China: the New Imperialists & Neo- Colonialists in Africa?

By Kwame A. Insaidoo

Chinese generally look condescendingly on the humanity of black Africans, but over the past decades there have been a huge influx of Chinese on the African continent. What is driving the Chinese to the African continent? Are the Chinese in Africa to help Africa develop in their so-called win-win, or south-southdevelopment method? Or are the Chinese in Africa to exploit the huge super abundant raw materials and mineral resources to fuel their expanding industries?It is true that the Chinese are currently building monumental stadiums, presidential palaces, conference halls,but as much as Africans are grateful for these they do not represent economic progress for Africa.
What we see though is Chinese offering huge loans to African nations in return for their raw materials. Ironically, most of the loans end up in the hands of Chinese contractors undertaking the construction projects, Chinese labor working in the projects, and Chinese materials and products used in the projects. In the end African governments are left holding the bag of huge repayments back to China. Moreover, some, if not, many of the infrastructure are often shoddy as the case of Angolan hospital, and many roads in Africa have demonstrated.
Additionally, Chinese also support African dictators like Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Omar Bashir of Sudan, Santos of Angola and many others with deadly weaponry to oppress African citizens.
Finally, the Beijing Consensus though has helped lift many Chinese out of poverty cannot be replicated in Africa, because of its authoritarian nature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524604578

Kwame A. Insaidoo

Kwame A. Insaidoo was born in Ghana. He received his early education from Akwasiho Presbyterian Middle School, Fijai and Aggrey Memorial Secondary schools. While at the University of Ghana, he was awarded an academic scholarship to attend Missouri State University,where he was elected President of Association of International Students. In 1979 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics and attended graduate school at New York University where he received his Master's degree in International Relations in 1988. kwame has written numerous articles and books on Africa politics.

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© 2016 Kwame A. Insaidoo. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/21/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0459-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0458-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0457-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906548

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Chinese Invasion Of Africa

3. Chinese Military Aggression In Africa

4. But Why Africa?

5. Raw Materials & Overseas Markets: The Nuts & Bolts Of Colonialism Or The Great Chinese Takeout In Africa?

6. Infrastructure For Development?

7. Chinese Exploitation & Abuse of African Labor

8. Chinese Imperial Designs In Africa

9. Beijing Consensus Or The Washington Consensus: Which way forward Africa?

Chinese generally look condescendingly on the humanity of black Africans, but over the past decades there has been a huge influx of Chinese on the African continent. What is driving the Chinese to the African continent? Are the Chinese in Africa to help Africa develop in their so-called win-win, or south-south development method? Or are the Chinese in Africa to exploit the huge super abundant raw materials and mineral resources to fuel their expanding industries?It is true that the Chinese are currently building monumental stadiums, presidential palaces, conference halls, but as much as Africans are grateful for these they do not represent economic progress for Africa.

What we see though is Chinese offering huge loans to African nations in return for their raw materials. Ironically, most of the loans end up in the hands of Chinese contractors undertaking the construction projects, Chinese labor working in the projects, and Chinese materials and products used in the projects. In the end African governments are left holding the bag of huge repayments back to China. Moreover, some, if not, many of the infrastructure are often shoddy as the case of Angolan hospital, and many roads in Africa have demonstrated.

Additionally, Chinese also support African dictators like Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Omar Bashir of Sudan, Santos of Angola and many others with deadly weaponry to oppress African citizens.

Finally the Beijing Consensus though has helped lift many Chinese out of poverty cannot be replicated in Africa, because of its authoritarian nature.

"But economic relationships can’t simply be about building other countries’ infrastructure with foreign labor or extracting Africa’s natural resources.

Real economic partnerships have to be a good deal for Africa-they have to create jobs and capacity for Africans."

President Barack Obama addressing the African Union in Addis Abba July 28, 2015

"Is China a malign force-a modern colonial colossus intent on stripping Africa of its wealth without leaving behind sustainable structures?

At present, there is little technology transfer, little capacity building, and little attention given to good governance and effective institutions."

Robert I Rotberg.

China’s quest for resources, opportunities and influence in Africa.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the untold African workers who have endured horrible sufferings at the hands of Chinese imperialists operating in Africa.

I particularly dedicate this work to the memory of my lovely and hard working mother Margaret Yaa Dufie, popularly known as Yaa Nyame who suddenly passed away from this life on April 3, 2016. May we never forget her, and may her soul rest in perfect peace.

ONE

INTRODUCTION

One of the most prolific philosophers of the 20th century George Santayana prophetically warned, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We Africans in our newfound love for China and everything Chinese must pause a little to reflect on what happened to our great grandparents in their encounters and interactions with ‘new’ foreigners who ventured into our shores and our societies in the past. We must collectively pay attention to the prophetic warnings of George Santayana and remember our past horrible history with foreigners who ventured into our shores so we do not repeat the horrible and unpardonable mistakes of our ancestors.

Chancellor Williams in his powerful book, ‘The Destruction of Black Civilizations" highlights the inherent good qualities of the Africans: God-fearing, loving, embracive, warm, open, friendly and quick to accept all kinds of foreigners and naively believe that all human beings share his good natured qualities.

The African is therefore quick to accept foreigners into his midst without questioning the motives of these foreigners. These admirable qualities of the African have been his undoing and are responsible for the multitude of calamities and historical tragedies that have befallen the African. Indeed the African good-naturedness and his welcoming hospitality are too good for his own survival in this wicked world, and he risks annihilation and utter extermination from this wicked world if he does not change his naïve and happy go-lucky ways and begin to emulate the cold and calculating nature of other races.

Chancellor Williams further reminds us that the African had built empires from Ethiopia to Egypt, erected the huge monumental pyramids, and made Egypt into the breadbasket of the then world, a fact which the so-called Father of History, Herodotus attested to.

The good natured, warm and embracive African was quick to uncritically accept the multitude of the hungry Arabians from the scorching inhospitable deserts from whence they came seeking solace in the developed societies of the African people. The former desert dwellers who settled in Egypt became the dominant tribe all over North Africa fought and drove the Africans out of the entire Northern African nations.

The African with his good-naturedness was forced to migrate to his present-day so-called Sub-Saharan Africa. Though these former desert Arabians live in African soil today they still consider themselves as Middle Easterners and have more in common with their Arabian brothers and sisters than the black African has they share the same continent with.

These Arabs look at the black Africans with condescension and disdain and refer to them as infidels. If you will, look at what is happening in the Sudan today, and you see the same hostile Arab attack on the African playing itself out as the infantile barbaric and savage Janjaweed and hosts of Arabs kill, maim, rape black African girls, and destroy their homes in their forward march to occupy African lands.

History reminds us also that the Arabs perpetrated the heinous barbaric East African Slave Trade where black Africans were captured and sold as slaves to Arabia, the various plantations, and other lands in the pacific. Well, so much for the African good natured, God-fearing, embracing hospitality, and naively trusting foreigners without studying them, questioning their motives and knowing who they are before welcoming them into their midst or societies.

Did the African remember this bitter historical encounter with the Arabs and learned valuable lessons from it, and vowed never again would they uncritically accept foreigners into their midst? Or did they condemn themselves by forgetting their horrible destructive past ordeal with the foul, rotten and wicked Arab? Is it clear in the African mind that his ancestors were forced at the point of the sword in the numerous so-called jihad wars to submit to Islam against his will? Furthermore, is the African aware that these marauding Arabs put those who refused to submit to the foreign Islamic religion to death by sword?

Finally, are Africans keenly aware that Arab imperialism resulted in the:

■ Loss of African lands in all of North Africa?

■ Forced the imposition of essentially foreign Islamic religion on the unwilling African at the point of the sword?

■ Ever encroaching southward march of the Arabs to seize more sub-Saharan African lands? Look at the barbaric military campaign, the late lunatic Libyan leader Gadhafi waged to seize oil rich lands of the independent nation of Chad.

The resilient black African eventually recovered from this odious barbaric Arab imperialism and begun once again to build new empires like the ancient Ghana, Mali, Songhai and others.

Scarcely had the African began to take control of his destiny on his continent did the European Imperialists descended on the African continent like barbarian hordes.

Once again the descendants of good-natured Africans forgot their bitter history with the Arabs and were forced to repeat the mistakes of their past by uncritically embracing these Europeans into their midst. It is pertinent to assume that the good-natured African believed he was merely trading with the Portuguese merchants during the silent trade. They perhaps found it unthinkable that the Portuguese had ulterior motives to capture and sell the Africans as slaves and later come back with their brothers to seize the continent for themselves.

Once again, the hospitable, good-natured African who accepted the Europeans into his society suffered a crushing blow and defeat as the European began to pillage and ravage the African society to enslave them. The African experience with the European has revealed that:

1. The European was not his trading partner neither was he his friend but a trickster and an implacable enemy determined to subjugate and humiliate the African.

2. Unlike the good-natured African, the European was not quick to embrace the African in brotherhood or sisterhood, but was determined to exploit the labor and wealth of the African continent.

3. European had a hidden motive to enslave and abuse the African and take over their lands to enrich themselves. As my friend in Harlem, USA always reminded me you good Africans did not know that not only did the European wanted the African lands and mineral wealth but wanted the African women and men to develop his lands.

4. Europeans deeply believed the black African was a depraved, savage, inferior barbarian that needed to be civilized and Christianized to be acceptable by the civilized world.

5. The Europeans believed the African had to abandon his primitive and barbarian worship of his traditional ancestral gods and worship the European concept of white deity, white Jesus and the pantheon of white angels so the African can guarantee himself a front row seat in the Whiteman’s concept of heaven. Perhaps, there too in the so-called Heaven, racism against the black African will not rear its ugly head, so African Christians should take note.

A critical retrospective glance of the African encounters with both the Arab and the European led to the horrible destruction and retrogression of the African continent, and its black people’s growth and development. The consequences of both the Arab and European imperialisms in Africa has led to the extreme and profound poverty of Africans, numerous tribal wars, ethnic hostilities, military insurrections and the eventual balkanization of the African continent. The constant repetitive economic exploitation of the rich mineral, forest and human resources of the African continent is the direct result of the imperialism and colonization of the continent by both the Arabs and the Europeans.

The never-ending feud or hostilities between the African Christians and Moslems are the direct result of these foreign religions that were forcibly shoved unto the throats of unwilling Africans by both imperial powers. This confusion of forced imposition of alien religions on the African soil play itself out on our continent as African Moslems relentlessly kill their African Christian brothers and sisters in the name of these alien religions, especially in places like Northern Nigeria, Central Africa, Mauritania, and elsewhere on the continent.

Today, we are witnessing the madness of a rag-tag insurgency of Boko-Haram intent on creating a seventh Century Islamic Caliphate in Northern Nigeria, complete with Sharia Laws.

The unpardonable consequences of the Arab colonization in Africa was their criminal seizure of African prime lands from Morocco to Egypt, and now their attempts to seize all Sudanese lands for Arab exploitation. Though the blacks in Southern Sudan have finally declared their independence from the Arab north, it is still a tenuous independence.

Despite the persistent Judeo-Christian attempt to white wash the evils of European colonization, the black people of Africa have not recovered from the utter chaos, physical and psychological destruction visited on their continent by these European imperialists. The black man today rests at the bottom of the social ladder of many nations across the globe because of these sinister colonial activities of Europeans against them.

The most reprehensible and unforgivable consequence of European colonialism is the continuing psychological battle of the White European supremacist against black Africans by making their God-given color of black the badge of inferiority amongst the peoples of the world. Here many irresponsible white European Christian preachers erroneously and foolishly continue to propagate the vicious lies that God cursed the black African because he saw the nakedness of his father.

The truth, as all honest and God-fearing people will testify to, is that on the contrary God enormously blessed the African with a warm hospitable continent filled with abundant mineral wealth, and confined the Europeans to inhospitable, chaotic, barren and cold lands. Hence, the Europeans envy of African lands, and wealth.

Finally, while the Africans were unable to drive the invading Arab imperialists from North Africa, they succeeded for the most part with the help of the mighty Mosquitoes to drive the European imperialist out of our continent.

Today, remnants of European neo-colonialism still linger on the African continent as they clinch tightly to the enormous mineral and petroleum resources on the continent.

ENTER THE CHINESE IMPERIALISTS?

As black Africans gradually begin to stabilize their ravaged continent by European and Arab orchestrated civil wars, ethnic violence, military coups, dictatorships, profound poverty etc.; another imperial power China has made its way into the African continent. At this critical juncture in our history, it behooves the masses of the African people, political leaders, intellectuals, politicians and lovers of Africa to earnestly determine what the Chinese really want from Africa. What is the hidden motive of these Chinese in Africa? Once again, let us bear in mind the prophetic warnings of George Santayana that, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

If the bitter history of the African is to be used as a guide to prevent him from repeating his mistakes with the Arab and European colonialists, then Africans must collectively pause to find out the hidden motives of the numerous Chinese making their way to our continent. It is only then can the African policy makers, politicians, intellectuals and others can construct sensible immigration and other policies to stem the huge unfettered flow of Chinese into our lands. We must never be foolhardy and uncritically allow the multitude of Chinese into our lands without first finding out who these Chinese people really are, because the vast majority of Africans know very little or next to nothing about these Chinese.

In his article, The Paradox of China Safari Hank Esso admonished Africans that: It would be utter folly for Africa not to try and decipher the real motives behind China’s unconcealed and burgeoning interests in Africa… Indeed, those who fear that with China, Africa is once again about to be taken to the cleaners-as erstwhile colonialists did-may not be off the mark. 1.

Many African observers and scholars are beginning to question the motives of Chinese near invasion of the African continent as Llewellyn King observed: These Chinese moves in Africa are breathtaking in their scope. Whereas the European grab for Africa and its treasures in the 19th century was haphazard, and fed by rivalry in Europe as much interests in Africa, the Chinese neo-imperialism has a thoroughness and a planning that no European power-not even Britain-ever aspired to. 2.

It behooves African leaders who are basking in the so-called massive Chinese investments and Aid to seriously begin to question the motives and imperial ambitions of the Chinese in Africa, and begin to decipher the real hidden motives of the Chinese in Africa. Indeed as self-serving as one may consider Jack Straws, the British Foreign secretary in 2006 warning to Africans we need to critically evaluate and consider the substance of his advice that listed China as a problem for Africa along with wars, famine and diseases. He ended on a throwaway line: ‘welcome to the new colonialists. 3.

As black Africans, we should begin to collectively ask ourselves the most challenging questions about the immense and fearful Chinese encroachments to our continent, and determine or find out what they really want from Africa.

The answers to some of these probing questions will perhaps shine some bright light into the dark corners of Chinese motivations for coming to our continent. Among some of the problems or issues that must seriously concern African policy and decision makers should be:

■ Why are the Chinese coming to Africa in exodus proportions at this particular historical era? Why didn’t they come to Africa during the time of European colonization? Why didn’t they come to Africa in large numbers during the famous military expedition of the powerful Chinese Admiral Zheng He who mounted extraordinary naval ships to the East Coast of Africa?

■ Decipher Chinese attitudes towards black Africans. What is the Chinese perception of the black man in Africa? Do they respect the African? Do they look with condescension and disdain towards the African? Do they view the black African through negative prisms? Do they believe that they are better than the African? If they have negative attitudes towards the black African, why are they descending into African lands in