Sankofa Business Alliance

By R. Lucas

This book explains the enormous potential associated with doing business in Africa and why African-Americans should take a proactive role in Africa's development. Subsequently, African-Americans' economy will benefit as a result of their involvement.This book explains the enormous potential associated with doing business in Africa and why African-Americans should take a proactive role in Africa's development. Subsequently, African-Americans' economy will benefit as a result of their involvement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R. Lucas
• Release date: Nov 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386458487

Book preview

SECTION ONE: Trans-Atlantic Black Economies Black Misery

Introduction

It has been a struggle for African economies to grow throughout the past few centuries. This is obvious when Africa's development is compared to Europe's from the 1800s. The European Age of Enlightenment is dated as close as just 300 years ago. Throughout those years, many changes were occurring in Africa as well, specifically related to their economies.

Throughout the 1800-1900s, Europe was developing intellectual and economic capacities. The Americans were developing as well. This development was mainly through the slave trade. The slave trade was fueled by individuals sold after capture from African countries. Those lying on the strip of the Atlantic Ocean suffered the most. The results of the slave trade compose the African-American community today. Ironically, this is the last developed ethnicity of the US population excluding the indigenous people.

Today, African-Americans and Africans share similar fates—-mainly, economic underdevelopment. The cases of course differ, since African-Americans are US citizens. The US is the world’s largest economy. This means that Africans in America possess greater access to economic opportunities.

The problems with African underdevelopment have less to do with economic persecution.  They are awareness based. Those awareness factors are knowledge and mindset.  Such factors are the keys to unlock Africa’s economic potential.

The mindset of African cultures in general is unfortunately appalling. The cultures lack the proper systems for educating their youth, mainly not teaching them to dream and aspire higher. We need to understand the evolution of Africa's negative mindset. Thus, this section will cover the economy of Africa today, comparing them to other world economies, and then delve into the historical view of African economies.  The comparisons of the present-day economies should help us understand the issues causing the Black Misery occurring at this time.

Chapter 1:

The Underdevelopment of African Economies

Selecting the starting point of the analysis process was a tough choice. Africa’s economy has a history of cultural contamination. It all started with the Portuguese trading in the 1450s. Before that, Africa’s economies were relatively stable. They were throughout centuries of evolutionary refinement. Thus, the cultural and economic systems were quite fragile to cross-cultural contamination.

Dispelling Population Excuses

The histories of African and European economies will be discussed in later chapters. For now, we should be comparing Africa’s current population to the rest of the world.  Africa is the second most populated continent on Earth. Its numbers reach 1 billion people.  Asia is in first place with 4 billion. Europe, a continent with an extensive history with Africa, comes third at 738 million.

These population figures should dispel beliefs about Africa’s underdevelopment being due to excessive population.  When compared to countries like China, taking area totals into consideration, much of Africa is actually sparsely populated.

China is the rising star of the world economy. It has a population of 1.5 billion, soon to approach 1.8 billion. This is equal to the population of the entire African continent! Do take into consideration that China is an export-based economy. China does not have enough natural resources on its own for its manufacturing base. It does not even have enough space to house its citizens in comfort, and yet, they’re faring well.  Also, there are other rising stars within the world economy, such as India. India has a high population of 1.3 billion; they are experiencing rapid economic growth now.

Area is a key aspect to consider related to the previous economies. Africa has an area of 30 million km2, while China has 10 million km2. Both have similar populations, and yet Africa is 3 times the size of China! Again, Africa wins when it comes to landmass available for its population. Let’s also expand this to India. India has a similar population to Africa, with an area of 3.2 million km2. So, Africa has 9 times more space per citizen than India!

To refine our understanding of the population crisis, let us exclude Africa’s Arab populations. Those would be the North African countries of Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. Such countries are much more economically advanced than the rest of Africa. In fact, when speaking of Africa in general, the previous countries tend not to be associated with Africa. The region itself is seen as The Middle East, not Africa. This references the people who migrated from the Arab world into North Africa during the expansion of Islam.

The total population of North African countries is close to 186 million. Deduct that from 1 billion, and that leaves 814 million Black Africans on the continent. This is almost the population of Europe . . .

Europe itself has a 10 million km2 area. Without the North African countries (5.8 million km2), Africa's area is 27-28 million km2.  Thus, Black Africa and Europe’s populations are similar. Africa here has an advantage, with 2.7-2.8 times the space of Europe. So what population crisis is there after all, when consulting the previous numbers?

The population crisis is a lie. What about the effects of foreign policy and resources?

If the population crisis is not causing the economic problem, then what is exactly? After all, China, India, and Europe populations should cause worse problems than Africa's.

Thus, we find that there are 2 excuses left to understand the current Black Misery. The first would be the effects of foreign policies on Africa. The second would be economic/natural resources.

When discussing foreign policy, the interests of the major world powers should be considered. Those would the USA, Europe, China, and Russia.

Russia is a resource-based economy, focused on exports of oil and natural gas. Considering that it has more than enough for itself, Russia has no need for African resources.

Also, Russia’s main military focus is territorial security against the threat of NATO. This comes as a result of the Soviet Union's collapse. Africa, indeed, is not on Russia’s foreign policy list.

China is a country that is hungry for resources. Regardless, this does not mean that China is willing to colonize Africa for them. China in fact, would need a strong naval potential to pull off such a stunt.

The military power of China is limited; it suffers to secure its maritime borders. Those would be the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. With a powerful military, it would have dominated both regions. Thus, China suffers from the problem of securing its borders, like Russia. Thus, both Russia and China do not have the military might for an African colonization.

The only option China has to gain access to African resources would be by business deals. Thus, China itself can never become a colonial threat. It can only be a business ally to Africa, using its own capital to expand African economies.

This only leaves the USA and Europe as potential threats to Africa’s development. Europe is not a threat, as again, its focus is on channeling its military force to empower the NATO alliance. (Actually, the USA handles 75% of NATOs expenditures.)So, we could say Europe itself is a decreased threat. This leaves us with the USA.

So, the USA is responsible for Africa’s economic Black Misery?

Nope. Politico Magazine presents a map with the locations of all US bases around the world. This is the map shown for illustration.

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Something interesting to be noted is that sizes differ based on location, and so do numbers.

African countries, specifically in the central and Southern areas, incorporate Lily Pads for protection. In fact, worldwide bases of the US are in all regions of the world, except for Africa!

The largest US bases are in Japan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the Caribbean.  Africa and South America are the only continents lacking US military bases. It is an interesting observation, symbolizing the importance of both regions to the US.

The sizes of the Africa’s lily pads are insignificant. This shows that Africa is not a priority of US foreign policy. In fact, the bases of the US are all close to borders of strategic allies, to counter potential enemies. The US bases for the EU are there to fend off Russian expansions. The bases in Saudi Arabia help guard against Iran. The bases in Japan and South Korea protect against China and North Korea.

But who is Africa supposed to be protected from? Exactly, no one. There are no threats towards Africa requiring protection. As of now, there are no colonial threats with eyes on African resources. The world powers do not see Africa as a concern to their interests. At most, the biggest problem would be Boko Haram terrorism, which is only an issue for North Nigeria. That is only one country in the entirety of Africa.

Long Story Short . . .

None of Africa’s current problems are external. The past of Africa, throughout the past 600 years, was surely dark. It has affected Africans in terms of displacement across the world. It has affected the lifestyles and structures of African cultures and economies. However, other countries around the world have also had their dark moments.

Consider for a second that the two World