Natural
resources have been , and still are one of the most important elements in order
to understand the nature of violence in Africa. Since the arrival of
colonialism, uncountable conflicts related with them , have shook the
continent. Not all of this conflicts were directly provoked by the persuading
of his recourses, but definitively the nature of this ambition, the very
essence of the ``curse of natural resources´´ have underlay in greater or
lesser way most of the political and economic processes that have took place in
the continent, since the building of first colonial states to the defining of
emancipated nations.Africans have largely paid for the well known ``curse ´´,
and still does. Since the wars for south africans diamonds, passing by the Rubber
exploitation in Belgian Congo, to nowadays exploitation of coltan, his peoples
have seen how this huge riches have been ambitioned by many different actors .
Even after decolonization they still wait for this moment where African
resources will finally work for the improvement of his people's living
conditions, and not anymore for the financing of war, or for the enrichment of
corrupted elites, and foreigner opportunist. Finally the point of this
introduction is to present the two class debates where the text is going to be
focused. Who wins, with the huge violence that natural resources have tied off
over Africa until today?, and also which international dimension does it have?
Africa is nowadays the most rich continent in natural resources in the world. It is estimated that they own about tenth of the planet’s oil reserves, a third of its mineral resources, and right now contains also two-thirds of diamonds world production.[1] Beside that Africa is the poorest continent on earth, with a population that survives with an average of 1. 90 dollars at day, being also[2] one of the most violent regions in our planet. Considering that situation the question that we should face is, where are going the incomes of this huge richness?, and why they can not be translated into better living conditions for his habitants? In order to answer the first we can say that the incomes derived from natural resources exploitation, goes mainly to violent armed groups, state's bureaucracy and corrupt political leaders, and finally foreign companies. So that, who are the losers of this distribution? The peoples of Africa, farmers, workers,etc and in summary the 99% that sees how this incomes never goes to health systems, education, or in summary anything that could work for the improvement of his living conditions. In that sense the analysis and deconstruction of this economic structure that subdue to violence is imprescindible if we ever want to work for the construction of a new reality in Africa where his peoples became finally the owners of his own riches.
Armed groups are precisely one of the most important actors in the understanding of this context, not just by the fact that they keep the profits from resources by themselves, but also that they use them for the financing of war, which also consumes states resources avoiding the possibility of use them in public politics, or economic development. Some significative examples of this situations can be the armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, or the civil war in Sierra Leone. This cases are related with many other elements inherents to African context as is state weakness, and the impossibility to maintain an effective control over the territory, but also lead us to another interesting dimension of the problem, the international. It is obvious that this groups find the way to export the resources they get into the international market, even besides there are international regulations on the issue, and several attempts on the international community to avoid the financing of this conflicts. In that way we must ask ourselves why this attempts are failing and what can be done from the international community to build a stronger strategy against this dark markets, including also weapons traffic, that is at the end sustaining the existing of this groups.
On respect of corruption and the enrichment of state's bureaucracy we can say that this fact is strongly related with another kind of violence that we can not forget, the one that is linked to underdevelopment and poverty. The development of social politics and health and education investment got extremely damaged when just a very little percentage of resources incomes goes to this pursuit. Angola can work as an example of this situation when after a long and destructive civil war the rebuilding boom have been under several accusations of irregularities. Accusations that gets reinforced by the fact that the president familiar circle have achieved a huge fortune derived from oil benefits.[3] Looking at the international dimension it is remarkable that many western companies have also been under accusation of tax evasions(for example TSX-listed MagIndustries in Brazzaville, Congo), and disproportionated profits for the exploitation of the resources.[4] A research made in 2017 by several justice and development african organizations revealed that this year african countries received in business and aid 161.6 billion dollars while 202.9 billion dollars leave the continent in company's profits, illegal activities, and climate change fight.[5] This data may not be directly related to the usual debates concerning natural resources and violence but yet it is interesting to mention it as a kind of unnoticed economic violence that also have deep effects in african people's lives.
Finally when talking about violence in Africa we should not see it as an isolated reality fixed only to specific conflicts or context of civil war. The nature of violence in Africa is part of a huge substructure where are rooted very different kind of actors. The analysis of natural resources and the conflicts associated to them is undoubdably a key for the understanding of violence in the continent, but yet the analysis would be more complete if we introduce in the study elements like class structure, labour exploitation, or the gender and racial dichotomies that sometimes underlie the conflicts for natural resources. If we apply a micro perspective on the nature of conflicts related to natural resources we can see the violence they show is not only reflected in open conflicts, or in the total numbers of death. It is also violence the fact that in 2012 UNICEF denounced that 20.000 childs were working in coltan mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo earning less than one euro per day and working 12 hours under intimidation and extortion conditions. Gender analysis is also very interesting in the analysis of this other dimension of violence, as woman's who works in mineral exploitations suffer systematically sexual aggressions, and sexual violence. It is for example the case of Rustenburg mines in South Africa, where a medical charity research denounced that half of the women's working in there had suffered sexual violence, and one in four had been raped during his lifetime. [6] There is also a very important environmental dimension of violence, linked to this minerals exploitation that we can not forget. For example this same year , ``afrewatch´´an african human rights organization denounced that in Lualaba a province of south Congo [7] several rivers and lakes had been contaminated by toxic acid from a mineral exploitation, with disastrous consequences for local agriculture. It is necessary to consider also that most of this data is obtained from``legal´´ mines, under governmental control, but in those ruled by armed groups, there is no possibility to make this kind of research so his workers situation remains in the most absolute anonymity. Finally Racial dichotomies are also interesting to being mentioned as in countries like South-africa white people represent only 10% of the population,while they own more than 80% of land and economy, including the only african companies that exploit mineral resources in the continent.[8]
Africa is nowadays the most rich continent in natural resources in the world. It is estimated that they own about tenth of the planet’s oil reserves, a third of its mineral resources, and right now contains also two-thirds of diamonds world production.[1] Beside that Africa is the poorest continent on earth, with a population that survives with an average of 1. 90 dollars at day, being also[2] one of the most violent regions in our planet. Considering that situation the question that we should face is, where are going the incomes of this huge richness?, and why they can not be translated into better living conditions for his habitants? In order to answer the first we can say that the incomes derived from natural resources exploitation, goes mainly to violent armed groups, state's bureaucracy and corrupt political leaders, and finally foreign companies. So that, who are the losers of this distribution? The peoples of Africa, farmers, workers,etc and in summary the 99% that sees how this incomes never goes to health systems, education, or in summary anything that could work for the improvement of his living conditions. In that sense the analysis and deconstruction of this economic structure that subdue to violence is imprescindible if we ever want to work for the construction of a new reality in Africa where his peoples became finally the owners of his own riches.
Armed groups are precisely one of the most important actors in the understanding of this context, not just by the fact that they keep the profits from resources by themselves, but also that they use them for the financing of war, which also consumes states resources avoiding the possibility of use them in public politics, or economic development. Some significative examples of this situations can be the armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, or the civil war in Sierra Leone. This cases are related with many other elements inherents to African context as is state weakness, and the impossibility to maintain an effective control over the territory, but also lead us to another interesting dimension of the problem, the international. It is obvious that this groups find the way to export the resources they get into the international market, even besides there are international regulations on the issue, and several attempts on the international community to avoid the financing of this conflicts. In that way we must ask ourselves why this attempts are failing and what can be done from the international community to build a stronger strategy against this dark markets, including also weapons traffic, that is at the end sustaining the existing of this groups.
On respect of corruption and the enrichment of state's bureaucracy we can say that this fact is strongly related with another kind of violence that we can not forget, the one that is linked to underdevelopment and poverty. The development of social politics and health and education investment got extremely damaged when just a very little percentage of resources incomes goes to this pursuit. Angola can work as an example of this situation when after a long and destructive civil war the rebuilding boom have been under several accusations of irregularities. Accusations that gets reinforced by the fact that the president familiar circle have achieved a huge fortune derived from oil benefits.[3] Looking at the international dimension it is remarkable that many western companies have also been under accusation of tax evasions(for example TSX-listed MagIndustries in Brazzaville, Congo), and disproportionated profits for the exploitation of the resources.[4] A research made in 2017 by several justice and development african organizations revealed that this year african countries received in business and aid 161.6 billion dollars while 202.9 billion dollars leave the continent in company's profits, illegal activities, and climate change fight.[5] This data may not be directly related to the usual debates concerning natural resources and violence but yet it is interesting to mention it as a kind of unnoticed economic violence that also have deep effects in african people's lives.
Finally when talking about violence in Africa we should not see it as an isolated reality fixed only to specific conflicts or context of civil war. The nature of violence in Africa is part of a huge substructure where are rooted very different kind of actors. The analysis of natural resources and the conflicts associated to them is undoubdably a key for the understanding of violence in the continent, but yet the analysis would be more complete if we introduce in the study elements like class structure, labour exploitation, or the gender and racial dichotomies that sometimes underlie the conflicts for natural resources. If we apply a micro perspective on the nature of conflicts related to natural resources we can see the violence they show is not only reflected in open conflicts, or in the total numbers of death. It is also violence the fact that in 2012 UNICEF denounced that 20.000 childs were working in coltan mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo earning less than one euro per day and working 12 hours under intimidation and extortion conditions. Gender analysis is also very interesting in the analysis of this other dimension of violence, as woman's who works in mineral exploitations suffer systematically sexual aggressions, and sexual violence. It is for example the case of Rustenburg mines in South Africa, where a medical charity research denounced that half of the women's working in there had suffered sexual violence, and one in four had been raped during his lifetime. [6] There is also a very important environmental dimension of violence, linked to this minerals exploitation that we can not forget. For example this same year , ``afrewatch´´an african human rights organization denounced that in Lualaba a province of south Congo [7] several rivers and lakes had been contaminated by toxic acid from a mineral exploitation, with disastrous consequences for local agriculture. It is necessary to consider also that most of this data is obtained from``legal´´ mines, under governmental control, but in those ruled by armed groups, there is no possibility to make this kind of research so his workers situation remains in the most absolute anonymity. Finally Racial dichotomies are also interesting to being mentioned as in countries like South-africa white people represent only 10% of the population,while they own more than 80% of land and economy, including the only african companies that exploit mineral resources in the continent.[8]
As a conclusion it is interesting to point some
reflexions on respect to the strategies that can be applied to pursuit the end
of this long history of suffering linked to natural resources that so deeply
rooted is into the history of African continent. It is imprescindible to demand
a real compromise by western powers in order to fight the natural resources trade
that finance armed groups. And that implies also pursue and judge the western
great companies that still today act with impunity and shows links not just
with this dark market of minerals but with the plunder and exploitation of
african resources. It is time for western powers to put an end to any vestige
of neocolonialism that could remain in his relation with Africa, and give to
his people this possibility that for so long have been denied, the chance to
transform his huge resources into a real improvement of their living
conditions.
[3] African
Arguments: Africanarguments.org/2017/08/14/angola-elections-ruling-family-dos-santos-worth-billions-what-happens-when-dad-steps-down.
[5] Honest
accounts 2017, how the world
profit from Africa's health. www.globaljustice.org.uk/search?search_api_views_fulltext=honest+account+2017+Africa.
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