A Professorial Research Fellow at the Central Queensland University, Professor Komla Tsey, has said Africa, particularly Ghana, must exorcise what he described as the "ghost" of the imperial economy embedded in the continent's infrastructure narrative and chart a new moral compass that confronts corruption and the syndrome of "consuming dependency".
He argued that Africa's past must serve as a guiding light for rethinking infrastructure development in ways that benefit the citizenry rather than the colonial administrators whom post-independence leaders replaced.
"Africa's transformation will not begin with machines or ministers, but with a shift in moral imagination from extraction to creation, from imitation to innovation, from spectacle to service, from silence to accountability," he declared.
"The ghosts of empire still linger in our institutions and imaginations. To exorcise them, we must reclaim our capacity to dream and govern differently. Africa's story, like Ananse's, is one of reinvention a delicate dance between cunning and courage, survival and self-sabotage," he added.
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Prof. Tsey made the observations while delivering the keynote address on the topic "Ananse and the Iron Horse: Colonial Legacies, African Elites and Diasporic Responsibilities in Africa's Infrastructure Future" at this year's Fields School and Conference organised by the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) School of Railway Development (SRID) at its Essikado campus in Sekondi-Takoradi.
The event formed part of the Sea-ing Africa: Tracing Legacies and Engaging Future Promises of 'Big' Infrastructure Projects in Port Cities of Ghana and Morocco conference, which ended on Friday.
Using the Ananse folktale as a metaphor, Prof. Tsey, who is also an Adjunct Professor at James Cook University in Australia, insisted that failed infrastructure projects must attract consequences rather than condolences.
Reflecting on history, he said colonial archives were filled with reports of what was described as "sharp practice" a euphemism for corruption and incompetence in public works resulting in delayed railways, collapsed bridges, crumbling harbour walls and a lack of accountability.
He noted that while Western commentators often lament African corruption as an indigenous problem, the systems of taxation, contracting and procurement that sustain corruption were largely colonial inventions.
Citing the construction of the Takoradi Harbour in the 1920s as a classic example, Prof. Tsey said the project, originally estimated at £1 million, ballooned to over £3 million.
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After independence, he said, similar patterns persisted, with African actors inflating contracts by 10 to 20 per cent as bribery "commissions", leading to roads built to substandard levels and housing estates collapsing after the first rains.
Public funds lost through negligence or corruption, he argued, must be pursued with the same vigour used in securing new loans, stressing that "accountability delayed is accountability denied".
Photos caption: PICS 1,3,4 7,Prof.Tsey delivering the keynote at the Field School and Conference at UMaT-SRID. PIC 2, Prof. Tsey(rt) interacting with Dean, SRID, Prof. Issaka Yakubu (left) and Dr Costanza Franceschini (Middle), Coordinator at the conference Prof.5,6
