A while ago I read a book on the history of Africa, about which I wrote a tiny crit in this blog. Whilst reading, I got a very disillusioned feeling about that continent, and my expectations for it turned quite gloomy.
Some features of the (geo-)political dynamics of Africa seem to be so fundamentally rotten, that it is hard to believe in any positive progress there at all, let alone progress in the direction of peace. The features I am referring to are – amongst others – the arbitrarily drawn “national” borders which are cutting through cultures, tribes and peoples indiscriminately. This effectively promotes ethnic cleansing and sometimes even genocide in these artificial “countries”.
Secondly, there is the selling-out of resources to multinationals for ridiculous prices that do not reflect the effort to obtain them by a long shot. Thirdly, the nation wide corruption of government officials as well as by anyone who carries a gun. And then there is the absence of acceptable living circumstances – like access to fresh water and enough food, shelter and adequate means of sustaining oneself, for the majority of the people.
Maybe worst of all is the seemingly broadly carried notion of some African “leaders”, that human life comes cheap and that it is disposable at any time.
Without doubt, I am omitting several other atrocities here and my list is far from complete, but my point is that large parts of Africa have a precarious future, because they are led by power-hungry sicko’s who are after the country’s natural resources. Most obviously this is now the case in east Congo – former Zaïre – , where rebel leader Nkunda is trying to put his greedy paws on the Coltan mines, while the Kabila “government” troops are desperately trying to fight him back with the occasional help from friendly neighbours.
Coltan is a highly sought-after ore used in the IT industry for the manufacturing of small capacitors. When you put your cellphone to your ear, there is a tiny amount of African blood-coltan in there. Just think about that every time you make a phone-call.
In a sense, Africans are not very fortunate for living in counties so rich in natural resources. It makes them targets for unscrupulous multinationals cooperating with ruthless leaders, who divide the mine and oil concessions between them, leaving the people of the country without any share of the loot. A lot of riches come out of African soil, but this does little to actually improve the general Africans lives. Small elites of corrupt people get rich while they put huge sums of money on foreign (European) bank accounts. The banks happily facilitate this. How else could western companies get a foot on the ground in Africa? The notion that these conspiring bastards are getting away with it is infuriating.
This leaching has been going on for a long time; in my opinion since the “powers that were” carved the continent up into a patch blanket that has no bearing on anything else than the spheres of influence which the European countries tried to maintain in the region. Of course they were – and are – in cahoots with the local rulers who took over from the colonial governors. The wheeling and dealing goes on as usual, cutting the local populations out of the loop and the prosperity in the process. If one local bully gets replaced by another, who wants his share of the treasure and the bloodshed, these “respectable” entrepreneurs change beds without raising an eyebrow.
Somehow it seems to me that we are turning a blind eye towards this disaster. I don’t encounter much discussion or even indignation amongst the people I live and work with, although Africa is in the press every day. The situation in Africa is simply not a coffee table issue. Nevertheless, the continent is on fire and a second African war is well on its way; An AW-II, as it were, as opposed to a WW-II, to which we all seem so attached one way or the other. But in spite of the appalling behaviour of the African leaders, who couldn’t care less about the lives of their “soldiers” or their civilian population, and that of the western-based corporations who are making blood-money over the backs of multitudinous people, we don’t seem to really care.
I suspect that the wars in Africa have taken a higher toll than WW-II did already. It wouldn’t surprise me if they will even out-gross WW-I and WW-II put together after the current power-players are done. The question is, will Africa ever be governed by leaders who actually want their subjects to prosper, instead of filling their own coffers? Somehow I doubt it, especially because “we” westerners are not helping much by keeping up a system of (unfair) trade, which makes the rise of malevolent African despots possible in the first place. And later, when the African shit comes to hit our cosy little European fans, we only have ourselves to blame.
