Renowned speaker and business leader, Magatte Wade was included in the ranking in 2014 Forbes of the most inspiring personalities from Africa. Defender of virtuous capitalism, skeptical of development aid for African countries, this extraordinary personality, whom France has failed to keep, pleads for liberalizing economies in Africa.
L’Express: You are originally from Senegal, you studied in France and you have French nationality. So why did you choose to live in the United States?
Magatte Wade: I would never have been satisfied with what was possible for me in France. Things have changed, but at the time, I had no reason to believe that, as a Senegalese immigrant in France, without a piston, I could have run a business. Your background, the address on your CV and the photo on it define your future.
My life changed after an exchange in the United States. Even in the Midwest, vibes were very different from those of Paris! I was told about a racist country, “deep America”. My host family paid my visa fees to hire me. When I moved out, the landlord gave me a price on my rent: “You’ve just arrived, that’s normal.”
In less than a year, I was in Silicon Valley. I had been a cashier at the Carrefour de Chartres, and here I am a headhunter for large companies, including Google. They gave me my chance despite my thick French accent, because they saw my determination. Young people creating the future day and night, that’s what I wanted from life, and American culture suited me better.
Do you think that France is a territory conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship?
France produces some of the best technical talents, mathematicians and engineers in the world, but is not “entrepreneur friendly”. When a French engineer leaves school, a young American of the same age sets up his second company. The same person with the same job has two completely different futures. It’s a shame, because there are entrepreneurial French youth, but talent cannot be locked away: entrepreneurs go where they are allowed to create.
The French want to have a pension and purchasing power, and that is normal. But it is the company and, therefore, the entrepreneur who create this. The French have a closed vision of the economy, for fear of losing what they have acquired. They try to recut the same cake without imagining that we can make it bigger, or that we can make others. It is often said that Americans are big children, but children see possibilities where adults see obstacles.
Today, what motivates you to do something for Africa?
Respect for Africans will come with prosperity. “The fate of all black people, wherever they live, is linked to the fate of Africa,” says Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo. This is how stereotypes stick to black skin. We still cannot dissociate a black person from the way we see Africa. Everything I do is to contribute to a prosperity that will reposition Africans and all black people on the world stage.
It is in this order that we must act to fight against racism. The activism of Rokhaya Diallo does not resolve the fundamental problem. As long as Africa is not prosperous, racism will exist. I don’t have time to waste telling people to stop being racist. For me, it comes down to managing the symptoms of an illness, not its causes.
“If Africa is poor, it is because of a lack of economic freedom”
What is it like to do business in Senegal?
Africa is the continent with the most overregulated economy in the world. But overregulation leads to corruption. If Africa is poor, it is because of a lack of economic freedom. It is no coincidence that 90% of Senegalese companies are in the informal sector. Being a legal entrepreneur is the cross and the banner because of the bureaucracy: as soon as my company reaches a certain size, we are entitled to inspectors. When I was forced to triple the salary of a candidate, I had to give up employing her.
Everything must change, and we might as well start small, in the start-up cities. In Benin, for example, there are [la nouvelle zone économique spéciale de] Glo, but, after two or three years of existence, it is barely filled, partly because of the legal regime and governance. This is normal: it requires great expertise. But an entrepreneur, the first thing he sees is the creativity made possible by the jurisdiction, not the tax incentive.
There is also a monetary brake. One of France’s colonial legacies is also the monetary and legal system. The French-speaking African world is still France’s territory with the CFA franc, pegged to the euro and, therefore, less flexible.
What were your experiences when you tried to bring investment projects to Africa?
It is urgent to attract investments, and from everywhere, not just from France. We sleep on opportunities. In Benin, I presented a major American investment project to Apiex [l’agence gouvernementale de promotion des investissements et des exportations] of 500 million dollars and with jobs at stake. We are still waiting for a response. It’s been almost a year now. Meanwhile, Apiex multiplies promotional operations in France to attract the private sector, without much success. It makes no sense. I call it, as the Ghanaian economist George Ayittey did, “hippos versus hippos cheetahs“: the slow and gluttonous bureaucracy versus the fast and cunning cheetahs.
In 2014, Magatte Wade was ranked by Forbes among the most inspiring people in Africa.
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What do you think of French migration policy?
In France, politicians use immigrants to advance their pawns. To score points, some say: “We’re opening the borders”, others: “We’re going to keep them outside.” I especially appeal to people on the left. If they really care about the plight of migrants, they should understand why they migrate. You don’t leave your community and your family for pleasure. You have to overcome emotion. If there was work in Africa, they would stay at home. Bringing economic freedom is not interference: it is solving a problem that is a universal reality.
You are critical of development aid, why?
It is a neocolonial tool that creates dependence. Our leaders are lining their pockets. We prefer to send Aspégic rather than treating the origin of the headaches. If we treat the symptoms and not the cause, we remain in poor health.
An example: in the United States, the company Toms Shoes launched a campaign “one pair bought, one pair given to an African”. In Senegal, be sure that with this no shoe business will see the light of day. There is no competition for free. The children have shoes, but their parents will remain poor and will not be able to send them to school. Social entrepreneurs got rich by believing they were doing good without trying to understand why they were too poor to have shoes.
“I don’t want the African to live well to the detriment of the French, and vice versa.”
Do you think that education has a role to play in transmitting entrepreneurial culture in Africa?
Education in the French-speaking world is a dinosaur. We do not teach young people to learn, but just to prepare for the exam. Schools in Senegal are still marked by this French-style teaching, where the teacher brings knowledge down to the students. With generative AI, human beings must be armed with creativity, independent thinking, and the ability to collaborate. The young African needs “just do it.” If we draw on this culture in Africa, we will succeed. Thus, I created an entrepreneurial school which uses the codes of Montessori, with an emphasis on initiative and agency. [la capacité d’action].
You who live in the United States, what do you think of the Black Lives Matter movement?
The movement raises a serious problem, that of police violence, but, combined with a Marxist vision, it loses all its meaning. How can we say that black lives matter and defend a Marxist vision of the economy? This is nonsense to me!
How would you define yourself politically?
I am a “bleeding heart libertarian.” My motivation is to improve the lives of less fortunate people. I believe in entrepreneurship and economic freedom as by far the most powerful tools. I do not want the African to live well to the detriment of the French, and conversely, I am above all a humanist. I want to create bridges so that the people of the world can connect with each other, whatever their social or geographical origin.
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