Irish Times does Zambia
Oh check it out, Mary Fitzgerald of the Irish Times is in Zambia and filing copy, mainly about the Chinese investment angle, but I suppose that this is the big story. Not too much Afrobollocks present either, as far as I can see. From the "god, are you still alive?" files, Kenneth Kaunda endorses Chinese policy in Africa - I am pretty sure that this is by way of an intervention in electoral politics but not sure on which side - certainly his claim that the MMD government has stoked anti-Chinese feeling isn't true - that was Sata.
The interesting thing for me in the Fitzgerald pieces is that she's identified the key issue here - is China in Africa best analysed as a colonial power? I don't think so - I think it's something more modern. My guess is that China sees Africa as a great big lump of copper, cobalt and hydrocarbons with a thin layer of sand and grass over it, and some more or less irrelevant people hanging around on top of the sand who are only of interest in so far as they are involved in the main work of shifting the natural resources to China. I think that this is where we're going wrong in trying to deal with "Chinese influence in Africa" - we're assuming a) that the government of China gives a fuck about things which it doesn't and, of course b) that we have a role in "dealing with" things when we don't.
My guess is that China sees Africa as a great big lump of copper, cobalt and hydrocarbons with a thin layer of sand and grass over it, and some more or less irrelevant people hanging around on top of the sand who are only of interest in so far as they are involved in the main work of shifting the natural resources to China.
ReplyDeleteHow is that different from colonial concerns ?
The idea being that China doesn't really care about control of its "mercantile colonies", it just wants them to have sufficient political stability to deliver the goods. Not unlike the USA's relationship with its Middle Eastern oil client states, which is clearly analysable through the lens of imperialism, but equally, to think of Saudi Arabia simply as a US colony is to miss something very important.
ReplyDeleteDig out your Cain and Hopkins and look up 'informal empire'. Or check out the financial structure of South America in 1914, whatever.
ReplyDeleteChris Williams
I've been reading Mamdani and I may be confusing two things.
ReplyDeleteI mean, the reason behind colonial control was to create an environment that delivers the goods. They just had a different idea of what the goods were and of what the environment should be.
But yeah, China is not that. But then again, no one is like that anymore, not even France.