Economic, political and social developments in Africa in 2024 were extensions of previous years. “The Scramble for Africa,” was a period in which nearly all of the continent was brought under the control of European powers.
Today, there has been a change in how the European powers seek to exploit the continent of Africa.
Today, with the alleged decrease of Africa’s oil as a major energy source, Western powers through multi-national corporate interests are now transitioning into exporting and exploiting the raw minerals needed for electric batteries, to maintain their global dominance, while feigning a reduction of their carbon footprint.
The Hollywood film “Blood Diamonds,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, brought light to Sierra Leone’s civil war (1991-2002) and still stands as a revelation of how armed insurgents, in many cases child soldiers, are utilized to extract and export Africa’s raw mineral reserves.
And, despite the Democratic Republic of Congo’s estimated $24 trillion in mineral resources that are being mined and turned into consumer electronics and batteries in electric cars for Western industrialized democracies, the population of the DRC is one of the poorest in the world.
While the DRC may be home to a wealth of mineral and precious metal deposits its extractive industries comprise nearly 90 percent of the country’s exports and nearly half of its government’s revenue. Chief among those exports is cobalt, copper, gold, diamonds and coltan, which is an ore of the metals of niobium and tantalum.
CNBC’s business channel’s news site called the African country’s mineral resources “conflict minerals.” All the country’s minerals, including tantalum, tungsten and gold are found in the electronics manufactured in Western nations, “and all are considered conflict minerals, due to their potential origin in the DRC,” the news site noted.
While the African country contains an estimated $24 trillion in untapped mineral resources, it remains mired in poverty and violence, and mining these four metals can help fund armed conflict in the region, CNBC reported.
While Western media frames the natural resources of the DRC as a source of conflict, it simultaneously reports that Western nations depend on these mineral resources to maintain their industrialized societies.
Raw mineral extractions while turning a historical blind eye to regional conflicts appear to be the cost of doing business by multi-national corporate interests. Add to that, the growing mineral reserve race between China and Western nations, including the U.S.
At the heart of U.S. President Joe Biden’s long-anticipated recent three-day trip to Angola is assessing American, European, and corporate interests’ ongoing critical minerals infrastructure project that is set to see vast supplies of cobalt and copper delivered to Western nations.
This long-awaited visit to Angola’s capital city of Luanda saw Biden “focus on an $800 million U.S.-backed railway project in the Lobito Corridor,” reported Al Jazeera.
“The passage is a strategic trade route that connects the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to Angola, which hosts the port of Lobito, located on the Atlantic Ocean,” the Al Jazeera report added.
Whether it be Western interest or China’s belt and road development initiatives, neither has sought, in a meaningful way, to assist in developing infrastructure that would turn Africa’s much-in-demand mineral and natural resources into finished products to be sold abroad.
Neither has there been a sustained effort by these multinational corporations to end the conflicts that are sustained by the artisanal or subsistence mining of “conflict minerals.”
The history of colonial development that continues to this very day is building infrastructure, including railways, for extracted raw minerals, that are taken to port, shipped and then developed abroad.
According to “Africa is Powerful,” the popular YouTube channel, “The continent remains economically and politically fragmented, exploited for its resources while continuing to face immense developmental challenges. Meanwhile, African leaders are routinely summoned to Western capitals for summits or bilateral meetings often under the guise of cooperation.”
Being summoned as a group is a “troubling dynamic.” Africa, until it’s able to speak with one voice, is seen not as an equal player on the world stage, but as a continent perpetually in need of guidance, aid, or intervention. Africa, a continent of 55 nation-states, cannot similarly summon Western leaders.
“These imbalances do not foster respect but reinforce perceptions of Africa as subordinate. The most striking example of this power dynamic is the idea of a single Western nation summoning dozens of African heads of state to their country, an unimaginable scenario in reverse,” explained the commentator on “Africa is Powerful.”
Concerning the outgoing U.S. president’s recent Africa trip, “Africa is Powerful” explained it as being a part of a broader initiative to strengthen U.S.-Africa relations and counter China’s growing influence. This reveals yet another layer of the deeply entrenched imbalance between the continent and Western powers.
“Angola is a nation with vast natural resources and is a key target in the U.S. quest to outmaneuver China in Africa. Biden’s visit was not simply a diplomatic affair. What is truly astonishing is the response from Angola’s government, which declared a two-day public holiday in honor of Biden’s arrival,” noted Africa is Powerful.
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