Africa lacks leadership and forward thinking.
But those aren't my words.

No, they belong to Fred Swaniker, a native of Ghana and the co-founder and CEO of the African Leadership Academy (an amazing organization that educates Africa's best and brightest in the areas of leadership, social entrepreneurship, and community building).  He had some really interesting comments:

Why did you create this school?

The countries I’d lived in that I saw things were working, like Botswana, you could see that it was the leadership at the root cause of it. And no place shows you the impact of leadership in Africa than Nigeria. People think what we need in Africa is resources, it’s not resources, the world keeps giving us more aid, that’s not what’s going to change Africa, we have all the resources we need. We have people; I mean Nigeria has 140 million people. They have all these natural resources, starting resources that any country can really use to kickstart development. But time and time again, we find that our leaders have held us back.
Look at Zimbabwe today. The whole country’s being held back by one person. Look at where things worked, like South Africa. We went from apartheid to democracy – few people – Nelson Mandela. So I’ve come to see that a few people were holding Africa back, these people were the leaders. And I realized that if we can change Africa, it’s not going to be a lot of people. It’s going to be a few extraordinary leaders who are going to make all the difference.
The other thing I think we do in Africa is we think too short-term. When you’re transforming a nation, you need to think “generationally”, because Africa’s development is not a short-term project. I’m always amazed when I go to New York, you get in the subway system and travel from Brooklyn to Harlem and they built this thing 100 years ago. They thought, “In 100 years, what’s the population going to be and where will people need to travel?” You go to any neighborhood in Accra, Lagos, or Nairobi, and the thing was built five years ago and it’s already overcrowded. There’s no services, no water. What were these guys thinking? They couldn’t think ahead five years? We’re always fighting one crisis or another, putting out the fires. But how do we engineer society with a long-term view? You develop people who stop these problems from happening in the first place. Why should we have Bono and Bill Gates and Clinton coming to solve our problems? Where are our African versions of these people? That’s what inspired me to make that the focus of the school.

The more I thought about it, I more I realized how right he is. I can't name one issue that doesn't, in some way, trace back to misguided leadership or an inability to look forward. Poor education systems, subpar infrastructure, widespread health issues, military conflicts, trafficking. Each fits the bill.

If you read more of the interview, you'll see he shares this insights matter-of-factly and that they don't get him down. His ultimate goal is not to be Africa's critic, but Africa's catalyst for change. He won't let himself wallow in self-pity (nor will he allow fellow African's feel sorry for themselves), he merely springs into action. When asked for his advice for social entrepreneurs, Fred Swaniker said "Don't wait--start now. Just do it." I admire this guy because he's identified the problem and he's taking action to address it...now. Not in some distant future.
What action can you take right now? Chances are there is something that you know you could do today to start addressing some issue, somewhere. Maybe it's in Africa, maybe it's not, but may we all see things for what they are, identify weaknesses, and spring into action like Mr. Fred Swaniker.