What The West Should Not Do to Africa Again
by Colonialism comes in many forms. The Proposed Congo Power Project is just a new form of colonial exploitation.
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Very recently, I learnt with utter consternation about a power project which is being considered for funding by the World Bank involving the transportation of power from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Western Europe via an underground cable. This was the greatest shocker of the year as far as am concerned because, trying to tap Hydropower from the Congo reminds me of the gross exploitation of human and economic resources in this region during colonial period at the hands of King Leopold II of Belgium.Even when the colonialists left, the people of the Congo continued to live under post independent regimes that were not any different from the colonial state. Mubutu Sseseko, the earlier post independent leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had diamond and Gold mines that were exploited with state resources but all the revenue went directly to his Swiss Bank.
By the time Kabila over threw Mubutu and took over power, the Congo had become a centre of interest for nearly a dozen other African states, all of which were fighting alongside the various fighting factions in this second largest African country. This war went on side by side with gross exploitation of the resources of this country. Timber and the minerals that went to Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Central Africa and Angola during the turbulent times in the 1990s alone could have made fundamental transformations in the Congo but to date, the Democratic Republic of the Congo still remains the poorest of the poorest nation in Africa.
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When I hear that there is a Western mooted plan to start exporting hydroelectric power generated from river Congo to Western Europe, I see the long hand of the colonial powers coiling back to the Congo. This is the greatest irony of our times because, we are aware that most of the countries of Western Europe like France, Spain, Belgium, Germany etc have rivers of their own and boundless resources at their disposal to exploit Hydroelectric power individually without having to get it from another continent, more so, another country like the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Above all, these are Nuclear states whose dependence on hydro power should not in any way have put them into such pressure as to require them to dig underground cables all the way from the Congo via many African countries who are probably in a more dire need for power than these developed nations! I smell a rat here ladies and gentlemen-there is something very sinister about this project and I hope the inept, corrupt and short sighted African leaders will wake up and oppose this most gruesome attempt to exploit the already depleted resources of the Congo by foreign powers.
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