Africa is simply a huge crime scene
THERE is nothing that Bishop Lazi finds as thoroughly distasteful as quoting Western scholars, because not only does it exalt Western scholarship, but it discounts and pooh-poohs our own.
Scholarship naturally helps build and shape perspectives and narratives.
It is, therefore, unsurprising that the world’s most influential powers are always investing in promoting and mainstreaming the hegemony of their ideas, thoughts, perspectives and narratives by marketing them as both global and universal.
This naturally translates to cultural imperialism.
Except for the few who are woke, we are currently under the spell of an unremitting cultural imperialism from the West — the films constantly churned out by Hollywood, the literature that we are exposed to, the values and the neo-liberal scholarship.
The Bishop is often disgusted by local film and music productions which try by all means to replicate Western scripts and portray values that are divorced from the lived realities of locals.
No wonder why these productions are always unpopular and failing.
But, most importantly, it shows how those in this part of the Savanna have been bombarded by a blitzkrieg of the so-called popular culture to such an extent that they cannot recognise and separate Western culture from their own.
Music and films are vehicles for story-telling, and the more they relate and resonate with the audience, the more they are likely to be popular.
This is precisely why the 2002 local drama series “Sinjalo”, which featured two main protagonists — Folomani (Fortune Ruzungunde) and Sakhamuzi (Mackey Tickeys) — effortlessly wormed its way into the hearts and minds of many local TV viewers back then. Many people could easily relate to it. However, it is important to note that tied to the investment to mainstream the West’s hegemonic ideas is a parallel process to degrade, destroy, discount and obliterate alternative ideas, thoughts, narratives and worldviews that are considered as dissident.
Ideas, literature, films and narratives that are dissenting are naturally sidelined and suppressed.
All this is meant to ultimately create a mono-cultural worldview and narrative that seeks to persuade us to unquestioningly accept the world as it is currently configured, where the influential powers continue to loot resources from this part of the world at a grand and industrial scale in order to prop up their gluttonous economies.
This explains the age-old paradox of resource-rich African countries that continue to stew in poverty, while the Western world, which is relatively not as richly endowed, grows richer.
Heist
But all this is beginning to change. The secrets are gradually coming out and the skeletons are now tumbling from the closet.
Luke 12: 2-3 tells us that: “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”
You see, the growing inequalities wrought by capitalism in Western societies were largely accentuated by the global financial crisis that roiled the world between mid-2007 to early 2009.
Fading opportunities and growing discontent in these societies have led to a gradual rise in right-wing nationalism, particularly in Europe and the United States, where racist and anti-establishment sentiments are slowly being entrenched.
One of the unintended consequences of this development is that the so-called leftwing literature, narratives and worldview that question these political establishments are now being mainstreamed.
And, as this veil is listed, we can now better understand the internal workings of these societies, and, most importantly, how they have been robbing blind this part of the world.
Even by the standards of this emerging new “dissident” literature, Bishop Lazarus was pleasantly surprised, if not downrightly shocked, by a revealing opinion-editorial by Guardian (UK) columnist George Monbiot titled “If you think the UK isn’t corrupt, then you haven’t looked hard enough” published on September 10.
Monbiot claimed that most of the money that was being stolen from poorer countries was being salted away through tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Jersey.
“These places”, he said, “are effectively satellites of the City of London.”
However, because they are overseas territories, they can afford an extra iron veil of secrecy as they are not subject to the UK’s freedom of information laws.
Perhaps his coup de grace was the bold claim that colonial looting still continues to this day.
He said: “These activities are a perpetuation of colonial looting: a means by which vast riches are siphoned out of poorer countries and into the hands of the super-rich. The UK’s great and unequal wealth was built on colonial robbery: the land and labour stolen in Ireland, America and Africa, the humans stolen by slavery, the US$45 trillion bled from India.”
By the way, the jaw-dropping US$45 trillion — which is more than double the current size of the US economy at US$20,5 trillion — is conservative.
It was computed by Indian scholar Utsa Patnaik, who scoured through two centuries of data.
Imagine how developed India could have been by using such unbelievably mammoth wealth.
Well, bringing it closer to home, recently, the United Nations Conference on Trade Development (UNCTAD) released the Economic Development in Africa 2020 report, which, in Bishop Lazi’s view, is of immeasurable significance to each and every one who calls themselves an African, but it was surprisingly largely unremarked.
It claimed that an estimated US$89 billion is being spirited away every year by powerful foreign companies.
But, get this: between 2000 and 2015, African countries were prejudiced of more than US$836 billion.
It is simply staggering.
This is why we are still stuck in a rut. Had all this money been channelled to infrastructure projects, Africa would have been sufficiently developed into an enviable continent.
This heist should have been the subject of inquiry by some of our so-called award-winning investigative journalists that obsess with majoring on petty stuff that is inconsequential to the well-being of ordinary Africans in general and Zimbabweans in particular.
Fortunately, the work of “dissident” scholars is helping put all this information into perspective.
Extensive research by Mark Curtis for War on Want — which fashions itself as a movement committed to global justice — critically revealed that UK companies are probably responsible for the biggest heist on the continent, particularly in the mining sector.
According to the findings, there were 101 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange that had operations in 37 Sub-Saharan countries and controlled resources worth US$1,05 trillion in just five commodities — oil (US$276 billion), gold (US$119 billion), diamonds (US$134 billion), coal (US$216 billion) and platinum (US$305 billion).
Fifty-nine companies were incorporated in the UK and a further 12 incorporated in the British tax havens of Guernsey and Jersey.
The remainder are actually based in London despite being incorporated in other jurisdictions.
Overall, 25 of all these companies are incorporated in tax havens — seven companies were in the British Virgin Islands, six in Guernsey, six in Jersey, four in Bermuda and two in the Cayman Islands.
Again, you have to refer to George Monbiot’s opinion-editorial in the Guardian to understand why this is important.
Hands in the till
Over the years, some of these companies have been called out after their hands were found in the cash-till.
In 2011, LSE-listed Glencore, which is — surprise! surprise! — incorporated in Jersey, was accused by the Zambia Revenue Authority of tax planning strategies “equal to moving taxable revenue out of the country” at its Mopani Copper Mines.
The revelations came after an audit that was doggedly resisted by the company, whose revenues are more than 10 times the size of Zambia’s economy.
The company’s alleged tax-dodging activities cost our neighbouring country an estimated US$127 million in one year alone.
And this is where it gets interesting: You see, this heist was made possible through Mopani Copper Mines’ obfuscated ownership structure.
Essentially, the mine was 90 percent owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (a tax haven), which, in turn, was majority-owned by Glencore Finance, registered in Bermuda (again, a tax haven). And this is deliberate. Kikikiki.
Perhaps the most interesting feud was between Acacia Mining and the Tanzanian government in 2017, when the former was slapped with an eye-watering US$190 billion bill for unpaid taxes and fines.
This was after the company was busted by President John Magufuli’s team, which found that the value of minerals within raw concentrate that was destined for export by the company at the port of Dar es Salaam was 10 times higher than Acacia’s declared amount.
Faced with relentless pressure, Acacia finally agreed in October last year to pay US$300 million to settle the long-running tax dispute.
It also agreed to share future economic benefits from its mines on a 50-50 basis.
But it has come at a cost for tough-asnails Magufuli — who is nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his proclivity to robustly and aggressively drive through anything he would have set his mind on — has been subjected to relentless attacks from the Western press.
The attacks have increased as the East African nation heads to the polls in 17 days’ time.
As the Bishop always argues, colonialism, which is now clothed and cloaked as neo-colonialism, is well and truly alive.
After suffering decisive defeats from liberation movements, the colonialists simply removed their military fatigues and dismantled their armoury only to come back in suits, ties and briefcases as businessman, and they continue to loot.
Thankfully, in our teapot-shaped Republic we are now woke, and this is why President ED says we will leverage on our mineral resources to create a prosperous society that we all aspire to and rightfully deserve.
Bishop out!