The Underdevelopment of Africa: How Much Has Africa Really Lost

An Estimate of Africa’s Lost Wealth

By Katherine Ellerbe Dabo

Whether in religion or in the science of evolution, the Black woman has a place in world history as the forbear of the human race. However, her offspring that remained in the mother continent have historically been characterized by an underachievement of momentous proportion. This underachievement is explained largely by machinations that other groups  have historically employed to exploit Africa. Strangely, however, the vice is more on the unawareness of people of African descent on the resources at their disposal and the potential inherent underneath their feet. Historically, Africa and the Sub-Saharan African people have always provided wealth to the rest of the world for free, unfortunately, the only difference today is that the exploitation continues in a different format or disguise as assistance or Aid to Africa. Africa is so rich and yet it may still need to provide the rest of the world with its abundance of wealth for pennies. Any true African and friend of Africa will need to ask the important question: why?

To fully understand why Africa is in the state of affairs that it finds itself in today, one has to look closer and fully understand how much real wealth flows through Africa and what she looses each year to the powers that be. We all know that Africa and her people have been exploited, raped and pillaged by so many outside groups for centuries posing as friends and/or – whom we may called “Foreigners”.

Whilst Africans in Africa may be grappling with overcoming the yoke of challenges bestowed on them, many people of African decent, whether in the continent or in the diaspora, do not have a full grasp or understanding of how much wealth is stolen from Africa each year. Africa could solve its own poverty problems by herself and in less than ten years if certain fundamentals where put in place today. In simple terms, let Africa control its own true destiny and its own wealth. In and article dated November 8, 2005 Mr. Patrick Bond suggested the following; He stated: Each year - “Third World repayments of $340 billion each year flows northwards to service a $2.2 trillion dollar debt, more than five times the G8’s development aid budget, notes Mr. Patrick Bond”.

Wow! Can anyone conceive that amount of wealth leaving Africa each year to pay for a debt I believe many Africans never wanted in the first place. This is a bad joke that is being played on all African people around the world no matter where you live. To grow as a country, it is imperative that you rid yourself or free yourself from outside foreign debt while simultaneously building your own internal economic systems to support the countries long term growth. With that being said, how can Africa or any other so called third world country grow its GDP from a financial burden like that, better yet, how can we all support Africa and stop the exploitation. Mr. Bond also added; “In this context,…those who claim international integration can enrich Africa are wrong”. Translation - In other words, when you use a country's resources (land, gold, platinum, diamonds etc.) to secure a loan for the country at very expensive interest rates you place a heavy burden on that country. We all have to remember that most loans are not backed by any real Money or Cash but only (credit) and credit has no real value except to place an undue burden on the back of the developing Nation. Loans or (credit) have no real value unless there backed by something that's why these Lender's, banks and/or the G8 group continue to siphon off these payments from Africa which is their (real wealth) forever and forever in (perpetuity). Bottom-line, a poor country that has limited exports or earning potential from its GDP (Gross Domestic Products) has less of a chance to pay back any debt, thus we can conclude, that this debt will never help you build real wealth for your people, in this case Africa and its people, which is all of us.

In a 1973 a book by Walter Rodney's, Entitled “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” he argues the point by asking a question; The question as to who or what is responsible for Africa underdevelopment, can be answered on two basic levels. First, the implementation of the imperialist system is the major culprit in destroying Africa and causing economic retardation and draining off the wealth of Africa and its people. The second problem we have in our Africa family, is those who have manipulated the system for their own personal gain, we all have to stop thinking so small as a people and see the big picture clearer? The most important point in all this is to understand. Now, let me explain. When you still from yourself you gain nothing but poverty in the long term, and in the short term you ultimately have to be a slave to someone else who does understands what you really have in you own house. If you control the wealth of your own country you have control over your own future and can build wealth for yourself and earn enormous amounts of wealth, way beyond the few dollars that someone is giving to you, to shut your month or run a corrupt government for them.

Christian Aid recently estimated the damage done to African countries by trade liberalization at $272 billion since 1980.

WASHINGTON, DC — Africa lost $854-Billion Dollars in illicit financial outflows from 1970 through 2008, according to a new report to be released today from Global Financial Integrity (GFI).  Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Hidden Resource for Development debuts new estimates for volume and patterns of illicit financial outflows from Africa, building upon GFI’s ground-breaking 2009 report, Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2006, which estimated that developing countries were losing as much as $1 trillion every year in illicit outflows. The new Africa illicit flows report is expected to feature prominently at the 3rd Annual Conference of African finance ministers in Malawi, which is currently underway. “The amount of money that has been drained out of Africa—hundreds of billions decade after decade—is far in excess of the official development assistance going into African countries,” said GFI director Raymond Baker. “Staunching this devastating outflow of much-needed capital is essential to achieving economic development and poverty alleviation goals in these countries.”

The attached chart estimates that Africa has lost more than 19 trillion US Dollars (Download African Exploitation budget) over a period of 500 years, thanks largely to outsiders’ exploitation of the motherland. And, so what do you think ? And what should the blackwoman, the mother of the human race do, to correct this time immemorial wrongs on her offspring? Send Katherine an Email.

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Comments

[Osborne K Sam]

I was struck by the comparison between what is paid in servicing debts and what is recieved as AID.The deficit for Africa is huge, figuring a way around this is one of the things Africa needs to come out of the invisible shackles that binds her economically.

[Chief Bisong Etahoben]

I agree and disagree with the writer on what impoverished Africa. Though the tendency has been for Africans to blame their under-development on exploitation by former colonial masters, the truth remains that Africans through their rogue leadership and greed under-developed and are still under-developing themselves and their continent. Just as feudal and traditional rulers sold their kinsmen to slavery in the past, African leaders steal from the public till and siphon the money out to developed countries which eventually lend us this money at cut-throat interest rates.
The African intellectual who should have acted as the sentry for his people against foreign feymen out to scam the continent out of its wealth, rather serve as the trojan horse that smuggled in the enemies. Their education in the ways of the West has not been used to our best interests.
However, it is not as if the developed world does not have its share of the blame. But whilst their thieving is being laid bare, we are taking no drastic action to redress the situation. In fact, aping the west has blinded us to what could be our saving grace. Rather, we persecute some of our brothers who have resorted to extreme measures to pay back our exploiters. Somali patriots, robbed of their fish-rich waters by unscrupulous foreign poisoning and over-fishing, have refused to turn the other jaw and have been trying to pay back those who stole from us in their own coins. But they are called 'pirates' and sold to the slaughter by us.
The bad thing here is that we have been schooled in rhetoric and brainwashed into hating our own road to salvation. Why can't our western education make us manufacture cars and planes but changes us into snobs who look down on our kith and kin and use western values as our measuring rods? I know even this opinion would be perceived by our 'civilised' and 'educated' kinsmen as advocating for 'international terrorism'. To hell.

[coach suitcase]

“You wish ~” My American friends love this sentence! They use it to tease and taunt each other constantly!