We are probably few in number but for those of us Africans, of all races, who have long been hoping something would change for the better, the future may never have looked bleaker in my humble opinion.
Since independence, I think it is safe to say that the quality of governance in sub-Saharan Africa, has gone from bad to worse and we must surely boast some of the most corrupt and incompetent regimes in the world. The hope that many of us clung to that South Africa, with all the systems, structures, expertise and resources inherited at the advent of black majority rule, would provide a shining light on the dark continent, have been effectively destroyed. If anything, the incompetence and corruption, endemic to the north, has not only been emulated, it has been surpassed to new, dizzying heights.
With delinquent regimes abounding and no internal mechanisms such as the rule of law effective in altering the behaviour of African leaders, the only hope lay in the application of external pressure by more responsible governments and institutions that had leverage over our rulers.
This was always a real possibility because virtually every country south of the Sahara, with the possible exception of Botswana and Namibia, is dependent on financial and other forms of support from foreign sources.
In the main, this assistance has been forthcoming in vast quantities over the past 50-60 years from the Western democracies and their financial affiliates such as the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). However, unfortunately, the normal rules that apply between creditor and debtor seem not to apply in this context and billions, nay trillions, have been squandered and stolen over the last sixty years and while the recipient countries are worse off than ever, those that have plundered the proceeds of this largesse, have not been held accountable.
A root cause of the problem lies in the fact that throughout the post-colonial period, racial discrimination against whites has long been condoned, even incorporated in law, because it has been seen by the world as an understandable corrective action required to right alleged wrongs of the past – a deserved quid pro quo for the crimes of colonial oppression dumped on the white minorities who never asked to be born in Africa, not the citizens of the Mother nations who scrambled for Africa and occupied it in the first instance. The fact that these policies have forced the exclusion of people of European descent from every spectrum of the private and public sector where they contributed mightily, out of all proportion to their small numbers, with ruinous results, has been accepted as inevitable collateral damage.
Against this backdrop, I watch developments in the United States under the Biden administration with dismay tinged with a sense of hopelessness. By admitting the accusations forthcoming from extremist, Marxist movements such as Black Lives Matter are accurate, he has conceded that his country is inherently racist and therefore bound to make amends in a variety of ways which may include reparations for slavery.
While I look at these events from an African perspective, not lost on me, are the implications, for the country many of us have looked to for so long, for strong, principled leadership and decisiveness in protecting and keeping what used to be known as the ‘Free World’ free. And with China becoming ever more assertive in the global domain, as she grows her economic and military power, America is increasingly challenged. Now, thanks to her new president, admitting that he leads a country that is a racist, genocidal hellhole, they have lost the important moral high ground in meeting the growing threat.
When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a summit in Alaska in March, the Chinese delegation led by his counterpart found themselves on solid ground. He chastised the Americans for having the audacity to criticise China for human-rights violations stating, “the United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength†because “the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated, such as Black Lives Matter.†These “human rights violations†are “admitted by the U.S. itself.†The problem is, the Chinaman is right. With China rampaging through Africa, plundering its resources, we Africans must now know, there will be no meaningful resistance from the US.
But, thanks to the Americans, our problems do not end there. Our leaders have not missed the rapid spread of a ‘corrective’ culture embraced at virtually every level of governance in that country where basically, saying ‘no’ to a black person is absolutely unacceptable under any circumstances, making it extremely difficult and sometimes dangerous, for a white person to resist any demands made upon him or her, by a black person.
On the back of this sentiment the enforcers of law and order have been neutralised by the acknowledgement of the administration of endemic racism in the country’s police forces which was an influential factor in the conviction and incarceration of Derek Chauvin on charges that he caused the death of the serial criminal, George Floyd. Bellicose calls to ‘defund the police’ are being made countrywide, policemen are retreating rather than tackling crime where black suspects are involved and the stage seems set for lawlessness to spread throughout the land.
Black Africans in power everywhere are watching this and smiling; they know the same will apply to them on an international level; all they have to do is cry colonialism, apartheid and slavery and the money from a guilt-ridden West will continue to pour forth while they persist with their awful misrule.
The damage done by the despots that has visited death, poverty and misery on hundreds of millions of blacks, is not only set to continue, but will probably reach new levels of atrociousness.
Woke wisdom in the Western democracies has concluded that colonialism is a crime against humanity. One day, probably when it is too late (if not so already), these fools will recognise that the true crime against humanity was the decolonisation of Africa that replaced the rule of law and sound governance with the rule of terror by the big chiefs who care for nobody but themselves and their personal Swiss bank accounts.
Since independence, I think it is safe to say that the quality of governance in sub-Saharan Africa, has gone from bad to worse and we must surely boast some of the most corrupt and incompetent regimes in the world. The hope that many of us clung to that South Africa, with all the systems, structures, expertise and resources inherited at the advent of black majority rule, would provide a shining light on the dark continent, have been effectively destroyed. If anything, the incompetence and corruption, endemic to the north, has not only been emulated, it has been surpassed to new, dizzying heights.
With delinquent regimes abounding and no internal mechanisms such as the rule of law effective in altering the behaviour of African leaders, the only hope lay in the application of external pressure by more responsible governments and institutions that had leverage over our rulers.
This was always a real possibility because virtually every country south of the Sahara, with the possible exception of Botswana and Namibia, is dependent on financial and other forms of support from foreign sources.
In the main, this assistance has been forthcoming in vast quantities over the past 50-60 years from the Western democracies and their financial affiliates such as the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). However, unfortunately, the normal rules that apply between creditor and debtor seem not to apply in this context and billions, nay trillions, have been squandered and stolen over the last sixty years and while the recipient countries are worse off than ever, those that have plundered the proceeds of this largesse, have not been held accountable.
A root cause of the problem lies in the fact that throughout the post-colonial period, racial discrimination against whites has long been condoned, even incorporated in law, because it has been seen by the world as an understandable corrective action required to right alleged wrongs of the past – a deserved quid pro quo for the crimes of colonial oppression dumped on the white minorities who never asked to be born in Africa, not the citizens of the Mother nations who scrambled for Africa and occupied it in the first instance. The fact that these policies have forced the exclusion of people of European descent from every spectrum of the private and public sector where they contributed mightily, out of all proportion to their small numbers, with ruinous results, has been accepted as inevitable collateral damage.
Against this backdrop, I watch developments in the United States under the Biden administration with dismay tinged with a sense of hopelessness. By admitting the accusations forthcoming from extremist, Marxist movements such as Black Lives Matter are accurate, he has conceded that his country is inherently racist and therefore bound to make amends in a variety of ways which may include reparations for slavery.
While I look at these events from an African perspective, not lost on me, are the implications, for the country many of us have looked to for so long, for strong, principled leadership and decisiveness in protecting and keeping what used to be known as the ‘Free World’ free. And with China becoming ever more assertive in the global domain, as she grows her economic and military power, America is increasingly challenged. Now, thanks to her new president, admitting that he leads a country that is a racist, genocidal hellhole, they have lost the important moral high ground in meeting the growing threat.
When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a summit in Alaska in March, the Chinese delegation led by his counterpart found themselves on solid ground. He chastised the Americans for having the audacity to criticise China for human-rights violations stating, “the United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength†because “the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated, such as Black Lives Matter.†These “human rights violations†are “admitted by the U.S. itself.†The problem is, the Chinaman is right. With China rampaging through Africa, plundering its resources, we Africans must now know, there will be no meaningful resistance from the US.
But, thanks to the Americans, our problems do not end there. Our leaders have not missed the rapid spread of a ‘corrective’ culture embraced at virtually every level of governance in that country where basically, saying ‘no’ to a black person is absolutely unacceptable under any circumstances, making it extremely difficult and sometimes dangerous, for a white person to resist any demands made upon him or her, by a black person.
On the back of this sentiment the enforcers of law and order have been neutralised by the acknowledgement of the administration of endemic racism in the country’s police forces which was an influential factor in the conviction and incarceration of Derek Chauvin on charges that he caused the death of the serial criminal, George Floyd. Bellicose calls to ‘defund the police’ are being made countrywide, policemen are retreating rather than tackling crime where black suspects are involved and the stage seems set for lawlessness to spread throughout the land.
Black Africans in power everywhere are watching this and smiling; they know the same will apply to them on an international level; all they have to do is cry colonialism, apartheid and slavery and the money from a guilt-ridden West will continue to pour forth while they persist with their awful misrule.
The damage done by the despots that has visited death, poverty and misery on hundreds of millions of blacks, is not only set to continue, but will probably reach new levels of atrociousness.
Woke wisdom in the Western democracies has concluded that colonialism is a crime against humanity. One day, probably when it is too late (if not so already), these fools will recognise that the true crime against humanity was the decolonisation of Africa that replaced the rule of law and sound governance with the rule of terror by the big chiefs who care for nobody but themselves and their personal Swiss bank accounts.
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