The risk of your mother dying already in childbirth is greater in Africa than it is anywhere else in the world. The chances of you not surviving the first month of your life is four times higher than in Europe, and the chances of you not seeing your fifth birthday is more than 10 times as high as it is in the industrialised world. Thirteen out of every hundred children do not reach the age of five.
The likelihood of you being orphaned before you reach 15 years of age is 12%. If that happens, there is no guarantee that you are lucky enough to live in one of the mere 17 countries that have a policy for parentless children. And, should you be fortunate enough to have one or perhaps even two parents, the likelihood of your parents also having to look after other parentless children is 20%. If you live long enough to reach adulthood, you are still faced with the prospect of living to just 48 years of age.
During that time, you will live in a continent that contains all 25 of the world’s least developed countries; a continent whose recent history includes the slave trade, colonialism, military dictatorships, ethnic cleansing, corrupt leaders, war, famine, gigantic debt and grinding poverty. After 50 years and more than USD 2 trillion worth of Western aid, 95% of the population in 22 African countries were still living on less than USD 8 a day in 2007. That equates to 486 million people. And many of them are living on less than USD 1 a day in what the World Bank defines as absolute poverty. They lack the bare necessities, are constantly hungry, are unable to receive basic healthcare, clean drinking water and sanitation, and may even lack something as simple as shelter from the weather and basic clothing, such as shoes.
The causal connection is complicated. Still, there is no argument that Africa is the sickest continent in the world. Sleeping sickness, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and a long list of other diseases, which to a certain extent are under control in the rest of the world, run riot here.
Africa’s population represents of 11% of the world’s population, but 60% of all HIV and AIDS cases and 80% of all malaria cases in the world occur in Africa.
Malaria is an even bigger killer than HIV and AIDS, and most cases occur in children under 5 years of age.
In Africa the number of tuberculosis cases has tripled since 1990 and the disease kills more than half a million Africans annually.
More than 60 million people are in the risk group for contracting sleeping sickness. In 2004, more than 17,000 new cases were reported, but the real figure is estimated to be between four to six times higher.
In brief, there is every possible reason for choosing any other continent to be born in. That is, if you had the choice…
Read more on the challenges that Africa is facing in our company magazine Angle, March 2010 issue