Africa Politicians: The New Slave Masters

They like to talk like sheep with humility but they act like wolves and lions devouring their victims without mercy. Such are Africa politicians. When they want power they would promise or say anything to get elected but when they get the power then they forget about the electorate and the people. Today in Africa people are so poor that they cannot even provide food for their families. But the politicians in Zimbabwe, Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Chad, Ghana, South Africa, Guinea, Angola, DRC, Gabon, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Togo and Ivory Coast do not know what poverty is.

Together they have hijacked and exercise full control over all the resources including land, labour, capital and revenues from all economic activities such as oil, gas, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, gold, diamond, coltan, tourism and timber exports. Omar Bongo of Gabon and his circle of friends control all the oil money in Gabon. Obiang Nguema and his cronies exercise full control over the hundreds of millions of dollars of oil money that flow into the country annually. Denis Sassou Nguessou of Congo does the same with his friends and so are Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Joseph Kabila of DRC.

Like the Slave Masters of the slave trade, the politicians, their cronies, the business elite and the well connected determine and control everything in Africa. They determine which roads should be constructed or resurfaced and which one should not. They determine which village or town gets connected to the national electricity grid; they determine which region or district receives funding for projects; they determine which community receives water infrastructure. They determine which town or community gets access to hospitals and sanitation facilities. They determine who should get a job and who should get sacked. Have you heard that 420 army recruits in Ghana have been asked to go home by the politicians who recently took over power?

The slave masters decide who gets a place to sell in the market, shopping malls and all the major markets in the continent. The slave masters decide who should own a business and who should have a share in that business. They decide who should get a contract and whose certificate as contractor should be withdrawn. Contractors do substandard works, collect hundreds of millions of dollars, give politicians their share and that is all. So a road whose live span is twenty years has to be resurfaced after just two years. For the past fifteen years Accra-Kumasi road in Ghana has been resurfaced more than five times after paying contractors hundreds of millions of dollars. This explains why school buildings collapse and children are killed. It also explains why communities are flooded anytime it rains as poor quality drainage networks are built. Projects costs and costs of major public procurement contracts are inflated three or four times normal cost by the Slave Masters and the poor people are made to pay for it.

You cannot get a certificate to operate a business unless you grease the palm of a politician. You cannot get contract unless you know a politician in the ruling government. You are treated differently if you know the regional minister, the district commissioner, governor or the district chief executive (DCE). A French investigation into corruption at the former oil giant Elf Aquitaine, an executive testified that Elf paid £40m a year to Bongo via Swiss bank accounts in exchange for permission to exploit his country's reserves. Source: The Sunday Times, 2008.

As far as one knows a cabinet minister he can do whatever he likes and nobody dares question him. It is always the poor and the have nots who get prosecuted and jailed while the politicians and their cronies who commit atrocious crimes against their states live in their mansions to enjoy their booty and ill gotten wealth. If Mr. Bernard L. Madoff had come from any country in Africa he would have been a free man by now as his political friends would have made sure he did not go to jail. Corruption case againstJacob Zuma is being dropped to allow him to become president ofSouth Africa.

Big loans are contracted to build projects like presidential palaces enjoyed only by the politicians and the poor are made to pay for it. Like the slavery of old, the politicians, their families, the businessmen and the well connected are not hurt by the storm of poverty in Africa. Despite receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in loans and grants from Europe, Japan, US, IMF and World Bank there is nothing to show for it as poverty continue to swallow the people. The reason is that these loans and grants do not see the light, they are stolen the very day they are released and the poor people are paying for it. This explains why many countries have applied for the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) initiative. These corrupt Slave Masters and their associates are holding the people captive with their short sighted, ill-conceived, vote buying, and cosmetic economic policies and programmes thereby giving the people no chance to develop.

The politicians in Africa have titles like Junior Jesus, Servants of the Poor, Friend of the Poor, King of Africa but they are all lies. None of them cares for the poor but their own stomach. Because they care only for their interests, that is why the people have no jobs, no incomes, no savings and have no place to lay their heads. That is why farmers continue to farm using hoes and cutlasses, rely on nature to plant their crops; and have no access to improved seeds, irrigation facilities and credit. That is why children go to school barefooted, on an empty stomach and attend classes under trees while the politicians' children receive education in Europe and America.

That is why Omar Bongo has at least 33 luxury properties in France alone and spends $100 million a year while majority of Gabonese live on a dollar a day. Dos Santos, Paul Biya, Obiang Nguema, Blaise Campore, Arap Moi, Jerry Rawlings, Joseph Kabila and most of the sitting and past presidents and their families live a lavish lifestyle while majority of the people live in abject poverty.

That is why people have no access to water, food, health care, education and electricity while Citibank, UBS, Barclays Bank, Crédit Lyonnais, BNP, Credit Suisse, are full of stolen money from the continent. That is why there are power blackouts in Accra, Dar es Salaam, Abidjan, Cape Town, Monrovia, Free Town, Lome, Lagos, Kampala, Cairo, Conakry and most of our cities not to mention the rural areas. But the lights in Aso Rock in Nigeria, Osu Castle in Ghana, El Mouradia in Algeria, Abdeen Palace in Egypt, Zimbabwe House in Zimbabwe, Futungo dos Belas in Angola, Mahlambandlovu of South Africa, States House in Kenya and Uganda, will not go off even if there is no water in the Kanji, Akosombo, the Aswam, Kariba, or the Mulunguzi dams.

Because they care only for their interests that is why majority of the people live in slumps, sprawl, shanty towns and in deplorable conditions in Nairobi, Accra, Cairo, Lagos, Soweto, Kampala with little or no access to water, electricity, schools, hospitals, roads, toilet and sanitation facilities. That is why teachers, nurses, and other public workers are poorly paid, have few rights and have little or no entitlement when they go on retirement. But when the Slave Masters leave office after looting the treasuries, they are given several hundreds of thousands of dollars and properties as retirement packages. The Slave Masters have more and are given more. The poor have none and they are denied even the little.

Because they care only for their stomach that is why they allow mining and oil companies to destroy the environment and the livelihoods of the people. Shell, BP and other oil companies have polluted rivers, wells, streams, lakes, creeks and the soil in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria rendering millions of fishermen and farmers jobless. The people of Arlit in Niger and Mounana in Gabon are still suffering after exposure to high radioactive contamination from uranium. The Slave Masters in Ghana, DRC, Liberia, and Zambia look on in agreement while mining companies like AngloAshanti and Mittal pollute the environment.

In the 50 years since oil was discovered in Nigeria, over $400 billion have been realised as revenue but the money has been stolen by the politicians and the corrupt civil servants leaving Nigerians to fend for themselves. The evil genius Abacha and his family were able to bank $4 billion of these monies in Switzerland, Jersey Island, New York, Australia, France and Britain. The story is no different in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, DRC, Guinea, Chad, Zambia, Sudan, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Algeria, Sierra Leone and Gabon where oil, gas, gold, diamond, copper and other valuable minerals have brought in billions of dollars yet most the people live in abject poverty. The people are poor because the Slave Masters have decided they should remain so, as monies meant for their development have been stolen and are sitting in UBS, Credit Suisse, Barclays bank, BNP, Crédit Lyonnais and Citibank.

Through their grip on power, the Slave Masters have amassed wealth and enriched themselves at the expense of the poor. And in order to perpetuate their rule and enslavement of the people they turn one tribe and one religion against the other as is seen in Kenya, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Algeria, Egypt, Togo, Liberia and Congo. They install their children as successors instead of allowing democracy to work. Faure Gnassingbe of Togo was installed as his father's successor and so did Joseph Kabila of DR. Congo who replaced Laurent Kabila, his father as president. There are clear signs that Gamal Mubarak and Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba will respectively replace their fathers as presidents of Egypt and Uganda.

How is the following 2008 US Human Rights report on Gabon different from the treatment of slaves by their owners in the 18th Century?

“The following human rights problems were reported: limited ability of citizens to change their government; use of excessive force, including torture toward prisoners and detainees; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; an inefficient judiciary susceptible to government influence; restrictions on the right to privacy; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, association, and movement; harassment of refugees; widespread government corruption; violence and societal discrimination against women, persons with HIV/AIDS, and noncitizen Africans; trafficking in persons, particularly children; and forced labour and child labour.” Source: US Human Rights Report on Gabon 2008. Similar abuses are found in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Egypt, Mauritania and Guinea.

Pathetically, Africans demanded independence from colonialism only to be recolonised and enslaved by our own leaders. A US Senate investigation in 1997 established that Bongo and his family spend fifty-five million pounds every year. Like Omar Bongo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Blaise Campore, Dos Santos, and their friends in Chad, DRC, have all enriched themselves at the expense of their poor countries often in collusion and connivance with the French political and the business elite and the banking and property institutions. Robert Mugabe was seen having a lavish birthday party with his family and friends while millions of his people face starvation and cholera continues to threaten tens of thousands of them. Africa is poor because of the incompetence of her leaders. The people are poor because they have been denied the opportunity to develop. There are no efficient transportation system; no major infrastructural development, no viable manufacturing sector; no major breakthrough in the universities because monies meant for all that have been stolen by the Slave Masters in full agreement with Switzerland, France, Britain, USA, Luxembourg, Jersey Island, Austria and Liechtenstein.

What will you say when people have no access to food, water, electricity, education, health facilities; cannot pay their rents and fees for their kids; have no jobs and no savings; have no access to toilet and sanitation facilities and cannot democratically change their leaders? If these corrupt, power hungry and heartless men and women are not slave masters, vampires, parasites, blood suckers and draculars then who are they?

By Lord Aikins Adusei

(Consultant, Political Activist and Anti Corruption Campaigner)

Should America and European Nations Pay Reparations to victims of Slavery and Colonialism?

“It’s the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life….. The natives are five thousand years back of us….The British have been there for two hundred years - for every dollar that the British have put into Gambia, they have taken out ten. It’s just plain exploitation of those people”. President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943.

The lack of development in Africa and the poverty of millions of African Americans have been blamed on a number of factors but the most serious of all are the evils of slavery and colonialism. There has been a number of voices in America, Europe the Caribbean, Latin America, Australia and Africa that the US and European nations should pay reparations to Africa Americans, Africa and the Caribbean Islands for the sufferings they endured under slavery and colonialism.

Very few will disagree on the negative impact that slavery and colonialism have had on Africa Continent, African Americans and the Caribbean Islands. Centuries of slavery and colonialism deprived the continent of her able human and economic resources. These able men and women (numbering several tens of millions) who were carried away to work in the plantations of the Americas helped to make America and Europe what they are today. Millions of young Africans were forced to abandon the continent of their birth and were shipped several thousands of miles away to lands where they had no historical attachment with. They travelled in very deplorable conditions, often without adequate food, water and air.  While in the New World they were made to work for centuries without pay. They were denied every right enjoyed by humans on the planet. Some even worked till they dropped dead. The slave trade deprived the continent of her energetic men and women a vital resource in any development process and sunk the continent into intellectual wilderness.

Colonialism

About the same time that slavery was being vigorously pursued, plans were hatched by the European powers made up of Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and others to carve Africa for themselves without consulting the Africans an act that can only be described as robbery. The Scramble for Africa as it is sometimes called gave the Europeans the legal power to do as they pleased in Africa. As a result, the natural resources including timber, gold, diamond, tin ore, ivory, bauxite, rubber and many more were systematically looted in large quantities from the countries they colonised. The irony is that virtually all the incomes from these resources were used to finance the economic, social and the infrastructural development of the European countries with little or nothing at all being used to develop the various countries where these resources came from.

A clear example is the case of Democratic Republic of Congo where King Leopold II of Belgium enslaved the Africans, forced them to work without pay, killed about 10 million and looted the country of her resources and virtually nothing was used to invest in the country except guns which the Belgium army used to terrorise and kill the Africans. Africans who could not meet their daily target of rubber supply had their wives ceased and their hands chopped off by Leopold’s army officers. Leopold even went to the extreme to exhibit Africans in Belgium Zoos. When the DRC was transferred from Leopold II to the Belgium state, the looting and killing continued till DRC gained her ‘independence’ in the 1960s. In fact DRC (Congo Free State) was the main supplier of rubber a vital raw material for the tyre industry and all the money from the sale of the rubber went to Belgium. King Leopold II was able to transform Belgium as one of the poorest countries in Europe into one of the wealthiest, courtesy the enslavement and looting of Africans and their resources.

Belgium was not alone in what she did to the continent. Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy all looted Africa of her gold, diamond, ivory, timber, cobalt, coltan, tin ore, bauxite, manganese and all the minerals you can think of. The Africans who resisted the illegal activities were killed in their millions as happened in South West Africa (now Namibia) where the Germans in 1904 to 1907 committed the first genocide of the 20th Century by killing the Herero and the Namaqua people. While Europe became richer Africa became poorer and the trend continued till the 1950s when the African countries started gaining their ‘independence’ beginning with Libya in 1951, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia all in 1956 and Ghana in 1957.

With little or no investment in the continent the various post colonial governments inherited countries with practically no infrastructure: roads, rails, harbours, airports, telecommunications, education, health and sanitation. The only areas which saw some few infrastructure investments during the colonial days were those where raw materials were heavily extracted. The attainment of independence did not come on silver Plata. Algeria, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Namibia and to some extent South Africa all attained their independence from their colonial masters through arm struggles.

This is why the call is growing for America and Europe to pay reparations to these countries for what they did to them.

However there are many who argue that such reparations are not necessary. They contend that African leaders wilfully cooperated with Europeans and also benefited in cash and kind from the slave trade. They argue that the slave trade was a mutual agreement between the buyers and sellers. On colonialism the argument is the same, that the European nations brought civilisation and development to Africa while they also benefited from the exploitation of the rich resources in Africa. So it was also a mutual agreement. They further argue that countries such as Britain, America and Australia have already issued apologies to the victims of slavery and that should be enough to pacify the situation.

I do not agree in any form or shape that slavery and colonialism were based on mutual benefit or agreement. What is so sad is that Africans never invited Europeans to Africa in the first place. Secondly, the artificial boundaries erected by Europeans without any input from Africans have divided tribes, destroyed cultures as well as social and economic cohesions that have existed for centuries. Such partition which was based on greed is partly to blame for the internal conflicts currently going in Africa. Thirdly, the wars, the ethnic divisions, and destructions that accompanied Europeans when they came were foreign to Africa. Africa is still suffering from their contacts with Europeans today. Besides, the abolishment of the slave trade itself is a proof that it was an evil trade perpetrated by Europeans for their own selfish gains. Furthermore, the fact that Europeans reluctantly gave up their political hold on power without relinquishing their economic interests is another proof that they only sought to enrich themselves at the expense of Africans.

If the slave trade and colonialism were based on mutual benefit then why did Europeans decide to abolish it? If the trade was based on mutual agreement between the buyers and sellers then how about those who worked for centuries in the plantations without pay was that a mutual agreement too? What civilisation and development did Europeans bring to Africa? It is the millions of people who could not read or write when Britain left Ghana or the complete lack of infrastructure in Congo when Belgium gave them ‘independence’?

Are apologies alone enough to pacify the forceful deportation of millions against their will? How about the millions who died on the way to the journey of no return? How about the victims of slavery who endured humiliations, rape, torture and death on their way to the New World? Or the humiliations, rape, torture, death and the inhuman treatment of victims of slavery who were ‘lucky’ to get to the New World? How about the millions of children who lost their parents as a result of the forceful deportations and had to endure loneliness and neglect was that a mutual benefit too? How about the single mothers and fathers who were left to bear the hardship of caring for the children when their husbands and wives were taken away? Was that a mutual agreement too?

Evidence of exploitation, racism and extreme discrimination in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Algeria, Congo Free State (former Zaire) and now DR Congo point to the fact that colonialism was not based on mutual benefit but were rather an attempt by Europe and America to enrich themselves at the expense of Africans and people of colour.

The humiliations, torture, lynching, racism, Jim Crow segregation laws, economic and social discrimination and marginalisation meted out to African Americans even centuries after slavery was abolished is another evidence that Africa and people of African descent were victims of slavery and not beneficiaries. And therefore as victims they must be fully compensated for the unpaid labour as well as all the wrongs meted out to them. Apologies alone are not enough and cannot correct centuries of inhumane treatment of people who were also made in the image of God.

The huge benefits that slavery and colonialism brought to America and Europe, and the denial of such benefits to the very people who worked to bring the wealth is not only against natural law but is also against anything human.

There is no excuse for the inexcusable crime of slavery and colonialism. It is time for America and Europe to own their wrongful treatment of a section of the earth’s citizens and pay reparations to the victims and their families and the countries who suffered directly or indirectly from such evils.

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Poverty: Modern Day Slavery in Africa

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By Lord Aikins Adusei

Although slavery was abolished more than a hundred and forty years ago and all countries in Africa are now politically free, there is a new form of slavery in Africa today which is cruel, harsh and severe like the one which took place about five centuries ago. This new slavery is like unquenchable fire ravaging in a dense but dry forest consuming everything on its path. This new slavery which is consuming Africans and decimating them is poverty. Despite decades of independence, availability of natural resources and existence of technology to make good these rich resources, Africa is still the poorest continent on earth. Today Africa is a continent where majority of the people live on one dollar a day. Africa is a continent where people die for lack of food, potable drinking water, and against common preventable diseases. It is a continent where malnutrition abounds and few children under the age of five survive the menace of the six killer diseases. It is a continent where child mortality is high and life expectancy is low. It is a continent where people walk several miles for water and children have no access to education and medical care. It is a continent where rural life is nothing but a condemnation to poverty, misery, desperation and hopelessness. It is a place where people live in mud/thatched houses with bamboo/raffia leafs as roofing sheets.

It is a continent full of wars and armed conflicts. It is a continent where democracy and rule of law are a myth.

It is a continent full of dictators and kleptocrats; a continent where corruption is handsomely rewarded and achievement is shunned; a place where entry into public life/service is a means to acquiring wealth. From Cape Town in South Africa in the south to Tunis in Tunisia in the north the story of poverty is the same. In all these countries there is lack of financial resources and economic opportunities. There is lack of food and potable drinking water; there is lack of health, housing and accommodation facilities; there is the poverty of landlessness and employment. Access to education, health and other basic infrastructures is limited to just a few. In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Malawi, Mauritania, Sudan and Eritrea people lack basic food and water and are at the mercy of UN food aid. In Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea the people lack basic health services and 8 out of 10 of the population have never seen a dentist before. People are landless; they have no access to education, employment, housing and accommodation; they live in harsh and unforgiving political environment; they face threat of viruses and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola and malaria.

Africa today is the worst place for a child to be born or grow up due to poverty and lack of opportunities. There are many cities, towns and villages where children go to school without food or eat once a day, something unimaginable in Western societies. Due to poverty most children under five are malnourished and underweight. The children are not properly clothed or sheltered. They do not receive much attention from their parents. Due to the pervasive and extreme nature of poverty, children prematurely become adults at the age of ten sometimes even less. They take on the responsibility of adults; scavenge for food and work to bring home income to support the family. As a result absenteeism in schools are high as many students swap their education for income generating activities such as fishing, farming and hawking, an act that continue to fuel and perpetuate the poverty cycle. They suffer many abuses silently in the hands of those who employ them and many are maladjusted. In the villages and in the rural areas kids walk bare footed to school and even to church or mosque. In most rural areas students have to study with lantern because there is no electricity. In the rural areas children have no class rooms and have to study under trees. Today in Sierra Leone as in many places in Africa a child is more likely to die at birth or die before reaching the age of five. Like their children, the existence of poverty and lack of economic opportunities make parents worry about what they and their family will eat as the evening approaches. Most parents struggle to feed their children and many have to credit food in order to feed their families. Parents are frustrated when they cannot cloth their kids or pay their fees and more agitated when they cannot pay their rents and face ejection. There is nothing so humiliating and insulting than not been able to feed, cloth and provide accommodation for ones family, act which is exacerbated by the culture in Africa.

Life in an African city is a great struggle and a constant battle for both young and old. There are no safety nets like unemployment benefits, council accommodation for homeless people etc. Many workers have no savings, and those without jobs are at the mercy of their distance families, friends and love ones. Slaved to poverty and helpless, these men and women have very few options: commit suicide in their own countries, run away from their children or battle the seas to reach Europe. Many in Europe will now understand why men and women battle dangerous seas for days often without food and water to reach Spain, Malta or Italy to seek employment, something they have been denied by their slave masters in Africa. This also explains why Africans will offer their services for any type of work so far as they are paid. The disturbances that took place in Egypt, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast in 2008 over food shortages and price increases is jut the tip of the iceberg.

There are many things that those in the West take for granted such as undisrupted and constant supply of electricity, water, availability of jobs and affordable food, clothing and council flats. In Africa items such as cars, fridges, flat screen TV, laptops, camcorders, cameras and most electronic gadgets is a luxury. When one does not know where the evening meal is going to come from can he think about buying a TV set? That is how bad the situation is in Africa.

It is not only individuals who are poor but communities, villages, towns and cities as well. In some communities there are no schools and children have to walk several kilometres a every school day in order to attend the nearest school which may be 5 or 10 kilometres away. In some communities you can only travel once a week as the only vehicle in the village leaves and comes once a week. There is no tap water. A town or village is lucky if there is a borehole. In most communities humans and animals share the same unprotected water source. Wells and streams are polluted and because the people have no alternatives they are forced to drink it. As a result water borne diseases are rampant, and deaths from such diseases are daily occurrence.

In some communities there are no hospitals, clinics, health centres or pharmacy and patients have to travel several kilometres to nearby towns before they can receive treatment or medical help. In these communities people always pray that nothing catastrophic happens in the night as that will mean automatic death. In these communities pregnant mothers are always at risk of death as there are no ambulances, and roads are poor and vehicles are scarce. This explains why child mortality is high. In the towns and villages there are no electricity and that means no economic activity that requires electricity can survive in that environment. Farmers have no place to sell their produce as there is no market infrastructure. They therefore rely on the ‘generosity’ of market women from the cities who troop the villages to buy the products at whatever price they want. In cities where public services (utilities and amenities) are relatively available, there are always shortages of essential medicines, equipments, beds, vehicles and specialised professionals in the hospitals. It is common to find patients sleeping on bed mats on the floor of hospitals while nurses and doctors go about their normal duties. In the big cities it is common to hear news that patients have absconded from the hospitals before they are officially discharged because they are poor and cannot pay their bills. As a result patients are now detained after getting well till they pay their bills. Constant disruption of water and electricity supply is a headache for hospital officials, factories and households. It is common to find waste bins filled to the brim and tipping.

Almost all the open gutters are choked and anytime it rains flood begins to threaten the people. In these cities very few houses have their own toilet facilities as a result majority of the people rely on public toilets which are themselves very few and untidy. Some of these toilets stink so much so that one has to take a bath or shower immediately after use. Due to pressure on these few toilets they are always in poor shape. In Accra lack of toilet facilities especially along the coast have forced people to use the seashore as a place of convenience. A visit to Dutch Hotel in Nungua in the morning, afternoon or evening reveals a large army of men, women and children easing themselves not far from where this beautiful hotel is situated. In Nima, Ashaiman, Nungua and James Town all suburbs of Accra, it is common to find human excreta wrapped in polythene bags and thrown into gutters, bushes and onto the street. In the cities there is the problem of managing waste, sanitation and sewerage. All these impact negatively on the health of the people and explain why life expectancy is very low.

Shortage of accommodation means that people have to pay five times what their counterparts in the villages and towns are paying. People in the big cities always pray that rain does not fall in the evening or in the night as that will mean homeless people and hustlers will have to forfeit their sleep. In Accra, Lagos, Kano, Kampala, Nairobi and other major cities across the continent people live in the woods, sleep in metal containers, kiosks and makeshift structures and slum dwelling is very common. High unemployment in the cities fuelled by rural-urban migration has forced people onto the street. In Accra you can find hawkers of all kinds taking advantage of the ever present traffic jam to sell bread, chewing gum, ice water, apple and those who have nothing to sell engage in crime, and other social vices. A walk through the major streets of Accra, Lagos, Kumasi, Lome, Conakry, Freetown, Abidjan, Nairobi, and Kampala, Arusha, Monrovia and major cities in South Africa reveal how poverty has forced millions of people to beg for food and money. The problem is very disturbing when one looks at the disabled community. Roughly more than half of the beggars in Accra for instance are people who are disabled.

Who are the Slave Masters?

The slave masters in Africa today are the politicians, their cronies, the business elite and the well connected. Together they have hijacked and exercise full control over all the resources including land, labour, capital and revenues from all economic activities. They determine who should eat and who should not. They determine who should get a job and who should get sacked. They determine who gets a place to sell in the market and who should be kicked out. They determine who should get a contract and whose certificate should be withdrawn. They decide which roads should be constructed or resurfaced and which one should not. They determine which village or town gets connected to the national electricity grid. They determine which region or district receives funding for projects. The slave masters determine who should own which business and who should have a share in that business. You cannot get a certificate to operate a business unless you grease the palm of a politician. You cannot get a contract unless you know a politician in the ruling government. You are treated differently if you know the regional minister, the governor or the district chief executive (DCE). As far as one knows a cabinet minister he can do whatever he likes and nobody dares question him. It is always the poor and the have nots who get prosecuted and jailed while the politicians and their cronies who commit atrocious crimes against the state live in their mansions to enjoy their booty. Contractors do substandard works, collect hundreds of millions of dollars, give politicians their share and that is all. So a road whose live span is twenty years has to be resurfaced after just two years. Like the slavery of old, the politicians, their families, the businessmen and the well connected are not hurt by the storm of poverty in the continent but their slaves who make up the majority of the population do. These corrupt politicians and their associates are holding the people captive with their ill-conceived economic policies and programmes thereby giving them no chance to develop. The politicians in Africa call themselves saviour of the people and have names and titles like Junior Jesus, Servants of the Poor, but they are all lies. None of them cares for the poor but their own stomach. The people are poor because the slave masters have decided they should remain so, as monies meant for their development have been stolen and are sitting in Banks in Switzerland, Luxemburg, Jersey Island, and Britain. What will you say when people have no access to food, water, electricity; have no access to education and health facilities; cannot pay their rents and fees for their kids; have no jobs and no savings; have no access to toilet facilities and have to put up with horrible smell everyday?

I have witnessed poverty in Africa and although I did not witness the slavery in the Americas, I have learnt enough about it and I can say with confidence that the poverty in Africa today is the modern version of the slavery that took place about five centuries ago.