With poverty comes gross inequality and none of us can be free where poverty and inequality persist.

With poverty comes gross inequality and none of us can be free where poverty and inequality persist.

To alleviate poverty, Africa needs to cultivate creative and intellectual abilities that will allow it to increase the value of its raw materials and to break its vicious cycle of poverty.

But first, we Africans need to empower ourselves with knowledge.

Instead of addressing the underlying causes of poverty, African leaders are giving their people false hope. If we all demand higher wages, we will end up paying higher wages to ourselves.

Acquiring knowledge will result in the creation of new products derived from new technologies. The end result will not be just redistributing wealth, but creating and controlling it.

Africa will perish if it continues to consume what it does not produce and produce what it does not consume. The result will be a depressing cycle of increasing consumption, decreasing production and increasing poverty.

We cannot have a future unless we learn from our past. Five thousand years of recorded history reveal that technology was ancient Africa's gift to the modern world. Use that gift to our advantage and Africa will enjoy the fruits of its labour.

Tshepo Diale, GaRankuwa