[Debate] (Fwd) The politics of the spoils in African mining and militarisation (Toby Moorsom)

[Patrick Bond]

    The militarisation of poverty in Africa


        Toby Leon Moorsom


        2012-05-31, Issue 587 <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/587>


        http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/82567
        <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/82567>

KINGSTON, CANADA - Over the past year, Africa has seen the decomposition 
of states from coast to coast. A belt of war, coups and large-scale 
spontaneous demonstrations has emerged across the Sahel, from 
Guinea-Bissau to Somalia. The situation represents a significant global 
security threat, which for some will justify the increasing 
militarisation of the continent. These political processes have a 
variety of localised causes, yet they have some commonalities. All of 
them emerge in a context of failed agricultural markets and a boom in 
mineral and oil extraction. Fundamentalist Islam is merely a 
complicating factor: not a cause, so much as a response to the 
destabilisation we are seeing.

It is not a coincidence that African governments are falling apart while 
Europe and North America are facing financial crisis. We are witnessing 
are the declining hegemony of African states at the same time the 
competition for spoils intensifies, while the potential rewards of 
capturing the centre become ever more valuable. Capital is not 
withdrawing from Africa, but instead, the processes of extraction are 
becoming more obvious as the economic basis of societies are under 
severe strain. This is the context in which the US is devoting more 
resources to its AFRICOM division.

Frantz Fanon wrote in 1959 that:

'Colonialism hardly ever exploits the whole of a country. It contents 
itself with bringing to light the natural resources, which it extracts, 
and exports to meet the needs of the mother country's industries, 
thereby allowing certain sectors of the colony to become relatively 
rich. But the rest of the colony follows its path of underdevelopment 
and poverty, or at all events, sinks more deeply into it.'

This is the basis of "combined and uneven" development: a state in which 
most of the continent still finds itself. The aid industry has masked 
some of these effects, yet in the current moment it has been forced into 
retreat, as country contributions are cut away in austerity budgets.

"While they debated whether or not [neoliberal economic] policies had 
brought growth to the continent, the only point they agreed on was the 
fact that they have resulted in growing inequalities and increasing 
poverty."

NEOLIBERALISM'S LEGACY

At a recent launch of The Oxford Companion to the Economics of Africa in 
Accra, the editors of the esteemed volume were at odds over how to 
assess the consequences of three decades of "Washington Consensus" 
neoliberal economic policies. While they debated whether or not these 
policies had brought growth to the continent, the only point they agreed 
on was the fact that they have resulted in growing inequalities and 
increasing poverty throughout Africa.

Elections have therefore only offered the electorate a chance to choose 
politicians who continue to impose increasing poverty upon them. As a 
result, in some places, people are actually nostalgic about the years 
they were living under dictatorships - because they remember them as 
times when they had more food.

What we are witnessing now is, in part, the blowback from years of 
neoliberalism and military interventions in places such as Somalia and 
Libya. This blowback is revealing the shallowness of the "Third Wave" 
democratisation processes in Africa that the US political science 
establishment was so keen to ride. Larry Diamond, for example, 
influenced much of the Clinton administration's thinking about the 
democratic transitions and now boasts having authored 27 books on it.

The liberal triumphalist thinking of the 1990s was, of course, forced 
into revision from events that ensued. Neoliberal thinkers in places 
like the World Bank had thought movements for democracy, supported by 
Washington, would chop away the burdensome state, freeing natural 
propensities to trade, allowing capitalism to flourish. The reality is 
that neoliberal policies destroyed existing local markets while highly 
sinister elements flourished.

Thinking at the World Bank then turned policy orientation toward 
building "institutions for markets", "capacity building" and eventually 
a complete about-face to "statebuilding". The occupations in Iraq and 
Afghanistan were most influential in forcing this shift cutting back the 
sate, to now build them up as bulwarks against Islamic fundamentalists, 
rampant corruption and those who might want to consider 
re-nationalisation as a development tool.

GOVERNANCE REGIMES IN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES

While US political scientists were obsessed with liberal triumphalism in 
the 1990s, others were offering far more powerful tools for 
understanding African states, even if the empire had no use for them. 
Some of the most powerful analyses have been published in Review of 
African Political Economy. Works by people such as Catherine Boone, 
Mahmood Mamdani, and the late Chris Allen among others, examine ways 
that material processes of extraction impact political processes.

African state borders contain a wide variety of variables. They have 
diverse geographies, cultural histories and economic foundations. 
Nevertheless, Boone's work (along with others such as Mamdani, 
Jean-Francois Bayart and Robert Fatton) shows that peasant-based 
economies have integrative tendencies. Hegemony is more firmly rooted in 
land-tenure patterns and cultural institutions of labour mobilisation 
(ie: unpaid family labour, or working for the chief or marabout). These 
patterns stem from various alliances and forms of indirect-rule set in 
place between colonial governments and "strong men". Alternately, 
extractive industries around valuable commodities have greater tendency 
toward disintegration.

Along with agro-pastoralism, states in West Africa have forms of 
mercantilism that have extended back many centuries. Mining has also 
taken place there for hundreds of years. Until very recently, in most 
cases, it has been conducted by artisanal miners, who find sustenance 
largely through farming and herding.

AGRICULTURAL CRISIS

One does not need to look far to see that agriculture across the region 
is in crisis. Famine has already been declared in Somalia. The Sudans 
are at war, while refugees have fled their herds and any crops they 
could scrape from the ground after years of drought. UN FAO notes that 
last year the Horn of Africa experienced a food crisis that left an 
estimated 13 million people dependent on humanitarian assistance. 
Currently there are 15 million people facing food insecurity in the 
countries of the Sahel.

These famines are compounded by refugee crises. Altogether some 284,000 
Malians have fled Northern Mali, according to the UN Office for the 
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: 107,000 of them are thought to be 
displaced within Mali; 177,000 in neighbouring countries. New arrivals 
have pushed refugee numbers to 56,664 in Burkina Faso, to 61,000 in 
Mauritania, and to 39,388 in Niger, according to UNHCR.

Around 810,000 Senegalese are facing hunger, according to a joint study 
in February 2012 by the Senegalese government and the World Food 
Programme (WFP). In the 2011 harvest season, cereal production fell by 
36 per cent compared with 2010, and the production of peanuts, Senegal's 
main cash crop, fell by 59 per cent. One figure shows the latest harvest 
was 120,000 tons, down from a previous yearly average of 800,000.

It is tough to say what is happening in Guinea in the midst of its 
protracted electoral crisis, though it seems recent demonstrations 
called by opposition candidates tap into spontaneous displays of anger 
among a large population of highly disenfranchised youth. These 
demonstrations are acts of desperation among people whose anger can be 
easily exploited by self-serving politicians with fiery rhetoric. In 
this way, it holds some similarities to the more sophisticated 
Senegalese movements that emerged last year against former president 
Abdoulaye Wade. The Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo is an example of how 
unsavoury they can become.

Guinea Bissau's coup has disrupted the marketing of cashews - an 
important plantation crop in that country - but the story not being told 
is that the indigenous rice economy has already been seriously battered. 
This is the case with all the rice-growing economies in West Africa, as 
shown by USDA figures. Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana and 
Senegal all show declines in production. In the past year, imports have 
soared to meet local consumption. Mali's importation has risen 50 per 
cent. The Ivory Coast is importing a massive 80 per cent of their 
consumption.

"Sudden market shocks, gradually worsening terms of trade, market 
disincentives ... led to a process of de-agrarianisation ... [and] 
'de-peasantisation', whereby 'peasant households and communities have 
lost their coherence as social and economic units'." - Deborah Bryceson, 
University of Glasgow

In these countries, 3,500 year old rice economies are being destroyed in 
a period of less than 20 years. Of course, it is not simply the rice 
that has been impacted, but also the cultures that came into being 
alongside them - along with the complementary grains that comprised a 
diverse agroecology suited to local conditions. This is what 
dispossession means. There are certainly positive aspects of breaking 
feudal regimes, but if people's labour fails to be absorbed into new 
forms of work, they simply become a surplus. This then pulls down labour 
conditions for many - who now also lack the protective aspects of a 
feudal economy (while you may work out of obligation, rather than for a 
wage, you are at least ensured your sustenance).

Reforms of the 1990s battered the agricultural sector throughout Africa. 
Deborah Bryceson at the University of Glasgow notes how these reforms 
greatly expanded the productivity gap between small-scale and 
large-scale production. Studies show that production rates of growth in 
African rice have begun to rebound in the past decade, but they are not 
keeping up with that of the population. More importantly, they are not 
meeting the same rates as highly capitalised farmers in North America 
and Europe (who have remained subsidised).

As Bryceson noted in 2009, sudden market shocks, gradually worsening 
terms of trade, market disincentives, "continue to undermine personal 
welfare, leading to social upheavals and political destabilisation". 
This has led to a process of de-agrarianisation, or more specifically, 
"de-peasantisation", whereby "peasant households and communities have 
lost their coherence as social and economic units".

These patterns fuel burgeoning global unemployment rates. A recent 
report of the International Labour Organisation shows that youth are 
particularly badly hit. Between 2007 and 2010, youth unemployment 
increased by 5.1 million.

AUSTERITY, DECLINING AID AND 'OVER-CONSUMPTION'

Africa is experiencing the most grotesque contradictions of Europe's 
financial crisis. The immediate consequences in the south have been a 
drop in aid funding, while at the same time, the world's wealthiest are 
hoarding gold. The Africa Report cites a 2.7 per cent drop in global 
development aid between 2010 and 2011, or a drop of $3.4bn. More 
importantly, it is the first drop in aid since 1997, after growth of 63 
per cent between 2000 and 2010.

"There is no doubt that many of the earth's resources are being used to 
create unnecessary products for high-consumption lifestyles... 
Capitalist societies are producing simply for the sake of production, 
not need."

As declining peasant production, increased war and climate change fuel 
dislocation, there are fewer aid organisations to fill in the gaps for 
people to meet bare necessities. These people are the easiest to recruit 
into armies and gangs of banditry and piracy.

Amidst this, environmentalists at the World Wildlife Fund in a recent 
report, claim the world suffers from over-consumption. This, however, 
seems to fit too easily with an ideology where those in the affluent 
parts of the world are told they need to tighten their belts. Austerity 
is being enforced to "cut the waste" in workplaces where we are told 
people have been taking too much - retiring too early, expecting 
pensions and healthcare from employers. There is no doubt that many of 
the earth's resources are being used to create unnecessary products for 
high-consumption lifestyles in much of the world. The problem, however, 
is that the World Wildlife Fund has the matter up-side-down. Capitalist 
societies are producing simply for the sake of production, not need.

The current crisis of capitalism is that there is "surplus liquidity". 
In other words, the rich have so much wealth they have exhausted places 
to store it. If it is not invested its value depreciates. This is what 
has led to land grabbing and investment in grain futures markets. This 
is why we see record amounts being spent on art (ironically art that 
depicts the pain and isolation of capitalist society being imposed on 
Europeans). This is why we see car companies pushing zero per cent 
financing.

While workers are having their jobs and wages cut and governments are 
enforcing austerity, companies have never held so much cash. As one 
author reports: "Globally, companies are sitting on more than $5 
trillion." This is a classic case of "over-production". When investors 
cannot sell more cars and condos, they turn to purchasing gold and minerals.

AFRICA'S MINING BOOM AND THE POLITICS OF SPOILS

There are few places in Africa where mineral industries have had a 
positive impact. 27 years of warfare in Angola is a case in point. More 
than a million people lost their lives, while another million were 
displaced in just the last decade of the war - a war that saw the 
country divided between factions fueled respectively by oil and diamond 
wealth.

Currently, Mining Weekly reports that "with commodity demand soaring, 
the world's mining companies are increasingly turning to Africa to 
deliver resources to growing economies". Foreign investment on the 
continent has grown 87 per cent in the past decade.

At this moment, rising mineral prices and increased production 
complicates all of the problems that states are confronting from 
declining agricultural production. The Sudans are amassing arms and 
moving ever-closer to full-scale war. The South was no-doubt emboldened 
by the first round of contracts it signed for mineral exploration. 
Coupled with the resulting cash, South Sudan was able to re-fit its army 
to push into Heglig, situated within territory situated in the North 
according to the 2009 peace treaty.

The ink from Chad's 2007 peace treaty was barely dry before Chad 
announced a new investment charter in 2008, in attempts to lure 
companies searching for gold, silver and even diamonds. Further attempts 
to sway prospective investors included a glitzy conference last year 
under invitation by Chad's president.

"The reason we need to worry about these mining investments is not 
simply because of their human rights violations ... mining increases the 
rewards for those forces able to capture the state."

The impact of gold on Nigeria has led to the largest recorded lead 
poisoning in human history as small-scale and artisanal miners step up 
their production, scattering lead-laden dust into children's play areas. 
The results are painfully tragic, killing 460 children and contaminating 
a further 4,000. The contamination will cause numerous ongoing problems 
for the country in years to come. This is of course in a country where 
the draw of Islamic fundamentalism has the entire country on edge. As 
much as those of us on the left would like to believe otherwise, this 
degree of poverty rarely produces pleasant political responses.

In Mali, mining companies will no doubt be increasing private security 
force protection of their mining concessions in the west of the country. 
The companies involved are also those that are participating in the 
mineral exploration rush on the same geographic feature that crosses 
into Guinea and Senegal. There are so many companies clamouring for 
mines in Guinea right now that the prices of poor-quality hotel rooms in 
Conakry are reportedly often $300 or $400 a night.

The reason we need to worry about these mining investments is not simply 
because of the human rights violations, the displacement of populations 
and the pollution of land that accompany them. More than that, we need 
to be aware of the fact that mining increases the rewards for those 
forces able to capture the state - regardless of how they go about 
accomplishing it. Warlords have little need to control the productive 
activities; they just need to have some control over the proceeds - or 
at least portions of them.

Guinea has seen one coup after another, with Burkina's Blaise Campaore 
often involved in some way. In Guinea Bissau, the proceeds from 
drug-running are beginning to have the same effect, with factions in the 
military and state colluding to exact spoils (and why would they want to 
collaborate in the "war on drugs" when drug smuggling is practically the 
only competitive advantage they have?).

The consequences of the processes I have described here are that, within 
the past year we have seen a corridor of insecurity emerge that leaves 
large areas, from coast to coast, where there is effectively no 
functioning government. Although African states have often done little 
to protect their citizens, the circumstances in refugee camps and in 
rebel held territory are far worse for everyone. They are especially bad 
for women; as the situation in Northern Mali is making clear.

The US, under AFRICOM, however, is not likely to be as concerned with 
women's safety as they are their oil and mineral operations, and the 
draw of fundamentalist Islam. Yet interest in Islamic fundamentalism is 
that much more appealing to people who've lost everything for the sake 
of the one per cent intent on taking it all. Armies are not signs of 
hope for those who have recently lost their land in mining concessions 
and land grabs, because in the experiences of the disposed, militaries 
have tended to come in to support those who are taking from them.

Militarisation is not taking place to resolve impoverishment, but 
enforce it. A more systemic solution would be to curb the appetites of 
the richest and invest human energies into building a more egalitarian 
global economy.
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