Initial fears of a full-blown eruption by Mount Karthala have calmed on Grande Comore, largest of the three islands in the Union of the Comoros, but authorities remain on red alert as the volcano continues to rumble.

Zim Online reports that a special parliamentary committee on Tuesday (16 January 2007) said it plans to begin probing members of President Robert Mugabe’s Cabinet suspected of involvement in “shady diamond and gold deals”. The police confirmed they were investigating several top officials they suspect of illegally dealing in precious minerals.

Let’s reflect for a moment on hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who is in the diamond business now with a jewellery store, Simmons Jewellery Company, and has founded the Diamond Empowerment Fund.

Imagine my surprise and the television-viewing irony, when after grabbing my keys and jacket on my way to see Blood Diamond, there he was at a press conference on ABC News, holding hands with his bejewelled, estranged wife, Kymora Lee, and discussing his recent fact-finding trip to diamond mines in Botswana and South Africa.

I headed to the Cineplex with a funny taste in my mouth and a troubling question: Of all the industries on the African continent ripe for investment to “help Africans,” quoting Mr. Simmons, why diamonds?

But I’ll get back to Russell Simmons in a moment.

Blood Diamond, directed by Edward Zwick, is a mesmerizing personal account set in and around Sierra Leone in 1999 at the height of its civil war, a conflict that took the lives of tens of thousands and saw the displacement of more than two million people (well over one-third of the population), many of whom became refugees in neighbouring countries.

It’s the story of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a humble fisherman, eking out a living with his young family, who has enough vision and foresight to risk almost everything to rescue his family and save his son, a white former soldier of fortune/mercenary, Danny Archer, now an amoral diamond smuggler, portrayed masterfully by Leonardo DiCaprio; and the American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), who, conflicted and in love, unveils the human misery occurring at the hands of civil strife and African mineral exploitation.

Danny and Solomon’s paths cross early on while both are in prison. Danny is arrested while trying to smuggle diamonds into Liberia, posing as a National Geographic journalist and Solomon, forcibly removed from his razed village and now an illegal diamond labourer, is also imprisoned. Danny hears an RUF soldier, Captain Poison, yelling at Solomon, asking him: Where is the stone?

Therein lies the cinematic flaw, and yes, you’ve witnessed this before.

Solomon is introduced as an idyllic family man whose life is forever changed once the RUF destroy his village, shooting fleeing women and children and burning everything in sight. He narrowly escapes losing a limb by being identified as an ideal candidate for the back-breaking diamond “mining” labor - which literally means standing in riverbeds, sifting sediment for minerals. And the less desirables, one-by-one, have limbs chopped off when they’re not useful as child soldiers or mine workers.

We are introduced to the noble African, not unlike the black American protagonist, decent and upstanding, with little sex appeal, and loads of dignity and righteous anger to spare. Thus unfolds the classic Africa saga - an almost unimaginable story of courage and horror becomes a lush, breathtaking African backdrop of white redemption, black, power-hungry, violent, psychopathic rebels, and the good-as-gold, innocent African caught up in the madness.

Solomon spends his days sifting in the muddy river bed and one day finds a huge pink diamond while his captured son, Dia, begins the miseducation and training as a child soldier. The children are beaten, given drugs, and told that their families are dead. The brainwashing scenes are devastating. Dia is favored by the same mercurial, violent Captain Poison, and we watch as little by little, Dia’s childhood and humanity dissipate through indoctrinations, like being blindfolded and given an AK-47 to simply fire freely with an innocent person on the other side of the barrel.

This juxtaposition of father and son, both victims of a nation at war which is itself fuelled by the global greed for its natural resources, and the trajectory of finding a precious stone makes for a compelling tale of deliverance and survival. Solomon’s journey is that much more incredible given that it is based on actual events.

Unfortunately, that’s not good enough for Hollywood. What stands in its place is equally as compelling: Danny Archer.

What makes Danny tick is revealed as he stands at a beach bar in Sierra Leone, flirting with journalist Maddy Bowen, who immediately sees his connection to the blood diamond story she’s trying to uncover. When he tells her that he’s from Rhodesia and she jokingly reminds him that we now call the country Zimbabwe, she’s met with a cold glance. Danny is that complex white African who loves Africa equally to any black African. His emigrating ancestors tilled the soil, fought the wars, and lived and died in Africa. But his relationship is complicated by his presence as a “white African,” the sheer history of white people on the continent, and all the obligatory privileges that brings.

Orphaned very young, he becomes a soldier in South Africa and talks about fighting alongside black soldiers in Angola. This history that he believes gives him the right and pride to defend Africa is the same one that leaves him unsettled and willing to do the unthinkable to leave the continent. He is a complicated man with a killer smile. He is cunning and sleazy and violent on one hand and befriends Solomon, promising to help him track down his family if he leads him to the hidden diamond. On the other hand, he reminds Solomon that his white status opens doors and gets him close to places that Solomon otherwise would never have access to. Danny will never be on the winning team and will always be a phantom of sorts. He is despised as a pariah by the locals and viewed as a kind of plumber, doing the dirty work for the precious gem multinationals, international diamond traders, and the corrupt governments and business people that push the stones past borders and legal restrictions.

Danny knows he’s a throw-away, easily snuffed out if he makes too much noise or if the authorities start asking questions that lead past his bottom-feeder role in the chain. His weariness and dispassion is summed up when he, half-jokingly, asks Maddy if she’s in Africa “to make a difference” and later turns to the bartender and tells him, “But TIA…this is Africa.”

But after meeting Solomon, he’s all about finding the stone - he has a ticket out of Africa.

The film’s inability to be solely Danny or Solomon’s story flattens the overall character complexity. Maddy Bowen is getting to the bottom of a gripping story and spends a lot of time chastising Danny while at the same time falling in love with him. Her role is a critical one for Solomon, but in the movie she’s reduced to an idealistic helper, bothered by a lot but helping Danny manipulate everyone in his path to get to the stone. The implausibility of their relationship and Solomon simply following along against the visual horror all around diminishes the fact that this is based on a factual account—his account.

The lack of one strong narrative is replaced with horror-show violence, explosions, cat and mouse chases, scenes of brute force, and the disturbing post-pillage hedonism of the RUF soldiers. There are some gestures of “goodwill,” perhaps inserted to prove to audiences that some people outside of Africa at that time were consumed with more than the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal. The convened Conference On Diamonds discusses the phenomena of thousands of innocent lives lost each time a natural resource is discovered in Africa, i.e. ivory, gold, rubber, diamonds (ain’t that the truth). In a show of doing-the-right-thing, while the head of the Van Der Kamp cartel (translated: DeBeers) is at the table in support of stopping the violence, Solomon, Maddy, and Danny, on the run from rebels, land upon a hidden oasis in the middle of nowhere where a soft-spoken African is rehabilitating former child soldiers.

For newcomers to the conflict diamond issue, the film does a good job of spelling out the basic formula: conflict diamonds are smuggled illegally to Liberia (Liberian President Charles Taylor played a key role here) under the blind eye of corrupt officials, where a middle man is bribed to smuggle them to Antwerp, Belgium. They are then transported legally to be cut and polished in India whilst the London Stock Exchange allows the DeBeers cartel engine to hum along by keeping the majority of diamonds off the market so they remain rare and always high in demand, politely called an “artificial scarcity.” We learn that the majority of diamonds are actually stored in vaults in London!

The “conflict” is the illegal mining by forced labour for minerals, set in place by rebel soldiers in conflict zones, in this case the RUF. As the primary military focus, diamond mining became a major fund-raising exercise. Diamond profits buy weapons and guarantee future corruption, all fuelled by greed and the demand for precious stones.

Danny and Solomon find the diamond, but only after a reunion with Dia that almost costs their lives. And for the naysayers who believe that the process is no longer flawed now that the Kimberley Process exists, be reminded of South African Colonel Coetzee’s army in the movie and the ease with which he does an air strike to divert attention to get to Danny and the diamond. They have a deal to split the profit 50/50.

Like in Crash and most recently Babel (an excellent movie), Blood Diamond shows how Americans are unknowingly soaking up some very complicated issues through the way our lives intersect and how one deed, large or small, can take on a life of its own. The challenge for the director is to ensure that the story stays personal and while Blood Diamond had that opportunity, it just couldn’t decide whether to stay true to Solomon’s journey or to box office proceeds. I really like Djimon Hounsou and I’m certain he’s sick of being so damn proud all the time. Sidney Poitier suffered that fate decades ago. But in the end, it’s still Solomon’s story, however diminished his portrayal on screen. Danny faces his demons and makes the ultimate sacrifice, and Maddy gets her story that unveils the horror to the world.

But back to Russell Simmons. He’s spent a lot of time recently criticizing Blood Diamond, reading letters from Nelson Mandela and asking us to look at all sides of the issue, concerned that the film will scare people away from purchasing legitimate diamonds. Meanwhile, Zwick has accused Simmons of being a puppet for the diamond industry. A local radio DJ joked that Russell wants in on the bling-bling monopoly of Jacob the Jeweller, the jeweller to many, many hip-hop/rap artists who was arrested in June by the FBI for money laundering. Makes you wonder what kind of diamonds he’s dealt with…

(A direct quote): “Simmons has responded to Zwick’s comments and maintains that the film will scare people away from purchasing legitimate diamonds. The mining process of the precious stones have become profitable industries in some African countries.

“This is the arrogance of Warner Brothers pictures," Simmons told AllHipHop.com. "They were selfish self-centered, greedy and hurtful to the indigenous people of Africa. This messaging should have been changed after Nelson Mandela and other African Presidents asked Warner Brothers to change it. Period. I am going to continue to focus on the positive that can come out of this dialogue and work to help empower black Africa.”

Wow. I guess I might be moved if he didn’t own that jewellery store.

Three Questions for Mr. Simmons:

1) There are still over 200,000 child soldiers in Africa. That’s a mighty problem to overcome with the tools that are fuelling their recruitment. What’s the plan to save them?

2) And what to do about DeBeers? Is there a possibility Russell, a mere distributor with loads of celebrity in the operandus of a century-old cartel, might convince the corporate heads to flood the market with all those diamonds that are locked away? Maybe more Africans could afford to buy their natural resource or better yet, each get a free diamond.

3 )There’s a jewellery store on every corner in the U.S., so what’s so special about the Simmons Jewellery Company? Does he have franchise plans? Is there a possibility for a chain in Africa?

But God save Africa from good intentions. Can the continent handle any more (especially those with a profit motive buried somewhere deep)?

I realized after the movie that the bad taste in my mouth was the fact that an even wealthier black American, Oprah Winfrey, is taking a very different approach to “helping Africans” and, might I add, a longer-term investment—education—that has a much better payoff.

Alas, I’m reminded of Michael Jordan at the dawn of the Air Jordan Empire (FYI, the 2006 Air Jordan XXI costs $175.00!), touring sweatshops in Asia with the Nike Corporation and giving them a clean bill of health. Among activists, he’s now known as the world's most successful salesman of sweatshop-made shoes.

• Del Hornbuckle is a writer, jazz/electronica-head and librarian lives in Washington, DC. She will be attending FESPACO and writing a diary of the event.

• Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Further Reading:

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Lake Victoria water levels have dropped over the past five years largely due to excessive releases of water through the second dam. The report, compiled by the Water Resources Management Department (WRMD) in the Ministry of Water, reports that since 2004, Lake Victoria is the only big Ugandan lake that has had its water level patterns fluctuate compared to Lakes Albert and Kyoga.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has warned that the continuing denial of access to the site of the Bomu wells 41 and 51 fires in Ogoni land, where it has not operated since 1993 could cause a blow-out which will result in serious environmental damage and risk of injury or death to people within the area.

The government of Guinea has designated a specially protected area for vultures, the first of its kind in Africa. The 'vulture sanctuary' consists of approximately 450,000 ha in the Fouta Djallon Highlands, a region that holds a significant proportion of West Africa's vultures and which is Guinea's main tourist attraction.

There are fears that the killer Rift Valley Fever could spread, with scores of goats reportedly dying from an unidentified disease. Veterinary officers in Meru Central, Taita Taveta and Laikipia districts have raised the alarm over the fever.

The Global Africa Foundation in collaboration with the Department of History, Nasarawa State University, Keffi has announced its 3rd Keffi International Conference and call For Papers.

Delegates from African Union member states and some world best-practice countries gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from December 4-8, 2006 in the initial step to develop comprehensive guidelines for land information management in Africa.

Despite winning their right to return home after a long-fought court battle, the San are not being allowed back in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR), in the Kalahari Desert, according to an advocacy group. In December 2006 the High Court of Botswana ruled that the San, also known as the Bushmen, had been wrongfully evicted from their ancestral homeland in the CKGR in 2002.

The last summer has seen a surge in immigration to mainland Europe form some African countries. While European leaders are attempting to stop the wave, Tope Akinwande points to the hypocrisy of massive farm subsidies received by European farmers and the trade policies that make it impossible for African agriculture sectors to survive.

Like their other fellow members of the human race, Africans have migrated since the dawn of history. They have moved in response to demographic, economic, political and related factors [1]. In recent times, there has been a spotlight on African immigration to European countries. As the legal requirements for entry into Europe become stricter and more cumbersome and as opportunities of a decent livelihood shrinks in sub-Saharan Africa, its people have resorted to desperate means in order to gain access to what is generally considered to be the “Promised Land” for many Africans outside Europe. This has been ever more apparent in west Africa, where young people travel through deserts, stow away in ships, and employ all sorts of means in order to reach Europe.

How did this situation arise? In the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, Africa’s future looked bright. It was the post-independence “self-determination” era laden with all sorts of opportunities; almost all of the agricultural-based African economies could meet the needs of its people. An average African had no cause to risk their life by travelling in a desperate fashion to Europe when their basic needs could be met in their country of origin.

Africans who ventured to Europe for further studies were in a hurry to return to their countries of origin as prestigious and lucrative jobs with all the accompanying benefits awaited them. Afterwards, they only travelled to the western world for business and leisure. The few African students who stayed back in Europe were considered as failures who could not find their feet back home.

However, things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Africans and especially west Africans - probably because of the coastal closeness to Europe - are the new “Boat People” fleeing abject poverty occasioned by lack of opportunities in their countries of origin. They are constantly in the international spotlight either being rescued by European coast guards, attended to by tourists or having their bloated bodies occasionally washed to the shores.

In the summer of 2006 – summer is said to be the preferred travel time as the sea is supposedly calmer - it was almost a daily occurrence to see demeaning images of tired and hopelessly-looking African men and women rescued by European coast guards after risking their lives to get to the Spanish Canary Islands. They used make-shift boats to negotiate the treacherous waves of the Mediterranean Sea with the aim of escaping poverty back home [2].

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 27,000 illegal immigrants have turned up in 2006 on the Spanish Canary Island off the west African coast.

While the rescued sojourners are considered to be “fortunate” to have stepped onto the shores of Europe despite the excruciating difficulties awaiting them, many Africans are not lucky enough to be intercepted mid-sea by coast guards. They perish with their desperate dreams. So far in 2006, the Spanish coast guard has accounted for 500 bodies found in the ocean around the Canaries.

Origin of the problem

Compared to the 1960s and early 1970s, Africa’s growth performance in the 80s and 90s has been very bad. The 1980s have been described as a “lost decade” [3], while the children of that era and the 1990s have been famously tagged the “wasted generation” by the Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka.

Despite the strong belief held by many Africa analysts that the economic woes of Africa are rooted in its “largely documented history” of colonialism which culminated in a façade called “independence” and the Cold War which institutionalised despotism, kleptocracy, and big-man politics, the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), have made it impossible for African countries to meet the basic needs of their people.

Introduced in the 1970s to galvanise the economies of African countries, following the decline in the prices of agricultural products, SAP came with tough conditionalities such as privatisation, wage freezes, privatisation, elimination of price controls and lifting of trade barriers.

Instead of encouraging economic development, SAPs created a new phenomenon of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries who could not meet the basic needs of their people.

In its 22 June 2006 edition, The Economist in its characteristic sanctimonious manner posited that “rich countries have been generous lately, with extra aid and debt relief, giving many struggling economies a breath of air. By the end of last year, 29 countries, 25 of them in Africa, had had their debt burden eased…” The magazine goes on to wonder if “…Africa, often dubbed the hopeless continent, (is) finally taking off?” [4] For once, a magazine that has carelessly dubbed Africa as a “Hopeless Continent” conceded that “Africa itself deserves the credit for the upswing “of its economy in the past year” [5].

Like most of its counterparts in the international media, what “The Economist” failed to acknowledge is that the dividends of the so-called debt relief are easily drowned by one phenomenon - the international trade policies of the “generous” industrial nations it was talking about. The debt relief issue is like giving something out with the left hand and taking it back with the right hand.

In March 2005, the British government, who has been in the forefront of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPCI), published a detailed report of the £1.7bn it gave to agricultural companies as subsidies. At the same time, the US -though planning to reduce its subsidies to American farmers by 5 percent – gave about $9bn [6].

How on earth would African farmers compete with their European and American counterparts on the world food market? Would African governments whose national budgets are sometimes smaller than the subsidies western farmers receive be able to subsidise their farmers to “even the scores”? They will have to face incessant unrest at home while the rest of their citizens “hit the road” or set off for European coasts.

Oumar Hamadoun Dicko, Foreign Affairs Minister of Mali, could not have been more precise on the causes of the recent wave of immigration of west Africans: “Immigration is going to continue unless we address fundamental issues like the unequal terms of trade,” he says. “African farmers can’t compete and are out of world markets,” he concludes in a recent interview with United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [7]. He surely knows what he is talking about since Mali’s cotton farmers have been greatly affected by the subsidies enjoyed by their western counterparts.

According to the Malian Foreign Affairs Ministry, 4 million, or over a third of Mali’s 11.7 million people are currently out of the country [8]. It is noteworthy that the majority of these Malian emigrants are from Kayes, the main cotton-producing area of the country. They have had to leave their cotton farms to try their luck in Europe.

Monies remitted by this large Malian Diaspora have been vital in meeting the needs that the government has been unable to meet. Many Malians in the Diaspora are building schools, dispensaries, and other amenities in their regions. The Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs concedes that annual Malian Diaspora remittance exceeds 200 million US Dollars, which is more than half of the country’s export earnings.

While a lot of talks have been going on about agricultural subsidies as the main international trade policies that have hampered trade and development in Africa, it is interesting to know that there are many other types of subsidies such as “fishing subsidies” that have not made life easier for developing countries.

Recently, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) accused Japan of paying the highest subsidies to its national fishing industry at $US2-billion dollars. The report also indicated that the 15-member European Union, China, and the United States are leading underwriters [9]. These governments give their farmers and fishing companies subsidies in the form of grants, loans and loan guarantees, equity infusions, tax preferences, and price or income support.

Thiaroye-Sur-Mer is a fishing town a few kilometres from Dakar, the capital of Senegal. A few years ago and up till the end of 2005, one could see hundreds of fishermen - both young and old - selling fish to locals and large-scale buyers from Dakar and elsewhere. Today, Thiaroye-Sur-Mer has almost become a ghost town as almost all the younger fishermen have all taken to the seas; this time not to fish but to try their luck in Spain’s Canary Islands. They sold their means of livelihood (boats, fishing nets, etc) and bought a one-way ticket on a boat to a supposed better future in Europe.

Like many sub-Saharan African countries, Senegal has been going through an excruciating SAP that has completely destroyed its economy. Its main source of income – groundnut - is no longer well-priced on the international market as many substitutes have been derived. Senegal’s fishing industry is losing its momentum as the country has been inundated with subsidised food, including fish from Europe and Asia, making it impossible for local fishermen to sell their wares at a decent rate and meet the basic needs of their families. The only way for these young Senegalese fishermen to survive and meet the needs of their families is by trying their luck in Europe. This has become a way of life in a country where monies remitted by the Senegalese Diaspora sometimes accounts for 90 percent of income in many households.

Which way forward?

With the recent wave of immigration to the Spanish Canary Island, European governments, led by Spain, have been trying to curb the immigration of Africans who are willing to risk their lives to reach Europe at all costs.

The incidents of September and October 2005 where Spanish coast guards opened fire on ill-equipped boats full of African immigrants led to the adoption of the “Rabat Declaration” on 11 July 2006 by 57 European and African countries. The Declaration enjoined the 57 signatory countries to set up an action plan that will get to the core of the problem.

In September 2006, the European Union promised to provide Mali with US$542 million over five years to control the emigration of its citizens. Mali is expected to use the money to start various projects aimed at discouraging young people from emigrating.

International NGOs are also trying to encourage young Africans to stay back in their countries. For example, the Spanish Red Cross has embarked on an awareness campaign in Senegal to demystify the notion of success attached to emigration. They are emphasizing the harsh realities.

African celebrities have also thrown themselves into the fray. One of the most successful African singers, Senegalese Youssou N’Dour is lending his notoriety and voice to the anti-emigration campaign. In collaboration with IOM and other well-known Senegalese musicians, he has recorded a single titled “Emigration” where he enjoined the youth not to abandon their country. One thing missing in this beautiful and groovy record is that Youssou N’Dour forgot to suggest alternatives to Senegalese and African youth.

Can these initiatives work? Since all the aforementioned initiatives, there have been cases of African boat people arriving in Spain and as recent as September 2006 in Malta, thus exasperating the government of the tiny country that has just joined the European Union.

As one route is being blocked, Africans perfect their “travelling techniques”.On 20 November 2006 Europa Press Agency reported how 1,293 west Africans, braving a very harsh winter, arrived in Spain’ s Canary island with many of them using well-built fishing vessels. They also travelled with enough provisions (food, winter clothing, etc. ) to see them through their journey of death. Interestingly, some immigrants devise or go back to the old routes, probably thinking that immigration authorities’ would have shifted focus away from them.

Conclusion

As I had indicated earlier on, there are a lot of initiatives to curb illegal immigration with the latest one being the first Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development between EU and the entire African continent slated for 22 and 23 November 2006. One of the expected outcomes of the Conference was the establishment of a framework for a joint collaboration between Europe and Africa to curb illegal immigration. The framework will consider major causes of immigration such as economic integration and development.

When one considers the impact of the remittances made by African immigrants - both legal and illegal - to their national economies and how it is being sadly flaunted and praised as an alternative to foreign earnings, it is not foolhardy to wonder if African politicians are really sincere and keen on curbing the flow of their citizens to the west. Why should they bother when the emigration of their citizens “relieves” them of the headache of sourcing funds to embark on development projects such as building of schools, hospitals, roads, etc. ? If they genuinely work towards stopping them from emigrating, what alternatives do they have for farmers who cannot sell their produce? Have they got any alternatives for young graduates and school leavers they are churned out in millions into joblessness and despair?

It is noteworthy that while African politicians are silently grateful for the “subsidies” they get from their citizens in the Diaspora, western politicians are not keen on stopping the subsidies they give to their citizens as their national interest and particularly political survival in their respective countries depends on keeping their farmers and citizens happy.

As long as this political deadlock is not broken, the west and Europe in particular, should be prepared to receive more and more people.

• Tope Akinwande is a Desk Officer at the West Africa Department of TEARFUND, a leading UK relief and development NGO working in partnership with Christian agencies and churches in over 70 countries to tackle the causes and effects of poverty. His views do not necessarily reflect those of TEARFUND.

• Please send comments to or comment at www.pambazuka.org

References:

(1) ADEPOJU, Aderanti (2005): “Creating a Borderless West Africa: Constraints and Prospects for Intra-Regional Migration”. UNESCO, Paris, p12

(2) Ibis
(3) OSHIKOYA, Temitope & MLAMBO, Kupukile (1999): in “The African Economy: Policy, Institutions and the Future”. (Ed) Steve Kayizzi-Muyerwa. Routledge, London and New York, p33
(4) The Economist (22 June 2006): “Africa’s Economy: A glimmer of Light at Last?” London, p24
(5) Ibis
(6) The Guardian (23 March 2005): Editorial. London, p8
(7) See www.irinnews.org for full interview
(8) Ibis
(9) See www.wwf.org for full report

Two hundred kilometres. A long distance to some, perhaps, but in the context of desertification in Algeria, alarmingly short. Going in to 2007, the Sahara will have advanced to within 200 kilometres of the Mediterranean coastline of this North African state.

Marine and coastal management scientists are investigating the cause of death of millions of larval crabs that washed up along the Table Bay coastline for the past two weeks. The death of the tiny crabs is, at this stage, not thought to be related to the death of more than 80 tons of fish in Rietvlei, near Table View, according to city spokesman Pieter Cronje.

With signs that people are developing diseases linked to arsenic poisoning, the government said on Thursday (28 December 2006) that it had turned off pumps to 11 deep-water wells in areas in the north of Burkina Faso where water is particular scarce, adding that it may still have to close down hundreds more wells.

It was in 2005 that this issue was introduced in Cairo, Egypt. In that first meeting, media representatives from the Nile basin countries agreed that they form this media network. Following that meeting it was a year later in May that the agreement was articulated and the representatives reached at a better understanding in Nairobi, Kenya.

Danish chemicals company Cheminova has submitted plans for phasing out highly toxic forms of pesticides in developing countries to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in line with the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides.

Environmentalists in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar say lack of awareness and negligence have greatly hindered efforts to protect the environment, which is now threatened by soil erosion, deforestation and pollution.

Côte d'Ivoire is facing a funding shortfall of at least 15 million euros for the clean-up and rehabilitation of sites contaminated by hundreds of tonnes of deadly foreign toxic waste that was criminally dumped around Abidjan, its largest city with a population of 5 million, according to a United Nations update issued today (20 December 2006).

Two explosions have been reported at oil industry facilities in the south of Nigeria just hours after a group claimed it had planted three car bombs. A suspected bomb exploded at a Shell residential compound in Port Harcourt and another went off near the perimeter fence of a compound of the Italian oil company Agip.

Is China a friend or foe to the African continent? Michelle Chan-Fishel writes that while China’s investments do involve socio-economic development, environmental and social problems are emerging ‘with a new face’. Chan-Fishel looks at Chinese interests in Sudan, Angola, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimababwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Liberia. ‘Chinese companies are quickly generating the same kinds of environmental damage and community opposition that Western companies have spawned around the world.’

Introduction

For many African governments, China's emergence from poverty to becoming an economic powerhouse serves as an inspirational example. From the mid-1980s, China’s pursuit of market economics, with a focus on export-oriented industrialisation and inward foreign direct investment, helped raise GDP and build infrastructure. In many parts of Africa, China is perceived by governments as an ‘economic messiah’, a new investor and ally in a world where there is growing unease over what African governments perceive to be the patronising attitudes of the West.

The president of the African Development Bank Donald Kaberuka has remarked: ‘We can learn from them (China) how to organize our trade policy, to move from low- to middle-income status, to educate our children in skills and areas that pay off in just a couple of years.’ Similarly, Mozambican President Armando Emilio Guebuza has said: ‘When we see China coming up and developing an attitude of support to help our productivity, we Africans say “Welcome”, because these investments and projects, especially in infrastructure, will help reduce our poverty problems.’

There are currently an estimated 750 Chinese companies operating in 50 African countries. But Beijing's African investments are also tied to socio-economic development, including debt relief, grants, soft loans, buyer credits provided by state-owned banks, scholarships, preferential market access, and technical aid in the fields of medicine, agriculture and engineering.

Concerns

The economic foundation of China’s relationship with Africa is obvious: the procurement of natural resources. Beijing’s only political condition for establishing ties between China and African countries is the ‘one China principle’ – refusal to diplomatically recognise Taiwan.

But China's no-strings-attached support has sounded alarm bells in the West. Recently, World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz criticised Beijing for undercutting anti-corruption measures, such as requiring revenue transparency for resource extraction projects. Some human rights watchdogs have notably criticised China for weakening democracy and human rights in Africa through its readiness to deal with ¬– and sometimes sell arms to – the Sudanese, Angolan and Zimbabwean governments.

Accusations of ‘neo-colonialism’ have already surfaced, as China’s search for energy and minerals is reminiscent of the ‘scramble for resources’ that characterised Western colonialism. The history of natural resource extraction in Africa has a poor track record, characterised by environmental degradation and increased poverty. As Chinese companies become increasingly involved in the oil and gas, mining, and logging sectors, these environmental and social problems are emerging with a new face.

Sudan

Perhaps the most controversial of China’s oil interests, and one that demonstrates well China’s commitment to secure oil deals is its relationship with Sudan. Beijing is the leading developer of oil reserves in the Sudan, currently importing 60 per cent of the country’s oil output. Today, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is the largest shareholder in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). What makes China’s involvement in Sudan so controversial are the atrocities occurring in the western region of Darfur region, atrocities which the US and other nations have branded genocide. Numerous human rights groups have accused Sudan of systematically massacring civilians and chasing them from ancestral lands to clear oil-producing areas.

Prior to the conflict in Darfur, China was suspected of financially underwriting Sudan’s 21-year civil war, which ended with the signing of a permanent peace accord in January 2005. In 2000, Sudanese resistance forces were said to be collecting photographs of Chinese-made weapons to prove the increase in Beijing’s support for Khartoum. In July 2000, WorldNetDaily reported that Sudan had acquired 34 new jet fighters from China. In June 2001, the Mideast Newsline reported that Sudan had built three weapons factories with Chinese assistance in order to halt rebel advances. China also reportedly provided arms support to Sudan in exchange for oil. Although it is difficult to determine exactly how much money China has invested in Sudan, one source states that ‘China reportedly invested US$20 billion in Sudan, apart from soft loans, grants and other forms of aid.’ According to a study by PFC Strategic Studies, the Sudanese government could collect as much as US$30 billion or more in total oil revenue by 2012.

Angola

In recent years, Angola has emerged as one of China’s top trading partners. Last year, China was busy securing long-term oil agreements with Angola, and Sonangol (Angola’s state-run petroleum company) committed to provide long-term oil supplies to China’s Sinopec. Sonangol and Sinopec will evaluate Angola’s offshore Block 3, and will also jointly study plans for a new oil refinery. In October 2004, as India was preparing to close a major deal for about US$620 million to buy Shell’s 50 per cent share in Block 18, China made a last minute bid – to win the deal. China’s offer of US$2billion in aid for various projects in Angola made India’s offer of US$200 million for developing railways pale in comparison.

Nigeria

Previously, China had been shut out of Nigeria by Western firms. However, through patience, political prowess and technological contributions, such as promising to build and launch a communication satellite for Nigeria by 2007, Chinese firms are gaining a foothold in the industry. In December 2004, China’s Sinopec and Nigeria’s NNPC signed an agreement to develop oil mining leases 64 and 66, located in the waters of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria. In July 2005, China’s CNOOC signed a contract with NNPC worth US$800 million to guarantee China receives 30,000 barrels per day for one year.

Recently, China and Nigeria signed a deal in which China would provide a US$4 billion infrastructure investment package in exchange for first refusal rights on four oil blocks. In time, it is suspected that China could easily replace some of these Western firms when their drilling licences come up for renewal.

Mining

China is the world’s fastest-growing market for minerals. Africa figures heavily in Beijing’s strategies to secure access to mineral resources.

Copper in Zambia

Copper is Zambia’s leading export commodity, and production is soaring. The Chamber of Mines forecasts production of about 550,000 tonnes in 2005 and more than 600,000 tonnes in 2006. But as miners try to extract more and more copper ore, the accident rate is soaring. According to the Mineworkers Union of Zambia, at least 71 people died in Zambian mining accidents in 2005. ‘We're worried about the accident trends’, said Mavuto Gondwe, a union director with responsibility for health and safety. Indeed, in 2005, an explosion at a BGRIMM mine was the biggest single accident in the history of the Zambian mining industry. BGRIMM is controlled and 60 per cent owned by China Non Ferrous Metal Industries, a Chinese government-owned company.

Coal and platinum in Zimbabwe

Shunned by Western leaders and investors for the government’s human rights practices, Zimbabwe has begun a determined campaign to hitch its plummeting fortunes to China's rising star. Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe calls the policy ‘Look East’, and it has resulted in tremendous growth in trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. Several joint venture companies are being established, and under the Zimbabwe-China Joint Commission, Zimbabwe has benefited through the Chinese government's concessionary and interest free loans and grants.

The Chinese are widely reported to covet a stake in Zimbabwe's platinum mines, which have the world's second largest reserves, and the Mugabe government has hinted that he will accommodate them. The mines' principal operator denies being pressured into dealing with the Chinese, but negotiations are under way to sell a stake to Zimbabweans yet to be identified. The operator has postponed major spending on the mines, citing the cause as political uncertainty.

Cobalt in Congo

According to the Cobalt Development Institute (CDI), China was the world’s leading cobalt producer in 2005. Approximately three-quarters of all cobalt made in China in that year derived from imported concentrates, of which almost 90 per cent came from the DRC.

While the DRC is making slow progress in its transition process after a four-year civil war, the major regional and international mining houses are anticipating stability in the country. In the Katanga area, Chinese companies such as Colec and Feza Mining are initiating copper and cobalt mining and processing projects. Earlier this year, Nanjing Hanrui Cobalt Co Ltd, one of the largest conglomerates in China, purchased three high-grade copper-cobalt mines in Lubumbashi in the DRC. After a decade of growth, this private company has become the leading cobalt powder producer in Asia, ranking among the top three of the world. Because of the firm’s expansion, the international monopoly on cobalt has been broken, and the global cobalt powder prices have been reduced by half. International companies such as Japan’s Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Toshiba, Sumitomo, South Korea’s Samsung and LG all buy cobalt powder from Nanjing.

Timber

China is the largest importer of forest products in the world, and its imports of forest products have tripled in less than a decade. In 1998, China placed stringent restrictions on domestic logging, forcing the country to import a high percentage of its total wood consumption. Since then, China climbed six spots to become the world’s top forest products importer, taking 120,000,000m² in 2004. China is now the leading importer of round logs. In 2003, China was second in industrial roundwood imports, second for wood-based panels, pulp, paper and paper boards, and fifth for sawn wood. China imports 40 per cent of its total forest consumption.

Gabon

Today, China is Gabon's largest timber trading partner. In 2003 Gabon supplied 40 per cent of China's log imports from the west/central Africa region, and China imported 46 per cent of Gabon's total forest exports. Gabonese law requires processing before export, yet China's demands are for raw logs.

According to some analysts, China's influence in the sector encourages ‘flagrant disregard for the law’, and taxes are not paid on 60 per cent of the area allocated as forest concessions. National law states that failure to gain ministry approval of a management plan for a forest concession within three years triggers forfeiture of the concession; yet only five of more than 200 companies (representing 30 per cent of concessions) in 2000 had even stated their intention to start writing a plan. Additionally, all five of these companies had already logged their concessions for more than three years. The illegal timber exports to China have been estimated to be as high as 70 per cent of total timber exports.

Equatorial Guinea

China purchases an estimated 60 per cent of the timber exported from Equatorial Guinea, another country with known illegal logging problems. According to the World Wildlife Fund, annual timber extraction in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the maximum legally allowed limit by 40–60 per cent. It is also estimated that up to 90 per cent of the total harvest going to China is illegal. Shimmer International, a subsidiary of the notorious Rimbunan Hijau, has close ties with the minister of forests. Along with its many subsidiaries and associated companies, it is the dominant player in the country’s logging sector. China’s Jilin Forest Industry (Group) is also involved in timber extraction and processing.

Cameroon

Cameroon exports about 11 per cent of its timber to China. The Centre pour l’Environnement et développement estimates that at least 50 per cent of logging is illegal in Cameroon. According to Friends of the Earth, 96 per cent of logging violations in Cameroon between 1992 and 1993 were followed by incomplete judicial procedures, and one in five cases in this time period were dropped after intervention by an ‘influential person'.

Hong Kong-owned Vicwood Pacific acquired the Cameroon subsidiaries of the Thanry Group in 1997. From 2002, Thanry has been one of the principle loggers and international timber traders in the Congo River Basin and had established itself as a major violator of forestry laws and a creator of regional social unrest. Between 2000 and 2002, Thanry was fined over US$1,300,000 for what has been called 'anarchic logging', including cutting undersized trees, logging outside legal boundaries, and logging in unallocated concessions. The World Bank also discovered that the origin of many of Thanry's logs had been falsified so as to avoid Cameroon's export controls.

Liberia

In Liberia, rebel leader-turned President Charles Taylor relied heavily on timber resources to support his own military efforts and to fund mercenaries in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire. Taylor used the revenue gained from the sale of the timber to buy arms for troops, support foreign mercenaries, create enormous personal wealth, and support the personal security forces that were essential to his power. The timber transport vessels were also used to traffic arms throughout the region.

China has rapidly increased its log imports from Liberia. By 2001, it was Liberia's largest buyer of wood products. That year, China imported US$42 million worth of logs (58 per cent of the country's total exports), most of which came from the OTC through Chinese importer Global Star Tradings. A report commissioned by USAID stated: ‘Harvested timber is transported to Liberian ports where it is bartered to Chinese and other trading partners either directly in exchange for weapons and munitions needed by Taylor to carry on his wars, or is sold to raise funds to achieve the same end.’ On 6 May 2003, the UN Security Council imposed an embargo on Liberian timber products. China had imported 365,000m³ of logs from Liberia in 2003 before the sanctions. But log imports plunged to 30,000m³ in the second half of 2003; and China did not appear to have imported Liberian logs during the first half of 2004.

Conclusion

While conventional wisdom posits that Chinese multinationals treat their workers and the environment more poorly than their Western counterparts, not enough research has been done to actually prove this hypothesis. What is clear, however, is that Chinese companies are quickly generating the same kinds of environmental damage and community opposition that Western companies have spawned around the world.

For communities adversely affected by these mega-projects (regardless of the corporate sponsor), the question is: first, do they give their free, prior and informed consent to the investment? If the answer is ‘yes’ then the challenge becomes, ‘How can communities and governments negotiate with the sponsor to receive the best deal possible, in terms of economic benefits sharing, human rights, sustained livelihoods, environmental quality, and cultural and community integrity?’

Evaluated this way it is evident that in some cases, what private companies can provide through ’corporate social responsibility’ – e.g. health clinics that may or may not be furnished with medicines, books for local schools – pales in comparison with the deals that Chinese state-owned companies can offer (e.g. debt relief, concessional lending).

Furthermore, African leaders and policy makers are faced with additional question when it comes to Chinese investment: Is the Chinese model of development, which admittedly has been characterised by spectacular economic growth, worth emulating? Based on the unlimited extraction of natural resources, ultra low-wage manufacturing, and the export of cheap goods (due especially to ‘throwaway’ societies in the West), this paradigm – which is in essence one of corporate globalisation, not of China alone – is simply not sustainable.

This low-price development model actually comes at a very high cost – to societies, both inside and outside China, as well as to the environment. The untold story of China’s rapid economic growth is one characterised by vast levels of income disparity, unfair treatment of workers and lost livelihoods, especially in the rural areas. These problems are so acute that they threaten political stability. Environmental problems are similarly acute: breathing the air in China’s most polluted cities is the equivalent of smoking two packets of cigarettes a day. On an international level, meanwhile, the effects of corporate globalisation (particularly Western consumption) are leading to the destruction of the ecological support systems on which all life depends.

It is tempting for African leaders to simply want to play Western and Chinese extraction companies off against each other in an effort to ’get a better deal’, and doggedly follow China’s path of economic growth. Indeed, it is important for them to carefully conceive extraction projects in order to secure the best possible deal for their people. But ultimately, it will be important to realise that this low-price/high-cost economic model will not work: neither for Africa, nor for China, nor for the rest of the world.

• This is a shortened version of an article by Michelle Chan-Fishel. The full version, including references, will be available in a forthcoming book to be published in January by Fahamu and called ‘African perspectives on China in Africa’. The full articles will also be made available as .PDF files on the Pambazuka News website.

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