BANTU MNIKI | SA cannot prosper without trust and unity

It has long been established that a united nation produces the conditions necessary for growth and abundance. Unity of purpose is thus a prerequisite of wealth creation for nations. One of the most shared wisdoms in many African communities is the example of the bundle of firewood (Inyanda) which cannot be easily broken when it is bound together.

Yet when each individual stick is broken separately, it is much easier to break. The Bible refers to this kind of wisdom in Ecclesiastes 4:12 ESV: “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him — a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” What I like about the firewood metaphor is that it demonstrates that firewood does not need to be the same or look the same. The shapes may vary, yet if the binding cord is tightly wound the collective strength of the bundle holds.

This means the issue of unity has long been established, especially pertaining to communities and nations resisting attack, or in the metaphor, the attempt to break the bundle apart. This metaphor has great relevance in our understanding of how economies can be protected from external attack. Conversely, the lack of this kind of unity represents an internal attack of communities, nations and economies which allows external attacks to succeed easily.

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“One of the most important lessons we can learn from an examination of economic life is that a nation’s wellbeing, as well as its ability to compete, is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in the society.” This is an excerpt from Francis Fukuyama’s workTrust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity,which suggests that trust is crucial in establishing an atmosphere that enables wealth creation. With higher levels of trust, it becomes less expensive to engage in business and consequently to create wealth. Fukuyama also suggests that this trust must be so deep that it becomes part of the culture of the nation for it to contribute towards economic wellbeing. His research shows that high-trust societies tend to develop wealth faster and more sustainably than low-trust societies.

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