ONYANGO: Is Africa really independent in new world order?

Africans do not have a say in the global economic, political and social issues. Ours is to respect the Western countries and get them richer. If this trend continues, developing countries like ours will never be Second World or First World countries soon.

This trend must be stopped before our beloved continent is engulfed in slime and putrefactions.

Why does the West think Africans should say, “yes” all the time? It is a very illogical imbalance of business partnership for the West to determine the price when they sell to the African countries and again determine the price when they buy from these countries.

Why do most Western countries provide free education and medical services to their citizens and demand that African countries, as part of loan conditionality, charge fees for education and medical services?

The ever-increasing integration of national and transitional flow of investment gives the African countries not much to say. For example, why do they insist on giving genetically modified food to Africa when Africans don’t want it. 

Colonialism has now assumed a different form and seeks to conquer all of us through the false pretext of globalisation. The trade between the rich and the poor must be uninhibited. The West is running like a headless chicken since the inception of China-Africa partnership.

Politically, our sovereignty will not be of the same weight as that of the Big Brother. The Big Brother has the right to determine justice of our systems and the opposite is not true. As he likes he can blatantly use his prejudice to determine and upset the validity of any of our elections and declare a duly elected president of a country illegitimate.

We are cheated to believe that we shall all be equals in that global village, but denied to assume military strength of the same magnitude as that of the Western and more highly developed states.

We dare not develop nuclear arms for this is a prerogative of only the big one. Revivals of the old European trait to dominate the world threaten world peace. No single nation should be allowed to rule the world, least of all decide what action to take and when. There must be a new world order whose power is shared equitably by all.

It is time we put our money where our mouth is, otherwise we will remain — as we are now — helpless, hopeless, sick, hungry and starving beggars at the mercy of the West and NGOs.

Mutual benefits and respect distinguish China's presence in Africa from Western colonialists and profiteers.

In recent times, a majority of Africans have come to view China as partners, but for the US and Europe, they are seen as predators. That is certainly true. Anyone can see Africa-China relations is getting stronger, and its favourable to both parties. 

In his book, Africa Will Shine Brighter than a Thousand Flames, Jean Ping, former African Union Commission chairperson, mentioned that Africa is in danger of "being colonised again" by the West in the post-Cold War period, and many African countries fear that their former exploiters are coming back.

Today, neocolonial mentality and behaviour still exists in modern international relations, but it has nothing to do with China. The fact is that, in the name of cooperation, some Western forces are paying lip service to support economic development in Africa, even as they continue to use Africa as their human resource and raw materials supplier.

Lately, Africans are encouraging Sino-African cooperation. In the West, objective and rational voices on Sino-African cooperation is mounting.

It's true that Sino-African cooperation is not perfect, but I firmly believe that as long as China and African countries can constantly strengthen and improve cooperation, share more fruits and genuinely benefit people on both sides, the cooperation will continue to proceed on a more solid and broader road.

Africans should liberate themselves from these ill-focused policies and come with comprehensive and tangible strategies to save the continent. 

 

Advocate, High Court of Kenya