Colonialism or Business Modernity: China's Engagement with Africa

Trade between China and Africa was worth over $200billion in 2012. That is a good figure between both trading blocks. However, the terms of engagement as well as the macroeconomic dynamics of the relationship between Africa and China needs to be explored. The nature of value exchange between both blocks has taken the dimension of exchange of minerals and crude oil with infrastructure largely. There is also the platform of flooding our market with Chinese mass produce goods. This evidently has an effect on informal sectors, hence micro-economic activity of the average African citizen, especially in places like Nigeria where the regulatory environment seems to favour the Asian business engagement. Manufacturing which has always been in a state of coma is enjoying accelerated death owing to this. According to Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria's CBN governor, "the decline of African manufacturing from 12.8 per cent to 10.5 per cent of regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the United Nations." Sanusi has warned against the mode of engagement as a catalyst of redefined mode of colonialism. Colonialism was simply using of political control to make colonies resource efficient, transporting the resources abroad and producing goods in overseas manufacturing firms for consumption in the colonies. The Chinese are doing it in a redefined manner that I like to call business modernity. It doesn't involve political coercion. It just requires engagement through provision of funds for infrastructural development and hedging against risks associated with such development and drawing huge mineral resources for further production of export goods in their country, which make their way to other parts of the world and Africa particularly. They made available a credit line of $20billion available for Africa, alongside other initiatives and partnerships. It is worse for Africa, because many countries have comatose manufacturing sectors, and the model of consumption of Chinese export goods further makes the manufacturing sector susceptible to decline, because of the inability to compete with Chine se firms that have scale, energy, supported by a technocracy and also has ambition. The dialectics offered by western representatives such as Hillary Clinton "a model of sustainable partnership that adds value, rather than extracts it" from Africa. Unlike other countries, "America will stand up for democracy and universal human rights even when it might be easier to look the other way and keep the resources flowing." and David Cameron," believe the model of authoritarian capitalism [in China] we are seeing will fall short in the long term. ‘When people get economically richer they make legitimate demands for political freedoms to match their economic freedoms. This model is unable to respond. These statements are significant and unnecessary concomitantly. Significant because it brings the business modernity to the consciousness of Africa's sleeping intellectuals and dormant administrators in local development institutions. It is unnecessary because African leaders seem to even lack the fundamental will , which is the political will to get things right on the economic and wealth creating front. A phenomenal profligacy censured by corruption has led to an economic situation where over 400billion dollars has been stolen from Nigeria since crude oil has been discovered in 1978 according to Oby Ezekwesili, former World Bank chief and $851billion between 1970's and 2000's according to Global Financial Integrity. The argument by the west is not a generous one, its an economic one. it originates from trying to recover their slack, where China had gained by engaging the will bankruptcy of African leaders. China just built the headquarters of the African union. The west have enjoyed this sort of thing in the past and it help their fortunes in great bounds. I bet they want to feel how China is feeling now. Africa is growing owing to the commodities boom, the population of Africa comprises of young people who would according to Mckinsey have a deep pocket of $1.8trillion to spend from by 2030. The west need not act like they love us, China needs no further patronage. Its our leaders we should call to account. We youths particularly should get involved in foreign policy-in policy making generally. We need to stand up, so that the many years of slavery and colonial rule and the redefined business modernity won't further reduce the optimum we can get by being economically responsible and proactive. China is engaging Africa, the west is apprehensive. What are African's doing? They are not aware and their leaders are not proactive enough. We must do something. Colonialism or business modernity are just the same.