Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About

[Bawon Samedi]

@Din0can @MansaMusa still some good news.
Why there could be a whiff of truth in Tanzania’s caution on EU deal
Read more at: Why there could be a whiff of truth in Tanzania’s caution on EU deal

Also didn't Nigeria and other West African states reject a deal similar to this?

 

[Bawon Samedi]

@MansaMusa can you explain to me on why intra-trade in Africa is so low??? I mean it is ridiculous that it is when that is a MUST along with industrialization...

Anyways, as of recently I was reading up on the 13 colonies. And one of the reasons why we even have an America today is because the 13 colonies CONSTANTLY traded with one another instead of directly with Britain/England. Unlike with Africans who still trade DIRECTLY with the West while little within the continent. Anyways intra-trading with the 13 colonies allowed them to be a united front against a powerful enemy i.e British.

Why can't Africans do what the 13 colonies did?

 

[Frangala]

@MansaMusa can you explain to me on why intra-trade in Africa is so low??? I mean it is ridiculous that it is when that is a MUST along with industrialization...

Anyways, as of recently I was reading up on the 13 colonies. And one of the reasons why we even have an America today is because the 13 colonies CONSTANTLY traded with one another instead of directly with Britain/England. Unlike with Africans who still trade DIRECTLY with the West while little within the continent. Anyways intra-trading with the 13 colonies allowed them to be a united front against a powerful enemy i.e British.

Why can't Africans do what the 13 colonies did?

Lack of infrastructure and political will . The low level of interactions in the movement of goods and people is stunning despite the various economic integration blocks such as ECOWAS, SADC or EAC.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

@MansaMusa can you explain to me on why intra-trade in Africa is so low??? I mean it is ridiculous that it is when that is a MUST along with industrialization...

Anyways, as of recently I was reading up on the 13 colonies. And one of the reasons why we even have an America today is because the 13 colonies CONSTANTLY traded with one another instead of directly with Britain/England. Unlike with Africans who still trade DIRECTLY with the West while little within the continent. Anyways intra-trading with the 13 colonies allowed them to be a united front against a powerful enemy i.e British.

Why can't Africans do what the 13 colonies did?

I'll provide a theory in a bit but the above poster is correct

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

@Din0can @MansaMusa still some good news.
Why there could be a whiff of truth in Tanzania’s caution on EU deal
Read more at: Why there could be a whiff of truth in Tanzania’s caution on EU deal

Also didn't Nigeria and other West African states reject a deal similar to this?

Nigeria did because despite the stupidity of Nigeria's elites, there are some who dream of industrialization

 

[Red Shield]

@Din0can @MansaMusa still some good news.
Why there could be a whiff of truth in Tanzania’s caution on EU deal
Read more at: Why there could be a whiff of truth in Tanzania’s caution on EU deal

Also didn't Nigeria and other West African states reject a deal similar to this?

Good.

I remember reading that some business leaders in Nigeria were arguing against the EPA. Which would kill it in West Africa.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

@KidStranglehold

A partial explanation is that the political economy of most African countries have not changed dramatically since the colonial period. Inter-regional trade hasn't grown because many African countries (for example, countries within Francafrique) were not created for the purpose of inter-African trade. Similar to how many African countries were designed to have firm boundaries but, due to the cheapness of late-stage colonialism, had weaker internal control (the costs of broadcasting power are more exorbitant in Africa compared to say Europe because of geography/limited capital and technology/lower population density in many states).

Let's take the Zambia for example. Zambia's most important export (copper) wasn't designed for consumption within Africa but for consumption abroad by core-economic economies (to borrow a leaf from Marxist theorists). Now, exceptions do exist (especially regarding the consumption of oil - SA buying Nigerian oil) but it's not relatively large for the time being.

@Frangala

 

[Bawon Samedi]

@KidStranglehold

A partial explanation is that the political economy of most African countries have not changed dramatically since the colonial period. Inter-regional trade hasn't grown because many African countries (for example, countries within Francafrique) were not created for the purpose of inter-African trade. Similar to how many African countries were designed to have firm boundaries but, due to the cheapness of late-stage colonialism, had weaker internal control (the costs of broadcasting power are more exorbitant in Africa compared to say Europe because of geography/limited capital and technology/lower population density in many states).

Let's take the Zambia for example. Zambia's most important export (copper) wasn't designed for consumption within Africa but for consumption abroad by core-economic economies (to borrow a leaf from Marxist theorists). Now, exceptions do exist (especially regarding the consumption of oil - SA buying Nigerian oil) but it's not relatively large for the time being.

@Frangala

This actually makes sense and explains everything. Good post.

 

[Frangala]

@KidStranglehold

A partial explanation is that the political economy of most African countries have not changed dramatically since the colonial period. Inter-regional trade hasn't grown because many African countries (for example, countries within Francafrique) were not created for the purpose of inter-African trade. Similar to how many African countries were designed to have firm boundaries but, due to the cheapness of late-stage colonialism, had weaker internal control (the costs of broadcasting power are more exorbitant in Africa compared to say Europe because of geography/limited capital and technology/lower population density in many states).

Let's take the Zambia for example. Zambia's most important export (copper) wasn't designed for consumption within Africa but for consumption abroad by core-economic economies (to borrow a leaf from Marxist theorists). Now, exceptions do exist (especially regarding the consumption of oil - SA buying Nigerian oil) but it's not relatively large for the time being.

@Frangala

Right. Most of the infrastructure especially in countries with large resource extraction industries have not changed. Many countries/govts. do not follow or simply do not care to uphold the promises of the mining companies that come to do business in these countries. In many mining contracts, mining companies whether Chinese, Australian, Canadians etc... usually are supposed to build some type of infrastructure to accommodate the population in the region where the mining takes place in addition to job creation. However, that does not happen and govt. officials do not care about these promises because they have already gotten their piece of the pie. SO the result is: these mining companies do not build the infrastructure as promised and end up paying lower taxes (if any) leading to capital flight out of the continent.

 

[mbewane]

@MansaMusa can you explain to me on why intra-trade in Africa is so low??? I mean it is ridiculous that it is when that is a MUST along with industrialization...

Anyways, as of recently I was reading up on the 13 colonies. And one of the reasons why we even have an America today is because the 13 colonies CONSTANTLY traded with one another instead of directly with Britain/England. Unlike with Africans who still trade DIRECTLY with the West while little within the continent. Anyways intra-trading with the 13 colonies allowed them to be a united front against a powerful enemy i.e British.

Why can't Africans do what the 13 colonies did?

To add on to what @Frangala and @MansaMusa correctly said I think that we can also consider all the trade deals African countries have with are geared towards what they can export to developped markets, meaning to the EU and the US, which are not the same products that for example Chad or Gambia need. I studied some of these deals some time ago and while I don't remember the details it was made clear by our university professor that the deals allowed less taxes fro raw goods but not for manufactured goods for example. And obviously African countries can not enjoy a period of protectionnism like developped countries did, so it's complicated to develop a local industry when you're up against US, EU, Chinese, etc...industries that have lower costs all things considered. So you end up specializing by default in raw goods, just like your neighbouring countries, so...

It can also be tied with the Structural adjustment programs of the 80-90s.

So basically it's a long-term continuum : extractive economies set up by the colonizing powers, then structural adjustment programs (neo-liberal in essence, which also led to the dismantling of educaction and health infrastructure) imposed after the debt crisis, and then trade "deals". It creates a vicious circle, because since African country A also needs manufactured goods that the neighbouring African countries B and C do not produce, African country A needs to buy it from Europe or the US, and thus needs Euros or Dollars. And the easiest way of getting those Euros and Dollars is to sell whatever goods Europe or the US want.

 

[Frangala]

As previously mentioned by @mbewane , most of the trade deals should be heavily scrutinized. For example AGOA (African Growth Opportunity Act), the US basically permits the exportation of African goods into the American market without tariffs as long as those African countries fulfill whatever democratic governance standard that the US deems satisfactory, and the legislation is renewable and can be expanded toward countries that were not initially qualified.

However, a lot of the goods on the list that can be exported from African countries to the United States are manufactured and value-added products. We all know that at least in Sub-Saharan Africa (outside of South Africa), industrialization on a mass scale has not taken place rendering this type of agreement/American legislation ineffective for African countries. I really doubt the US would extend such favorable deal to the EU, Japan, South Korea or China. It does this because it sees African countries as non-competitive. If African countries are able to industrialize then this type of legislation won't get passed in Congress. It's like Usian Bolt (US) giving a toddler (Africa) 10 meter start on a race, he is doing that because he knows he is going to beat the toddler regardless.

 

[thatrapsfan]

Forgot about this thread.

Interesting piece on Chinese investment in Rwanda here.

Why is China investing so heavily in a small landlocked African country with few natural resources?

 

[Um. Ghouls]

We got that African passport brehs

 

[Frangala]

We got that African passport brehs

Another wasted effort. Why would you concentrate on having an African passport when you are not even regionally integrated. A ticket to another African country is more expensive sometimes than a ticket to an European country. This effort by the African Union was another demonstration why African elites lack perspective and criminally incompetent. How many of their citizens who are living in abject poverty and struggling to live day to day can afford a ticket to travel. This effort is purely done for superficial reasons and to benefit the elites themselves, families and their camps more than the vast majority of their citizens.

 

[Um. Ghouls]

Another wasted effort. Why would you concentrate on having an African passport when you are not even regionally integrated. A ticket to another African country is more expensive sometimes than a ticket to an European country. This effort by the African Union was another demonstration why African elites lack perspective and criminally incompetent. How many of their citizens who are living in abject poverty and struggling to live day to day can afford a ticket to travel. This effort is purely done for superficial reasons and to benefit the elites themselves, families and their camps more than the vast majority of their citizens.

How much do small business owners invest in their individual communities? I don't think progress has to be linear necessarily, trickle down integration isn't impossible, and this could be a step towards it, would airlines re-plan cross-continental flights in the face of the assured uptick?