The struggle for Africa’s independence from its
colonial rulers has always been centred on land
and the natural resources beneath.
For decades its resources were looted by these
imperialist masters. Gold, oil and diamonds are
some of the resources still extracted from Africa
by multinational companies without its people
benefiting from them.
African countries remain poor as if they are not
major producers of these jewels.
Today, water and land are valuable resources that
are being sold and leased to multinational
companies by African governments and this
leaves our people without land to farm and less
water available for their agricultural projects.
The disturbing trend is that African governments
do too little to empower African farmers. The
ongoing scramble, that of partitioning African
land into commodities for foreign companies is a
new form of colonialism.
The modus operandi of these companies is to
lease huge stretches of agricultural land not only
to farm but to control water resources.
The challenge with this approach is that Africans
are not in charge of their own food production.
This in turn defeats our endeavour to feed
ourselves and take charge of our economy.
It must not sit well with us as heads of states
give away our agricultural land simply because
African farmers are behind with technology.
It should be our collective responsibility to
empower African farmers. Why are African
governments removing their people from their
land and leasing it to foreign owned companies?
Why are we not standing up against our own
governments, who even take water rights away
from small African farmers to give them to
foreign multin\tionals.
Mali is the recent example which has leased
470ha of land to UK and Saudi Arabian
fcompanies which are exporting their harvests to
their own countries.
Even the Nile has not been spared from the
problem of leasing land and giving away water
rights, now threatening to suck it dry. Ethopia,
Sudan, South Sudan and Egypt have leased out 8
640000ha of agricultural land.
This means that those millions of hectares in
Africa belong to foreign companies. Kenya and
Mozambique are other African governments that
gave away water rights and land to foreign
companies while literally destroying their local
agricultural schemes run by small farmers,
including rural women engaged in subsistence
farming.
Africa is being auctioned to the highest bidder.
The irony is that sooner or later the continent
will be economically controlled by foreigners,
leaving only political control to indigenous
populations.
This will undo the blood and sweat of the
founding fathers who fought for liberation from
colonial rule.
As a way to reverse the imbalance created by this
unsustainable situation, African governments
must revoke lease agreements with these foreign
companies and empower their citizens by funding
locally controlled projects that will employ locals
and exploit the resources for their benefit.
KEY POINTS
» The struggle for Africa’s independence from its
colonial masters has always been centred on land
and the natural resources beneath
» For decades African resources were looted by
colonial and imperialist masters
» Gold, oil and diamonds are some of the
resources extracted from Africa without the
people benefiting from them.
» African countries remain poor as if they are not
major producers of these commodities
» Today water and land are valuable resources
that are being sold and leased to multinational
companies

www.globalresearch.ca/african-leaders-must-help-continent-not-sell-it-off/5463018