These past few months have served up a dose of reality concerning Africa’s perpetual crises.
The March 23 rebel group, in armed conflict with the Democratic Republic of Congo government, solidified is position in Goma – extracted minerals from the country are sold in foreign markets.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was treated with disdain, when US President Donald Trump confronted his guest with images and video footage alleging “white genocide.”
The images were subsequently determined to be of the DR Congo and erroneously attributed to South Africa.
Kenya now faces an economic crisis if the United States follows through with its threat to revoke the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade deal; a reminder that many African economies remain at the mercy of foreign powers.
This is Africa’s current economic and political reality; that is, systemic violence, natural resource extraction, and economic manipulation.
Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia and foreign security groups in Mozambique evoke similar images: Africa’s enemies are armed with various types of weapons: missiles, foreign contracts, western narratives and economic dependency.
The expression “post-colonial” is mere rhetoric – the reality is a crisis orchestrated financially by the IMF and perpetuated by the African Union’s deafening silence.
When Nkrumah, Nasser, Nyerere, Toure and Haile Selassie formed the OAU, their aim was to build unity not bureaucracy. It was to liberate the continent – economically, culturally and politically.
They envisioned a common currency, a unified foreign policy and a break from Western dependency.
Nkrumah famously said: “Africa must unite or perish.”
Today, there are slogans of unity, but Africa’s central banks answer to Paris. More than a dozen African countries still use a currency created by their former colonizer – the CFA franc, a tool of economic control which means ‘Financial Cooperation in Africa’ – but who is actually benefitting?
At least 22 African countries are either in or near debt default.
The nations of Africa, collectively, owe more than $650 billion to foreign creditors. Nigeria devotes much of its revenue (over 90 percent) to servicing debt. Ghana is once again at the IMF for further debt restructuring.
And Zambia’s debt repayments choke investment in much needed health and education facilities. Make no mistake — this is ‘engineered subservience’. Africa’s “development partners” make billions while entire generations of Africans are sacrificed on the altar of fiscal discipline.
Meanwhile, Africa’s material wealth continues to flow abroad.
The DR Congo supplies more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt; yet over 70 percent of its people live in poverty.
The continent’s uranium wealth (Niger, Namibia, Morocco) powers Europe’s cities while indigenous villagers remain in darkness. African agriculture – despite controlling 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land – is pilfered by foreign subsidies and aid dependency.
Africa imports USD 55 billion in food, annually, while its farmers are displaced by foreign agribusiness. Africa is being strangled by political economics.
Yet, exploitation today is not just economic. Foreign companies dominate Africa’s telecommunication infrastructure and digital platforms.
Its data is stored abroad, and its children are immersed in algorithms that promote colonialist ideas on social media. AI tools are trained on African voices but controlled by Silicon Valley. The ‘Scramble for Africa’ has begun anew.
This tragedy is exacerbated by the fact that many of Africa’s leaders are complicit in the subterfuge.
Elites benefit from foreign contracts and International Monetary Fund (IMF) handouts — posing as nationalists while furthering neocolonialism.
Yet Africa is not dormant. New governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are challenging the old order – the status quo. French troops have been expelled; they have broken from the CFA zone and are building a regional alliance rooted in sovereignty.
Western media calls them “juntas.” But to millions of Africans, they are a sign of change. These governments have their issues – but they are confronting imperialism where the African Union has not. Their advocacy of unity echoes that of Sankara, Nkrumah and Gaddafi.
Gaddafi’s dream of a gold-backed African currency and a continental defense force was untenable to the West – it was a threat because it was workable, achievable and potentially liberating. That is why Libya was destroyed. The lesson to learn? If one challenges an empire, it will protect its hegemony – it will seek to eliminate the threat.
Africa must develop new relationships – not with masters but with partners. Cooperation with China, Russia, India and Brazil must be based on mutual respect and shared interest – not dependency.
It must negotiate technology transfers, co-ownership of infrastructure and the right to control its natural resources.
BRICS can be a platform of liberation – but only if African nations enter united in their goals of self-respect and mutual, not dependent relationships.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization currently comprising ten countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Of equal import is a reconceptualization in thought. Africa’s educational systems still advantage Western ideas to the detriment of indigenous knowledge.
A dual curriculum is needed – one in which African languages, philosophies, history and political economy are presented commensurate with the curriculum of the West.
The goal of Africa’s educational system should be to produce critical thinkers for Africa – not technocrats to serve Western interests.
Finally, Africa is on the critical edge of climate change – but Western solutions often mask continued exploitation. Green proposals like carbon markets and offset mechanisms permit Western polluters to profit while Africa bares the ecological burden. Ecological justice must be rooted in land reform, water sovereignty and African management – not foreign agendas.
The African Union must cease its dormancy or pass into irrelevance through the strategic efforts of sovereign governments that are willing to fight for what is in Africa’s best interest.
The continent of Africa must give its youth the basis for rejecting the rhetoric of “flight to the West” and foster in them the challenge of rebuilding their homeland with dignity.
Only then can the African continent look towards a future of economic prosperity, cultural enrichment and political freedom.
About the Author
Fredrick Andrew Wolf, Jr. PhD is the director of The Fulcrum Institute, a new organization of current and former scholars, which engages in research and commentary, focusing on political and cultural issues on both sides of the Atlantic. Our interest is in American foreign policy as it relates to the economic and foreign policies of the NATO countries, the BRICS+ nation-states and the Middle East.
F. Andrew Wolf, Jr. PhD
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