Post #276

Europe To Help End Colonialism? Wherever one is — in Nigeria with its lithium, in Guinea with its iron, in Ghana with its still untapped aluminium — they must understand that Africa now is at the centre of a struggle for critical minerals between "the North" and China. And China, having concentrated almost all global processing capacity for key solid minerals, is clearly winning. 🌐 Against this backdrop, the EU–Africa summit held earlier this week in Luanda was striking: European countries promised Africa — attention — liberation from colonial-style exploitation. “We will promote the sustainable development of value chains to enhance the capacity of local industries to participate in regional and global markets and to diversify and secure global supply chains, for instance in the field of strategic and critical minerals.” — states the Joint Declaration signed at the summit. 🌟 Words that touch the soul. But what stands behind them? What stands behind them is Europe’s desire to see mineral processing take place anywhere — anywhere except China. But, is this good for African nations anyway? ✅ Of course it is — but only if governments ensure Europe truly delivers on the following: ⏩ Europeans must actually invest in building processing plants — so far, they prefer to fund railways and ports for export. ⏩ The new plants must be at least partly owned by local companies and fully staffed by local workers — if everything is owned by foreign capital, it is simply a new form of exploitation. ⏩ The level of domestic processing must continuously increase — if the new facilities merely sort ore for export, that is not local processing. For fear of Chinese dominance, Europe may now promise anything. Promises are fine — but will the Europeans truly fulfill them? Devils Below