a total estimated 300 million people that are accounted for between this area. Meningococcal meningitis is inflammation of the meninges . Typically, a person with this disease experiences symptoms similar to those one would experience at the onset of the flu. Unlike the flu, however, a stiff neck and intolerance of lights are also frequent symptoms. Within hours of the first symptoms the disease can progress to delirium, coma or convulsions and invade the bloodstream, setting off a body wide infection that attacks organs and can cause circulatory collapse, a hemorrhagic rash and gangrene. This bacterium is transmitted through person to person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions. For example, kissing, sneezing and coughing on someone, living in close quarters or dormitories, or sharing the same eating and drinking utensils can spread the disease.

It is clear that the African population, in general, is not well informed on these diseases and how to prevent themselves from acquiring them. This lack of knowledge has caused (and is still causing) millions of lives to fall victim to the aforementioned diseases. Remember the old adage “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him”? Well, it definitely does not apply to the current medical situation in Africa because it is precisely the fact that the African people don’t know enough about the diseases and their prevention that is hurting them, killing millions of innocent lives.

FAMILY STRUCTURE:

The most concise and comprehensive way to describe family in Africa (or anywhere in the world) was stated best by Will and Ariel Durant: "The family is the nucleus of any civilization." Family is the most important, if not the only, form of structure of most tribes, countries, and cities within Africa. Life and survival in Africa is dependent on the maintenance of this structure. There are two main factors that are causing the breakdown of this very crucial structure: the AIDS epidemic and loss of money.

In order to understand why the family structure is failing to maintain itself in many parts of Africa, it is important to first understand what makes a family and how they function. It is very common in Africa for a man’s wealth and societal status to be measured by the size of his family. In tribes such as the Masaai (found in Kenya and Tanzania), for example, cattle is the root of all wealth; anything desired within a tribe can be bought for the right amount of cattle. Men inherit whatever comes from their birth mother, but in order to achieve the wealth necessary to marry, they must work very hard and put an immense amount effort and time into it. Any man wishing to marry within a tribe must be able to prove his wealth. When a man marries, there are two rules to which he must abide; first, he must honor the father's cattle price and second, choose a girl who is at least 28 years younger.

The woman's role within a tribe such as the Masaai is the stereotypical housework associated with the “woman’s role.” A woman must take care of the children, milk the cattle, make repairs to the shambas (huts), collect firewood, prepare the food, and obtain water, which could take several miles to collect. The man's role, however, is much simpler and, in most eyes, easier. All a man has to do is herd the cattle well.

The AIDS epidemic, which is causing the greatest number of deaths among the diseases previously discussed, has contributed to the widespread loss of family structure within Africa. Families become parentless when mom and dad are dead, leaving their children essentially orphaned. This results in the eldest cousin or aunt and uncle taking over the role of parents in order to support the family. Since families have to take in numerous family members, this means having to cutback on what they can afford. Also, many young girls become prostitutes in order to make more income for their family. These girls eventually end up contracting HIV because they are not having protected sex, resulting in an early death later on because of AIDS, thus compounding the problem of a lacking family structure. As mentioned before, if the African people were made more aware of the dangers of having unprotected sex and how, in this way, they are more susceptible to HIV, this would not only reduce the number of people dying from other diseases that co-occur with AIDS, but would also help maintain a sustainable family structure.

African families are now finding themselves less of a family and more of a scattered genealogy. Parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, etc. do not have a place in Africa anymore. With new medical issues plaguing Africa each day, more people are dying and family structures are vanishing.

Another factor that is causing the disintegration of family structure is the loss of money. When families are stricken with AIDS and other diseases, any type of health care for these diseases take one third of a family's income, making survival an automatic failure. The life expectancy for an African should be around 66 years of age; however, with an enormous amount of the population affected with AIDS, the life expectancy is 33. Also, when a family member dies, it is the duty of the family to honor the deceased by a proper burial. One burial for an African family consumes three times as much as their monthly income. Furthermore, these burials leave them with no money at all for about three months, making the situation even worse.

Whenever a family member perishes or anytime the family needs more money, the woman completely steps up her responsibility. The woman has to be the housekeeper, the caretaker of the ill, and the income-maker. The women are often forced to do jobs outside of their comfort zone and they are troopers because they know that the family members heavily depend on them to carry the family. The women often find themselves doing jobs that are viewed as male dominated in Africa, such as carpentry, for example.

Everything that was mentioned above about the family structure, believe it or not, relates to the middle and upper classes of African society. It is shocking to believe that what we refer to as our lower class in the United States is analogous to Africa's upper class. Most people in Africa are lucky to even have a family member around to support them. Many children in Africa have to rely on their brothers and sisters to get them through the day. Most people could not imagine relying on their six-year-old sibling to support and raise them when they are four years old. It is absolutely ludicrous. The family structure in the most common areas of Africa, the most grief stricken poverty areas, is not even in existence. In fact, some people go through their lives not even knowing what a family is or how wonderful it is. Could you imagine living a life without knowing how great a family can be, or even what the most lateral definition of a family is? In today's Africa, children are sweeping the ground for any way of survival instead of knowing what it's like to have fun. African children are focused more on how to get another meal and how to survive instead of how to get a date for prom. We, as Americans, truly do take our lives for granted sometimes.

AGRICULTURE & BUSINESS:

What is sustainable agriculture? It is an environmental friendly system or way of producing food without damaging the world and, at the same time, it is healthier for us. The objective of sustainable agriculture is to gratify human food and fiber needs, improve environmental value and the natural resource base that agriculture economy depends on, make the most resourceful use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources, and increase the excellence of life for farmers and society as a whole. Sustainable agriculture seeks to accomplish three key goals: economic effectiveness, environmental excellence, and community accountability. As members of the global society, we need to focus on what we can do as both individually and as a group to reach the goals of sustainable agriculture. We want to find better techniques and methods so we can stop producing, cultivating, etc. in ways that damage our environment and our ecosystem.

Agriculture is obviously a part of the business world. A business can be sustainable if it has adapted to the use of renewable resources such as energy, water, paper, etc. At the same time, a sustainable business must operate in a socially responsible workplace, while still protecting the environment. Some examples include facilities’ efficiency (i.e. water, raw materials), material and process improvements, supply chain efficiencies, products or services that are more efficient, recycling, telecommuting, and optimizing of any resource use.

With the problems society faces nowadays such as global warming and high oil prices, increasingly more businesses have begun to adopt principles of sustainability within their business. One of the places we don’t really think about sustainable business development is in Africa. Despite being provided with immense natural and human resources, sustainable economic development in much of Africa has proven to be hard to define. According to INSEAD Business in Society Centre, Niger’s literacy rate is 17%; Liberia has three phone landlines per 1,000 inhabitants; only 22% of Ethiopians have access to clean water; in Mali almost half of 10-14 year-olds work; and Ethiopia and Burundi’s Gross National Income (GNI) are a low US $90. The rapid spread of HIV and AIDS, insufficient aid and investments flows, weak commodity prices, and lack of trade opportunities weakens the progress in business. Even though aid flows and debt relief have somewhat uplifted economic growth, reducing poverty remains a challenge.

As mentioned by Royal Dutch Shell’s Chief Executive, Jeroen van der Veer, “Business is the real poverty killer.” Africa is bursting with independent entrepreneurs and all they need is a little boost to help them make great gains. How come when we think of Africa we don’t think of business development? It can’t possibly be the people’s fault? Is it a possibility that the national governments are responsible for the people’s ignorance and lack of awareness with respect to how businesses are run outside of their continent?

It is true that, for ages, governments have feared educating the public because an ignorant, unaware population does not know any better and are more vulnerable to corruption. They believe that whatever life they are leading is right and fair. It is when information and knowledge leaks into society that people begin to question the system, often leading to revolution. Though this is likely not the motive of African governments, the byproducts of this problem are standing in the way of development. If political leaders do not know how governments are being run elsewhere, they cannot make informed decisions about how to effectively run their nation. If farmers and other manufacturers are unaware of how their products are being used and what they are being sold for elsewhere, they cannot know if they are getting a fair price for their goods. The constant influx of information is vital to development within a region, especially one as underdeveloped as Africa.

CONCLUSION:

The vastness and diversity within the continent of Africa makes it difficult to apply common solutions to the problems facing the region. NGO’s and other groups have spent a great amount of time brainstorming solutions to the current problems, however it seems as though new problems arise as solutions to existing problems are being implemented. As we have discussed, education and awareness is the stem from which many aspects of sustainable development tend to branch from. Medicine, a stronger family structure, agriculture and business are some of the main branches of that sustainability tree. Education and awareness is the main solution to the problems facing Africa. If there is a stable educational system in Africa and every community is made aware of the world around them, they would be able to work toward tomorrow rather than just surviving today, therefore moving toward sustainability. The knowledge learned by the generation of today are the hands which mold Africa’s future. That knowledge and education creates the stepping stone for change in Africa. Better education leads to better methods, solutions, and preventions in medicine; this leads to a stronger, better family structure; and this can create a more sustainable economy in areas such as agriculture and business. You will find that education and awareness are bleeding through all of these aspects, which, if configured correctly, will achieve sustainability through out the African continent.

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