By Mathias Victorien Ntep
When France´s president Sarkozy flew to Gabon last June 16, 2009, to attend the funeral of the late Omar Bongo Ondimba, it didn´t crossed his mind that the Gabonese would jeer and mock at him. Indeed, that is exactly what happened when the epitome of France got out of the car at the “Seaside Palace”, the presidential palace in Libreville, Gabon. As soon as former France´s president Jacques Chirac and President Sarkozy set their feet on the soil of the presidential palace, there was at first blush a weak-willed welcome, which immediately morphed into a volley of gibes such as: “We´re fed up with you, naff off!”, “France is ungrateful!”, “We´ve given you oil, manganese and timber!”, “ France wouldn´t be what she is today without Gabon!”, “Bandit! Thief!...”, “France, go away! We welcome China!”
These are some of the words about fifty Gabonese hurled at France and President Sarkozy, the epitome of France.
Former France´s president Valéry Giscard d´Estaing let on the other day that Albert-Bernard Bongo or Omar Bongo Ondimba funded the presidential bid and campaign of former French president Jacques Chirac in the early 1980s.
President Sarkozy left Gabon after the funeral mass and oration.
The Gabonese vented their anger because they´re not particularly thrilled to realize that France specifically – and some other European countries broadly speaking – evinces deception in her ties with Gabon in particular – and African, Asian and Latin-American nations in general.
In the run-up to the presidential race in France in 2007, Mr. Sarkozy kept advertising that Africa´s contribution to France´s wealth was meaningless and piffling. Once elected to the highest office of France, he suddenly changed his mind, saying that he wouldn´t let the U.S. alone hog the African pie. Since then he´s been striving for his share of the African spoils.
He´s already visited African countries such as Angola, Congo-Kinshasa, Niger, Gabon among others in order to firm up business contracts for French companies and business people. Although Angola was a Portuguese colony, France´s even floated a “French Cultural Center” in Angola so as to better freeload on that country economically. No wonder, Angola´s economy is presently thriving, with high economic growth figures.
Meanwhile, most Northern media outlets keep casting African countries as very poor and depending on some European countries. This gimmick is designed to distract the attention of the international public opinion from the hidden exploitation of African peoples, and to cover up for iffy business dealings.
Prosperous economies such as those of Equatorial Guinea and Angola among others are becoming honeypots for some European countries.
Germany is also raking it in for instance in Angola, and is gearing up to profit by the natural gas and/or energy of Equatorial Guinea A couple of months ago, one German journalist reporting from Angola, remarked that there were some German companies in Angola, but not many. She wished there were more German corporations operating in that African country so that they might fully take part in the business rush in Angola and benefit more from the prosperity of that African country.
Some weeks later, the German Pope Benedict XVI. flew to Angola via Cameroon. A couple of days after the Pope´s visit to Angola, Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos betook himself to Germany, met with German high-ranking officials. Nonetheless, German media didn´t report on this visit, thus dishonoring the head of state from Africa.
A suchlike ploy is also akin to being interested only in the raw materials, business contracts, and public purse of Angola, and flouting the honor of President Eduardo dos Santos as well as the dignity and the publicity of this African nation.
Later on, the Angolan president stated that German companies could wend their way to Angola. Although Germany´s colonies in Africa were Togo, Cameroon, Namibia and Tanzania, Germany´s now intent on opening a “German Cultural Center” for business purposes in this former Portuguese colony.
Most people of these former German colonies haven´t yet urged Germany to take her cue from the landmark agreement signed in 2008 between Italy and Libya in order to bury the colonial feud, and compensate the former colonized people for subjecting them to violence and for murder.
Incidentally, some European countries heavily pin their economic and survival hopes on China as regards business contracts and the large Chinese market. They hinge on some countries of the Middle East and on Russia to bankroll their economies. These Northern countries cling to a certain extent to developing countries of Latin America and rely on the U.S.
This shows that countries of this global world-village are interdependent, and that honest global cooperation between all nations is necessary.
The Gabonese last June 16, 2009, just denounced the “Scramble For Africa” that began with the “Berlin Conference” in 1884/85 and that’s still going on today in a very subtle way.
By all the odds, William E. B. Du Bois – the man of the “Harlem Renaissance” – was not wrong when he noted: “Africa is organized today chiefly for the profit of Europeans.”© The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2009. All Rights Reserved
The Entrepreneur Newsonline columnist and news analyst Mathias Victorien Ntep is a PhD researcher at the Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Germany, and at the Leiden University, Netherlands.
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