Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao on Africa & China c/o ODANA Network

Overview

A conversation with Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao (former African Union ambassador), featuring an appearance by Ebro Darden (media executive and ratio personality on HOT97 fm), moderated by Dentaa Amoateng (entrepreneur and Ghana Tourism Board member).

Key Takeaways

On the role of the African Union ambassador:

Well I think I was able to accomplish one thing which most head states are still struggling with which is to bring together the African diaspora. We are divided as a people as Black people in general. But more importantly at this time with the African continental free trade area it is a time that is calling all of us to unite. And begin to look at being on the driver's seat when it comes to the continental development agenda. People must understand the African Continental Free Trade Area is a monumental achievement from the African heads of states. And you actually don’t hear too much about it. If we do not unite as children of Africa to really participate in the continental development agenda then we have no one to blame but ourselves. The reality is the development of Africa is now moving to the continental level. We are now talking about growing wheat to feed 1.27 billion people. We are now talking about water access to 1.27 billion people. Access to power, to the continent not to one country. So the conversation is about infrastructure development at a continental level. 

Now here’s what I was able to at least share with the African diaspora. To say you don’t go to China and find Black people driving the Chinese development agenda. You don’t go to Mexico, you don’t go to Europe and find Black people driving the agendas for those nations. You therefore must not go to Africa and find non-Africans driving the African continental agenda. Unless we the children of Africa choose to vacate the place that belongs to us. The heads of states have completed the unfinished businesses that was started by the Panafrican fathers in 1963 when they created Organization of African Unity.

On the root cause of corruption in Africa:

The corruption watchdogs, they tell us 50 billion is getting out of Africa after corruption. I get that and we must go after it. But at the same time there’s 500 billion getting out Africa from one little country called France. There’s so much outrage from the Diaspora from the 50 billion but not a word over the 500 billion going to a small country. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. So I wanted the diaspora to understand, don’t find yourself being told to fight with your brothers and sisters over which one of you got the larger chunk of the crumb under the table. So you never talk about the real meal on the table. Our colonizers are on the table, in our house eating our food, we would have cooked the food, and then after we serve them we go under the table and wait for them to drop off a few crumbs. And those are the crumbs we’re fighting about. I wanted everyone to understand that yes we have issues of corruption but let’s put things in perspective. Because taking care of problem #6 on a scale of 1-10, if you don’t address problem #1-5, it doesn’t matter what you do with #6 because the foundation of the problem is still there. The root cause of the problem is still there. And our colonizers are still a big problem for they never left Africa. They gave us political independence, but they kept the economic independence. 

On France’s continued colonization of Africa:

When you look at the situation with Africa, prior to the Chinese we had the west. We did have the colonizers and all the atrocities they have been committing. Starting with the big one, which is the pact for the continuation of colonization. Which for those who are not aware, the French are taking over 500 billion dollars out of Africa every year. In addition the French are printing the money for those 14 African countries. They have to deposit - now they are down to about 50-60% of their bank reserves. Should they need some of that money, they have to request it as a loan at commercial interest rates. The French people also have to make sure that all their military equipment can only be ordered from France, their military can only be trained by France. And the French have military presence in their countries. And that France can invade them without notice if they feel French interests are being violated. They also said all the contracts, private and public, French companies have the first right of refusal. And whatever the French companies do not want, that’s what the local, black-owned companies can have. So when you take all that in consideration, there’s not much left for the country. Which is why even today, the average Black person in some of those countries is struggling to get contracts because most of the contracts are going to the French.

On the lack of negotiating leverage between African heads of state and multinational companies:

If you were a British colony, if you were colonized by the Belgians, the Germans, the Portuguese, all those companies that go back to colonization, they remain the major employers, like what Glencore is doing, trying to close up and leave 11,000 people unemployed [in Zambia]. All those major employers in most of the African countries, they’re owned by companies that go back to colonization. They’re owned by companies whose basis is in the form of colonizers. So we don’t have control of our economic status in all those African countries. It makes it very difficult for a leader to try and push back against those companies because the retaliation is devastating. So we have to look at some of those basics to say we still don’t own our economy. We don’t control the African economies. And that remains a serious challenge and that was done intentionally through the colonizers through the Berlin Conference. That was when they set out the strategy to divide us in such a way that we will always be chasing our little tails as little countries. What’s needed is for Africa to come together and speak with one voice.

On integrating Africa on a continental level:

We need to have a single African army. We need a single African currency. We need a single African monetary policy. We need our own financial institution at a continental level, like the African stock exchange. And until we can achieve some integration at that level it’s a difficult conversation. Keep in mind it took us from 1963 to 2018 for us to have the heads of states to come up with the decision which is now the African Continental Free Trade area where they have agreed that Africa needs to enter the world market as one customs union. It took us 56 years to get this decision. So you can imagine going back again and trying to start with yet another one. But I’m hoping we can all wake up enough and realize we are still suffering from the legacy of slavery and the legacy of colonization.

On unifying as Black people at a neighborhood level:

We have got to pool our resources together because we have the financial resources. If you look at the fact that we are putting into Africa with remittances, that’s continental Africans alone over 60 billion dollars every year, that’s a lot of money. So you can imagine if we take a million diaspora, there are about 9 to 10 million Continental Africans, there are about another 40 million African-Americans. If you take the United States alone, there’s about 50 million black people. If everybody came up- not everybody let’s just say we take a million, a million people with a 1000 dollars, that’s a billion dollars. That’s how easy we can build up wealth with everybody just coming up with whatever small amount they have and we keep doing it year in and year out. That’s how the jews do it. They pool their money together. But we don’t believe in each other. We don’t trust each other. We become very selfish, it’s all about where i come from, my village, my tribe. Not even at a national level are we united. So that remains the biggest problem among us Black people. The divisions among us are killing us. We are living here in the United States, in our case, where we are surrounded by other races who are very united when it comes to issues pertaining to their race. The Chinese are very united, the Indians are very united, the Mexicans, the Irish, the German-Americans, the Italian-Americans, but when you look at Black people we’re so proud to be the only Black family living in a white neighborhood. It’s like something to be proud of. The other races are so happy to be living alone. You know? We’re having Indian communities in this country, where they are building their own schools, they’re happy to be living in an Indian neighborhood, and yet we Black people, we want to admit ourselves living in a white neighborhood. And we’re out of that, it’s really pitiful. But we got to realize that the time for unity is now.

On supporting African heads of state by organizing the expertise in the Diaspora through ADDI:

Give me five hundred with a 1000 dollars and then we do it year in and year out, that’s why I registered the entity called African Diaspora Development Institute. This institute is where we are all going to come together. I’m looking forward to having people like you open up an ADDI branch in the UK so we can continue. We hope to build Africa houses starting with 5 of them. 2 in Europe, maybe 3 or 4 in the United States, 1 in China, and 1 in Australia. Where we will have conversations about us. Where we’ll begin to let everybody know we must get together, we must unite. That is the only way we can get our respect back. So I look forward to hearing all of you, I am urging all of you to go onto ouraddi.org and register. We want to know who you are, we want to know what you do, so we can continue to communicate. The plan for ADDI is to open offices in every country and begin to let the heads of state know that no more excuses, no more giving contracts to the Chinese first, no more giving contracts to the Europeans first, that the children of Africa with the expertise, with the capacity that is needed, with the funding that is needed, are ready to come. And that we want to take the driver’s seat of Africa’s development agenda. That is the plan that all opportunities first right of refusal must be given to the African Diaspora. So that is the plan for the ADDI as we open offices for each country we will be engaging the government and letting them know that the children of Africa are coming home. That the children of Africa in the Diaspora are answering the call from our African heads of state.

On changing perceptions for success among Black people in the Diaspora:

There’s a lot of people who have a negative perception of Africa because that’s what's fed to them from the education system here in America. And it seems like worldwide from what I’ve heard from other individuals and even African people from Africa who believe that moving somewhere else means that they’ve improved their life and made a better life for themselves because they’ve left the nation that is near and dear to their heart and their culture and fabric behind and “make a better life for themselves.” But really what they’ve done is basically abandon their culture to co-opt, often, this American culture or maybe it’s British culture because that’s what they’ve been told is the way to find success. And that’s the way success has been defined. And that’s something that we have to turn that around.

We have to show that being successful is not defined by not necessarily how much money is in your bank account but what you’ve done to form and lead a path for legacy. And what you’re going to do for culture. And what you’re going to do to create spaces for people who look like you and are of your heritage can be celebrated. And the more we can do those things and show people that we can celebrate one another in spaces that we create for us by us, right, we’ve heard that a lot, I think the more it’ll become second nature to people to reach out. —Ebro Darden

On the brain drain affecting Africa and the opportunity for Black people in the Diaspora:

The Diaspora are the missing link when it comes to building the Africa we want. The capacity that the continent needs is in the diaspora. No single African country, as we speak right now, has the capacity to build the railway line. So how do you think the heads of states are going to develop the country? So go home, go get the contract to build the railway line. But we have to know where our engineers are, and yet we have them. We have lots of engineers, we are very capable but we are disorganized. So let’s also take responsibility for that which we can do rather than just sit here and complain complain complain. 

There are more Ghanian doctors in New York than there are in Ghana.

The country of Egypt is paying 7 billion dollars to farmers in Ohio in the United states. Food for Egypt should be grown in sub-saharan African. Why aren’t we negotiating with Egypt? Because it’s very difficult to trade with each other thanks to the Berlin Conference. We are going to be growing food but someone else is going to do it if we don’t come together and come up with regional farming areas to grow wheat. We strategize and say how much wheat is needed in this region to feed this many people. And we start growing, we start agriculture. We just need to pool our resources together. We need to organize. Those of us in agriculture come together, let’s come up with ideas, the logistics, technology in farming, the land is there, the heads of states are saying come home and do the farming. Because you’re the one with the expertise. We don’t have many with expertise on the continent. I can’t overemphasize this enough. We have a role to play and we need to go home and play our part. We’re not saying move back if you’re not ready, but you can still contribute and ADDI we’re going to do our part to pave the way so it becomes easier and easier to go back home.