Africans’
souls have deep scars and below is the chronology and Raison d'être of
the scars. Also Included, herewith, is the basis and framework of how those
scars would be healed permanently, allowing Africa and Africans to move
forward.
African Slave Trade
Beginning
in 1441 until as late as 1900, Africans were captured, cruelly transported and
worked in intolerable conditions in Brazil, the Caribbeans and North American plantations and mines to
produce commodities needed to fuel the West’s primitive accumulation of wealth.
During that dark period more than 20 million Africans were affected i.e. died
or forcibly removed from their own, with their human rights highly and
deplorably violated. Slavery is perhaps the greatest crime which has been
committed by human beings against fellow humans. Together with The Holocaust, the
mass-slaughter of Jews, were episodes when human beings showed extreme savagery
and unmitigated propensity to commit extreme brutalities on other human beings.
This conversation is not there to foment hatred among peoples and nations or to
open wounds, but it is a conversation aimed at finding a lasting solution to
crimes committed by our forebears in their lack of wisdom and driven by immense
greediness resulting in commodifying fellow humans. The primary objective of this
conversation is to set out a framework of establishing a fund for reparations
of African misery under the hands of other people.
Prior
to the onset of the dreadful Triangular African Slave Trade (1441 – 1900),
there has been slavery happening in the continent, with the perpetrators being
the residents of the Islamic Empire of the Arabian Peninsula. Estimates by
historians put the figure of Africans enslaved by Arabs between 650AD and
1900AD at 18 million. The main slave
trade took place across the Sahara desert, where slaves were transported from Central
and West Africa to present-day Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. In East
Africa, a considerable slave trade took place with slaves being traded and
shipped at the Archipelago of Zanzibar mainly to Arabia.
Great
cruelty was committed to slaves in the Arabia, which included massive
castrations of male slaves and the use of female slaves for sexual
gratification by slave owners, mainly in harems (private quarters where women
were kept by slave owners and rulers for sexual pleasure). Many African women
were of course forced into prostitution to cater to men of limited means, who
could not afford the luxuries of owning a string of concubines. Castrated men
were used as eunuchs in the same harems to watch
concubines, and sometimes worked as domestic servants, messengers and in rare
situations as advisers to royalty, thus becoming courtiers at the royal courts,
without pay, for they were enslaved.
Early explorers like David Livingstone were horrified by the cruelty
of Arab slave traders who did not hesitate to kill the captives at the
slightest opportunity. He once said, “To overdraw its evils
is a simple impossibility ... We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through
the body and lying on the path. Onlookers said an Arab who passed early that
morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her because
she was unable to walk any longer. We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree
and dead ... We came upon a man dead from starvation ... The strangest disease
I have seen in this country seems really to be broken hardheartedness, and it
attacks free men who have not been captured and made slaves.” Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt was also
disgusted with what he saw and wrote:
"I frequently witnessed scenes of the most shameless indecency, which the
traders, who were the principal actors, only laughed at. I may venture to
state, that very few female slaves who have passed their tenth year, reach
Egypt or Arabia in a state of virginity."
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| Physical abuse of an African slave by Arabic master |
European slave traders committed similar sins with even greater rapaciousness. According to one Nathaniel Manheru a blogger for The Herald Zimbabwe, quoting from the work of Dennis Brutus about Gore'e, an island off Senegal, from where slaves were loaded into ships across the big river to unfamiliar lands for slavery. I narrate here verbatim Nathaniel
's graphic description of the violation of an African soul. "At Gore'e there is a dingy room sited next to the final gate, just above the lapping waters of the gaping Antlantic Ocean. The dingy room was the white European slaver's harem. In that dark room, the white slaver would rape the continent, literally through its nubial maidens set for export and slave captivity. Rape was the final rite before this uncertain passage. You left the continent loveless, white sperms dripping your legs, unwashed until salty induced by the package ship cleansed evidence of this sin of history."
Nathaniel went on to say, " In the dingy room one could smell the ugly ordours of violent rape, smelled venereal white semen, so many centuries after the sin was committed. You even heard the wailing voices of reluctant, uncourted maidens. You heard tongs falling on the chocolate skin of abortively resisting maidens. And then the fading sounds of subdued maidens, overwritten by happy groans of discharging master. A cough, painting breath and loud mocking sense of white impunity, against ravished black helplessness!!
Some brave maidens, too angry at their violation, simply flung themselves into the frothing waters that bristled with man-eating sharks. Because of countless incidences of self-immolation, sharks had deserted faraway deeps of the ocean- their preferred habitats - for the shallow waters around Gore'e which had become easy hunting ground for human, African, flesh."
It is poignant to highlight that Europeans themselves, the
architects of the Triangular Slave Trade were once victims of this savagery act at
the hands of Arabs in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. Estimates suggest
that the number of enslaved Europeans between 16th and 19th
centuries only numbered about 1.25 million. These Europeans were victims of the
Barbary pirates. The irony is that the main victims, being the coastal
residents of Portugal and Spain, were to take a central role in enslaving
Africans on the west coast.
The Triangular Slave Trade was equally cruel, if not more. The
slaves were packed in slave ships just like bags of sand. Earlier, they would
have been captured from the interior, forced to walk for considerably long
distances, often chained to heavy logs on their necks to ensure that they don’t
escape. By the time they reached the coast they would be very tired, thirsty
and hungry. There they would be kept in dungeons and thereafter loaded like
sacks in slave ships with absolutely no hygiene whatsoever. Close to 20% of the slaves succumbed to
malnutrition and disease en-route to the Americas.
It should be stressed that the main reason of the Triangular Slave
Trade was to derive economic benefits for both the slave owners and European
capitalists. The slaves provided labor, at zero cost to the owner, in plantations and mines in the “New
World”. The trade itself was lucrative, given that slaves were exchanged for
almost worthless things like beads or whiskey, while the slaves would be traded later
for greater value at slave auction markets. The planters were guaranteed of
generating great profits by ensuring that the slaves produced great quantities
of commodities (cotton, tobacco, sugar, minerals etc) for sale to Europe at
super profits, for the main means of production, labor was free of charge.
The slave owners in the Americas thus encouraged slave reproduction and did
not pursue massive castrations to benefit from more labor as slave offspring increased
the wealth and status of the slave owner.
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| Extreme savagery by slave owners in North America |
It is regrettable to say that the same steam engine technology we
initially thought had brought prosperity to mankind was actually a precursor of
slavery in Africa. The efficiencies brought about by such technology in Western
Europe required a great quantum of raw materials, which Europe could not
produce at sufficient quantities and at economic prices for optimal plant
utilization. The inevitable thing for European factory owners was to turn to
the plantation owners in the Americas for raw materials. However, given the
need for more labor in the plantations, cheap labor had to be found. Africans,
because of their physical strength, ample knowledge of agriculture and
resistance to tropical diseases seemed perfect for the task. The problem, which
we intend to solve in this particular conversation, is that Africans were not
compensated for their labor, cruel abuse and deaths they suffered at the hands
of slave masters, who extracted maximum value from their blood and sweat.
Colonialism
The period between 1885 and 1960 is generally known as the period
of colonization and exploitation of Africa by European powers. Again the
main motive was entirely commerce. It is not surprising that the scramble for
Africa coincided with the abolition of slavery and also occurred after the full
industrialization of America. Thus, the European factory owner was starved of
cheap inputs and increasingly faced competition from American manufactures.
Africa again was a victim. Soon, Africans witnessed Europeans with serious
intend to set base on the continent, again with disastrous consequences for the
natives. African chiefs were again duped to sign complex legal documents, often
under duress, as the other party was willing and able to brandish fire power,
in case some African chiefs appeared reluctant to put their “Xs” (signatures)
on the paper.
From day one, African colonization was meant to support the
colonial masters economically. African colonies were particularly designed to
facilitate the extraction of raw materials for European value addition. Thus,
industrialization was deliberately discouraged across all African colonies. Until
today, African countries are struggling with industrialization. At the centre
of the challenge was the creation of small, land locked states which now prove
to be practically nonviable. About 50% of African states are too small, both in
terms of population and landmass. In addition, many are landlocked with no
access to the sea. Some are not only landlocked but are perched up in
mountainous ridges thereby increasing the transport costs of doing business.
There are no communication links between African states, and trade is still
easier between Africa and Europe than between African countries. Therefore the
legacy of colonialism is felt today with regard to intra-regional trade, which
has remained minuscule. In fact the status quo has remained the same since Uhuru in the 1960s. Trade continues to
be between small, primary industry-based countries and European countries and
America. Now they have been joined by Japan, Russia and China. However, the
latter two Asian countries are not overtly arrogant in doing so, and often look
at relationship building and in some cases the terms of trade appear favorable,
though not absolutely beneficial to Africans.
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| Patrice Lumumba, the martyr of African Uhuru |
The late President of Malawi, Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika once said,
“Malawians are poor, but Malawi is not poor.” Indeed Malawi is not a poor country,
despite being ranked as one of the poorest country on earth. There lie in the Mulanje
Mountains great quantities of an important mineral, bauxite. The truth, according
to Guy Anorld, is that compared to Guinea and Jamaica, where the mineral is
exported, the Malawian bauxite is inaccessible in an industry where the
critical factor regarding exploitation and marketing of the mineral is
accessibility.
The veracity of the resource extraction agenda was more poignant
in the Belgian Congo, now Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Slavery was
reincarnated there, where brutal Belgian colonists forced the Congolese to work
in plantations and mines in atrocious conditions, with no or insignificant pay.
Therefore they failed to eat decent food or wear what could be called normal
garments and routinely suffered abuse, including wide-scale mutilations,
especially before 1908, when King Leopold, was practically running the Congo
like a feudal lord. The Congolese therefore wondered as to where the riches of
their country were being siphoned to, and who was enjoying the fruits of their
labour. The wealth was of course enjoyed by rubber plantation and mine owners
in the country, who become exceedingly wealthy at the expense of the majority. Factory
owners in Europe also enjoyed great wealth, with consequential benefit to workers,
general population and governments there as a result of value addition and
trade.
Thus the birth of independent Africa, surely delivered a crippled
offspring who could not walk on her own and required extensive care. The
challenge is that the midwives and nannies entrusted for such delivery and care
appeared not concerned with the predicament of the child, and in many cases
wished and others deliberately stifled progress when the child struggled to
walk on her own.
It is interesting to note that the British High Court has
delivered a favorable ruling in a case where the former members of Kenyan
liberation movement, the Mau Mau, namely Jane
Muthoni Mara, Wambuga Wa Nyingi and Paulo Muoka Nzili have been given the green light to seek compensation from Britain
for crimes committed by the former British settlers. These crimes include
castrations and torture.
The case has reverberations in other former colonies, including
Zimbabwe where the British settlers, under the British Empire, brutally suppressed
genuine uprisings there by executing leaders of liberation movements. The main important spirit mediums and leaders of the first war of liberation, Mbuya
Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi were summarily executed on 27 April 1898 after being tried in a
Kangroo court, and if that was not enough, these spirit mediums' heads, among other leaders, were decapitated and carried to London as spoils of a victorious British Army, and still remain shamelessly displayed there, even at this very moment, in one of their museums. Is it too much to ask, and showing human decency and finding expression in the concept of "civilization", that the British government expedite the repatriation of these remains for proper burial in the country they so loved? Surely, there is a precedent as the remains Sara Baartman were eventually repatriated to South Africa at the request of Nelson Mendela, where she was laid to rest in her home province of Eastern Cape on 9 August 2002, after she had been criminally abused, alive and after her death, for close to 192 years in both London and Paris.
Neo-Colonialism
Neo-colonialism, as coined by one African luminary, the first
president of the first African country to gain independence, Ghana, Kwame
Nkrumah, are the actions and non-actions of former colonial masters to
manipulate the independent countries socially, politically and economically, in
a manner which may not be obvious to the ordinary man, with the aim of
maintaining a hegemony and therefore benefiting economically from the former
colonies.
To illustrate neo-colonialism at work let’s review the events
which took place 57 years back in the Belgian Congo. The month of May 1960,
heralded the end of Belgium’s dominion over the Congo, at least in theory, as
the country conducted multi-party general elections. Patrice Lumumba, who by
then had developed into a vibrant nationalist, managed to garner 37 seats
through his party MNC out of 137 seats. However, through strategic alliances
and coalition, he formed a formidable block. Even at this early stage he had
sensed the machinations of Belgian colonists, for he said, “Independence was
not a gift to be given by Belgium, but a fundamental right of the Congelese
People.” Patrice Lumumba was duly asked to form a government of the sovereign
Congo on 23 June 1960, with the Belgian king, Baudouin presiding over the
independence ceremony on 30 June 1960. Thereafter, a series of events occurred
which cannot be called ordinary. The army mutinied, and Katanga, perhaps the
most important province in the country in terms of commerce, seceded. The
architect of such a treasonous action, Moise Tshombe, received open support
from mercenaries, mining companies domiciled there and foreigners who wanted to
protect their economic interests.
According to Guy Arnold in his book, Africa – A Modern History, “Once it was clear that the Belgian
Congo was about to become independent the big powers moved to fill the vacuum
that was about to be left by the departing Belgians. What concerned them were
the Congo’s immense wealth and its
strategic position straddling the centre of the African continent.” After the
chaos and mayhem, America finally won, when Mobutu Seseko staged a military
coup on 14 September 1960. Later, Patrice Lumumba was bundled in a plane and
delivered to his arch-rival, Moise Tshombe, in Katanga Province, where he was
humiliated, tortured and finally executed, and together with his two
confidantes were cut up, buried, dug up and what
remained was dissolved in acid, with Belgian officers and American CIA agents
coordinating the process, barely six months after his inauguration as Congo’s post-colonial leader.
However, before his barbaric execution, Lumumba had managed to
write a letter to his dear wife, in which letter he impressed upon Africans to
guard against puppetry and encourages Africans to extol the virtues of
self-determination and unity. He wrote, “History will one day have its say, but
it will not be the history that is taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or
in United Nations, but the history which will be taught in the countries freed
from imperialism and its puppets. Africa will write its history, and to north
and south of the Sahara, it will be a glorious and dignified history.” The
words of the African martyr
surely echoes to this very day.
It would appear that the Congo, now DRC, has occupied a special
place in the minds and hearts of Africans and continue to be a symbol of
African struggle against all vestiges of colonialism. As recently as 24
September 2012, it was reported that foreigners have fomented and aided in the instability
of Eastern DRC to loot its minerals. During the two decades of unrest rebels,
rogue Congolese soldiers and criminal gangs have prolonged violence to profit
from its rich mineral resources, including the rare metal tantulum that is
widely used in making cell phones, laptops and other electronics. The rapping
of the Congo is the epitome of neo-colonialism and imperialism, for the
superpowers are conspicuously silent when conversations are made on how the
situation can be reversed and stopped.
One American citizen was adamant about the issue and said, “We
want those minerals for our industry!” Of course no one is advocating
that the minerals should be banned from going to America. What Africans are
concerned with is a callous manner in which the minerals are extracted, at a
considerable cost to the Congolese communities, the DRC government and Africa.
Is it too much for Africans to ask for a broad-based empowerment framework,
where the mining companies incorporate communities in DRC and partner with
community share ownership trusts in exploiting and sharing revenues, for the
betterment of all?
The truth of the
destabilization of Eastern DRC is not about tribal conflicts and genuine
uprisings, but a deliberate fomentation of hostilities in that part of Africa
for purposes of sucking valuable natural resources, not to be used in Africa
but in Western capitals. These resources include tin, tungsten, tantalum, diamonds, gold, timber
etc. An authoritative UN expert report has categorically stated that Rwanda and
to some extent Uganda were actively and directly offering military support to
M23 rebels, including facilitation of recruitment, encouragement and
facilitation of FARDC (Congolese army) desertions as well as the provision of
arms and ammunition, intelligence, and political advice. But surely, how can
a tiny country like Rwanda afford such a costly adventure. The truth is that Rwanda
is just a conduit of illegitimate money from foreign powers that are domiciled
outside of Africa. For all these nefarious transgressions, Rwanda was rewarded
with a temporal seat in the United Nations Security Council on 18 October 2012.
The fundamental question is how is the UN report which singled out Rwanda and
Uganda as the instigators of mayhem in Eastern DRC going to be given
prominence, and action being taken on the perpetrators, when one of the
culprits is perched up in the same organization’s highest decision-making
organ?
The other area which needs interrogation is the oil extraction
from Africa. It was reported that for the first seven months of 2012 Libya
managed to generate $30 billion as revenue from oil. Thus total oil revenues
since commercial exploitation for 50 years (1960 to 2010) are estimated at a
conservative figure of $2.5 trillion. The question is, “Where is the money?”
The infrastructure developments and welfare systems under Muammar Gaddafi cannot explain the deployment of such amount of money. The truth
is that the money has somehow been siphoned out of Africa and has been supporting
the world’s financial markets, which naturally excludes Africa.
The extraction of oil in Africa is also done without due regard to
the environment and communities in areas where the resource is being extracted.
For many years the multinational oil company, Royal Dutch Shell has continued
to pollute the fragile ecosystem in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. The company is
accused of committing crimes against humanity, particularly to the Ogoni
people, who have lost their livelihoods and suffered extreme human rights
violations, including torture and extrajudicial executions. Again the money has
disappeared from Africa through networks of brazen corruption and neo-colonialism.
This particular case is pending in international courts.
The cold war was conveniently used as a reason by the big powers
to meddle in the internal affairs of African independent states. The support of
rebel movements, UNITA and RENAMO in Agola and Mozambique respectively was a
careful strategy of entrenching American and Apartheid South Africa in Southern
Africa. Later the President of Mozambique, Samora Machel, died in mysterious
circumstances. He had famously, courageously, and boldly declared, “The
independence of Mozambique is meaningless if some countries in Southern Africa
(Zimbabwe and South Africa) are still under colonial bondage.” Mozambique has
visible scars until today for her quest to liberate her neighbors. We sincerely
owe them so much. Angola’s leader
Agostinho Neto was a towering figure and played a pivotal role in the liberation
of Zimbabwe and South Africa, and died fighting to protect Angola from the
negative effects of neo-colonialism.
The liberated Southern African countries were, according to the
Americans and British, supposed to continue operating under the economic orbit
of the White South (Rhodesia and South Africa). Thus, when the two former
leaders of the front line states, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and
Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, mooted and successfully constructed the Tanzania –
Zambia Railway (TAZARA), with the help of Chinese, serious resistance ensued
not only from Rhodesia and South Africa, but interestingly from Britain and
America through a well coordinated process involving media and multilateral
institutions like the World Bank. The Zambian leader, Kenneth Kaunda, was truthful
when he said, “Many things have been said against our railway which is perhaps
one of the most opposed schemes in the world…We are to be subservient to white
domination for as long as it was the interests of Western governments
regardless of our (national) objectives and interests.”
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| TAZARA Railways boldly defying neocolonialism bondage, as the train cruises towards the port Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
Almost similar situation was happening in Botswana; whose leader
Seretse Khama faced sustained opposition when he tried to extricate his newly
independent state from South African and Rhodesian influence. BOTZAM highway
was supposed to offer the country an outlet free from the undue influence of
the white settlers in Rhodesia and South Africa. Surprisingly, the project was
funded by Americans, whose main agenda could be seen as countering the Chinese
influence in Central and Southern Africa, who by then had agreed to construct
the TAZARA railway.
The problem of mercenaries “soldiers of fortune” and bandits was
not confined to Katanga province in the Congolese crisis of the 1960s. As
recently as 2004, Simon Mann, a former British Army Officer and his gang of
mercenaries were arrested at the Harare International Airport en-route to
Equatorial Guinea, where they intended to forcibly remove a sovereign
government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. As a replacement they wanted to install a
puppet government there to derive serious economic benefits from oil resources for
the benefit of funders of this deplorable project, for Mann and others would be
paid their dues and disappear from the scene.
Climatic Change
Time has come to be
truthful to each other regarding climate change and its impact on Africa. The
rate at which carbons are being emitted into the atmosphere is unrelenting. In
2010 alone some 30 billion tones of these toxic gases were recklessly dumped into
the atmosphere. It is not long before the atmosphere is practically saturated
with carbons, and with dire consequences to mankind, especially Africans. The
main culprits are America and China who contribute almost 50% of emissions.
Africa, because it has never been industrialized, accounts for less than 5
percent of carbon emissions. The irony is that despite the fact that Africa is
a mere spectator in this pollution “business”, it is shouldering the heaviest
burden of pollution. Droughts and floods are causing havoc killing many in
Africa, because poor countries cannot respond to climatic change to save lives.
The whole of Africa face critical shortages of food and drinking water, and the
situation is worsening each season.
Democratization of the United Nations (UN)
Security Council
The UN system should be
reformed to cater for the world community in its entirety and not the current
situation where it can be dubbed as the victor’s club. Coupled with UN reforms,
there should be deliberate and sustainable industrialization of Africa, such
that African countries can increase their influence at the world stage. The
bullying and manipulation of the UN by the superpowers is premised on money.
But that money can be traced to African resources, which have been plundered
since Slavery till today. Thus, the argument that African countries cannot pay
their membership fees and in any case cannot fund UN projects to accord them
permanent seats in the Security Council is malicious and arrogant.The question, rightly
put by Africans is, “For how long shall the 54
African countries remain on the sidelines, with no veto-wielding permanent
seats in the UN Security Council?”
The same applies to the
World Bank and IMF and other “developmental” institutions, which are not
genuinely interested in the development of Africa. They proffer dangerous and
harmful policies, are eager to cut aid in the midst of implementation of
long-term projects, deliberately disappear from the scene in time of need and
take ages to cancel unjustified debt of poor countries. They offer lines of
credit under instruction from big powers in a neo-colonialist fashion, starving
credit and development to politically incorrect regimes, while pandering to
their shareholders’ foreign policy objectives. In addition illegal sanctions
are slapped for regime change. Thus when a position for the leadership of the
World Bank became vacant, America foisted an inexperienced and technically unqualified fellow on the
institution, denying the most capable and suitable candidate from Africa. The same thing would repeated when there was a vacancy for the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) leadership when an African candidate was sidelined in fake elections in Madrid, Spain for a Georgian candidate who, for all practical purposes, knows nothing about tourism in general, and more importantly, global tourism. During the run up to the elections, there were moves behind the scenes, mainly from the Northern Hemisphere, where they blatantly and unashamedly sponsored a Seychelles candidate, Alain St. Ange, despite a standing resolution by the AU to back a single candidate. Yes, there was some consolation in that the Ethopian candidate was elected the global head of World Health Organization (WHO), but that is not enough, for we would have wanted to take all the posts.
The International
Criminal Court (ICC) requires a complete overhaul, to gain legitimacy,
especially in the eyes of Africans and other developing countries. The idea of
defining war crimes and crimes against humanity from neo-colonialist point of
view will eventually destroy that noble initiative of human endeavor. War
mongers and people who willy-nilly destabilizes sovereign countries for
political and economic benefit should be dragged to international Criminal
Court, which I personally feel should be called the World Criminal Court for
Arbitration (WOCCA), for constitutional courts in member countries still have
the right to prosecute war criminals, bandits and mercenaries and can only and
only if they face capacity challenges, that they will then refer the cases for final
arbitration at this court.
Africans would
seriously consider taking the issue of reparations to this reformed court, to
seek fair compensation for the atrocities committed on Africans both at home
and in the Diaspora as enunciated in this particular conversation.
As I pen this article, world leaders from over 190 countries are gathered in New York, USA, mainly from the 19th-29th of September, to discuss God knows what. I consider it as a great extravagance of planetary proportions. To the layman, the meeting will therefore bring together 190 or so heads of state and government, however the reality is that the delegations are far larger than that. For example African delegations are on average exceed 50 per country and that comes with great burden to the treasuries of those particular countries. We call upon the new secretary general of UN, Antonio Guterres to fulfill his promise of cutting down bureaucratic red tape, including the number of unnecessary conferences, summits and number of delegations particularly from struggling economies, small land locked economies, island nations.
This is particularly important when at that very moment when the summit was taking place in New York, disturbing news and indeed pictures appeared in the media about the plight of the Rohingya people who are facing a genocide in Myanmar. The indifference and apathy of world leaders to the persecuted Rohingya people is shocking and unacceptable.
As Queen Rania of Jordan said, while appearing on CNN programme, Amanpour, "Crises moves faster than global compassion." Though she was diplomatic, the truth is that she was horrified by what she witnessed in Myanmar on her tour to assess at first-hand the horrendous human rights violations against the Rohingya people and the general apathy and indifference of the global leaders to this issue, particularly in the context of unending UN summits like the one alluded to above.
Pirate fishing
Confirmed reports of
rampant illegal fishing off the coast of Africa, and in African sovereign
waters, have been substantiated by international marine experts and media. The extent
of the problem and its impact on African societies was the subject of previous
conversation on this blog’s July 2012 installment entitled, Aquaculture: The Answer for African Animal
Protein Deficiency.
THE BASIS FOR REPARATIONS
So how are we going to quantify the reparations, to be
administered by the Reparations Fund for
Africans (REFA)?
Slavery
Experts can quantify the cost to Africa and African communities
caused by both the western Triangular Slave Trade and eastern African Slavery
perpetuated by Arabs. The destruction of African kingdoms, removal of human
capital, the dislocation of families, the deaths of enslaved people both in
Africa and in the “Middle Passage”- en-route the Atlantic Ocean or those
routinely killed by Arabs, the depopulation of Africa, the labor provided by
the slaves and many other ills should form a basis of the monetary value, being the
cost of slavery. The cost of labor though being a valid yardstick in
quantifying the economic cost of slavery is considered narrow and therefore not
exhaustive methodology. The total cost of slavery should include social (human)
costs, as highlighted above and the political costs. There are also
multinational companies born directly from African misery. They surely should
be called upon to contribute money to REFA, which money is commensurate to the
value which they derived from slavery.
Colonialism
Colonialism’s economic costs to Africa are fairly easy to quantify
because there is audit trail of the amount of raw materials which were shipped
from Africa at ridiculous prices. The quantities and value of gold, crude oil,
rubber, palm oil, diamonds, copper, timber, ivory, Rhino horns etc can be
derived easily by Accountants and Economists. The value should not
be based on the commodity prices which prevailed on markets, but the whole
value-chain to the final product sold to the consumer should be ascertained.
The value of cheap labour should also be determined, thus the differential
between the slave wages that were offered and the true market based labour
remuneration becomes the value due to Africans, and that money will be
deposited into REFA. However the social (human) costs are significant as shown
on Table 1. below. Such costs emanate from forced labour, the violent
suppression of uprisings against occupation, the torture and imprisonment of
leaders of liberation movements, the deaths of liberation fighters and abuse of
war collaborators, ex-detainees and villagers fighting for emancipation from
colonial bondage among other crimes which were committed during colonization of Africa.
Neo-colonialism
This is perhaps the most challenging because there is lot of
conspiracy against the Africans, especially with regard to the terms of trade. In
Tanzania in 1975, the country’s political leaders discovered, to their disgust,
that the terms of trade were shifting dramatically against them, for they
realized that a decade earlier, in 1965, they could part with 5.3 tons of cotton
or 17.3 tons of sisal to buy a single, ordinary tractor. In that year, 1975,
they now found that they required 8 tons of cotton and 42 tons of sisal, a
whopping 143% increase, to acquire the same single ordinary tractor. The analogy is relevant to all commodities
emanating from Africa destined for international markets. Technological gap has
accentuated our predicament, resulting in unsustainable flow of value from the
owners of resources to those who don’t own resources, who manipulate world
markets to determine prices which are highly detrimental to the former. The
children of Côte d'Ivoire yearn to taste the
delicacy- chocolate made from their cocoa beans, which have been exported for
years in their raw form.
Thus in determining the cost of neo-colonialism, one should look at
the difference between the value which accrued to resources owners, at
miserable “market” prices prevailed from 1960 till today and the actual value
which was derived from value addition in developed countries, particularly in
the West.
The payment terms on this issue is flexible. The Europeans and
Americans and to some extent Japanese should be actively involved in the
industrialization of Africa through capacity building of African scientists,
technicians and administrators and share with them all technological and trade
secrets. They should also build cross-border infrastructure (power plants, railway
lines, highways, pipelines, canals, ports etc) to unlock the
land-locked countries, which they created in the first place and
increase intra-regional African trade. If
they are unable or unwilling to do that then they have to pay money into the
REFA, as indicated on Table 1 and 2 below.
In South Africa, dogs, yes our four-legged friends, exhibit great intolerance to the black race. When strolling in the nature parks, particularly in predominantly white neighborhoods, dogs there, often in the company of white folks, bark threateningly only to black people. Their owners will spring into action and pretend to be embarrassed by the incidents, when in their hearts of hearts they will be praising the dogs for doing what they have been trained for- specifically recognizing that a black person is a potential criminal. We shall not obviously blame the animals for such callous behavior but the owners. Furthermore the whole economy is designed to disenfranchise the black man in a significant way. Black people are often without decent incomes because they are either occupying low paying jobs or are surviving on contract employment. They are the first to lose their jobs when there is a retrenchment, and therefore fail to pay debts, which they would have contracted earlier on to bridge the financial gap. Once they lose their jobs they are promptly blacklisted even after missing only one installment on mortgage or vehicle finance. As they are blacklisted they are permanently deprived of future job opportunities. In the meantime financial vampires and vultures are unleashed on them to finish them off, as these debt collectors sensing blood and death, swoop on these vulnerable families, dispossessing them of any property they may have and auctioning it for a song. Was that not enough, they unashamedly came back to these families and claim that the proceeds of the illegal transactions they conducted often in the absence of the owner and certainly without their consent, failed to expunge the whole debt plus the shameful interest and other unjustified charges and therefore seek garnish orders so that those particular black families are forever trapped in unending debt trap and work for these debt collectors for the rest of their miserable lives on earth. Black households are expected to pay upfront for services like electricity, while rich families, mostly in white neighborhoods pay at the end of the month. What that means is that black families are perpetually in a financial crisis as they can not match cash flows and expenses and cannot therefore plan as they live from hand to mouth.
Climatic change
The costs of climatic change cut across social, political and
economic spheres. The basis for
reparations should be geared towards improving the food security in Africa. In
addition to infrastructural development focusing specifically on dams,
irrigation schemes and transportation nodes, the reparations should spearhead
capacity building of farmers and entrench industrialization, which will then
result in value addition of agricultural commodities. Creation of proper
marketing platform of these commodities should be prioritized. Small-holder
farmers would be assisted with appropriate technologies, for them to increase
productivity, while also capacitated to increase value per weight of their
output by pursuing value addition at source. Specific funds should be earmarked
for the commercialization of agriculture throughout Africa, whereby funds are
availed to serious African entrepreneurs to embark on massive, eco-friendly and
sustainable agricultural production to obliterate the food inadequacy in the
continent.
Pirate fishing & Toxic
materials dumping
The economic cost of pirate fishing in West Africa alone is
estimated at $1.5 billion per annum. So Africa, as a whole, is conservatively
losing $2 billion per year due to illegal fishing in its waters. That cost
excludes the environmental costs due to dastardly methods used by pirate
fishermen in plundering fish resources in African waters. What about the human
costs, as Jacey Fortin of International Business Times said, “It is an
environment issue to be sure, but the human (social) costs are even
pressing.” Thus the total costs of pirate fishing will include social (human)
costs, environmental costs and economic costs ($ 2 billion per annum). Africa
is dangerously hungry and suffers extreme animal protein deficiency, how
justifiable is that the fish resources which are so desperately needed in the
interior, are hauled several miles away to feed the Europeans?
The impact of dumping toxic materials on marine ecosystems and the
consequential effects to Africans is immeasurable. In addition to compensation the
perpetrators should be arraigned at the reformed World Criminal Court for Arbitration
(WOCCA).
REFA FRAMEWORK
REFA will act like a
Sovereign Wealth Fund where the proceeds from reparations will be ring-fenced.
The fund will report directly to the African Union, which will have the mandate
from the governed, Africans, in deploying the resources in an equitable manner
across Africa. The fund should aim to secure the resources and protect them
from inflation, thus the functionaries at the fund will be given a leeway of
growing the resources by seeking low risk and high growth investments,
particularly in Africa. The fund should be 100% free from external influence
and should work independently from any undue influence from foreigners.
The specific focus of
REFA shall be on cross border infrastructural development as mentioned above, the
industrialization of Africa and those things which will foster the true
economic freedom of Africa and Africans. Highest standards of corporate
governance shall be adhered to, with zero tolerance to corruption. Projects
shall be approved by a full AU assembly, consisting of all heads of state of
the African Union. Chairmanship of AU shall rotate in all African regions, such
that there is no bias and domination by one region over others, and/or one linguistic
block over another linguistic block – like the challenge which we are battling
with in Africa at the moment, when some say we are Anglophone and some say we
are Francophone…How can proud Africans, enjoying the freedom derived from the
martyrdom of Patrice Lumumba, continue to allow such a divisive triviality to
flourish in Africa?
Significant resources
shall be earmarked for basic services delivery, particularly in health and education,
including the eradication of mosquitoes which cause malaria and all other
infectious diseases. Food production shall be prioritized, such that Africans
can access not only food, but nutritious food at prices they can all afford.
COMPENSATION FIGURES
Table 1. Figures of Reparations - Summary
SUMMARY OF REPARATIONS
|
CLAIM CATEGORY
|
ESTIMATED AMOUNT (USD)
|
Slavery
|
33, 995 trillion
|
Colonialism
|
290 trillion
|
Neo-colonialism
|
215 trillion
|
Climatic change
|
152 trillion
|
Pirate fishing and toxic
materials dumping
|
70.04 trillion
|
Total cost
|
34,682.04 trillion
|
Table 2. The Detailed Estimated Figures of
Reparations
Crime (Claim) Category
|
Cost Estimates (USD)
|
Sub-totals (USD)
|
Totals (USD)
|
Slavery
|
|
|
|
Social (human) Costs
|
*33,750,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Economic Costs
|
200,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Political Costs
|
5,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Sub-total
|
|
33,955,000,000,000,000
|
|
Colonialism
|
|
|
|
Social (human) Costs
|
200,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Economic Costs
|
80,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Political Costs
|
10,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Sub-total
|
|
290,000,000,000,000
|
|
Neo-Colonialism
|
|
|
|
Social (human) Costs
|
10,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Economic Costs
|
200,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Political Costs
|
5,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Sub-total
|
|
215,000,000,000,000
|
|
Climatic Change
|
|
|
|
Social (human) Costs
|
40,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Environmental costs
|
100,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Economic Costs
|
10,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Political Costs
|
2,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Sub-total
|
|
152,000,000,000,000
|
|
Pirate Fishing &Toxic
Materials Dumping
|
|
|
|
Social (human) costs
|
10,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Environmental costs
|
60,000,000,000,000
|
|
|
Economic costs
|
40,000,000,000
|
|
|
Sub-total
|
|
70,040,000,000,000
|
|
Total
|
|
|
34,682,040,000,000,000
|
|
|
|
|
*An estimated 45 million Africans were affected by both the Triangular
Slave Trade and Arabian Slave Trade. (Triangular Slave Trade affected about 22
million Africans while the The Arabian Slave Trade affected 18 million,
bringing the total at 40 million. The other 5 million is an approximation of
other affected people who may not have been accounted for in the figure above.
Affected means total number of Africans who died during raids and war caused by
slavery or during shipment to the Americas or Arabia and the actual number of slaves
who arrived there alive.
Compensation for social (human) costs is calculated as follows: [Slavery
deaths (50% of 45 million slaves = 22.5 x $1 billion) + (22.5 million (the
remaining slaves) x $500 million)].
NB. Monetary value is not an indicative of a human’s worth which cannot be
quantified, but a fine for the serious crime of slavery.
BUT IT’S NOT AFFORDABLE!
Sources of funding for
REFA will come mainly from America, Western Europe, Middle East (Arabic
countries), as these benefited directly from slavery. Japan will be requested
to contribute to the REFA in respect of aiding towards the sucking of raw
materials from Africa at ridiculous prices since her industrialization until
today. China and Russia will be asked to contribute, particularly regarding
climate change in proportion to their pollution of the atmosphere. If not careful China will shortly be presented with an enormous bill for also taking resources from Africa without fair compensation. In my country, for example, the Chinese ransacked and emptied all the alluvial diamond deposits from Chiadzwa diamond fields worth in excess of USD60 billion, as these were stockpiled in the vaults of China Central Bank and quite a significant amount cut in the Indian city of Surat.
It would appear as if
the figures which we are talking about are not affordable if we narrowly focus
the discussion on the world GDP figures which totaled a miserly $70 trillion
dollars in 2011. However, we are more
interested in the balance sheets of the beneficiary countries which reflect the
capital base. Dr. John Rutledge quantified America’s total balance sheet at
$187 trillion, based on data he got from the Federal Reserve Board.
Unfortunately there were gaps in the data and thus the figure mentioned above
is a serious underestimation of the real size of America’s balance sheet. He
estimated that the actual figure could be in excess of $200 trillion. The
actual size of America’s balance sheet fluctuates because of changes in market
values of the components of the balance sheet, but it could be as high as $500
trillion.
The European Union has
an estimated capital base of $1 quadrillion. Japan, China and Russia can
provide a further $750 trillion in the capital base. So the confirmed capital
base for the reparations is in excess of $2.2 quadrillion.
But the figure is
merely 6% of the total reparation amount of $34.7 quadrillion. The figures are
telling in that whilst the rest of the crimes (colonialism, neo-colonialism,
climate change and pirate fishing and dumping of toxic materials) were
committed in a period spanning for only 127 years (1885-2012), the crime of
slavery was committed for several centuries. Payment for this crime is therefore
heavy, and will require significant resources to be paid over a relatively
longer period.
SCOPE FOR NEGOTIATION
The figures are
indicative of the injury done to Africans and thus the extent of the scars on
African souls. As far as Africans are concerned, the demand for reparations are
based on an international law principle which stipulates that reparations must,
as far as possible, wipe out all consequences of the illegal act and
re-establish the situation which would, in all probability, have existed if
that act had not been committed.
For slavery, the
reparations will take the form of compensation and there is no room for
negotiation on that principle. In respect of other crimes (colonialism,
neo-colonialism, climatic change, pirate fishing and dumping of toxic
materials) there is room to incorporate other forms to include restitution, satisfaction,
guarantees and rehabilitation.
Africans are further
willing to offer credits for genuine actions aimed for reversing and stopping
neo-colonialism. These credits could be given to efforts of industrialization
of Africa, for purposes of transferring vital technology, capacitating local
scientists and technical personnel and administrators of newly build
industries. Guarantees of taking up the manufactures for a period of time
deemed by Africans as sufficient enough to create sustainability of those
industries. Again guarantees for removal of noncompetitive behavior in
international trade that prejudices Africans. Commitments to share with
Africans the latest technology to keep those industries competitive shall form
the basis of negotiations. The marketing of commodities will thus be determined
by owners of the resources and not the current situation where “market forces”
have failed dismally to make proper and accurate valuations of African
resources.
AFRICANS IN THE DIASPORA
Reparations for
Africans scattered all over the world as a direct result of slavery would be
compensated via REFA, particularly out of the proceeds of the slavery claim
sub-category as tabulated on Table 2 above. Compensation of citizens in the Caribbeans, especially countries which are predominantly black shall be easy to
disburse. A sub-fund which operates like the REFA will be created and reporting
to the political leadership there. A mechanism of compensating those in North
America, Brazil, the Arabia and EuroAsia has to be worked out by experts, but
based on the methodology which speaks to social (human), economic and political
costs as opposed to the narrow labor compensation methodology.
 |
| Fredrick Douglass, a prominent abolitionist leader |
Africans in North America continue to suffer from serious racial prejudice, despite President Lincoln's proclamation freeing them from bondage on 1 January 1863 at the serious and consistent urging of black abolitionist leaders, the most prominent one being Fredrick Douglass, the publisher of The North Star. Racial profiling, extreme discrimination accompanied by physical abuse and even killings have refused to go. The hardening of attitudes have worsened since Jim Crow Laws, and a significant budget from REFA shall be employed to tackle that issue in an effort to finding a lasting solution to this intolerable and sad state of affairs.
 |
| The gruesome lynching of blacks in southern USA by white supremacists, who are evidently satisfied their actions |
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. once likened the treatment of Afro-Americans in America to people who were
given a check which was later bounced due to insufficient funds. He said though
civil liberties were guaranteed in the American constitution, black people were
not enjoying those freedoms. I personally think that money cannot adequately
pay for the loss of human dignity and life. The compensation check of $34.7
quadrillion proposed by REFA is not the accurate summation of the true value of
African lives which were maimed and lost, but is a deterrent fine imposed on
the perpetrators and would-be perpetrators, such that they shall never again
think of repeating such crimes against humanity. Let us all be the agents of
the change we want to see in the world, as aptly put by Mahatma Gandhi of India.
When Nelson Mandela was
released from 27 years of captivity at Rhoben Islands, to take the leadership
role at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of government of the Republic
of South Africa, he famously and courageously declared, “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land
(Africa and the world) will again experience the oppression of one by another.”
God released the Israelites from slavery from Egypt, because it
was abhorrent in his eyes to see the cruelty which was being meted on them by
their captors. They were delivered to a land flowing with milk and honey.
REFA shall never be about promoting racism, hatred, anger,
revenge, fear, but a genuine way of creating and sustain global social justice.
It is a platform of truly liberating Africans and others in the developing world
from the shackles of injustice, greediness, corruption, and all other evils
perpetrated overtly or covertly by other humans.
Let the deep scars of the African souls be truly healed by the
grace and spirit of Jesus Christ, as his scars for the sake of humanity at the
Calvary were healed by the Father, who is in heaven.
NB
My dear readers, followers, and as promised this marks the end of my installments, at least for now, as when burning issues arose, we shall definitely come back. The conversations we raised on this platform were motivated by a deep and genuine desire of projecting and propelling the African citizen at home and in the diaspora to greater heights socially, economically and politically. We shall endeavour, from now onward to bring these desires, visions, wishes, aspirations, expectations, longings into real, tangible achievements by coordinating, implementing and leading from the front the cause of Africa and Africans, wherever they are, to be great again.
I thank you,
Robert Mudzvova,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
