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Re. The truth for Trudeau: We’ve been ripping off Africa for
decades
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume
February 22, 2017
The author writing to his friend:
Hi Joel,
Thanks for the link.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-truth-for-trudeau-weve-been-ripping-off-africa-for-decades/article34025656/?utm_
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That's a matter of truth some of us were writing about and
campaigning with in the 1990s. My good friend Femi Komolafe,
author of Africa: Destroyed by the gods and Africa: It Shall be
Well available on Amazon.com, resettled in Ghana with some
compatriots from the Netherlands, armed with printing presses to
educate the so-called leaders and populace so that a renewed
struggle can be waged against neo-colonialism and bring about
the fruition of Franz Fanon and Nkrumah's dreams for Africa.
Today, he is a disappointed man but still soldiering on,
considering the dozens of links I receive from him daily. I was
sceptical about their project, having just returned from field
work in Ghana in 1993, and totally disgusted with the mind-set
of the so-called educated people, not only the clueless and
moronic leadership of the time. I booked the first flight I
could get, which fell on Easter Monday, and left amidst
protestations from Efo Solo and others. I didn't go back to
Ghana for another 10 years and I didn't miss Ghana at all. For
me, the problem is in Ghana/Africa, with the people there.
Yes, the Caucasians and Arabs have always exploited us but
it is with the connivance of greedy, ignorant and powerful
Africans. Unless we realise this and tackle these modern slave
raiders, selling us down the river just as they have done with
the oil boon in Ghana, we aren't going anywhere yet. I have no
respect left for them. Below is a quote from a long with-held
series I am yet to publish. I think Prof. O'Brien captured the
sentiment most succinctly.
"Conor Cruise O'Brien, who
once served as vice chancellor of the University of Ghana, has
made an illuminating observation in an essay with revealing
title "Africa Self-Righteousness Is as Tiresome as European":
The notion of one continent ‘raping’ another is a hollow trope.
The reality was one of exploitation of weak people by strong
people. The strong included many Africans, as well as Europeans.
The Europeans, it is true, got most of the loot. Why not? They
were the strongest of the strong. Liverpool did better out of
the slave trade than Kumasi. But Kumasi, too, did pretty well.
And I have never met an Ashanti who was anything but proud of
the Ashanti Empire, or who was in the least ashamed of the part
played by the slave trade in the growth of that powerful and
predatory policy. The Fanti, who did even better out of the
slave trade, are not exactly wracked by guilt either. Nor…do I
know many Arabs, or members of the African peoples associated
with the Arab slave-trade, who worry about that long chapter in
the history of slavery"' (Society, Jan./Feb., 1997:13-14)."
Below is another extended quote from another unpublished
article I wrote in rebuttal to certain positions of the Left in
Norway given in rejecting joining the EU again in the referendum
of 1995. It speaks for itself. My circulation of the initial raw
one to my Norwegian Leftist student colleagues and to key policy
and opinion makers in Norway led to a public campaign which
halted some of the most egregious actions of the govt against
foreign students. That stopped me from publishing the edited one
which was reviewed by a senior and retired researcher at CMI. He
told me he typed the first Pakistani budget as an aid worker
then. I was surprised they claimed they weren't aware of the
effects of their clearly negative actions and that I painted
them too harshly. Well, Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr who was then
visiting to help complete a Report for the World Food Programme
also read the original on Norwegian policy on foreign
students/foreigners and admitted not being aware of some things
I pointed out and said I was a bit too harsh on them. He
requested for a summary which I never came around to sending
him. Been planning to re-edit the article a bit - actually an
abridged version of the original polemic - and publish it as a
response to BREXIT and Trump. Your link provides new source of
data for someone like me who is no longer in academia. Very apt
and opportune.
Now the quote.
2. The Status Quo
What then is the status quo? In 1992, the UNDP Human Development
Report "conservatively" puts potential annual losses to the
South from distortions in global markets at US$500 billion
dollars. This is putting mildly losses by the LDCs due to trade
protectionism by the North; cognisant of claims of exaggeration
of such losses by the UNDP. In this figure, US$120 billion was
from effective interest rate due to economic weakness; US$ 50
billion in debt-related NET financial transfers; US$20 billion
because of unequal competition in international services; US$250
billion because of restrictions on labour movement; US$35
billion because of restricted market access for manufactures;
US$5 billion due to restrictions on tropical, resource-based and
agricultural products, and US$20 billion because of guarded
technology markets (UNDP, HDR, 1992:58, 66-7).
On the aid and
debt side, available figures continue to show that the South
continues to be a net exporter of capital to the North. OECD
reports cited by Susan George (1992) show that total resource
flows (including grants and private flows) between 1982 and
1990, from North to South amounted to US$927 billion. This is in
contrast to outflow of debt service (principal and interest)
from South to the North of US$1,345 billion within the same
period. That means a negative balance of US$418 billion in
favour of the North! In 1991 dollars, it is said to amount to
six Marshall Plans financed for the rich North by the poor
South! (George, 1992:xv-xvi). The LDCs are thus in reality
supporting Europe and the rest of the North economically. This
is in stark contrast to the popular myths of aid and capital
flows from North to South to alleviate poverty and to develop
the LDCs.
Thus, Africa too, where most of the LDCs are, continues to
be a net capital exporter to the North. For 1993, the World
Bank's World Debt Tables have it that total debt servicing for
sub-Saharan Africa amounted to US$11.35 billion (Africa
Recovery, Dec. 1993-March 1994:12). This in itself was a
decrease from the previous year's US$13.99 billion due to
mounting arrears. This stark reality hardly features in the
popular news media reports of the North giving aid to Africa,
which creates a damaging image of a net outflow of resources to
LDCs from Western tax payers. Many racist and anti-immigrant
organisations and right-wing parties in Europe have actually
built their support bases on this erroneous image and myths.
In fact, it is more realistic to argue that the peoples of
the LDCs continue to bear the brunt of supporting the affluent
lifestyles of Euro-Americans (Europeans and Americans) of today,
just as the former's ancestors directly did before the gaining
of independence in the post-WW11 era.
Apart from these legal
flows to the North, Western businesspeople and multinational
corporations are involved in a big scam, in collusion with South
and former Eastern bloc leaders and businesspeople, which
illegally transfers an estimated US$ 50 - 80 billion annually
from the low- and middle-income countries to Western bank
accounts (WP Wire Service, June 4, 1995). This estimate of
flight capital is far bigger than total aid transfer from the
North. This has serious damaging effects on the economies and
lives of LDCs' peoples. Expressing frustration with the
hesitation to deal with this problem, the author writes:
"Flight capital is co-operation among the world's powerful
for exploitation of the world's weak. The fact is that for every
illegal dollar, pound, franc or mark that moves out of poorer
countries, there is a Western trader, manufacturer or financier
that directly or indirectly facilitates its receipts. How, then
is it possible to curtail this problem, when vested interests in
richer and poorer countries prefer the status quo?" (WP Wire
Service, June 4, 1995).
Economic theories put forward by the IMF and the World Bank
have proved so far ineffective in solving these problems - major
underlying reasons for the widening and deepening gap between
North and South. Efforts made through hardly functioning
arrangements such as the Lomé Conventions and the ACP Pacts to
compensate for loss of legitimate earnings by the LDCs have also
fallen on hard times. "Aid fatigue" is the 1990s addition to the
North/South relations vocabulary.
This is a bird's eye view of the real world - the status
quo. Losses due to restrictions against labour from LDCs alone
amounts to five times the sum of aid, (now about US$50 billions
p.a.), these countries receive from the North. Even if this loss
is exaggerated by half, US$ 125 billion is still a big sum to
lose annually. What role does Norway as an integral North nation
play in this drama? And what can Norway alone do to reverse this
trend, even if she wants too? Does this situation not benefit
handsomely many Norwegians involved in the Western capitalist
market too?
Perhaps, the "rhetorical ethic" which forms a main
rationalising and legitimising part of exploitative systems and
associated confidence mechanisms (Elliott, 1975: 11), in which
“verbal iconography” does not reflect actual manifestations of
actions (Ani, 1996), has either been thoroughly internalised by
most Norwegians or refined to such a fine point in Norway that
it shrouds the perception of reality of most Norwegians. Almost
all Norwegians seem to share and honestly believe in the
humanitarian image Norwegian power brokers and public opinion
makers create of Norway internally and internationally; even in
the face of abundant evidence that contradict that image. But
that only makes Norwegians, if we follow Ani's (1996)
argumentation, more "dangerous", as it appears they typify a
perfect example of the European "rhetorical ethic" embedded
within its [European] culture.
"It is an inherent characteristic of the culture that it
prepares members of the culture to be able to act like friends
toward those they regard as enemies; to be able to convince
others that they have come to help when they, in fact, have come
to destroy the others and their culture. That some may 'believe'
that they are actually doing good only makes them more
dangerous, for they have swallowed their own rhetoric-perhaps a
convenient self-delusion. Hypocritical behavior is sanctioned
and rewarded in European culture. The rhetorical ethic helps to
sanction it" (Ani, 1996:315).
The concept of asili1 advanced
by Ani (1996:11-17) offers then a useful analytical tool in
understanding the contradictions entailed between the actions
and utterances of some seemingly South-friendly actors in the
North; just as much as it explains the actions of European
slavers, colonisers and missionaries alike who used the Bible,
for instance, to justify their actions.
Some of these ‘friendly’ actors in some North countries, one
must not forget, make a living by shipping destructive arms and
ammunitions to belligerents in the LDCs! The sponsorship of
destructive proxy wars and their lingering effects, as part of
the legacy of the geo-political and strategic struggles of the
Cold War era are not given focus here as part of the status quo
in parts of the LDCs. But the deadly trade of the
military-industrial complex of the North deserves mention for
the economic havoc and inhumane suffering it has been creating
in parts of the LDCs, which creates further dependence on
Western aid, particularly in Africa.
Of course, allowance has to be made to the many Norwegians
who see through this rhetorical ethic, condemn negative actions
against the LDCs, and are genuinely committed to LDCs' causes.
Some supported the No movement while others opted for the Yes to
EU group.
Moreover, the support of various Norwegian
governments for liberation movements in the LDCs has earned for
the people of Norway a very high prestige and goodwill in the
LDCs.
End of quote.
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume
cyandyk@ymail.com
Notes
1. Asili, a Kiswahili word with
several meanings related to "beginning," "origin," "source," and
"nature", p.11-13. As a conceptual tool for cultural analysis,
it is defined as: "The logos of a culture, within which its
various aspects cohere. It is the developmental germ/seed of a
culture. It is the matrix of a cultural entity which must be
identified in order to make sense of the collective creations of
its members." Author's glossary, p.xxv.
REFERENCES
Africa Confidential, Vol. 35 No. 21, 21 October, 1994.
Africa
Recovery, December 1993, - March 1994. See also Peter Madden and
John Madeley, 1993,
"Winners and Losers: The Impact of the
GATT Uruguay Round on Developing Countries," Christian Aid.
Ani, Marimba, 1996, Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of
European Cultural Thought
and Behavior, New Jersey: African
World Press.
Elliott, Charles, 1975, Patterns of Poverty in
the Third World: A Study of Social Economic
Stratification,
New York: Praeger Publishers.
George, Susan, 1992, The Debt
Boomerang: How Third World Debt Harms Us All, London: Pluto
Press.
The Washington Post Wire Service, 4 June, 1995,
"Riding the Rivers of Dirty Money".
UNDP Human Development
Report 1992.
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