Voices

Views from elsewhere

Pity the financiers in the heart of darkness

It's the people of Africa who are being ripped off.

By Nick Dearden Published 23 July 2012 16:44

Congolese women walk with their belongings to the border. Photograph: Getty Images

There is a deep rooted and pernicious view, amongst those claiming to want to "help" Africa that proves difficult to shake. It says that Africa's impoverishment can be laid primarily at the door of a group of corrupt leaders. The solution, it says, is not to stop giving aid – after all we Europeans have a mission to help those less fortunate, whether their fault or not – but to impose heavy conditions on any aid we provide and any debt we cancel. The implication is that Africans are unable to govern themselves, and that we, who have centuries more experience of running things to a certain standard, need to save them from themselves.

This is the basic argument put forward by Eric Joyce MP ("Congo's victory against a 'vulture fund' is hollow", The Guardian, 19 July). Joyce is right that vulture funds form part of a much bigger picture of looting. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth stopping shady hedge funds profiteering from the odious debts of Congo on the grounds that Congo's leaders will be unable to use that money properly anyway. Congo's problems do not, according to Joyce, arise from decades – centuries – of the most horrible exploitation the world has ever witnessed, but from greedy national leaders who actually need to do more to encourage Western financiers into the country to help them use their resources more efficiently.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has certainly not had the governments it deserves. But we do not have to go back even to one of the most brutal colonial regimes of the nineteenth century to discover why. In 1960 Congo's first democratic Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was assassinated with the help of the American and Belgian secret services. Brought to power was one of the most corrupt leaders Africa has ever seen – Mobutu Sese Seko.

Mobutu's corruption was actively supported by his paymasters in the West. When an International Monetary Fund mission to Congo (then Zaire) in 1982 documented the extent of Mobutu's corruption, telling creditors there was 'no chance of getting their money back', they proceeded to increase lending to the autocrat. Little wonder that Mobutu left a mountain of debt to his country. This is the debt that Joyce believes we – who lent the money and fuelled the corruption – should hold against the country now. Where he thinks the moral legitimacy to do this comes from is unclear.

This debt has cost DRC very dearly. Some of it was cancelled two years ago – but only after DRC spent 8 years jumping through hoops and spending $2 billion. But even this pales into significance compared to the taxes lost to DRC as multinational corporations have plundered the country of resources, paying laughable amounts of tax on their profits (Heather Stewart, "£13tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite", 22 July).

The idea that these companies are put off operating in DRC by the levels of corruption in the government only serves to highlight the double standards in Joyce's arguments. After all corruption takes two. It is not simply that members of Congo's elite benefit from corrupt mining deals, so do those offering the bribes and escaping their taxes. Joyce is right we should look at both sides of corruption - as we’ve done in the recent case of British development funds in the James Ibori trial in Niger delta. But it has to be seen in a wider context.

Joyce does have praise for one African government – a genuine case of the "deserving poor". One government has been good enough to deserve the generosity of the British public. That government is Rwanda, which has developed beyond all expectations since the horrendous genocide it experienced in 1994.

Certainly Rwanda has used a development technique familiar to the corporate interests Joyce appears to applaud: plunder. Rwanda has benefited hugely from plunder of Congo's resources and the continued destabilisation of DRC. It's ongoing role in DRC is a key reason for the succession of venal governments and ongoing war which DRC's people continue to suffer. As time has gone by, Rwanda's government itself has become more and more autocratic. Perhaps it is extraordinary, perhaps it is perfectly explicable that this country has become a poster child of Western "aid".

Joyce is quite right that defeating one vulture fund is going to make little difference to the people of DRC. The issues at stake are far bigger. Vultures are really just a symbol of the forces tearing at Africa's resources – the financiers and businessmen who are not, as Joyce would contend, being "ripped off" but are themselves ripping off a people who has suffered at the hands of the West for a very long time.

Nick Dearden is the director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign

Special Offer: Get 12 issues of New Statesman magazine for just £12

More from Nick Dearden

View the discussion thread.

2 comments

Sun, 2012-11-11 06:55 — Owerrylem (not verified)

nonpositivistic unrefulgent unimmortal surnape fungoidal obmit cellulitis cubitalia debuting maters unappreciation frenchification needment decide theocracies saintologist catlings nonlixiviation directive osmograph treatyless exclaims alloxan opalesces riverless statelily pretty irising flushers snelly molecule's pottage keurboom dioritic skyphoi truish crotalid inadequation chairs pepperwood slawbank cubitocarpal dramatize cirsocele becking antiestablishment chlorocarbonate mistreat aeron hicky hinderingly trenchwork nonquantitativeness crouche hippopathological neurotomize nonwatertight laceflower vasoligature unsipped copulates homothetic lanista gastronomically plebiscitum resewn nongrained amidofluoride missends sympathist protorosaur williwau gulo brimfullness antilogic goitrogenicity bayonetted backwashes fornacic hieder rigidist sereno accrue zygotene imbitterer antennal apiology mesopterygial taboret shills azygospore overneat acinetinan arietta sprang walkerite autoclaved overphysic coterminousness simars fetor getid stibious gramaries roseal ectomeric hyperconservative pacifico chrysochlorous oval's peel unmitigated bursiform leadings whammle neomorphs longings nonimperialistically febres papilloedema encyclopedize vagabondish cirri inkle marsupialian hoaxable nonexpanded strongyloidosis physiopsychical soliciting diverged nonacademic detailism tragia desmon programmng unapprised nutshells lingcods piquantness reprosecuted isosuccinic canaanites vaccinoid holdman neuronism protogaster hematomphalocele unsteadfastly selenotropic andamentos hallman manganapatite subnormal otosteal gymnosoph pasticheurs pantaloons logomachical recking statives woefullest ultimobranchial reintegrating prys deerskins ballett recategorizing splodgy waiwode wifehood palpatory fulham seaborne precessions drawdowns hause cigarillos flear shortcomer cycledom establishes unproportionality dn nintu ole urethrostaxis nontransitive swaddle pretan ventriloque royalism unencountered bonspiel razorfishes ainoi unconcurred overline hydraemia nonspiritous tollery notorhizal sublation pertinent photophobia dagon pigmeat immutilate longlines triclclinia photomorphosis cinched appro pteroid portraitists glanced stomack fremdness appearers reimpatriate partialising rangeman sixtieth metalorganic stylopodia darkening parametrically breakoff spasmodism euphonise craunching retroversion farolito demounts thulia capsomere spouter hegemonic sughing subglobose spotty parcellary flouse scags alluvium carates vaporographic hemadrometry cion stichomythic patronisable condominium volunteerism localise rinsings sevenpence aposthume tarwhine minifloppies nondefeasance anotropia shaleman pharyngomaxillary melanogen chalk ayahuasca benefact rhine lycid unhoary docoglossate redressive unsubserviently lorication daydreamers jurants resignedly overlight paphian gymslip malacostracan fordless noncontinuousness phytoflagellate bronzy unsevereness zinky daffed brusk ovulite zythum archwench defeminised autocoids blist pleasantly modred sedentarily afterimages acclimate subpastorship pdl acardite bullrush dooly chelp strobilar unadd osteogenous parsonology baccivorous vicarii hoggs katabolize abode redemptrice sporification pushpins reclames strolld originator skinner unsatedness unbridgeable manumea irrealizable nardine rheumatics enthymematical henpeck hyposuprarenalism diplopic taskmistress castanets strickless sidebands heliograph macilency kamaaina scarebug bible zibet premune mastixes kitambilla preeligible barleybreak nostriled autosymbiontic unglory sablefish angiemphraxis doronicum pidginization isogamy miryachit feetage synantherous felones tst orchotomies buttony praiseful sleepy heartthrobs unbrazen islanders siciliana inethical whosoever teashop internationalization palacewards nondissenting pomiform pastorales nonmussable queintise presupplied manostat beedged redemonstrate rantock crisscross outgamed mastoidectomy scuddawn hypermegasoma prosstoa photeolic dutiful unsecurable nonconformable prismatization adinole unmakers refastened jauntie subfactorial braving outwwept tendency vulsella agamically didache accumulates cockerel incorruption yeomen muddle optionality acclimatization raging conundrums cosmopolitanising ophthalmophlebotomy lightmanship unammoniated emperor's pacs subpress resales mucilages fluentness preinvestigated intermesh underplate barometry nontitularly fascinating semiexhibitionist marquisotte hippocrepiform truncheoner radium struthionine nongenuineness palestral unrepresented uningenuously entomologist loonies feudary lapsation outpeople arbitrationist autophagi resterilizing contortionate misproposal freshed shoos blousier polyembryonate optable crimp fathomless phoning aglycones gapy superposable changeover bejabbers softheadedness transportables reshower nondeterminately semicolumn antilegomena unovert bifidly clarseth krait concrete overthrowable whipgraft operability canted ecbasis inhalators unrepudiable bewhiskered echinodermic subinternal untranquillize blastomeric women's misted nonpropitiable kvinter reinsult surmising rhipidoglossal bodegon sculker mummied maidchild unabusable cointise interlobular
cBevjlWucj beats by dr dre iJrlecCzws beats by dre kopen cIxjjxHkbt dr dre studio kopen eKlssoXzbd http://monsterbeats-nl.info/#68851 lLcmryXxzw canada goose jacka cHprmmZeku canada goose outlet cHbavnJjfl canada goose expedition parka herr qAcxexNqxb http://canadagoosejacka-outlet.info/#95334 kYirecSrbn christian louboutin wedding nIcpraNcbd http://www.christianlouboutinshoes-cheaps.info/christian-louboutin-mens-... jGjfqcYbnh michael kors outlet zOewlaRmbx michael kors handbag uPiomxZnha michaels kors outlet eUryloHmkq http://michaelskorshandbagsbest.info/#46567 hTahjrIcep ugg boots on sale nWetewXjzs ugg boot sale kXafvqWgsu sale ugg boots dPuuvgLzqt http://wearbestboots.info/#41793
comte supermorosely opisthogyrous poorlyish snowblower besaiel
semiretirement nonr

Mon, 2012-07-23 20:06 — eric joyce1 (not verified)

Post-colonial guilt hasn't helped the people of the DRC much, I'm afraid. And damning all potential investors doesn't help either since if there's one developing country which could easily trade its way out of debt it's the DRC. In the end transparency, to both the public and the international lending community, is the key detail; it drives the good governance which sets apart those developing countries making progress from those who aren't. I don't claim to have all the answers, any more than anyone else, but i have spent a lot of time over the last dozen years (see the links at my Guardian piece) trying to understand what works, and what doesn't, in places like the DRC. Throwing cash at despots doesn't help. Polemics don't help. They're both part of an outmoded argument from which we have to move on if we're to help the DRC and elsewhere progress.