China-Africa Relations - A leech Or A Partner?

The slogan “Africa Rising” has become the drum beat of many African optimist and political opportunist. The rapid growth pace of Africa’s GDP has been touted as a success and hope for a new Africa but what pundits fail to observe is where is this growth coming from and at what price to the ordinary African? This brings me to the new found Sino-African relationship. Many analysts are of the view that this new economic nuptial is a good partnership with Africa and I sarcastically opined; at what price? In life, we don’t get what we deserve but we get what we negotiate for. China like the Europeans before them are only interested in African raw materials to fuel the surge of industrialization taking place in mainland China. Therefore it remains to be an extractionary policy whereby raw materials are extracted out of the continent and brought back as transformed goods to be sold to  Africans whose insatiable appetite for Chinese products are inexhaustible. 

Chinese companies under the banner of the People’s Republic have been signing contracts with African governments to extract natural endowment without recourse to the environment, fiduciary diligence or human rights record. Well as purchasers of African resources, they are not obliged legally to be the moral police for the citizens of Africa whose leaders have often railroaded them as it relates to the public interest in selling off our collective endowments. Our leadership have once again failed us in the dispensation of its duties as it relates to being the custodians of our collective wealth. Natural raw materials are depletable assets therefore proceeds derived from the sale of such assets should be spent on long term fixed assets so that future generations of Africans can benefit from the resources extracted on their behalf. The lesson learned from the Chinese invasion of Africa is that the Africans still have weak institutions and strong leadership and the collective interest of society is yet to be protected. Therefore China’s presence in Africa has done little to change the economic fortunes of the ordinary African citizen or better  yet it has transformed the ordinary African citizen into consumption junkies whose appetite for consumer goods such as cell phones, tablets and flat screens are leaving the continent with a current account deficit which encourages capital out flow as import surges over exports.

I am of the view that trade is good but it has to be fair and mutually beneficial. Therefore our new found arrangement with China has to be revisited ex ante with new condition precedent that implore on them to engage in  value transformation for the raw materials purchased by building factories in Africa. This will ensure sustainable livelihoods for Africa’s lot whose hopes are dashed by empty promises and rhetoric being spewed by our political class. China has bribed its way to the top by building the new African Union Complex in Addis Abbaba therefore most if not all of Africa’s constituents are in the pockets of the Chinese interest. Hence my view of China as an extension of  our former colonial masters. The only difference between the Chinese and the European position is political power. They have no vested interest in how the political dispensation is managed.