Firstly, citing
two examples from Brazil hardly builds a case for an article about supposed
land grabbers in Africa. Brazil is experiencing the highest economic growth
among developing countries and their new economic model based on commodities is
worth exploring separately. They have rebuilt their economy and boast the
lowest unemployment rate in the developing world.
If you had
done your research correctly and understood the dynamics of food security and
land issues in Africa you will have discovered that that many of these so
called agricultural pursuits are in fact smoke screens for earning mining
concessions in resource-rich, unstable African territories. Whether these
individuals are unscrupulous or not, the real emphasis should be on unethical African
governments who allow the exploitation of their own people by selling tribal land
to the highest, typically foreign, bidder. You can read the real story of how Phil
Edmonds, Andrew Groves and Daniel Och bankrolled the 2008 ZANU PF Zimbabwe
election in exchange for a platinum concession in the latest issue of Mail & Guardian.
When the
mining concessions turn out to be fruitless some of these territories have
become test grounds for biofuels which prior to the economic downturn in 2008
where tipped as being the highest potential earners for a new green economy.
We (
Africans) don’t need finger pointing and
reckless tarring of foreign investors with an old (Imperial) brush, what we
need is some ethical policy structures that encourage skill transfer and infrastructure
investment to support small scale farming and commercial innovation of
indigenous farming techniques. Your indignation would be better directed at Pan
African structures like the African Union and NEPAD who are struggling to
conclude pro-poor trade agreements with foreign powers after more than ten
years in existence.
And what
Richard Branson has to do with this topic is beyond me. His investment into the
Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve has helped keep intact a vital ecologically
pristine chunk of the Kruger Park biosphere and create hundreds of jobs for the
local villages such as Dumphries. The concession fees paid by private
landowners go into supporting local conservation and Ulusaba’s community
outreach Pride and Purpose has also built schools, clinics and supported home
based care initiatives, which are really the obligation of the local government.
Isolating Paul Bayliss’efforts of building a clinic in Liberia are quickly diminished
when placed in context of the ecological
damage that palm-oil production has over deforestation and food security.
Bayliss should probably be doing a great deal more.
Even the
shady Phil Edmonds has built a women’s clinic in Maputo to no doubt earn favour
with the Mozambique government. What this says is that African governments have
become masters at shirking their own responsibilities by using foreign
investors to bankroll social development infrastructure for the betterment of their
own people. The enemy is not Imperialism; it is a lack of ethics that traverses
individual business interests and corrupt governments.
