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AFRICA FIGHTS BACK FOR ITS RESOURCES
In recent years, West Africa has become a political theatre of note. One military after another has moved from the barracks to the presidential palace. At the heart of these popular military takeovers is the contest over the vast resources that the continent is endowed with.
The African continent is blessed with abundant natural resources. It has 40% of the world’s gold, 65% of its diamonds, and almost 90% of the chromium and platinum. It boasts around a third of global mineral reserves in total. There’s heaps of ‘black gold’ too – 12% of the world’s oil reserves – plus 8% of the natural gas and around 20% of the uranium. On top of that, our continent embraces 40% of the planet’s arable land and 10% of its inland freshwater sources. Under normal circumstances, the resources should have been a blessing. Still, in the case of our continent, they have put it in the crosshairs of imperialists who, for centuries, have plundered with impunity and left a trail of destruction in their wake.
For instance, resource-rich countries such as Niger and Gabon have suffered under French imperialism for decades due to Paris’s dependence on its resources for survival. It is Niger’s uranium that powers France’s electricity grid, while French companies such as TotalEnergies and Perenco control more than half of Gabon’s oil sector, the fifth largest on the continent. The timber harvested from Gabon’s rich forests adorns French homes, while most classrooms back home still lack desks.
Unsurprisingly, the military takeovers have early signs of support from many citizens because they are perceived as the only way of getting rid of the Western-aligned local elites, the enablers of the imperialist plunder of their national resources. Of course, Gabon is not Niger, and Niger is not Gabon, and in the coup in the latter, it’s not sure who is pulling the strings at this early stage. But many Africans across the continent are now asking if these uprisings will be how the continent finally manages to regain control of its abundant resources. Only time will tell.
Saturday night at the movies …
We watched an old old movie tonight. Dances with Wolves. Highly successful in its time, it is one of the oldie epic goodies that one does not see any longer.
The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director for Kevin Costner, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Mixing. The film also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It is one of only three Westerns to win the Oscar for Best Picture, the other two being Cimarron and Unforgiven, neither of which I’ve seen.
I enjoyed it, even if it is Hollywood – the story of Union Army Lieutenant John Dunbar who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and who meets a group of Lakota. The movie is spectacularly violent in spots but this Lieutenant learns the language and learns the culture and lives tribal life for a period. So, these Lakota …
There is a strong refusal in my being – I won’t check email. Guess I have a BRICS hangover.
Just a little fun:
And more seriously, with the heat having subsided a bit, but still way higher than the averages, I’m going nuts about freshness and necessary temperature of cooked meat .. grew up in a meat family and we can smell if anything is kinda off.
