When it comes to Europeans and Africa, the power of popular myths has always been important. Historically, we had the ‘civilising mission’ of Europe in Africa myth; we have also had the ‘African overpopulation threatens us all’ myth and now we have ‘the hordes of Africans waiting to swamp us’ myth.
However, one of the most enduring contemporary myths is that of a ‘giving’ Europe and a ‘taking’ Africa and, like all such myths, it bears no relationship to reality.
The myth asserts that we Europeans continue to give generously (voluntarily and officially) while the ‘Africans’ continue to take extensively. However, nothing could be further from the truth as two recent reports clearly demonstrate.
In July each year, the UN Secretary General submits a discreet (and mostly unpublicised) report to the General Assembly on a hugely important topic: international finance and development. The report reveals much about what is actually happening as regards the transfer of funds and, year after year, it gives the lie to the public perception that transfers are from the rich to the poor of the world, including the poor of Africa.
The reports for the last six years highlight the massive transfer of resources from ‘developing’ and ‘emerging’ economies to the largely, western ‘developed’ economies, in effect, the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich (resources which, according to the Secretary General’s 2014 report, “could have been invested into domestic resources at much higher returns and with a greater developmental impact”).
For example, the figures revealed in the 2010 report are truly staggering: between 1998 and 2010, the transfers from developing and emerging economies increased year on year to a breathtaking total of $5,740 billion (the comparable figure for Africa was $511 billion). Without even a hint of irony, the Secretary General noted that the figures for 2009 were down on those for 2008 but “… the current path of economic recovery is expected to result in an increase in net outward transfers from developing countries”.
And we wonder why inequality and poverty persist! And each year, since 2010, the pattern is repeated.
In August of this year, a network of 14 non-governmental organisations from Africa and the UK published a report outlining how this process works in the case of Africa (‘Honest accounts: the true story of Africa’s billion dollar losses’).
One of the most enduring contemporary myths is that of a ‘giving’ Europe and a ‘taking’ Africa
The report strips away convenient myths about our relationship with Africa and, in particular, the poverty of far too many of its people. It catalogues the perverse reality in which the governments of western countries celebrate their generosity while directly supporting (and even encouraging) international organisations and companies to drain Africa’s resources.
Many western countries advertise their ‘corporate social responsibility policies’ at the same time as they make extensive use of the many (unfortunately ‘legal’) tax havens to maximise their ‘take’. Wealthy philanthropists donate money while their companies dodge tax and short-term fundraising tactics mean that NGOs can also be guilty of pushing the idea that poverty can be solved if we give a few pounds, “whilst ignoring the systematic theft going on under our noses”.
The breakdown of the figures on this haemorrhaging of financial wealth from Africa makes for sobering reading: $46.3 billion in profits made by multinational companies, $21 billion in debt payments (often following irresponsible loans), $35.3 billion in illicit financial flows facilitated by the global network of tax havens, $23.4 billion in foreign currency reserves given as loans to other governments, $18.3 billion in illegal logging and fishing and $6 billion as a result of the migration of skilled health workers.
The report concludes: “If these financial outflows and costs are compared with inflows into Africa, the result is a net annual loss of $58.2 billion. This is over one and half times the amount of additional money needed to deliver affordable healthcare to everyone in the world. If the rest of the world continues to raid Africa at the same rate, $580 billion will be taken from the African people over the next 10 years.”
There is little doubt internationally that these figures are an underestimate as they do not include the costs of issues such as biopiracy and other intellectual property-related costs, the migration of skilled professionals other than health workers, losses due to unfair or discriminatory trade policies (which continue unabated and to the advantage of Europeans, most notoriously as regards food) or tax incentives.
In such a context, clinging on to many of our long-cherished and self-serving myths about ourselves and ‘others’ amounts to nothing short of wilful immorality.
Colm Regan is an educator who has been involved with human rights issues.