Colonel Gaddafi or Muammar Gaddafi was a well-known Libyan politician and revolutionary. From 1969 to 1977, he ruled Libya as ‘Revolutionary Chairman’ then he switched to serve as the ‘Brotherly Leader’ from 1977 to 2011. Since an early age, he showed the signs of becoming a revolutionary despite coming from an underprivileged family. ‘National Transitional Council’ was a result of Gaddafi’s increased dominance, violation of human rights, and support to international terrorism that eventually dethroned Gaddafi and led to his untimely demise.
Libya descended into chaos since the fall of Muamar Gaddafi and western powers been scrambling over Libya’s natural resources which Gaddafi protected.
Muammar Gaddafi was assassinated in a western-backed coup to prevent the establishment of the “African Dinar” … A Pan-African Currency backed by African gold and mineral wealth that would undermine the West’s fiat monetary system and alter the global economic and financial environment. The African monetary system proposed by Gaddafi would’ve wiped out poverty from Africa, or at least reduce it’ll reduce poverty drastically across African nations.
Since Gaddafi was assassinated, no African leader speaks about his single African monetary project, a single military force and a single passport for all Africans to move freely around the continent of Africa! That was Gaddafi’s one of the greatest Pan-African goals. Its obvious that the breeds of African leaders we have today are puppets and they can’t summon the courage to challenge the West neo-colonialism and its hegemony in Africa like Gaddafi did. I shall continue to insist that our sovereign African countries work together to achieve the “United States Of Africa” with a single military force, a single currency and a passport for Africans to move freely around . Its better for an African to be hated and killed for having gut like a Lion, than to live cowardly on your knees forever like a sheep!
Muammar Al Gaddafi, your memory lives on in the hearts of Pan-Africanists.
Ahmed Sekou Toure, who was the leader of the Democratic Party of Guinea, was the president of Guinea after its independence and his revolutionary stance was deeply rooted in radical socialism. He opposed the De Gaulle referendum in 1958 and that was the turning point in the crumbling of the old French West African Federation. He was born in January 9th 1922, and died in 26th March 1984 while receiving treatment in the US
He was a Guinean politician and a Pan Africanist who played a key role in the African independence movement. As the first president of Guinea, he led his country to gain its independence from France in 1958. He was known as a charismatic and radical figure in Africa’s post-colonial history.
Toure’s activism for independence and decolonization efforts calumniated into Independence in 1958, when an overwhelming population of Guinea voted in favour of independence, rejecting French President Charles de Gaulle’s offer of joining a new federal community.
Toure’s words regarding de Gaulle’s offer strongly resonated across the Guinean public. He famously said: ”Guinea prefers poverty in freedom than riches in slavery.” It was a comment that angered de Gaulle.
”Then all you have to do is to vote ‘no’. I pledge myself that nobody will stand in the way of your independence,” Gaulle said in response to Toure’s assertion.
Guinea became the first independent French-speaking state in Africa and it was the only country which did not accept the proposal of the French president.
In 1958, Toure became the first president of what became known as The Republic of Guinea.
The French reacted by recalling all their professional people and civil servants and by removing all transportable equipment. As France threatened Toure and Guinea through economic pressure, Toure accepted support from the communist bloc and at the same time sought help from Western nations.
Sekou Toure’s Background:
Born in 1922 in Faranah, Guinea, Toure came from humble origins. His parents were uneducated and poor. Some sources say he was the grandson of Samory Toure, the legendary leader who resisted France in the late 19th Century.
Toure practiced the Muslim faith from his childhood, attending a Koranic school as well as French primary schools. At the age of 14, he displayed the spark of political activism as he led a student revolt against a French Technical school at Conakry from where he was later dismissed.
In 1940, he started working as a clerk at a company called Niger Français. In the following year he took an administrative assignment in the postal service where his interest in labour movement started increasing. Toure formed close ties with senior labour leaders and organised 76 days of the first successful strike in French-controlled Western Africa.
Then, in 1945, he became secretary-general of the Post and Telecommunications Workers’ Union and participated in the foundation of the Federation of Workers’ Union of Guinea which was linked to the World Federation of Trade Unions. He eventually became the vice president of the union.
In order to realise his aim in politics, Toure helped Felix Houphouet of Ivory Coast to form the African Democratic Rally in 1946. A strong orator, he was elected to the French National Assembly in 1951 as the representative of Guinea. How was prevented from taking his seat in the assembly, however.
He was re-elected in the following year but again prevented from taking his seat. When he was elected as mayor of Conakry by getting a majority of votes in 1955, he was finally permitted to take his place in the National Assembly.
Once he became president of Guinea, he worked toward establishing unity with Ghana but couldn’t achieve much on that front. In 1966, when Ghana’s President Kwame Nkrumah was ousted in 1966, Toure gave him asylum. He then faced a failed attack from its neighbour; Portuguese Guinea (today Guinea Bissau). Soon after he started intimidation policies against the opposition.
In post-independence Ghana, Toure won most elections, ruling the country for 26 years. Despite taking a tough stance against opposition parties, he was known as a genial leader on the international stage.
He was tasked with leading the mediation board of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation during the Iraq-Iran war. He became a powerful figure in the Organization of African Unity and played a vital role in the France-Africa summit which took place in France.
In 1984, he died during heart surgery in Cleveland, United States.
Some of his published books are: La Revolution et l’unite populaire (1946; Revolution and People Unity); Les poemes militants (1964; Militant Poems).
Below are some of his memorable quotes:
“An African statesman is not a naked boy begging from rich capitalists.”
“Without being Communists, we believe that the analytical qualities of Marxism and the organization of the people are methods especially well-suited for our country.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea, as quoted in ‘Guinea: Trouble in Erewhon’, Time, Friday 13 December 1963.
“The private trader has a greater sense of responsibility than civil servants, who get paid at the end of each month and only once in a while think of the nation or their own responsibility.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea, as quoted in ‘Guinea: Trouble in Erewhon’, Time, Friday 13 December 1963.
“We ask you therefore, not to judge us or think of us in terms of what we were — or even of what we are — but rather to think of us in terms of history and what we will be tomorrow.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaander’s The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961
“We should go down to the grassroots of our culture, not to remain there, not to be isolated there, but to draw strength and substance there from, and with whatever additional sources of strength and material we acquire, proceed to set up a new form of society raised to the level of human progress.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, as quoted in Osei Amoah’s A Political Dictionary of Black Quotations, published in London, 1989.
“To take part in the African revolution it is not enough to write a revolutionary song: you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, as quoted in Osei Amoah’s A Political Dictionary of Black Quotations, published in London, 1989.
“At sunset when you pray to God, say over and over that each man is a brother and that all men are equal.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, as quoted in Robin Hallett’s, Africa Since 1875, University of Michigan Press, 1974.
“We have told you bluntly, Mr President, what the demands of the people are … We have one prime and essential need: our dignity. But there is no dignity without freedom … We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré’s statement to General De Gaulle during the French leaders visit to Guinea in August 1958, as quoted in Robin Hallett’s, Africa Since 1875, University of Michigan Press, 1974.
“For the first twenty years, we in Guinea have concentrated on developing the mentality of our people. Now we are ready to move on to other business.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré. as quoted in David Lamb’s The Africans, New York 1985.
“I don’t know what people mean when they call me the bad child of Africa. Is it that they consider us unbending in the fight against imperialism, against colonialism? If so, we can be proud to be called headstrong. Our wish is to remain a child of Africa unto our death..”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, as quoted in David Lamb’s The Africans, New York 1985.
“People of Africa, from now on you are reborn in history, because you mobilize yourself in the struggle and because the struggle before you restores to your own eyes and renders to you, justice in the eyes of the world.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, as quoted in ‘The Permanent Struggle’, The Black Scholar, Vol 2 No 7, March 1971.
“[T]he political leader is, by virtue of his communion of idea and action with his people, the representative of his people, the representative of a culture.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, as quoted in Molefi Kete Asante and Kariamu Welsh Asante’s African Culture the Rhythms of Unity: The Rhythms of Unity Africa, World Press, October 1989.
“In the history of this new Africa which has just come into the world, Liberia has a preeminent place because she has been for each of our peoples the living proof that our liberty was possible. And nobody can ignore the fact that the star which marks the Liberian national emblem has been hanging for more than a century — the sole star that illuminated our night of dominated peoples.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, from his ‘Liberian Independence Day Address’ of 26 July 1960, as quoted in Charles Morrow Wilson’s Liberia: Black Africans in Microcosm, Harper and Row, 1971.
“‘People are not born with racial prejudices. For example, children have none. Racial questions are questions of education. Africans learned racism form the European. Is it any wonder that they now think in terms of race — after all they’ve gone through under colonialism?”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaander’s The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961
Several major studies, published today, concur that virtually all current global human populations stem from a single wave of expansion out of Africa. Yet one has found 2% of the genome in Papuan populations points to an earlier, separate dispersal event – and an extinct lineage that made it to the islands of Southeast Asia and Oceania.
A new study of human genomic diversity suggests there may have in fact been two successful dispersals out of Africa, and that a “trace” of the earlier of these two expansion events has lingered in the genetics of modern Papuans.
Three major genetic studies are published today in the same issue of Nature. All three agree that, for the most part, the genomes of contemporary non-African populations show signs of only one expansion of modern humans out of Africa: an event that took place sometime after 75,000 years ago.
Two of the studies conclude that, if there were indeed earlier expansions of modern humans out of Africa, they have left little or no genetic trace. The third, however, may have found that ‘trace’.
This study, led by Drs Luca Pagani and Toomas Kivisild from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, has found a “genetic signature” in present-day Papuans that suggests at least 2% of their genome originates from an even earlier, and otherwise extinct, dispersal of humans out of Africa.
Papuans and Philippine Negritos are populations that inhabit Papua New Guinea and some of the surrounding islands in Southeast Asia and Oceania. In the genomes of these populations, the researchers discovered more of the African ‘haplotypes’ – groups of genes linked closely enough to be inherited from a single source – than in any other present-day population.
Extensive analysis on the extra 2% of African haplotypes narrowed down the split between African (Yoruban) and Papuan lineages to around 120,000 years ago – a remarkable 45,000 years prior to the very earliest that the main African expansion could have occurred.
The study analysed genomic diversity in 125 human populations at an unprecedented level of detail, based on 379 high resolution whole genome sequences from across the world generated by an international collaboration led by the Cambridge team and colleagues from the Estonian Biocentre.
Lead researcher Luca Pagani said: “Papuans share for most part same evolutionary history as all other non-Africans, but our research shows they may also contain some remnants of a chapter that is also yet to be described.
“While our research is in almost complete agreement with all other groups with regard to a single out-of-Africa event, this scenario cannot fully account for some genetic peculiarities in the Papuan genomes we analysed.”
Pagani says the sea which separates the ‘ecozones’ of Asia and Australasia may have played a part: “The Wallace line is a channel of deep sea that was never dry during the ice ages. This constant barrier may have contributed to isolating and hence preserving the traces of the otherwise extinct lineage in Papuan populations.”
Toomas Kivisild said: “We believe that at least one additional human expansion out of Africa took place before the major one described in our research and others. These people diverged from the rest of Africans about 120,000 years ago, colonising some land outside of Africa. The 2% of the Papuan genome is the only remaining trace of this otherwise extinct lineage.”
The Estonian Biocentre’s Dr Mait Metspalu said: “This endeavour was uniquely made possible by the anonymous sample donors and the collaboration effort of nearly one hundred researchers from 74 different research groups from all over the world.”
Metspalu’s colleague Richard Villems added: “Overall this work provides an invaluable contribution to the understanding of our evolutionary past and to the challenges that humans faced when settling down in ever-changing environments.”
Researchers say the deluge of freely available data will serve as future starting point to further studies on the genetic history of modern and ancient human populations.
By Kylie Kiunguyu on February 3, 2019 — The debate has been raging for the past eight years: Which African leader was the greater pioneer of Pan-Africanism – Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah or monarch and semi-deity Emperor Haile Selassie? Finally, both have been honoured with commemorative statues at the headquarters of the African Union.
The issue of the African Union (AU) and the Haile Selassie monument has been a point of contention since 2012. The controversy started with the unveiling of a statue of Ghanaian Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. Built to commemorate his founding role in the Organisation of African Unity, the AU’s predecessor, the Nkrumah statue was inaugurated together with the AU’s new US$200 million Chinese-built headquarters.
Ethiopians felt that Haile Selassie should have been similarly honoured; in fact, a statue of him should have preceded that of Nkrumah. His supporters argued that Selassie was a famous colonial resistance leader and a longer-standing supporter of African liberation than Nkrumah was.
They embarked on a campaign to lobby for a Selassie statue, claiming that the man who ruled Ethiopia for 40 years had “the legal, moral, historical and diplomatic legitimacy to have his statue erected next to Kwame Nkrumah”.
This did not go down well with Ethiopia’s then leader, Meles Zenawi, who said it was “crass” to question the choice of Nkrumah as an African symbol. He has repeatedly denounced Selassie, who died in 1975, as a “feudal dictator”, according to the Independent newspaper.
“It is only Nkrumah who is remembered whenever we talk about Pan-Africanism,” Meles told local media. “It is a shame not to accept his role.”
Selassie supporters remained undaunted, saying it was because of Selassie that the AU is in Addis Ababa. “It is not because of the current regime,” historian Mesfin Tariku told The Africa Report. “We have no idea of the criteria used to choose Nkrumah.”
The campaign has ended and its labour has proven to be fruitful: A statue of Emperor Haile Selassie will be unveiled at the 32nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union on 10 February 2019 in Addis Ababa.
The deputy chairperson of the AU noted in the organisation’s press release that “the commemorative statue of Emperor Haile Selassie is an important recognition of the Emperor’s contribution to Africa’s liberation and unity leading up to the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.”
President @SahleWorkZewde observed with pride the work of @_AfricanUnion from its beginning as #OAU which always had its headquarters in Addis Ababa since 1963. OAU, now the #AU, has greatly influenced the development of the political and socio-economic landscape of Africa.
The deputy chairperson went on to state that Ethiopia has been a host and seat of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union, for over 50 years. “This is Africa’s diplomatic capital and a symbol of Pan-Africanism. We extend our appreciation to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia as well as the good people of Ethiopia for their commitment to the AU.”
Princess Mariam Sena Asfaw Wossen, a granddaughter of Emperor Haile Selassie, conveyed the royal family’s gratitude to the African Union, saying, “This historic decision is an illustration of unity of purpose by African leaders.”
By Adjei-Gyamfi Yaw on November 5, 2018 — Yaw Adjei-Gyamfi explores the links between Emperor Haile Selassie and Rastafarians and considers why he remains a source of inspiration for Rastas all over the world
Recently, Ethiopia became the third African country, after Rwanda and Seychelles, to achieve gender parity in their Cabinets when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s appointments saw women taking up half of the posts. A week later, Ethiopia made history when, through unanimous parliamentary approval, Ambassador Sahle-Work Zewde was appointed president, making her the first female head of state of modern Ethiopia.
While hailing this development, Ethiopians have reflected on the days of Empress Zewditu, one of the first women to govern and represent Ethiopia in international relations in the early 20th century. However, this is not the focus of this article. On 2 November 1930, one of the largest public events ever in the world took place in Abyssinia. In his song “Blessed is the Man”, Kabaka Pyramid refers to this event: “Bowing at his feet, 72 nations; Ras Makonnen crowned Conquering Lion.” It was the coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen as the last Emperor of Ethiopia, along with his queen, Empress Menen Asfaw. He took the name “Haile Selassie” (Power of the Trinity) when he ascended the throne. We remember his commitment to advancing the cause of Pan-Africanism, as well as world peace and harmony. He is regarded as having laid the foundation for modern-day Ethiopia and for the transformation of the country. This article attempts to establish the connection between the Rastafari movement and Haile Selassie.
Coronation as “King of Kings”
Haile Selassie was born Tafari Makonnen on 23 July 1892, in Ethiopia. He was the son of Ras Makonnen, a chief adviser to Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, and the ruler became his mentor, placing him in positions of power from a young age. After Menelik II’s death, Tafari became a prominent political figure and began shaping Ethiopian government. He rapidly became known for his progressive policies. He served as a regent in the government of Empress Zewditu. Even under the conservative reign of Empress Zewditu, his progressive policies gained national attention. He won the hearts of the Ethiopian people, who described him as more globally minded, and had nationwide appeal. This love and admiration for Ras Tafari heightened when he secured Ethiopia’s entry into the League of Nations in 1923. He was the first Ethiopian ruler to travel outside of the country. Ras Tafari was crowned two years after the death of his precedessor, Empress Zewditu, in 1928. Not long after did he begin his transformation agenda with a strong belief in the power of education as an essential catalyst for the modernisation of a nation. On 2 November 1930, together with his wife, Ras Tafari was crowned the King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Conquering Lion in St George’s Cathedral, Abyssinia (Addis Ababa).
Haile Selassie of Ethiopia standing in front of a throne, probably some time in the 1960s, wearing a suit, stiff collar, and boat cloak. Photo: Wiki commons
Haile Selassie and the Rastafari Movement
Haile Selassie is regarded by the Rastafari fraternity as the incarnation of God, to unify all the peoples of Africa and the human race. The name of the movement comes from “Ras Tafari”, a combination of his name and the noble title “Ras”, which translates to “prince”. Marcus Garvey’s teachings greatly influenced the formation of the Rastafari movement. Although Marcus Garvey never actually followed Rastafarianism or believed in it, he is considered to be one of the movement’s prophets, because it was his ideologies that eventually grew into the Rastafari ideology. (Martin, 2009). Garvey proclaimed that black people should look for the Black King who would be crowned in the East, because this King was the Black redeemer and deliverer. When he left for the United States, many of his followers still gathered together, but had no leader to follow. In 1930, when Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia, many Garveyites had forgotten the message Garvey had told them when he left, but when Selassie was crowned it was remembered by many Rastas (Parmett, 2013). Leonard Howell, the founder of the Rastafari Movement, was a Garveyite. Howell has been considered as the first Rasta and his book, The Promised Key,launched the propagation of his message of Rastafarianism. He declared:
His Majesty Ras Tafari is the head over all man for he is the Supreme God. His body is the fullness of him that fillet all in all. Now my dear people, let this be our goal: Forward to the King of Kings must be the cry of our social hope.
Forward to the King of Kings to purify our social standards and our way of living, and rebuild and inspire our character
Forward to the King of Kings to learn the worth of manhood and womanhood.
Forward to the King of Kings to learn His code of Laws from the mount, demanding absolute Love, Purity, Honesty and Truthfulness
Forward to the King of Kings to learn His Laws and social order, so that virtue will eventually gain the victory over body and soul and that truth will drive away falsehood and fraud.
File picture: Rastafarians celebrate after the South African Constitutional Court ruled that the personal use of marijuana is now legal. EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
According to Beckford and Charles (2017:119), “Garvey congratulated Ras Tafari(name of Haile Selassie before his coronation) when he ascended the Ethiopian throne in 1930.” In an article in the Blackman newspaper in Jamaica, Garvey wrote on the coronation of Ras Tafari:
The Psalmist prophesied that princes would come out of Egypt and Ethiopia would stretch forth her hands unto God. We have no doubt that the time is now come. Ethiopia is now really stretching forth her hands. This great kingdom of the East has been hidden for many centuries, but gradually she is rising to take a leading place in the world and it is for us of the Negro race to assist in every way to hold up the hand of Emperor Ras Tafari.
The Rastas accepted the idea of Ethiopia as being their saviour with the influence of Marcus Garvey. His inspiring words has created an image of God to the Rastas:
If the white man has the idea of a white God, let him worship his God as he desires. If the yellow man’s God is of his race, let him worship his God as he sees fit. We, as Negroes, have found a new ideal. Whilst our God has no colour, yet it is human to see everything through one’s own spectacles, and since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own spectacles. The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, let him exist for the race that believe in the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. We, Negroes, believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God- God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the one God of all ages. That is the God in whom we believe, but we shall worship him though the spectacles of Ethiopia (Garvey, 1925:44).
These words gave the Rastafarians hope and motivation to find their God in Ethiopia and have pride in their race. It encouraged the people to believe that they can be their own leaders, without the white minority telling them who to worship and follow. Haile Selassie nonetheless refuted his status as God, as claimed by the Rastafari community, during his visit to Jamaica in 1966, saying: “I have told them clearly that I am mortal, and I will be replaced by the oncoming generation. And they should never make a mistake in assuming or pretending that a human being is emanated from a deity.”
Photo: bob-marley.es
Revolutionary singer and reggae icon Robert Nesta Marley popularised the deification of Haile Selassie through his songs, declaring him the “return of the Messiah”. He adopted the famous speech of His Imperial Majesty delivered at the United Nations Assembly in 1963 in his song “War”. In his song “Selassie is the Chapel”, he expresses his intense love and reverence for the Ethiopian emperor:
Haile Selassie I is the chapel. Power of the Trinity.
Build your mind in this direction
Take your troubles to Selassie; he’s the only King of Kings
Serve the living God and live
Take your troubles to Selassie
He is the only King of Kings
Conquering Lion of Judah
Triumphantly we all must sing
I search and I search on book of Man
In the Revelation, look what I find
Haile Selassie is the chapel
Here’s all the world should know
That man is the angel
Our God, the King of Kings
Emperor Haile Selassie remains a source of inspiration for Rastas all over the world. His name has characterised several messages delivered in their reggae songs, hailing him as the pillar of the Rastafari faith. On a day to mark the 88th anniversary of his crowning as the King of Kings, Rastafari brethren in Africa have convened in Shashemene, Ethiopia, for the second All-Africa Rastafari Gathering (AARG) under the aegis of the Rastafari Continental Council. His messages of hope, progress, love and peace continue to resonate in the minds of Rastas and Africans at large. Let me end in the words of Burning Spear: “Hail Jah, the Farai. Hail Him for everything which is Good… Hail him without any apology. Hail His Imperial Majesty.”
In recent years, China’s economic presence in Africa has led to a heated debate, some of it well-informed and some of it not, about the nature of Chinese involvement and its implications for the continent. The debate is partially motivated by the rapid growth of China’s economic presence in Africa: for example, Chinese investment in Africa grew from USD 210 million in 2000 to 3.17 billion in 2011.[1] Aid is an important policy instrument for China among its various engagements with Africa, and indeed Africa has been a top recipient of Chinese aid: by the end of 2009 it had received 45.7 percent of the RMB 256.29 billion cumulative foreign aid of China.[2] This aid to Africa has raised many questions, such as its composition, its goal and nature.
What constitutes China’s aid?
Officially, China provides eight types of foreign aid: complete projects, goods and materials, technical cooperation, human resource development cooperation, medical assistance, emergency humanitarian aid, volunteer programs, and debt relief. [3] China’s aid to Africa covers a wide array of fields, such as agriculture, education, transportation, energy, communications, and health. According to Chinese scholars, since 1956, China has provided almost 900 aid projects to African countries, including assistance supporting textile factories, hydropower stations, stadiums, hospitals, and schools.
Official development assistance is defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as concessional funding given to developing countries and to multilateral institutions primarily for the purpose of promoting welfare and economic development in the recipient country. [4] China is not a member of OECD and does not follow its definition or practice on development aid. The bulk of Chinese financing in Africa falls under the category of development finance, but not aid. This fact is privately acknowledged by Chinese government analysts, although Chinese literature constantly blurs the distinction between the two categories.
The billions of dollars that China commits to Africa are repayable, long-term loans. From 2009 to 2012, China provided USD 10 billion in financing to Africa in the form of “concessional loans.”[5] During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first overseas trip to Africa in March 2013, he doubled this commitment to USD 20 billion from 2013 to 2015.[6] The head sovereign risk analyst of Export-Import Bank of China announced in November 2013 that by 2025, China will have provided Africa with USD 1 trillion in financing, including direct investment, soft loans and commercial loans. [7]
China’s own policy actively contributes to the confusion between development finance and aid. The Chinese government encourages its agencies and commercial entities to “closely mix and combine foreign aid, direct investment, service contracts, labor cooperation, foreign trade and export.”[8] The goal is to maximize feasibility and flexibility of Chinese projects to meet local realities in the recipient country, but it also makes it difficult to capture which portion of the financing is – or should be – categorized as aid. One rather convincing theory is that the Chinese government in effect pays for the difference between the interest rates of concessional loans provided to Africa and comparable commercial loans. Therefore, only the small difference in interest rates could qualify as Chinese aid.
Who does China’s aid serve?
Despite Chinese leaders’ claim that China’s assistance to Africa is totally selfless and altruistic, the reality is far more complex.[9] China’s policy toward Africa is pragmatic, and aid has been a useful policy instrument since the early days of People’s Republic of China.
During the Cold War, foreign aid an important political tool that China used to gain Africa’s diplomatic recognition and to compete with the United States and the Soviet Union for Africa’s support. Between 1963 and 1964, Zhou Enlai visited 10 African countries and announced the well-known “Eight Principles of Foreign Economic and Technological Assistance.”[10] These aid principles were designed to compete simultaneously with the “imperialists” (the United States) and the “revisionists” (the Soviet Union) for Africa’s approval and support.
These efforts were enhanced during the Cultural Revolution under the influence of a radical revolutionary ideology, motivating China to provide large amounts of foreign aid to Africa despite its own domestic economic difficulties. [11] One famous example was the Tanzania-Zambia Railway built between 1970 and 1975, for which China provided a zero-interest loan of RMB 980 million. By the mid-1980s, China’s generous assistance had opened the door to diplomatic recognition with 44 African countries. [12]
Since the beginning of China’s reform and opening up, especially after 2000, Africa has become an increasingly important economic partner for China. Africa enjoys rich natural resources and market potential, and urgently needs infrastructure and development finance to stimulate economic growth. Chinese development finance, combined with the aid, aims at not only benefiting the local recipient countries, but also China itself. For example, China’s “tied aid” for infrastructure usually favors Chinese companies (especially state-owned enterprises), while its loans are in many cases backed by African natural resources.
Much Chinese financing to Africa is associated with securing the continent’s natural resources. Using what is sometimes characterized as the “Angola Model,” Chinas frequently provides low-interest loans to nations who rely on commodities, such as oil or mineral resources, as collateral.[13] In these cases, the recipient nations usually suffer from low credit ratings and have great difficulty obtaining funding from the international financial market; China makes financing relatively available—with certain conditions.
Though commodity-backed loans were not created by China – leading Western banks were making such loans to African countries, including Angola and Ghana, before China Eximbank and Angola completed their first oil-backed loan in March 2004 – but the Chinese built the model to scale and applied it using a systematic approach. In Angola in 2006, USD 4 billion in such loans probably helped Chinese oil companies win the exploitation rights to multiple oil blocks.[14] In 2010, Sinopec’s acquisition of a 50 percent stake in Block 18 coincided with the disbursement of the first tranche of Eximbank funding, and in 2005, Sinopec’s acquisition of rights to Block 3/80 coincided with the announcement of a new USD 2 billion loan from China Eximbank to the Angolan government.[15] In 2008, the China Railway Group used the same model to secure the mining rights to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s copper and cobalt mines under the slogan “(Infrastructure) projects for resources.”[16] According to Debra Brautigam, a top expert on China-Africa relations, between 2004 and 2011, China reached similar unprecedented deals with at least seven resource-rich African countries, with a total volume of nearly USD 14 billion.[17]
In addition to securing Africa’s natural resources, China’s capital flows into Africa also create business opportunities for Chinese service contractors, such as construction companies. According to Chinese analysts, Africa is China’s second-largest supplier of service contracts, and “when we provide Africa assistance of RMB 1 billion, we will get service contracts worth USD 1 billion (RMB 6 billion) from Africa.”[18] In exchange for most Chinese financial aid to Africa, Beijing requires that infrastructure construction and other contracts favor Chinese service providers: 70 percent of them go to “approved,” mostly state-owned, Chinese companies, and the rest are open to local firms, many of which are also joint ventures with Chinese groups.[19] In this sense, China’s financing to Africa, including aid, creates business for Chinese companies and employment opportunities for Chinese laborers, a critical goal of Beijing’s Going Out strategy.
How to understand Chinese aid to Africa?
With a few exceptions, there is a strong tendency among observers to assert moral judgments in the assessment of Chinese aid and development finance to Africa: China’s activities are either “evil” because they represent China’s selfish quest for natural resources and damage Africa’s fragile efforts to improve governance and build a sustainable future; or they are “virtuous” because they contribute to a foundation for long-term economic development, through infrastructure projects and revenue creation.
This polarization reveals the two sides of the same coin. On the positive side, China’s aid and development financing fills a void left by the West and promotes the development of African countries. Many Chinese projects require large investment and long pay-back terms that traditional donors are reluctant to provide. On the other hand, however, these short-term benefits should not form a cover-up for the potential long-term negative consequences associated with neglecting issues of governance, fairness and sustainability. For example, when the “tied aid” is linked to the profitability of Chinese companies, it becomes questionable whether China would prioritize Africa’s interests or its own.
There is also an ongoing debate inside China about the goal and management of Chinese aid to Africa. For the foreign policy bureaucrats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, foreign aid is essentially a political instrument for China to strengthen bilateral ties and facilitate the development of African countries. In their view, political considerations should be the most important criteria in aid decision-making. Economic benefits associated with aid projects, such as profitability, resource extraction, or the acquisition service contracts for Chinese vendors, should only be secondary.
However, trade promoters such as the Ministry of Commerce have rather opposite perspective. In their view, foreign aid serves China’s overall national priority, which by definition is economic growth. Therefore, all aspects of aid decisions should reflect broad economic considerations. Under this logic, the inclination is to allocate the aid budget to countries that offer China the greatest number of commercial opportunities and benefits. Since China’s top economic interest is Africa’s natural resources, aid decisions are inevitably skewed toward resource-rich countries while others receive less favorable consideration.[20]
This practice is problematic in that many of the resource-rich African countries with which China works also suffer from serious political problems, such as authoritarianism, poor governance, and corruption. When the Ministry of Commerce pursues economic gains and associates aid projects with resource extraction, it uses aid packages to promote business relations. This directly contributes to the negative perception that China is pouring aid, funding, and infrastructure projects to prop up corrupt governments in exchange for natural resources. As many Chinese analysts observe, the Foreign Ministry in recent years has been fighting fiercely for the authority to manage China’s foreign aid projects, which are currently under the purview of the Ministry of Commerce.
The intention of China’s aid to Africa is benign but not altruistic. China does not seek to use aid to influence the domestic politics of African countries or dictate policies. Instead, it truly hopes to help Africa achieve better development while avoiding meddling with the internal affairs of African countries through conditional aid. But on the other hand, China is not helping Africa in exchange for nothing. Chinese projects create access to Africa’s natural resources and local markets, business opportunities for Chinese companies and employment for Chinese labors. When Chinese officials emphasize that China also provides aid to countries that are not rich in natural resources to defuse international criticisms, they often forget to mention that China may have its eyes on other things which these countries can deliver, such as their support of Beijing’s “one China” policy, of China’s agenda at multilateral forums, and of China as a “responsible stakeholder.” In this sense, China’s comprehensive, multi-dimensional agenda of its aid to Africa defies any simplistic categorization.
[1] “Report on Development of China’s Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation, 2011-2012,” [中国对外投资合作发展报告], Ministry of Commerce, December 2012.
[5] “China To Complete 10 Billion USD Concessional Loans to Africa before the End of Year,” [中国将在年底前完成对非洲100亿美元优惠贷款计划], China Radio International, July 20, 2012. http://gb.cri.cn/27824/2012/07/20/3365s3778295.htm
[8] Piao Yingji, “The Evolution and Future Trend of China’s Direct Investment in Africa,” 《中国对非洲直接投资的发展历程与未来趋势》, [Hai Wai Tou Zi Yu Chu Kou Xin Dai], 2006 Volume 5. www.eximbank.gov.cn/topic/hwtz/2006/1_19.doc.
[10] The principles include: China always bases itself on the principle of equality and mutual benefit in providing aid to other nations; China never attaches any conditions or asks for any privileges; China helps lighten the burden of recipient countries as much as possible; China aims at helping recipient countries to gradually achieve self-reliance and independent development; China strives to develop aid projects that require less investment but yield quicker results; China provides the best-quality equipment and materials of its own manufacture; in providing technical assistance, China shall see to it that the personnel of the recipient country fully master such techniques; the Chinese experts are not allowed to make any special demands or enjoy any special amenities. “Zhou Enlai Announced Eight Principles of Foreign Aid,” China Daily, August 13, 2010.
[11] “African Expert Interprets the 55 Years of Sino-African Relations,” 《非洲专家解读中非关系55年》, China Talk, Feb 23, 2011, fangtan.china.com.cn/2011-02/21/content_21965753.htm.
[16] “Projects for Resources, China Railway Heads for DRC to Develop Cobalt Mines,” [以项目换资源 中国中铁赴刚果（金）开发铜钴矿], Zhong Guo Zheng Quan Bao, April 23, 2008, http://ccnews.people.com.cn/GB/7153049.html.
[18] Yang Fei, “People Should Rationally Understand the USD 20 Billion Assistance Loans to Africa,” [对“200亿美元援非贷款”应理性看待], China Radio International, March 29, 2013, http://gb.cri.cn/27824/2013/03/29/2165s4069180.htm.
