In its simplest form, neo-colonialism is the perpetual influence of former colonial masters over African countries, through interventions in politics, economic policy and security.
Forests are losing out to fossil fuels and foreign finance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On July 28, the country’s government auctioned 27 oil blocks and three gas blocks overlapping with some of the world’s most sensitive ecosystems...This enormous auction is bound to render certain communities who live and depend on the rainforest homeless, degrading their lands and disrupting their way of life, polluting their air and waters for generations to come. If history is a guide, a few senior officials will line their pockets and big international business will be the biggest winner...There is an endless supply of examples all over Africa of how such deals have enriched a few elites and left millions of ordinary people in greater hardship...
...the country’s government has framed as an act of nationalism to advance its economy. “We care more for human beings than for gorillas,” the minister of communications has argued. “We have a duty for our people, while NGOs don’t,” the minister of environment has said, in defence of this environmental catastrophe in the making...
...The nationalistic narrative is not only grossly misleading, but masks the true acts of nationalism that are required in Africa. First and foremost, the government has not even bothered to inform and consult the numerous Congolese people whose lives will be affected by oil and gas exploration and production...
...It comes at a time when many rich economies seem to have forgotten their climate pledges and are now rushing to service their carbon-intensive lifestyles. And like every neo-colonial act before this, their race for resources keeps the needs of Africa’s people repressed...
...Few countries in the world can match the DRC’s mass, minerals and biodiversity wealth, yet more than 60 years after independence it still ranks among the poorest nations in the world. If selling off its rainforest and its other natural treasures were ever an act of nationalism, the country would have been a G7 nation by now. Instead, the rush to sell raw materials has only made it poorer and more corrupt, with horrific images of child labour and other hardship in its mines...
Pitching plunder as patriotism is what the DRC government is doing.
DRC’s forests-for-oil sale reeks of neocolonialism | Environment | Al Jazeera
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