Leaders
from China and 48 African countries recently announced a trade
agreement worth $1.9 billion. The pact includes investment
deals, low-cost loans and aid, all to help boost development
in Africa. Let's hope Africa does benefit from this partnership.
China is sure to profit - the country's power players are
known for making and benefiting from deals that other nations
thought impossible. But what about Africa? Will this new deal
pull Africa's nations from the depths of poverty or exploit
the country's people and resources, as so many other relationships
- reciprocal or forced - have done in the past?
China's
affiliation with Africa is nothing new: the country has already
spent billions securing its right to drill for oil in African
nations like Nigeria and Angola; deals to begin drilling in
Kenya and Ethiopia are in the works. The Chinese have also
invested in the copper industry in Zambia and Congo and have
bought large shares of lumber from Cameroon, Liberia and other
nations. In the last year, China's trade with Africa increased
by nearly $30 billion and continues to grow. Africa's economy
has nearly doubled in that same period; experts say that one
of the major reasons behind this growth in the increased trade
with China.
Though
Africa's economy has improved, almost half of Africa's
people still live on less than one dollar a day; most
of the world's poorest countries are in Africa. Many
blame Africa's poverty on corrupt governments and economies
and famine and, to some extent, these things play a
role. But Africa's poverty is a direct result of the
slave trade and colonialism. Historically, wealthier
nations - among them are Britain and France - raped
the continent, depleting it of its wealth of resources
- human and natural - and leaving its residents to wallow
in unimaginable poverty.
China has been heavily criticized for making business
deals without any regards to the political and social
climates of the region they are in. The country's policy
of staying out of other nation's affairs see it doing
business in areas where human rights violations are
rampant, government corruption is the norm and democracy
is a far away dream. In the past, Chinese companies
were criticized for funneling cash to an African president
charged with war crimes and for funding civil war in
another one of the continent's nations.
For
Africa to return to her former glory, foreign investment
is key. Last year, Africa received less than 2 percent
of all foreign direct investment. This lack of investment
means less money to create jobs to alleviate poverty.
But foreign investment must come with some measure of
social responsibility. If China continues to ignore
the wide-spread violations that trouble the African
nations it works in, Africa will not truly prosper.
African leaders will become more powerful, the rich
will become wealthy. But most of Africa will not reap
the benefits of this billion dollar agreement.
Too
many countries have taken from Africa, leaving nothing
but despair behind. Let's hope China's involvement with
Africa won't be reminiscent of the past. Time will only
tell if China is committed to spurring development in
Africa.
Judge
Greg Mathis is national vice president of Rainbow PUSH
and a national board member of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.
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