Western Capitalism's Love for Africa and Africans

left: The New Colonialism: you can see why they're worried in London and Wall Street

You have to hand it to them, western nations, more accurately, western capitalism, is concerned that the Chinese government's investments in Africa amount to "preying on the continent's re-sources to feed China's economy while contributing very little". *

Don't laugh, it's true. They are also bothered because they don't think the Chinese are telling them enough about what they're doing there; transparency is the fancy word they use for it.  But isn't it wonderful, the love and consideration  western capital has for the African people. The Chinese, they say, are keeping mum about their activities because the financing they provide doesn't come with "conditions on better governance or tackling corruption" and "sets back the local economy".

Concern over the welfare of the African people is so strong among western governments that recent studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the Rockefeller Foundation in the US lists development of worker skills and Labor rights as "key challenges" that will ultimately determine how beneficial the Chinese presence on that continent are."

The name Rockefeller associated with any concern for workers and Labor rights is a joke for a start.  But the Chinese, and most Africans I'm sure, must cringe at the hypocrisy of it.  Famous names like Barclay's the bankers and Lloyds the London banking institution and insurer, became famous (and wealthy) through the slave trade.  The ports of Bristol and Liverpool grew wealthy on the slave trade, the stealing of 20 million or so Africans from their homes.  According to Walter Rodney, "In the 1830's slave grown cotton accounted for about half the value of all exports from the United States of America."** 

The real problem is that the rising power of Chinese capital is exploiting turf historically exploited by the west. They are not only in Africa, for centuries the jewel of European capital and more recently North American, but they are also in Latin America, a part of the world US imperialism considers its back yard. This antagonism between the US and an increasingly powerful China can only intensify.

There has not been much transparency coming from the US in its more recent dealings in Africa, supporting the white racist regime in the south, involvement in the assassination of Lumumba. the selling of arms to dictators like Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia and Mobutu of the Congo who, by some estimates killed two million people.

You have to hand it to these folks; they have no shame and a lot of nerve.

*China Rejects Criticism of Investment in Africa: Wall Street Journal 5-13-10
** Walter Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa