By Ike Mgbatogu
Staff WriterIt is deeply paradoxical and sobering to watch Nigerians flee the very land that foreigners are joyfully rushing to embrace, settling in, eating suya, roasted corn and just having a blast with Naija life.
Onumba.com,USA ——— As members, African nations routinely take part in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) gathering.
They secure speaking slots equivalent to their more notable peers, but whether anyone is actually listening is a story for another day.
Recently, a parade of African leaders delivered a mix of sparky and compelling speeches at the United Nations General Assembly, but the one that truly grabbed my attention was given by Ghanaian President John Mahama.
The president spoke eloquently and forcefully, pulling no punches on a smorgasbord of critical issues bedeviling the continent. But foremost among these is the real danger of Africa becoming a global resource engine ——– the mother cow feeding, nourishing and sustaining global economies to the detriment of its own development.
Mahama’s speech reminded us that we have travelled this path before, only that all too often, we care about the storm only when it hits our own roof. Remember? Africa suffered systemic pillage and ravage unleashed by the one – two punch of slavery and colonialism, which extracted, exploited and exported its free labor to serve as the foundational catalyst for the development of modern western economies.
Therefore, my fellow Africans, let us not sleepwalk into the same historical traps we fell into before.
President Mahama expressed parallel worries.
“But Mr. Speaker, let me warn,” he said.
“Africa will not remain a passive arena for a new scramble for resources.”
What?
But sir, actually, a widespread perspective holds that the scramble for Africa is not a future possibility, but a current reality. It is already underway and Africa has once again defaulted into a passive theatre for global abuse and exploitation.
Worse still, nobody is up in arms over this. It seems nobody even cares.
Yes, though at a measured pace, the global rush for Africa’s resources is well under way ——– with China, India, Russia, Lebanon, the United States and a raft of others swooning all over the continent ——– stepping all over each other’s toes in the mad dash for critical Africa’s resources. As with so much of what foreign investors do, the stampede is ferocious and the agenda is strategic as these countries establish sprawling presence in the continent by gobbling up seismic swaths of real estate.
“Pay close attention to me. Africa is the new definition of industry,” was just how one White American billionaire framed Africa being the looming beehive of global investments.
But while that account highlights one American businessman’s perspective, a more significant curiosity seeks to know just how the issue is being framed by leaders within Africa. A broad continental consensus is yet to be unveiled, but regardless, for African leaders to disregard this destructive trend would be profoundly shortsighted, reckless and deeply irresponsible.
Straight up ——- greenlighting foreigners to purchase village-size gobs of African land is penny-wise, pound-foolish spiraling into grave error in judgment.
Of course, the working theory fueling government appetite for these predatory foreign deals is often just a cop-out dressed up as attracting foreign investments. But plow deeper and you would notice that in fundamental terms of gains and losses, these are essentially grand sophisms embracing raw deals, which if left unchecked may actually undercut homegrown development efforts ——– as it would inevitably pit deep-pocketed foreign interests against struggling often bootstrapped indigenous startups ——– a clash that could spell doom for a continent not even on social, economic and technological par with the rest of the globe.
One of the greatest African leaders of all times, a true son of Africa, the late Thomas Isadore Sankara of Burkina Faso (the Che Guavera of Africa), was a revolutionary icon way ahead of his time. He established a visionary, proven blueprint for authentic, African-centered development. By our hand, with our resources, for our people: we should build and control our own future.
Haba. My people dey beg too much.
President Mahama continued:
“Critical mineral extraction in Africa must not replicate the colonial era exploitation.”
Of course, it must not. But why then is Africa drifting dangerously toward that position?
It would be breathtakingly stupid and a severe dereliction of duty for African leaders ——– perhaps in their state of oscitancy and panglossian naivety ——- to watch silently as gluttonous foreign corporations and governments systematically buy up Africa’s sovereign territory ——- handing over its most valuable resources: land.
Oh, and please don’t even try to sell me the hogwash that these foreign entities are only investing in industries churning out jobs for dangling, jobless Africans, unless you can do a good job explaining to me just why we Africans are not able to build these industries ourselves.
Mr. President, it is regrettable that your worst-case scenarios ——- your deepest fears, your bellyaches and anxieties are actively unfolding right now, even notably under your own watch in Ghana. That is why I frequently ponder the dilemmas our children and grandchildren will invariably inherit.
More from the president:
“We will process our minerals at home, we will build local industries that create dignified jobs for our youth, we will retain the value of our natural resources in Africa.” Blah, blah, blah, blah!
It all sounds dope. But the problem is that we are lollygagging and dilly-dallying around from chronic lack of focus and action ——- often waiting for these foreigners to come and do for us things we ought to be doing for ourselves. Sure, these are commendable, lofty ambitions that certainly hold value. However, it all boils down to one unsettling question: Is Africa repeating the very historical blunders that once threw its hapless people into the mean-spirited jaws of European colonialism and imperialism?
Have we truly reckoned with the staggering cost, the psychological and cultural damages that slavery and colonialism inflicted on us? Or are we still plagued by the multi-generational post traumatic slave syndrome?
Syndrome that has trapped many of our African women in the cycle of skin bleaching ———- a profoundly foolish, dumb and destructive practice of embracing an entrenched culture of pure vanity. These women, poltroons and disguised guttersnipes, whether they know it not, suffer from a triple yoke of ignorance, idiocy and a chronic malnourishment of self-worth and intrinsic pride.
Damages rooted in the export of theological colonization to the continent ———- a Herrenvolkian plot which imposed on Africans an impressive gallimaufry of Whitewashed effigies of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. To crown it all, that entire setup and conspiracy ensured that the doctrine of White supremacy was tightly woven into the labyrinth of Christian practices.
And it is working as designed in the blueprint.
Evidence of its efficacy is visible in the concourse of Africans who are hopelessly lost and wallowing in what is potentially a monumental, multi-generational fallacy —— yet no one is hitting the pause button to first seek and unveil the truth. A Nigerian Christian woman once expressed that she would neither worship nor pray to Jesus Christ if he were Black ——— her face visibly contorting with disgust at the very suggestion.
Nevertheless, this much is undeniable. The same hand that held the chains, iron cuffs and wrist manacles also handed you a bible, preaching salvation and promising refuge for you in heaven.
Nawa o!
What really would be your status in heaven shared with a White man, if you make it that far? A slave?
But as with everything else related to this matter: one question inevitably bubbles to the fore: Did we learn anything?
Are we blind to what is effectively a second scramble for Africa?
Keep in mind that Africa is a continent unlike the rest. People worldwide often look down on Africans, treating them as though they are at the very bottom of the global social ladder. They perceive us as the lowest on the totem pole ——- stupid, gullible and easy to be dragooned into any deal promising a proverbial flashy, shiny object. It truly calls for extreme vigilance.
Quite frankly, we could be witnessing a drip, drip, drip glacial glide into modern-day serfdom ——- a slow-motion entrapment of Africans into economic subjugation.
When our gullible forefathers sold their kinfolks into slavery centuries ago, it started with a pittance of slaves, but after the Europeans reckoned with the grist and mellifluous value of free labor ——— which dovetailed with their bloated appetite for colonial irredentism ——– they radically scaled the operation into an onslaught, returning for more and more and more ——– resulting in forced, atrocious exodus of our brothers and sisters now scattered all over the globe.
Like idiots, we are at it again, digging a brand-new hole when we haven’t even crawled out of the old one yet.
I rest my case.
