http://chxta..com/2007/12/things-fall-apart.html

Soundbite: International Thief Thief

"The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."
---Obierika (Things Fall Apart, Chapter 20)

That quote from a book which from me is unarguably the greatest book ever written by a Nigerian sums up the methods that the Europeans (and to a smaller extent the rest of the world) have always used in keeping Africans in check, and up till date it has been brutally effective. Offer concessions to some Africans, then you buy them. Make them 'big men', then you don't need to do your dirty work for you. We've seen so many of such stories in Naija as an example, and Fela's 1979 classic International Thief Thief tells one of such stories in a humorous fashion.

'Mother' Europe

In recent times however, European condescension towards Africans has been a lot more subtle, with issues like human rights coming to the fore. And thus it was that at the Africa-EU 'summit' of the weekend past, the 'mother' of Europe (see Polish magazine picture above) went on the offensive immediately, her target, Zimbabwe's hapless president Robert Mugabe. While on the one hand, I agree with Merkel that Mugabe is a disgrace especially given the apparent economic collapse that has dogged his country in the last few years, on the other hand, the West has through their own actions fuelled the suffering of the Zimbabweans. My main grouse as is usual, is the double standards, where some are allowed to do shyte, and others are harangued for almost 'no reason'.

The Queen of England, her Prime Minister and her son the Prince of Wales were in Uganda a couple of weeks ago for the Commonwealth (a useless organisation if I ever heard of one) summit. We must not forget that Yoweri Museveni has been in power for 21 years now. He runs a virtual one party state, and each time there is an election round the corner, strange things happen to his opponents. In the last presidential elections, his opponent was slapped with a rape charge and thrown in jail during the election campaign. When a judge considered the case against him and ruled that he should be released, police stormed the court, re-arrested the presidential candidate, and beat up the judges and lawyers in the courtroom. Museveni "won"the election.

There have been no cries for human rights and democracy. No matter how flawed, elections in Zimbabwe may be more credible that those in Uganda. At least, opposition candidates are allowed to stand and the MDC has deputies in the parliament. By allowing Uganda to host the Commonwealth summit, and by the topmost personalities in the British hierarchy visiting, they have in very clear terms endorsed Museveni and all his methods. So what moral right do they have to condemn Mugabe?

The Ogaden region of Ethiopia is currently witnessing something that may yet develop into another Darfur. No one has mentioned it on the BBC, Sky or CNN, and the Ethiopian government of Meles Zenawi has been guilty of the kind of election violence that makes Obasanjo's government look saintly, but aside from the token mention, he has gotten off with a pat on the back. Compared with Ethiopia, Zimbabwe is a model of democracy.

We also have countries like Egypt, Libya and Equatorial Guinea where no one even bothers to hold elections, yet we hear nothing because the interests of Western countries are not at stake here. Libya has opened its oil taps, so all complaints have been dropped. As we speak, Gadaffi is having a drink with Sakorzy,

Despite this, Zimbabwe is seen as so bad that crippling economic sanctions have been imposed. The United States and Britain have blocked the country's access to all international capital markets and institutions (they claim that they imposed sanctions only on Mugabe, but this is a lie),

In 2001, four years after Britain withdrew its support for the Zimbabwean land reform programme, the US congress passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (ZIDERA). The act specifically orders US officials to block Zimbabwe's access to funds from the following agencies: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Development Association, International Finance Corporation, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Investment Corporation, African Development Bank, African Development Fund, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.

In my mind this action has more than Mugabe's antics contributed to the hyper-inflation which is so gleefully advertised on BBC and Sky as evidence of Mugabe's 'ineptitude'. It is a poignant advertisement of their hypocrisy when they maintain friendships with some of the worst of the worst still left on the continent,

Meanwhile, official British goverment policy is that Zimbabwe is 'safe' and that people face no danger, so black Zimbabweans seeking asylum in Britain are deported to Zimbabwe. It is a shame that Merkel has allowed Gordon Brown to use her to fight his battle with Mugabe while he himself cowardly remained in London and refused to go to Lisbon for that summit.

You see, Europe has traditionally been Africa's biggest trading partner. Sadly, that trade has been heavily skewered in favour of the Europeans. This was one of the effects of colonialism, and 'preferential' trade agreements drawn up between African nations and their erstwhile colonial masters. This state of affairs has been maintained more or less for the better part of a century. However, in recent times a new kid has emerged on the block. He is slick, suave, apparently a nouveau riche, and is actually attempting to 'treat Africans fairly'. His name is China, and his presence is making the traditional powers of the western world scamper for new deals. The US has reacted with Africom (recommended reading: the debate on African loft), while the EU is reacting with Economic Partnership Agreements.

According to Wikipedia, EPAs are a scheme to create a free trade area between the European Union and the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries. They are being drawn up in response to continuing criticism about the discriminatory preferential trade agreements offered by the EU which are incompatible with WTO rules. The WTO set a deadline of January 1, 2008 for all EPAs to take effect, and the EU has been feverishly working to get African countries to sign on. However, their approach has left the door wide open for suspicion.

On the face of it, the Europeans appear to be good guys as their offers come with conditions for adherence to human rights and good governance, while Chinese money on the other hand comes with no strings attached. In Sudan for example, the Chinese are pumping in money without a care as to what is happening in Darfur. But the truth is if we look beyond the veil, the Europeans have done that for years (examples of double standards given above, and in a lot of previous articles). In my mind what raised suspicion was the initial method of trying to get individual African nations to sign on to the EPAs as individual countries. This was as opposed to the EU which came as a single bloc. Twelve of the 16 member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa have already signed up to tentative agreements because those agreements would grant them preferential trade status, another clause which has probably aroused suspicion. I also believe that the whole Mugabe brouhaha in Lisbon was just a ruse to make African nations look the other way, and one must be thankful that on the continent a new breed of leaders (or is it their advisers who for the most part are ironically Western educated) are emerging who know the score.

The EPAs as currently written would spell the death kneel of any budding African enterprise as truth be told they simply would be unable to compete with their state subsidized EU counterparts. Classic examples can be seen on the numerous Oxfam adverts of which this one is just one example. Producers of goods in Western Europe and America have since the 1950s been subsidised by their governments. These subsidies have reached the $1 billion a day mark. The result of this is that when European producers export their products to ACP countries (whose governments evidently don't subsidise anything), those imported products are cheaper than what is produced in the importing country, and like Chxta at his local Sainsbury's the citizens of the importing country shun their own produce in favour of the cheap imports. Knock off effect? Local produce is rendered worthless, local producers ask themselves what the point is of producing anything, down tools, head to Lagos, and go to live in Makoko. We've already seen such things happen in the Nigerian textile industry which has practically shut down as a result of cheaper clothes from Europe flooding the market (and to be fair, we must mention high costs pf production due to factors such as NEPA).

The EU is keen to inject fresh impetus into its trade with Africa before the Chinese corner the entire market, and this promise of a more equal partnership is one of the carrots that will be dangled. There will be a lot more. However, they know the score, and they know the damage that the EPAs would do to us, which is why the initial approach was one of getting countries to sign up one by one. Classic divide and rule. It was very heartening to see African leaders led by Senegal's Wade refusing to be side tracked by the Merkel-Mugabe show. We have to learn to force the outside world to treat us with real equality and respect. Let us make no mistakes, the world is oiled by self interest above all else, and Africa's best friend Europe is definitely not.