THEIR ‘AID’ JUST A FRACTION OF THEIR LOOT!

The West loots Africa at night and during the day gives us back a fraction of the swag, dressed up as aid. That’s the view expressed by Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the African Union’s former envoy to the US, in this 2018 clip.

Her words certainly ring true amid the growing clamour of complaints about neocolonialism across the continent, particularly in francophone West Africa.

Post-independence, France was afforded many privileges that enriched the nation but kept its ex-colonies poor. Paris secured the right-of-first-refusal on the extraction and sale of their natural resources. In practice, this meant their minerals were being sold to France at knock-down prices. Attempts at breaking free from this stranglehold were thwarted through French-sponsored political coups or assassinations, ensuring the European nation's interests remained protected in resource-rich West Africa.

Additionally, African nations in the CFA Franc Zone are required to keep at least 50% of their reserves in France - for the sake of 'currency stability.’

Without all this, the European country could not remain the world power it is today. The writing’s on the wall for the neocolonial era, and that’s angered President Emmanuel Macron, who recently called Africans ‘ungrateful’ after the severing of the questionable military cooperation agreements and the expulsion of French troops from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and, most recently, Chad.

It’s time Africa’s gardens fed Africans, not ex-colonisers.

Sources:

https://www.crossbordertalks.eu/2024/05/08/france-africa/

https://report.az/en/foreign-politics/zahid-oruj-france-earns-400-500b-annually-from-africa-as-colonial-tax/

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/739771.shtml

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2017/5/24/africa-is-not-poor-we-are-stealing-its-wealth

https://debtjustice.org.uk/press-release/africa-subsidises-rest-world-40-billion-one-year-according-new-research

https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/historical_materials/1957980/?