Have you ever wondered why the West always frowns at policies that tend to fight against Africa’s dependency on foreign aid?
Why was the West so concerned and irritated when Kwame Nkrumah preached against Africa’s dependence on foreign aid in the 1960s? Why was there pandemonium in Europe recently when Ghana’s President Akufo Addo spoke of ‘Africa without aid’? France’s President Macron could not believe his ears!
Why does the conceptual West want Africa to continually borrow from them and increase the continent’s debt status? Indeed, there is more than meets the eye.
It is not a secret that Africa is experiencing extreme poverty and are light years behind other developing countries in Europe, America, and Asia. The situation has become so bad that it appears to be getting worse by the day.
The various countries in the continent are experiencing the same challenges of hunger, disease, illiteracy, under-development, poor leadership and civil war. But Africa’s biggest problem and perhaps the root cause of the other aforementioned challenges is its debt to the colonial masters.
One would have thought that after independence, African countries will explore self-sustainable models and cut the dependency channel to its colonial masters. Sadly, this is not the case and it raises the biggest question mark on Africa’s independence.
How can we say we are truly independent when we still depend on the crumbs from the table of our colonial masters?
Africa isn’t truly independent yet and debt is one way in which the slave masters have ensured this. The colonial masters have continued to maintain its stronghold on Africa through its pretense of offering economic support through the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created in 1944 and are jointly referred to as the Bretton Woods institutions. It was created with the purpose of providing help and support in the rebuilding of economies that were affected by World War II.
This was to be achieved through a well structured international trade organization, but it was not until 1995 that the World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed. The reason for the conspicuous delay despite the operation of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 51 years remains unknown.
The West has succeeded in using both the World Bank and IMF to create and enforce policies in the guise of world trade/aid that has enabled them to hold Africa by the neck. Through presenting itself as the only source of sustenance of the continent’s economy, African nations continue to depend on the West for sustainability.
Meanwhile what the West has done in reality is to maintain the channel of colonialism as it has always been.
When you look closely, you will find out that the same policies that continue to enslave African nations and plunge them further into debt, favors the bigger nations in no small way.
It gives them unprecedented control over our economy, resources, and markets. The policies of the World Bank, IMF, and the World Trade Organization further widen the large divide between the already wealthy Western economies and the struggling ones in Africa.
Through these lending organizations, what the West has achieved is the economic colonization of Africa. This gives them more access to exploit African nations and continues to do as much damage to the continent as imperial colonialism did in the past.
Is it not surprising that despite the large amounts which the World Bank and IMF claim to have lent African nations, there is very little or nothing to show for it?
The World Bank alone lends US$ 25 billion a year to developing countries for the financing of development projects and economic reform. What have these countries gained over the years?
Why we will not exonerate our leaders for their greed and corruption, in all fairness it is important to note that the West has devised a means to lend funds to Africa but collect it in a hundred folds through back channels. It is a case of giving a million and taking a hundred million with the backhand from us.
We must face the facts. The West does not want Africa to develop because if it does, they would lose control over us. After all, a healthy man does not need a physician.
The World Bank comprises of 183 member countries, including 47 in sub-Saharan Africa. It is headed by the World Bank director, who is directly appointed by the US government. Why? Why is the post of the director not rotational?
Read between the lines and you will discover that these organizations are indeed tools of neo-colonialism.
Africa without foreign aid is the first and perhaps most important step towards true independence for Africa.
What are your thoughts?
Header Image Credit: ESI-Africa.com