The Weaponization of Poverty in Africa

They say a hungry man is an angry man. But what should be considered worse? The hunger in the stomach of the man or the terrible things he can do with his hands just to quench it? It gets more worrisome when you see videos of street interviews in Europe or America, and how when random guys are asked about what they know of Africa, some of the first things they mention are “poverty”, “third world countries”, “corruption” etc. Only a few times do you hear people talk about the good things manifesting out of Africa. It’s like there is paid propaganda out there that was created to constantly undermine and smear African people. And if you ask me, I think there is. But why?

The truth remains that the identity of Africa is not that of poverty, backwardness, wars, chaos and the other stuff you hear in the news. The identity of Africa is that of great riches, ancient wisdom, mental and spiritual power.

Africa is portrayed as poor, not because she is poor, but because those who benefit from the exploitation of her human and natural resources need a weapon or a falsehood that constantly reminds the African that all he needs is food, clothes and a place to hide his head from the elements. And you know what they say, whatever you hear for a long time, you will begin to believe. And the moment you believe it, you are captured in the never-ending spin of that narrative in all its variations, until such a time as you look again into the mirror of the truth of who you are, change your trajectory of belief based on the wisdom that you find, and then like a beautiful sunflower at dawn, emerge again, a true and majestic you.

The Weaponization of Poverty in Africa

In an interview we had with one of our friends from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), when asked why the wealth of the DRC does not reflect in the lives of the Congolese people, he made mention of something profound. Below is a short excerpt.

Msingi: Why is the wealth of Congo not reflected in the lives of the Congolese people?

Answer: It is not reflecting because they never allowed us to have leaders who can lead. Yes, that’s number one. These international communities do not want the well-being of the Congolese people. So that is the problem. If you [put] them [the people of the DRC] in a good situation, they’ll [the international communities] start to look, they will start to ask what are you doing there?

So, maintain them in poverty so that they are only crying for what to feed their stomach. That’s why it is easy for a Congolese to get refugee status in every country. So, they allowed us to run anywhere and be accepted except to the same DRC and those who stayed they maintain them subject to poverty. So, the only thing they want is food and nothing else.

If you go to DRC you will find a contrast. You cannot believe that there are persons in the DRC who are travelling in private jets and there are people who do not even have one spoon of porridge to eat.

Let me give you an example of [how] bad leadership has destroyed DRC. We had Mobutu come into power; he wasn’t elected by the Congolese people. Who we wanted was Lumumba. He was killed and then they brought Mobutu. He was brought by Belgium and America to suppress the vision of Lumumba which he had developed. So, we had Mobutu being used by the American CIA and other multinational companies to destroy the country.”

This heartbreaking tale of what happened in Congo and what is still going on even right now is mostly the story of the whole of Africa, but at different levels. True leaders of the people are either killed or character assassinated by foreign powers and then they install puppets who constantly put the people in poverty while they plunder their country’s natural resources.

However, these narratives about a poor Africa are not the true identity of the African people. Poverty in Africa is a carefully crafted and global-power-backed agenda to keep Africa as farmland where natural resources are harvested for foreign interests.

The answer to the so-called poverty of Congo is the same answer to the so-called poverty of Africa. Congo, just like Africa is not poor. She’s just made poor. And that is a fact.

Even our local politicians have mastered how to use poverty as a tool for getting votes.

In a video lecture, Dr Howard Nicholas, a Sri Lankan economist and social scientist, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, made this statement about poverty in Africa.

“Africa, historically, sub-Saharan Africa has been fundamental to the global prosperity of the advanced countries, and Africa has a role to play. It has a role as a raw material producer.

We will not allow sub-Saharan Africa to escape that. We do everything to keep Sub-Saharan Africa where it is also impoverished. It’s absolutely vital for the prosperity of everyone else. So, let’s get clear about that. Okay. And this means all the economic structures, all the global institutions and the economics we teach, everyone is all designed to keep Africa exactly where it is.

And whether it is Europe or U.S. or now China, it’s always the same. We need Africa to be impoverished because we need those raw materials and we need them cheap. You see, we teach, in many cases, garbage and it doesn’t hurt anyone. A lot of this garbage is blah, blah, blah, blah. And we don’t know what we have learned.

But anyway, we were there at the university and you got a certificate and you come over here and you feel you’ve learned something. But sometimes we teach very destructive things, and no more important than when we’re teaching people from developing countries. One of those very damaging and destructive things is the doctrine of comparative advantage. It’s a lie. From beginning to end, it’s utter crap.

It has been decimated many times. But we keep it in every curriculum. Why? Because it tells sub-Saharan African countries that their destiny is to produce raw materials. And if you produce raw materials, you get rich, just like we are in the West. You see, this is the game we’re playing. And just for you to be totally confused, we normally build models with mathematical models, so you really have no idea what we’re talking about.

But it seems all very scientific. Then we have the modern version of this because it’s all a failure. We know it’s a failure. We now have a new generation of economists saying, Oh, it’s only a failure because you’re all corrupt in your countries. We call that new institutional economics. You’ve all probably learned that all, but you didn’t know why they invented it.

It was invented to tell you the same thing. You should keep producing raw materials. Now, don’t be as corrupt as you were before. Nobody ever told you that aid was designed to actually start the corruption process in the first place. Okay, we need corruption to make sure you’re doing all these things. But now we blame the victim. You’re poor because it’s your fault, basically. And you’re poor, stupid and corrupt. Basically, this is the message that we are giving people.”

Only Africans can Change the False Narrative

Here are a few things, amongst many other things that we must do to reclaim our true identity as Africans.

Control factors of production: In case you have not noticed, every single product in our supermarkets like phones and electronic devices, or in our hardware shops and even online stores, all carry the tag “made in China”. From snacks to toilet wares. From pencils to pens. Everything seems to carry the China tag. We need this to change and the only way to do this is for the government to create a more friendly environment for locally made goods and for Africans to also buy locally-made goods. Or else a few years down the road, we will have lost every form of control of our local manufacturing and markets. And that is a threat to our national security.

Control our food production and distribution: The fact remains that he who feeds you or controls your food production and distribution will control you and if I may add, may poison you when you are no longer of any use to them. Food production in the hands of foreigners should be seen as a national security issue, not just an issue of farming.

Control our media narrative: Until Africans tell their own stories, the narrative will always favor the agenda that the world wants to push about Africa.

Decolonize our educational system: Our current colonial educational system is faulty from top to bottom. It’s a tool for indoctrination and manipulation of our African identity. It needs to change and no one else will do it except Africans.

Reconnect to true spirituality: True spirituality is not religion or religious activities. It is a divine identity which a person comes into and lives by on earth.

Protect the family system: Everything in our world begins from the family system. Meaning that a broken family system is a broken society. And with the way the gay agenda is manifesting, you can tell the direction it is going.

Create movements that build African unity: It is clear to anyone who can see that the African Union(AU) is a sitting duck. So, Africans must by themselves create movements that give strength to our continental unity rather than those things that divide us.