How Foreign Powers Continue to Exploit Africa's Wealth

Much of the continent's mineral wealth, 30% of the total world’s reserve of minerals, 12% of the world’s oil and more than 60% arable land, puts Africa in stark contrast with some of the poorest continents. Africa remains politically unstable, poor, and underdeveloped despite the fact that it is resource-abundant. Increasing evidence shows that this is no accident – this is the plan. Decades of this would erode African sovereignty because the West actively seeks to undermine African control of natural resources and economies.

Muammar Gaddafi’s assassination and the West’s contempt for his gold plan in Africa are but one recent example in a long line of history. Whether it was looting during colonialism or economic indentations today, the approach is the same, the instruments have simply changed.

 

Colonial Exploitation: The Foundation of Control

The Berlin Conference of 1884–85

At this conference, which was convened by European powers, primarily Britain, France and Germany, Africa was divided into spheres of influence with no African participation. The purpose? Control over the territory and the ability to extract raw materials such as rubber, gold, ivory and oil to feed the industrial revolution back in Europe.

“The colonizers did not come to civilize; they came to plunder”. - Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)

It was also economically disastrous. British archives state that by 1913, Nigeria accounted for over £100 million worth of palm oil and rubber exports to the Empire. But, this was all wantonly ignored to keep economic dependence.

 

Post-Independence Interference: Neo-Colonialism by Other Means

Coup Culture Sponsored by the West

Many nationalists who had sought the economic independence of their countries in the wake of African independence in the 1960s were themselves overthrown in the 1960s onwards, with direct Western intervention.

 

Patrice Lumumba (Congo, 1961)

- Congo’s first democratically elected leader, Lumumba, had a vision to nationalize the country’s mineral wealth.

- U.S. participation in his murder is confirmed by declassified CIA substantiation. It is reported that President Eisenhower ordered his assassination.

 

Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana, 1966)

- The CIA supported the coup that deposed Nkrumah, the pro-Pan-Africanist who shunned IMF reliance.

 

Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso, 1987)

- A Marxist and fierce anti-imperialist, Sankara nationalized land and minerals.

- He was murdered as part of a coup that many believe had French backing, given their discomfort with his anti-colonial reforms.

 

Economic Warfare: The Debt Trap and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)

In the 80s and early 90s, Africa saw an influx of IMF and World Bank lending under stringent conditions of Structural Adjustment Programs. These programs are:

- Forced governments to slash education and healthcare budgets

- Forced privatization of state businesses (primarily to Western companies)

- Opened economies to unrestricted imports, decimating local industries

In turn, Africa’s debt exploded. As the Jubilee Debt Campaign informs, Africa pays, in external debt servicing, over $25 billion per year, above what it receives as aid.

“African dependency is sustained through the debt system”. “It is a weapon of colonization….” – Jean Ziegler, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food

 

Resource Wars and Proxy Conflicts

Angola and the Oil-Diamond War

- The U.S. backed UNITA rebels during the Cold War as an attempt to contain Soviet power.

- In what was essentially a continuous war from 1975 to 2002, over half a million died, and the oil-rich country was thrown into disarray.

 

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Coltan

- DRC also possesses more than 60% of global reserves of coltan, a key ingredient in smartphones and electronics.

- The use of child labor has been cited with culpability by multinational companies as responsible for fomenting conflict to have access to “conflict minerals”.

- A 2001 UN Panel of Experts report documented the role of Western and Asian companies in looting the DRC during the war.

 

The CFA Franc: A Modern Colonial Currency

The CFA franc, a currency that dates back to colonial times and is pegged to the French Treasury, remains legal tender in fourteen African nations. These countries have to deposit 50 per cent of their foreign reserves in France. France controls its monetary policy and benefits from the interest on its reserves.

“To recast the CFA franc is economic slavery” – Mamadou Koulibaly, former Speaker of Parliament of the Ivorian government

 

The Gaddafi Factor: Gold Dinar and African Sovereignty

As previously discussed in the Reverbtime Magazine article quoting Former US House Rep. Wayne Curtis Weldon, Muammar Gaddafi had suggested a Gold currency(gold dinar) and a Pan African Central Bank to liberate Africa from the U.S. dollar and French CFA franc.

If successful, this would have: The Petrodollar system was challenged by African economies, resulting in diminished influence of the IMF and World Bank

WikiLeaks’ publication of a 2016 leak of Clinton emails confirmed the West’s fears. An email “France’s client and Gaddafi’s gold” stated: “Qaddafi’s gold and silver could have provided a replacement for the French franc on the African continent, which was a large part of the reason for France’s involvement in the assault on Libya”.

Gaddafi himself was killed in October 2011. A few months later, the Western world would occupy Libya’s central bank.

 

Modern Examples: Keeping Africa under Control

Sudan (Darfur Conflict and Oil)

Darfur was represented in the Western media as an ethnic conflict. But, in the background, China’s increasing oil contracts in Sudan were becoming a threat to U.S. energy interests.

The West advocated regime change and obstructed any serious African-led peace initiatives.

 

Niger (2023 Coup and Uranium)

- One third of France’s nuclear energy also depends on Niger’s uranium.

- An uptick in anti-French protests after a military coup brought this resentment of Western resource extraction into the mainstream.

- The new junta is in the process of attempting to renegotiate contracts and oust French troops.

 

ECOWAS and U.S. Influence

- U.S. West Africa is seeing a growing role in U.S. AFRICOM (Africa Command) operations.

- These operations, though framed as “counter-terrorism”, are often conducted to secure territory near zones of resources, like the gold mines in the Sahel, or the Uranium fields in Niger.

 

Conclusion

The continent’s struggle has not been from a lack of potential, vision or effort. One that can only be gained from systemic denial by Western powers who exalt control over African agency, mainly to access its fertile resources.

Through assassinations, coups, economic blackmail, military interventions, and every other variant, the West has used the entire toolset available to snuff out any possibility for Africa to rise on its own.

“Africa will never be free until it controls its resources and currency”. -Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, former AU ambassador to the US.

Pan-Africanism and self-sustaining economies, and calling out foreign meddling, are the path to freedom. Only then will Africa be able to tell its own story, one that does not start nor end in subjugation.