Part 2 - A Tale of Africa

Part 1 - A Tale of Africa – The Metropolis (themetropolisnews.com)

Simon Mohsin - Political and International Affairs Analyst

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), the continent’s natural resources will contribute over $30bn annually to government revenues over the next 20 years. The potential of Africa’s extensive and exceptional natural wealth has been part of an ongoing and broader discourse, primarily because of why these resources have failed to deliver the modern development of Africa. The debate intensifies with every discovery, such as oil in Ghana, manganese in Gabon, coal in Mozambique, and many more. The AfDB estimates that Africa has 120 billion barrels of oil reserves, no less than half of Saudi Arabia, and 600 million hectares of uncultivated arable land, half of the world's total.

Africa – Mineral Coffer of the World

Africa, the second-largest continent, is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is divided into half and almost equally divided by the Equator. Nearly half the world’s gold and one-third of all minerals are in Africa. Beneath the surface of Africa lies a wealth of enormous mineral resources.

Africa is home to select oil?and?natural gas deposits drilled for energy and fuel. Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, and Angola dominate Africa’s?oil?industry.?Oil?exploration has significantly increased on the?continent, and many countries want to become first-time producers. According to the UN, Africa is home to about 30% of the world’s mineral reserves, 12% of the world’s oil and 8% of the world’s natural gas reserves.

Africa’s two most?profitable?mineral?resources?are gold and diamonds. South Africa accounts for almost half of Africa’s gold production. The continent also holds 40% of the world’s gold and up to 90% of its chromium and platinum. Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and Tanzania are other significant producers of gold. Africa dominates the global diamond market. Botswana, Angola, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Namibia are Africa’s largest producers of diamonds. Industrial minerals such as diamonds, gypsum, salt, sulfur, and phosphates were the primary commodities for 13 African countries. The DRC is Africa’s largest industrial diamond producer, followed by Botswana and South Africa. Botswana ranks number one in Africa for producing gem-quality diamonds used for jewelry.

Africa is a significant producer of essential?metals?and?minerals.?Metals?exported by African countries include uranium, used to produce?nuclear energy; platinum, used in jewelry and?industrial?applications; nickel, used in?stainless steel, magnets, coins, and rechargeable batteries; bauxite, a primary aluminum?ore; and cobalt, used in color pigments. Metals, including gold, iron, titanium, zinc, and copper, are the top-produced minerals for 11 countries. Ghana is Africa’s largest producer of gold, followed by South Africa and Mali.

At approximately $125 billion annually, South Africa generates the most money from its mineral resources. Nigeria comes in second with $53 billion per year, followed by Algeria ($39 billion), Angola ($32 billion), and Libya ($27 billion). These five countries produced more than two-thirds of the continent’s mineral wealth.

“This is Africa”

Leonardo DiCaprio’s cynical remark in the movie Blood Diamond may indicate morbidity about the situations in Africa historically, but the inherent reality is quite different. Several African conflicts and civil wars have occurred in Africa, and several of them have been caused and funded by the diamond industry. ?Conflict minerals have financed these decades-long conflicts and the money that flows into their trade.?Diamonds from Africa are often known as blood diamonds.

Often deemed Africa’s first war – and indeed its bloodiest since World War II – the strand of Congolese wars beginning in 1996 evolved into a full-scale protracted region-wide conflict that is still going strong. In the two debilitating decades since, Congo is estimated to have lost more than 6 million people, with another 6 million internally displaced in neighboring Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. While the fighting continues with no end in sight, Eastern Congo today resembles a ramshackle battleground that appears to have emerged out of the legacy of the Rwandan genocide and mutated into a freakish arena of tug-of-war between mainly the Congolese government troops, Rwandan forces, and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which comprises the Hutu rebels.

Oil and natural gas production have also been connected to civil conflict. In Nigeria, guerrilla groups have attacked oil infrastructure and stolen oil from pipelines since the early 1990s. These groups, primarily ethnic minorities, say foreign oil companies have exploited their labor while keeping most of the wealth. They also charge that out-of-date equipment severely pollutes air, soil, and water resources. This pollution has led to losses in arable land and fish stocks. However, the severe actions of these guerrilla groups have also increased pollution as they have damaged equipment. The attacks have also reduced production and local income, as many companies are forced to shut down. Similarly, in Angola, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, the 1990s retreated into flurries of civil wars. They came out with almost a million dead, devastating infrastructure, lost generations of child soldiers, and bleak prospects of permanent recovery.

A rich-in-oil country, Nigeria, started the Boko Haram Civil War over a dispute about resources. Often, governments and multinational corporations claim the ownership of resources (oil) on the land of indigenous people (tribes and other tribes). Yet, indigenous people, who are arguably the valid owners of resources, do not benefit from such exploitation. Poverty, low investment in education and health care services, corruption, and religious differences (Islam and Christianity) set fire to pointless disputes. The Civil War has existed for more than a decade.

So Much; Yet, So Little

Africa has a huge energy deficit. Across the continent, an estimated 600 million people have no access to electricity. By 2030, over 250 million people will still not have a connection to the grid.

Much of African countries' underdevelopment has been blamed on excessive dependence on the Western world. Capitalism has led to an unequal and exploitative international relationship between developed and developing countries, causing developed countries to dominate developing countries. This has fueled the underdevelopment of most developing countries, and Africa is a prime example of it. Others blame the underdevelopment of Africa on colonialism and its attendant exploitation. Corruption and insufficient leadership have also been blamed for the lack of development in African countries. Other factors, such as poor institutions and cross-border conflicts, have also been blamed for the underdevelopment of Africa, even in the face of natural resource abundance. This phenomenon in Africa reflects what is mainly called the natural resource curse or the paradox of plenty.

With abundant natural resources, Africa also lags in international trade. The continent controls only about 3% of international trade. This is despite the vast natural resource exports out of Africa. The continent has also recorded the most unstable democracies in the world. Political conflicts are prevalent in some African countries. Some African countries, such as Somalia, have even been described as failed states because of the breakdown of their government systems. These and many other factors drag African countries further down the poverty line. This presents the biggest paradox: the richest resource continent has the poorest countries on the earth.

The continent has also received foreign aid from developed country governments and international organizations. Generally, there is controversy about how beneficial foreign aid is to Africa. According to a 2014 report, Africa receives about $133.7 billion yearly from official aid, grants, loans to the private sector, remittances, etc. However, at the same time, some $191.9 billion is extracted from the continent in the form of debt repayments, multinational company profits, illicit financial flows, brain drain, illegal logging, fishing, etc. Therefore, Africa suffers a net loss of about $85 billion. Hence, most scholars and authors often argue that the notion that the West is aiding Africa is wrong. They argue that it is Africa that is aiding the West, and the West has been exploiting Africa or raping it non-stop.

The Rape of Africa Continue(d)

The combination of staggering wealth, rampant violence, and abject poverty in DR Congo is no coincidence but part of a pattern causing devastation across Africa, according to Financial Times investigative journalist Tom Burgis. The wholesale expropriation of resources during colonial times has barely slowed through the post-independence era, albeit with new beneficiaries. Western governments are not supposed to wield commercial and political power simultaneously and certainly not to use one to benefit the other. However, in colonial states, the British or Portuguese would cultivate a small group of local people who would fuse political and commercial power to control the economy. When the foreign power leaves, the colonial states are left with an elite that has no division between political and commercial power. The only source of wealth is mines or oilfields, and that is a recipe for ultra-corrupt states. Somewhere like Nigeria, an ‘extractor elite’ wanted to draw to itself the rent that oil and mining resources generate. The multinational companies hold enormous economic and political power in post-independence African countries.

The growth of offshore banking in the late 20th century created new opportunities for resource tycoons to cover their tracks, a practice laid bare in the Panama Papers. Israeli businessman Dan Gertler pioneered forging close friendships with DR Congo President Joseph Kabila. He was granted a near monopoly on exporting the nation’s diamonds and became a billionaire. Gertler routed the cash through an elaborate network of offshore accounts in tax havens, keeping the details of controversial deals secret. Responsibility for the plight of resource-dependent nations goes beyond traders and dictators. The global economy still requires a huge supply of raw materials originating in Africa, creating an imperative to maintain the existing, destructive model. The nature of the global supply chain means that collaboration with the crimes around resource extraction extends from African dictators to a European mobile phone buyer. This way, colonial exploitation has transformed into modern exploitation, establishing neocolonialism or modern colonialism structures.

Modern Colonialism and Exploitation

People around the world have exploited Africa's precious minerals. But despite Africa's immense mineral wealth, the continent is yet to reap the financial benefits. The conflict minerals case questions how global supply chain capitalism, conflict resolution, and consumer ethics intersect with postcolonial friction and violence. Corruption, abuse of power, and inefficiency of competent authorities lead to ineffective resource management. Most revenues from exploiting resources (oil, coal, gold, etc.) fall to political elites, and national income is not adequately distributed to the lower classes. Additionally, the trickle-down process is slow, and in some cases, it does not even happen.

Privatizing national companies with capital flooded from Western countries was later called neocolonialism. It resulted in local businesses’ bankruptcy, rampant unemployment, and a shortage of output. Also, these programs employed a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach, which seeks solutions based on people's needs. Consequently, these programs quickly failed, and the request to establish democracy going against multi-tribal grain/nature/traditions has separated many African countries more than ever.

The Resource Curse

The term in the world of developers is called “resource curse.” According to some researchers, the relationship between resources and economic growth rate depends on how income is used, which political system is operated, the government's capability, and whether the national stage is early or late industrialization. The resource, therefore, can be viewed either as a “curse” or “blessing” - to describe countries that are rich in natural resources yet are likely to suffer from grief, war, and trauma.

Exploiting and expanding Africa’s fossil fuels will not benefit its people. History has shown this to be true. Many African countries, such as Nigeria, are rich in oil and gas but are still poor and still lacking in access to electricity for even basic needs. In the Niger Delta,?pollution caused by oil spills has reduced?life?expectancy to just 41 years.?Far from the promised development, “extractivism” has meant tears, blood, and sorrow for the poor communities in whose lands the exploitation takes place. Gas flaring at oil fields pumps a cocktail of smoke and black carbon into the atmosphere, poisoning the air, water, and soil. Cancer, blood disorders, congenital disabilities, and skin and lung diseases are common, while acid rain caused by pollution damages roofs and infrastructure.

The Niger Delta is the wild west for these companies. A mafia of Western oil companies is benefiting from the industrial despoliation of the Niger Delta, getting rich on the suffering of the local people. The new African dash for gas is another manifestation of colonial exploitation. The war in Ukraine is giving Western governments and fossil fuel companies the excuse to come to Africa for more extraction and pollution.

Technically, gas flaring is illegal in Nigeria, but a loophole allows companies to continue. Even if they are fined, it is a fraction of the value of the gas they produce. Even if they are taken to court, nothing happens for years – the first hearings of an appeal by Shell against a ruling by the Nigerian High Court in 2005 to halt gas flaring are only being heard in 2022. Shell is set to conclude nearly a century of Nigerian onshore oil and gas operations after agreeing to sell its subsidiary to a consortium of five mostly local companies for up to $2.4 billion. The British energy giant pioneered Nigeria's oil and gas business in the 1930s. It has struggled for years with hundreds of onshore oil spills due to theft, sabotage, and operational issues that have led to costly repairs and high-profile lawsuits. Shell has sought to?sell?its Nigerian oil and gas business but will remain active in Nigeria's more lucrative and less problematic offshore sector. Shell's exit is part of a broader retreat by Western energy companies from Nigeria as they focus on newer, more profitable operations.?In recent years, Exxon Mobil, Italy's?Eni,?and Norway's?Equinor have struck deals to sell assets in the country. Although this is positive news, dark clouds are still circling Africa.

At a time when wells should be shutting down, African leaders are considering new fossil infrastructure, powerless to stop the advances from richer nations with their financial aid. This stance perpetuates colonialism and ecological irresponsibility, which can be termed ecocide and intergenerational crime.