Abasi Ssonko
When Namibia declared its independence in 1990, it officially marked the end of colonialism in Africa. But, while most African nations have been free of European rule for a number of decades now, it seems that the power dynamics have only really changed in principle.
In 1960, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, known also as the Declaration on Decolonization. This resolution solemnly proclaimed the need to bring colonialism in all its forms and manifestations to a speedy and unconditional end.
Herein lies the problem. The assumption that statehood is the be-all and end-all to decolonization is short-sighted and stifling to any real progress. Granted, a country’s independence is a milestone, all things considered. However, it simply cannot end there. The continued exploitative relationship between countries in the global majority and their former colonizers erode the foundation of their liberty. There are many “forms and manifestations” in which colonialism still lingers right here on the African continent.
Be it the fact that 14 African countries continue to pay a form of “colonial tax” to France, or that Spanish fishing vessels see nothing wrong with looting our waters. These old colonial habits are very hard to break; the convenience of the West always seems to take precedence over ours.
Take, for example, the way that countries like the US scrambled to dump their plastic waste in Africa and other Asian countries after China pulled the plug on the ludicrous arrangement of shipping almost all US waste there for decades.
A United Nations report released in 2009 indicated nuclear and hazardous wastes dumped on Somalia’s shores had been scattered by the Asian tsunami and which infected Somalis in coastal areas.
According to Nick Nuttall (by then A spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)) in his interview with VOA, he said that European companies and others had for almost 15 years used Somalia as a dumping ground for a wide array of nuclear and hazardous wastes.
Uranium radioactive waste, leads, heavy metals like cadmium and mercury, industrial wastes, and hospital wastes, chemical wastes, you name it,? Were all detected at the coastline still to date rare mineral element dealers who got access to some element to continue to roam around with them in search for a market claiming that they have discovered mineral deposits.
When you sit back and connect them to how the conquest of Africa started, it is like the replay of the old tape. “Divide and Conquer.” It has always been paved with good intention “protecting so and so from his own so and so.”
We recall Libya’s destabilization and depriving it of its leadership opened up a vacuum that we Africans forget those claiming to stabilize and calling for talks where the insidious perpetrators of whatever the consequences. You never know, maybe it was easier to dump whatever they ever wanted to damp to the easiest accessible African coast possible.
There are so many passive motives for the NATO move against Gadafi that have come to light and some even though given less coverage but sounds reasonable and have already been realized.
When China refused to accept their waste, they simply moved on to the next so-called developing nation they could find. If The Guardian’s figures are anything to go by, then over one billion tonnes of plastic were dumped in countries like Senegal and Kenya in the single year that followed this development.
And, even after plastic was added to the list of illegal biohazard waste outlawed by the Basel Convention, petrochemical lobbyists still tried to undermine Kenya’s domestic anti-plastic laws to flood African countries more specifically the 27 nations signed the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement with plastic.
In a case of Rwanda when they resolved to put a stop to the importation of second-hand clothes from outside we all know what was the response. Rwanda was expelled from AGOA with immediate effect and Kagame fell short of being indicted by the ICC
There are illicit shipments of plastic waste stuck in Liberia and Tunisia, and authorities in each country have exhausted every diplomatic avenue to repatriate the hundreds of containers to their respective countries of origin – Greece, and Italy.
These countries have no respect for the laws they collectively come up with and vote into place, let alone the laws of our countries, which serve to benefit our people. They only recognize our sovereignty when it suits them; and when it doesn’t, we quickly switch back into the wastelands they’ve tried to turn us into for centuries.
The way that plastic waste is simply shipped off to countries in the global majority is quite colonial in its approach dare I call it, “waste colonialism”. Its impact on underprivileged nations is certainly as destructive as the looting and enslavement that categorized the colonial era because it is breeding environments for people that are practically the same. The UN Environment Programme released a report this year about how plastic pollution – and by virtue, its production – has a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities and countries. It found that these communities experienced high rates of environmental injustice and that these communities were most likely to comprise people of color.
The people of color living in these communities and countries not only experienced the discomfort of superficial environmental degradation due to plastic pollution, but they were also more likely to fall ill from air pollution surrounding the plants they have to migrate to in search of low-paying jobs.
And, as research by the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute has demonstrated, low-wage earners are not likely to miss work and seek medical attention in fear of job loss.
If we are still made to bear the brunt for the sake of Western countries’ comfort, just how different is that from the status quo under colonial rule? What good has this so-called freedom done for those of us who are not part of the political elite, apart from claiming new national identities?
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, no? The same can be said for colonialism in its current manifestation. Its stench is unbearable but conveniently shipped to our countries to deal with.
Part of this story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper