The Recolonisation of Africa

Posted 4 years, 7 months ago | Originally written on 28 Feb 2015

I'm getting a bit concerned about how Africa is being overrun by foreigners to the extent that very little room is being left for the locals to develop their lives. Foreigners are far more competitive and better-placed to take advantage of resources and this presents a difficult situation. On the one hand, resources are immediately accessible but this comes at a price of a poor bargain. For example, foreign hoteliers are better able to take advantage of our climate to put up hotels and attract tourists but the only opportunities that locals then have are to work at these hotels and tourist attractions for very little pay.

The governments are also bent on inviting investors at any cost. It has become dogma that we should invite investors without giving thought about the growth of local industry. Even essential services like infrastructure construction are entirely handed over to foreigners. While the goal is development in the short term, it only leads to dependence in the long term and doesn't allow the growth of important skills and technology in the region.

There is a big price to pay for ignoring this concerns. Africans will wake up colonised in a new world in which it will be harder to fight for freedom because their freedom will have been snatched by the legal loophole of the market.