Many Africans are migrating from their countries. Many are dying at the Mediterranean! It does not matter that the mineral industry in Africa is the largest in the world! Yet a visit to any African country reveals the “missed-something” of what they are! Many of them trek up the Sahara desert heading north.
It is as if they heard the voice calling,”go north young man. You cursed of the earth.” When interviewed, many of them claim that they are going to Europe to get a shot at life. One man said, “I have brothers and sisters and my parents are old and cannot work. I had to come to Italy to look for a job.” The sad thing is that he comes from the Congo, where oil and other minerals flow like the river Nile.
I know many Kenyans do not know that Lake Victoria is not owned by Africans. The source of the river Nile is still protected by laws negotiated between the European powers. They were not negotiated by the Africans who own the land. If you do not believe me, try to deplete the waters of the Nile! I can understand though: There is a character in Kenya who is usually given the road contracts. He was given the road from fly-over on the way to Naivasha to Jabini. Within a few years, in fact within months, the road needed repair. The best thing about Kenyan contractors is that they finish the job quickly and create employment for men who come with wheelbarrows and request something while repairing potholes. No wonder Chinese companies now control road construction in Kenya.
In the Congo, the government only claims to control the country. The truth is that the vast majority of land where minerals are found is controlled by militias from European countries and other undercover agencies. The African is bribed to look the other way: To let his environment get polluted by oil controlled by foreign countries: To let people live in misery in Kibera, Mathare, Korogoco and many other neighborhoods in Africa: To let his economy be dictated by grants and loans from foreign banks owned by individuals you cannot even identify. African governments spend half of their GDP paying loans while their young people rot without work in neighborhoods where rain is the only source of clean drinking water! Albeit, the water is flowing beneath them in aquifers that can only be tapped by foreigners!
A senior Kenyan government official said that, “the best thing Kenya is doing is exporting labor.” Exporting labor? Look at the picture of this young man. A picture taken by award winning photo Journalist Juan Medina of a migrant’s exhaustion from being on a boat, and tell me whether the white people in the background want your labor! They are sitting there enjoying the sun in their developed country while the African crows like a dog, exhausted from trying to swim at the beach in Fuerteventura! Exporting labor! Are you kidding? Do those people look as if they want this “dog” there?
God gave Africans the best land ever, but . . . . . . sad!
Teddy Njoroge Kamau (PhD) HTBluff Associates. An EMG Consortium #HTBluff. Diaspora Messenger Columnist.
