Africa needs an economic loophole. Africa is undoubtedly the richest land in the world, but at the same time, Africa is home to many poor and hungry people in the world. Currently, the condition of most Africans on the continent is similar to a prison camp, in which people pray day and night, or try to use any means available to escape from the camp, whether by sea or by the desert. However, as difficult as it may seem, whatever needs to be done to eradicate suffering in Africa can only be done by Africans if they know how to use the resources at their disposal.
Economic prison
First, we use the term economic escape because, viewed critically, Africa faces what might be called the “economic custody” of Western economic and military industry. Above all, this is true when we know that (as John Henrik Clarke said long ago) Africa is the richest land on earth, and Africa has things that many want and they cannot do without, and they never wanted to pay for it, so they will always find an excuse to invade Africa. This statement explains the various manoeuvres adopted by the West during and after the physical colonial period to always keep Africa as the basket of resources of the West, at the same time as the consumer of the products of the West. In other words, the economic gridlock that Africa finds itself in is aimed at keeping Africans underperforming in their duty to control their market, so that it is the foreign entities that hold the monopoly in the African market. Essentially, the control of the African market by Eurasian companies boils down to what Thomas Sankara said, in Africa we consume what we do not produce, and we produce what we do not consume. One example suffices to substantiate this phenomenon, in all the communities of sub-Saharan Africa (with a few exceptions) the market is dominated by the Chinese, Europeans, Indians and Arabs. In South Africa for example, the aliens run what are commonly called Spaza stores in the townships, they also run most supermarkets, and African communities depend on them for bread, sugar and other goods essential for basic needs. Ultimately, when the market that provides a nation’s jobs and economic growth is dominated by people other than that nation itself, job begging becomes the only function available to citizens.
Institutions as tools of domination
Second, these conditions are not written on rock, they are man-made, and they can be reversed. it is quite possible that Africans will regain the upper hand in controlling their market, and subsequently in their economic development. However, first and foremost, we need to understand how the system works that created these conditions in the first place. Looking globally, we can say that the world is dominated by institutions, and they are the means by which the few can control and dictate the life of the majority. For example, if you consider Apple Inc which is valued in May 2022 at $2,223 Trillion, or Microsoft at $1,893 Trillion, compared to Ghana’s GDP of $77.59 billion in 2021 or Nigeria’s GDP of $448 billion in 2019, it is clear that these private institutions have more influence than sovereign countries. We have many institutions in the world today, unfortunately they are all controlled by other people than Africans, whether you look at the Breton Wood institutions (World Bank, IMF, UN, WTO), or big businesses in the world, they belong to Europe or Asia, and thus save their economic interests.
Essentially, one thing we know about institutions is that they shape people’s behaviour: a crucial lever for social engineering. For example, when we walk into our places of work each day, we are told how to dress, how to talk, and what time to eat and socialize with other people. Because we spend most of our time at work, these behaviours embedded in the culture and ideology of the employer (mostly alien and hostile to African culture) unconsciously become a part of us and we easily pass them on to our children. This is the first degree of how economic institutions control our people by shaping their behaviour in one way or another, but that is not all institutions do.
Generally, our countries, or the so-called third world countries are generally controlled by Europeans, and maybe now also by Chinese through their institutions, because we belong to them. For example, the prices of Africa’s natural resources are not determined by Africans, rather the World Trade Organization (WTO) sets the prices; therefore, if this institution is controlled by Europeans, then the answer is simple as to who determines the value of Africa’s resources. Additionally, through the same WTO, we have many treaties that engage African countries in “free trade” alliances with European countries or the United States. Now logic dictates that when a country signs a free trade agreement with other countries such as the European Union (EU), it must have strong institutions that produce what needs to be sold in the EU space, but as stated above, what economic institutions does an African country have globally? In fact, Africa is lagging, trying to catch up in all important sectors: banks, supermarkets, hospitals and schools. In a nutshell, there are many systemic mechanisms in place to keep Africa and its people economic prisoners and consumers of other people’s products at the same time, now the question is, what can we do to reverse these conditions?
A way to escape
As most African scholars such as Cheikh Anta Diop and others have already emphasised, economic unity is the key to Africa’s success. This ideology of economic unity is based on the background of division inherited from the colonial system with its institutions. As mentioned above, through European institutions and their dominance of the African market, we have been conditioned to embrace the culture of individualism that accompanies the European worldview. Above all, it came at the expense of our own culture of communalism, sometimes referred to as Ubuntu. This is the system that helped Africa emerge from its dark ages and build the first human civilization that others have inherited and abused. So, it can still be the same to facilitate escape from the Africa’s current economic confinement. Basically, when you look at all the big companies in the world, you see that they work together, all the banks, the telecommunications companies, and so on, are networked, this means that the poor have no choice but to unite economically to free themselves. Moreover, suffice it to point out that the 21st century’s economic revolution in Africa will be championed by the organized communities rather than governments, only when communities across Africa have risen up and tapped their resources to build competitive economic institutions that they will be able to redeem their governments from this international prison system of the economy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we must reiterate the words of John Henrik Clarke by saying that everything that touches your life economically, politically or spiritually must be converted into a tool of your liberation and your emancipation, otherwise it is of no use to you. In other words, we will break out of our economic prison when we learn to pool our resources and build investment capital that can serve as tools for our escape, that is, the dignified use of all that we can still get from the system. In a way, it takes a bit of sacrifice from each of us, which means we must rethink how to use the little money we have to buy expensive cars and clothes to impress people who do not care about us, but we must use our money to create strong institutions such as banks, manufacturing industries, hospitals, farms and others, for our own escape.