By Professor Artwell Nhemachena
THE decolonisation of Africa cannot be achieved through the teaching and application of conventional Western economics on the continent.
Rather, what is needed is strategic economics which put primacy on strategically positioning Africa for decolonisation. By this I mean the strategic positioning of Africa for economic liberation.
Strategic economics would, first of all, recognise that poverty on the continent of Africa is colonial in origin, emanating as it does from colonial dispossession and exploitation of Africans. Indeed, strategic economics also recognises that Africans are still being dispossessed and exploited by Westerners even in the 21st century where transnational corporations are grabbing African land, leaving African peasants without.
Strategic economics recognises the mischief which Western institutions and individuals commit when they call upon Africans to privatise State enterprises. In other words, strategic economics realises that selling away or privatising African State enterprises weakens the states and disables such states from providing essential services to their citizens.
Besides, strategic economics realises that private transnational corporations are efficient not necessarily at enriching and developing Africa, but they are efficient at dispossessing and exploiting Africans – and then siphoning African resources to the West.
What I call strategic economics is pivotal in fortressing Africa from Western depredations.
Put differently, Africans need to learn from Russia’s strategies against Western sanctions. Africans need to draw lessons from what has been called Fortress Russia. Russia has built a sanctions-proof economy using the Fortress Russia strategy.
With Fortress Russia, Russia has withstood waves of Western sanctions intended to cripple it following the launch of its Special Military Operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
Writing about Russia in The Conversation of 29 February 2024, Preble K. A. and Willis C. N. (professors of political science at Miami University and Skidmore College, respectively), note that the Russian economy is expected to grow despite the Western sanctions. They state thus:
“…the Russian economy has withstood the impact of sanctions. According to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the rate of inflation is anticipated to drop to 6,3 percent in 2024. Some analysts predict Russia’s economy to recover further in 2024, with the IMF forecasting a 2,6 percent growth in GDP – up from earlier estimates of just 1,1percent growth.”
The point I am making here is that Africa should fortress itself through strategic economics targeting economic self-reliance.
Depending on Western foreign investors is politically, economically, socially, and culturally risky as evident from what happened in Russia.
When Russia started its Special Military Operation in Ukraine and when the West imposed sanctions on Russia, Western transnational corporations pulled out of Russia in a move designed to collapse the Russian economy. Over 1 000 Western companies left Russia or curtailed their operations in Russia in an effort to sabotage its economy.
Had Russia not fortressed its economy, it would have indeed collapsed because Western transnational corporations (which some Africans so much idolise as foreign investors) did not have allegiance to Russian interests which they sought to sabotage through the desertions.
Put simply, Russian leaders employed strategic economics by fortressing Russia and by not relying entirely or mainly on Western investors. Similarly, African leaders and economists need to learn from Fortress Russia to put in place a programme which I call Fortress Africa.
Having suffered enslavement and colonisation for centuries, Africa is badly in need of Fortress Africa, like Fortress Russia. It is not strategic for Africa to continue to rely on Westerners who have enslaved and colonised Africans for centuries.
Chartered companies, including the British South Africa Company (BSAC), German Southwest Africa Company and German East African Company, among others, spearheaded the colonisation of Africa centuries ago. Yet, ironically, Africans continue to think Western companies come to Africa as investors.
It is high time Africans realised that Western companies come to Africa not as investors but as colonisers. And, of course, they do not necessarily come to support African interests but the interests of their metropolitan states, of home countries.
This is why, when Western States impose sanctions on Russia or even any state, the Western corporations are quick to desert the victims of Western sanctions. The so-called foreign investors are very political and very sensitive to the political interests of their home countries.
African universities should stop uncritically teaching Western economics and they should adopt African strategic economics designed to free Africa from predatory Western economics. The African universities must create ‘lines of flight’ from predatory Western economics.
It is strange that for all these decades, since independence, African graduates and academics have barely, if at all, originated any theses that effectively establish African strategic economics, and what I call Fortress Africa.
It would be useful to have African scholars draw lessons on Fortress Russia, developing theses on African strategic economics and on Fortress Africa.
In other words, Western discourses on foreign investments and their efficiency need to be critically unpacked and debunked, particularly given the fact that Western corporations have historically spearheaded the colonisation of Africans, and are spearheading the 21st century land grabs on the continent of Africa.
Strategic economics, which recognises the futility of Western economics, must be the focus of teaching in African universities. African universities should not reproduce Western economics on the continent but they must produce graduates who are able to strategically economically position Africa for liberation from Western predatory economics.
Put differently, Western corporations and capitalists are efficient at predatory economics where they dispossess and exploit Africans. Such predatory economics explains why Africa is not developing – they explain the massive impoverishment on the continent of Africa.
Strategic economics is not merely about strategic advantages but it is about strategic positioning of Africa for decolonisation beyond Western predatory economics.
Rather, strategic economics is about decolonising African economics in ways that abate the dispossession and exploitation of African people.
African higher education institutions should not waste scarce resources teaching sterile Western economics which enhance predatory economics. Instead, they should teach, with vigour, strategic economics to liberate Africa.
It is the duty of African academics to generate ideas that liberate Africa. African politicians, left to themselves, cannot succeed in decolonising African economics if academics do not proffer ideas with potential to free the continent.
Western predatory economics is not the only economics. Let us remember the famous Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, who warns us against the danger of a single narrative. Similarly, Africans must realise that there is the danger of a single economics.
As scholars for Africa, we need to stop fringing in the academies. Let us think beyond Western economic canons and develop African strategic economics and Fortress Africa. It is in our own interests and the interests of future generations of Africans that Africa is fortressed now.
But it cannot be fortressed without creativity beyond Western economics.
