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It’s no coincidence that the African countries that invited Wagner in are also the most miserable. Endemic corruption will do that … and the leaders can be bought fairly easily. In the case of Niger the coup leader was about to be fired by the president… so, backed by Wagner, he decided to overthrow the government. Sadly these countries will remain mired in poverty for the foreseeable future.
Yeah, it’s not a coincidence that countries the west exploited the most are the ones that are rebelling against colonization. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world despite France importing a quarter of its uranium from Niger. The leaders who overthrew western puppet regimes are liberating Africa from scum like you. Sadly, western parasites will fight to keep their grubbly little hands on African resources.
There are some who believe the West can do no wrong … that it is a beacon of freedom and liberal values in an increasingly illiberal world. Then there are those who believe it is the devil incarnate … a vicious bloodsucking beast that seeks only enrichment for itself.
As is so often the case, the truth lies somewhere in between. To start, “the West” (whatever we take that to mean - is Japan part of “the West”?), does not try to impoverish other nations. On the contrary, rich people are good for business since they can buy more Western goods. They also tend to stay where they are rather than flee as economic migrants. At the same time Western nations (as well as China and Russia) would like to gain access to mineral resources as cheaply as they can. And there’s the thing - in many parts of Africa corruption is so endemic that the leaders are quite happy to sell out their mineral wealth for a bargain basement price if they can line their own pockets by doing so.
Success stories in Africa are few and far between but they do exist and it’s instructive to examine them in this context. Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa. Like Niger it comprises mostly semi-desert and, also like Niger, it has extensive mineral wealth, (copper, nickel, gold and diamonds - in fact 3 of the 4 largest diamond mines in the world are in Botswana). Unlike Niger, Botswana is relatively successful. It’s GDP per capita is ten times that of Niger. Interestingly, at independence in the 1960’s Niger was richer than Botswana. This begs the question: If Western “parasites” have reduced Niger to penury why did they not do so in Botswana? The answer is to be found in corruption index rankings. Botswana is rated the least corrupt country in Africa. Western firms operate there, but they are allowed to do so for the benefit of the Batswana people. In Niger on the other hand the leaders care only about enriching themselves.
The West has certainly been no saint when it comes to dealing with post-independence Africa, but the West cannot fix the problems in Niger. Kicking them out - swapping one group of landlords for another - won’t fix the problem either. Western firms have operated in Botswana for 60 years, but they operate under the constraints of a fair and rules-based system imposed by the government. Only when African leaders decide to put their people before the interests of themselves and their families can things hope to improve.
While nothing is ever black and white, it’s undeniable that the relationship between the west and Africa has been deeply exploitative. It’s also pretty well understood what people mean by the west. These are vassal states of the US that are politically subservient to US and rely on US for military protection. These are countries that are aligned around the failing liberal capitalist ideology that US promotes.
Kicking out western neocolonial regimes is a prerequisite for any positive changes in the countries of Africa. Only once these countries are under control of the people living there can they chart their own course. As long as they remain under the yoke of western hegemony, the interests of the empire will always be put above the interests of the people living in these countries.
