Magatte Wade is the author of the memoir and manifesto The heart of a cheetah: How we were lied to about African poverty and what it means for human flourishing (Cheetah Press), in which he argues that the solution to Africa’s problems lies in the “cheetah generation.”” of young Africans who embrace free markets, individualism, human rights and transparency in government.
Born in Senegal and now living in Austin, Texas, Wade is director of the Center for African Prosperity at Atlas Network and founder and CEO of Skin Is Skin, which sells skin and lip products sourced from Africa. In December, ReasonNick Gillespie sat down with Wade to discuss his book, entrepreneurship in Africa and startup cities.
Q: The dominant metaphor of your book is the cheetah and its generation. Where does this term come from and what does it mean to you?
A: The reason I am a cheetah is all because of my beloved professor, George Ayittey, a Ghanaian economist who we lost [in 2022]. He had made this differentiation between the hippopotamus mentality. These are the people who still believe that colonialism is taking us backwards. People who believe that slavery, even if we are out of it, takes us back. When you put them all together, it’s pretty much the victim mentality. Because as long as we remain in victimhood, we don’t try to fight more. We remain poor and foreign aid continues to arrive to supposedly solve that poverty. And then they will clash with who? The cheetah generation.
George said the cheetah generation is a generation of Africans with a mindset that truly waits for no one. They will not wait for the government. They will not wait for foreign aid. They believe in themselves. They know they have the tools and they will do it. And he said that the future of our continent lies on the backs of cheetahs.
It’s not about your age. The question is not: are you African or non-African? The question is not whether you are an African living on the continent or in the diaspora? That’s a lot, do you believe we have a bright future? And do you believe that this bright future will be achieved by the free market?
Q: You criticize development economist Jeffrey Sachs, who helped create and promote the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. What do people like Jeffrey Sachs fundamentally get wrong? What is wrong with the framework they are trying to impart to the developing world?
A: To me it simply means not understanding how the world works and not understanding economics. It’s not really rocket science. And maybe that’s why people who are always looking for complexity fail to see it. I think for people like him there’s something very disturbing about the idea that the market can take care of things.
Jeffrey Sachs thought he could solve the problem of poverty and so on, but then what he did was basically create a village, what they would call the Millennium Development Villages. And there they just continued to take a very top-down approach to economics. Ultimately what happened was that they didn’t go anywhere and things started to rot everywhere. All this stuff that they spent millions of dollars on. And by the way, an entrepreneur probably would have produced the same product, of better quality, at a lower price and still been able to sell it, but he would have had nothing to show for it. This is the mentality of such people.
Q: You say Africa would benefit if millions of Africans created businesses and became entrepreneurial. But you point out how difficult it is to start a business in Africa.
A: Life is about compromises. But when it comes to foreign aid, I think people only look at the supposedly small benefits of trade-offs. I had this woman, she was very angry with me. For her, she is sure that the streets can only help. Aren’t they? You see, the road equals an advantage. Let me talk about costs. Because of this path, I have a culture of dependency that continues to be ingrained in my people. This surely cannot be good for the entrepreneurial mindset we need to truly create wealth and value. A cultural dependency simply doesn’t go hand in hand [with economic progress].
Q: How is a street addictive?
A: This path came about thanks to foreign aid. Foreign aid came to us because we are supposedly poor. Our governments are literally poor. They don’t have enough money to meet all the needs that the government would need money for.
Now, I would like to say to people: why do you think we are in that situation? Why do you think we are so poor that we need you to inject additional money into us so we can build the roads we would normally have to build for ourselves with the money we earned? We are poor because we don’t let our entrepreneurs work. If you come to finance me what I should have financed for myself and alone and we continue to do so, nothing has changed since the end of the so-called colonialism.
So, along that path, I see a generation of young people who behave in this way, who cannot operate in the market. Along that road I have also received more violence and even more violence, as well as leaders who never want to leave.
Q: How could startup cities help in an African context?
A: Africa is the poorest region in the world because it is the most over-regulated region in the world. It is the region of the world where entrepreneurs lack what they need most: a supportive business environment.
I’m sure your audience knows how complicated, complicated, difficult and time-consuming the piecemeal legislative and reform process is. Expensive, on time, everything. We have to speed up. And more importantly, we need to be a little more radical because changing something here, changing something there is simply not going to get us there. We must do taste buds and start over.
So the idea is instead: how about we try to clean up one place at a time? Startup cities are these next generation special economic zones with their own law, their own governance, especially when it comes to commercial law, and usually based on common law. That’s really for me the solution, because what you’re suddenly doing for these African entrepreneurs who are trapped in the dysfunctional systems that they’re in right now, you’re giving them a chance.
Q: How do you convince incumbents, the people who benefit from the status quo, to allow this kind of experimentation?
A: The reason I’m so optimistic about Africa’s future is because we don’t need all 54 nations to commit to this together. All I need is a nation where there is a leader who thinks a little more differently than others and also has different goals than others because not everyone is as corrupt as we think they are. And even if they do corrupt things, not everyone, if given the chance, wants to remain in this state of misery and desperation.
Startup cities are a way for these leaders to actually have their cake and eat it too. So keep doing what you’re doing over there, but here, let’s do an experiment that doesn’t affect [the leaders]. There is no sovereignty that is being attacked. Family laws remain the same, immigration law remains the same, criminal law, all these things remain the same. You’re simply saying that when it comes to building prosperity, entrepreneurs need an enabling environment. So we’ll look at business laws specifically and make sure we provide them with the best environment to create.
This interview has been condensed and edited for style and clarity.