After slavery, Black descendants of Africans in the U.S. were forced into sharecropping. Small-country merchants took the place of plantation owners and used debt rather than the whip to keep the Black man picking the cotton necessary to the world economy.
Just as the revitalized southern cotton barons and their northern affiliates trapped Black people under a new form of slave labor, the World Bank, along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has trapped countries in Africa and other regions in the Global South with unpayable debt, according to the Geopolitical Economy Report by Ben Norton.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, teaches that debt is slavery. In a message delivered to Haitians in downtown Port-au-Prince near the National Palace on December 14, 2011, during his tour of various Caribbean islands to deliver the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan explained that while some of the anger from citizens in the Caribbean is directed toward people in power, there are other forces at play.
“But what we don’t see is that Haiti, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad—all of the islands of the Caribbean have borrowed money from the International Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. So, when we borrow their money to help develop our land, they put conditions on the loan that are destined to rob the people of their wealth; so Haiti is in debt, Jamaica is in debt, Trinidad is in debt—Africa is in debt! And debt is another form of slavery!” Minister Farrakhan said.
In David Graeber’s 2011 book, “Debt: The First 5,000 Years,” he explains that debt as a form of imperialism went global. Graeber frames the IMF as the world’s debt enforcer or “The high-finance equivalent of the guys who come to break your legs.” He also explained how modern-day capitalism encourages debt that saddles underdeveloped countries in the Global South, including nations in Africa.
“Unlike advanced (Western) economies, which have highly developed local-currency bond markets (financial market where participants can issue new debt), African countries are subject to prohibitively high interest rates and often cannot borrow from international investors in their own currency (the ‘original sin’ of sovereign-debt markets).”
Enter the United States and Israel’s unprovoked, denounced military assaults on Iran and Lebanon as flagrant violations of international law.
Recently initiated again in February of this year, the unprovoked and illegal war has had the devastating consequences of severely compounding Africa’s debt crisis by driving up inflation, surging oil prices by over 30%, and inflating fertilizer costs. As shipping disruptions continue in the Strait of Hormuz to increase import costs, many African nations face higher borrowing costs, weakening currencies, and increased default risks.
In 2024, Mark Spitznagel, co-founder and CIO (chief investment officer) of the private hedge fund Universa Investments, told Fortune magazine that “when that rising debt combines with decades of loose monetary policy that lifted asset prices ever higher, growing piles of consumer debt, and businesses’ penchant for leaning on credit during times of stress, it creates a ‘tinderbox economy’ that could go up in flames in a moment’s notice. It’s the ‘greatest credit bubble’ in human history.” He warned, “it will have its consequences.”
Though Spitznagel’s focus was the immorality of America’s reliance on debt and the fact that future generations “will bear the burden,” no mention was made of Africa’s history of dependence on those same Western foreign markets. As the saying goes, “When Western capitalism gets a cold, Africa comes down with the flu.”
One may ask, is the Strait of Hormuz the tinderbox economy set to go up in a moment’s notice?
Dr. Zainab Usman, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, responded to the London-based The Guardian regarding how the war on Iran and its blockades are affecting some African countries.
“It’s very important,” Dr. Usman stresses, “to understand that while the obstruction of shipping has affected the entire world, that particular choke point” in the Middle East, “accounts for 20% of the world’s shipment of crude oil, and a good chunk of that goes to Asia and parts of east Africa.”
And so, it is countries closer to the Strait of Hormuz and the Indian Ocean that have been most affected. Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, and some parts of southern Africa are already experiencing fuel shortages. Countries on the West Coast of Africa facing the Atlantic Ocean have not suffered from similar supply disruptions. However, a hike in fuel prices is landing across the continent. Costs have risen, Dr. Usman told The Guardian, stating that between 30 and 70%, and at the most extreme end, up to 150% in Somalia.
Africa’s inability to achieve sustainable development goals amid rising debt levels requires financial resources that the current Global Financial Architecture (GFA), by design, doesn’t allow the continent to access.
In the 2024 United Nations: Office of Special Adviser on Africa report, “Unpacking Africa’s Debt: Towards a lasting and durable solution,” it states, “Newly independent African nations inherited economies that were ill-equipped for diversified growth and socioeconomic development.”
The report continued, “As a result, they resorted to external borrowing to facilitate broad-based economic development and nation‑building. This marked the genesis of a cycle of public debt and arguably a continuation of the extraction characteristic of the colonial era. The perpetuation of this debt cycle also served to anchor the extraction-based economic model in African countries. Therefore, the issue of colonial and post-colonial debt remains a contentious and complex issue for many African countries, highlighting the need for fair and just solutions that consider the historical context of debt accumulation.”
Tendai Mbanje is a governance and elections scholar and is widely recognized for his expertise in African electoral processes. In his recent op-ed titled, “When Superpowers Clash, Africa Pays the Price: The Israel–USA–Iran Conflict,” he suggests that as Africa seeks “stronger alliances to mitigate shocks,” it must at the same time discover guarantees that prove their “effectiveness.”
“The continent may seek stronger alliances to mitigate external shocks, but these structures must prove their effectiveness. The erosion of trust in global institutions could drive Africa to advocate for reforms in global governance. The challenge lies in building resilience, asserting diplomatic agency, and demanding accountability in a world where the rules of war and peace are being rewritten,” he notes.
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