Daily Times

The 55-member African Union(AU) has rejected a German proposal to effectively re-colonise the continent under the guise of curbing migration to Europe. This is bad news for Berlin. After all, it has an eye on the 2021 general elections that will see Chancellor Angela Merkel step down. A move viewed by her detractors as appropriate penance for her open border policy that welcomed one million refugees back in 2015; though mostly from the Middle East.

Gunter Nooke, Commissioner for Africa, earlier this month floated the idea of the EU (or possibly the World Bank) leasing territory from the so-called Dark Continent with a view to building cities to boost development and employment. The idea being to keep the citizenry where they belong: far away from the shores of Fortress Europe. There is, of course, one snag. These so-called free cities would be run by foreign powers bringing with them their own laws and code of conduct for a period of 50 years.

Pundits fear that the concept may find common currency among the African youth. Indeed, there are already faint murmurings among certain Kenyan academic circles, for example, that indicate willingness to explore this concept. The only caveat being on-the-table guarantees that local citizenries will benefit. Naturally, this appears a moot point. For in all likelihood this will give rise to increased socio-economic apartheid at home; between rich and poor.

The AU was thus right to pooh-pooh such imperialist adventurism for the new age. Not least because Africa is known to be a continent rich in largely untapped natural resources; something on which Col Gaddafi spoke extensively. That being said, what must happen now are renewed efforts to spotlight the question of European reparations. For all the wealth plundered from African lands during the era of aggressive colonisation. Europe and the West have for too long talked of poverty and low human development rankings in the Global South as if they are natural phenomena; the burden of backward peoples. When, in reality, prevailing financial dire straits are the man-made product of an orchestrated looting spree that also included labour; and in which local elites were actively complicit.

It is imperative, then, that the African people reclaim the narrative on this front. And that allies within Europe’s Left also speak up for the cause. If only to debunk the propaganda espoused by the likes of Hillary Clinton and Tony Blair who both went on record this week as saying that migration fuelled the rise of the Trump presidency and directly contributed to Brexit. It is significant to note that the German plan envisages population flows from neighbouring African states to the new free cities.

Of course, if Europe and the US were sincere about stemming the refugee crisis a good first step might be to refrain from decimating entire societies with bullets and bombs; often under the false banner of humanitarian intervention. But the answer can never be found — to paraphrase the words of AU Director of Communication Leslie Richer — in the surrender of African sovereignty.  *

Published in Daily Times, November 30^th 2018.