- The President of the French Government has stated that he hopes that African countries will help to emerge from the crisis of the pandemic and to reduce their debt. But where does that debt come from, how easy is it to forgive it, and Macron really intends to do it? The president has been received by African activist Sani Ladan, who has denied any responsibility.
For a start, Ladan explained that the debt is very complex, as there are different debts: that which has a State with an international organization (for example, the World Bank), that which has one State with another, or that which has the State with a multinational. In the case of most African countries, this is a debt incurred before decolonization and independence: that is, these states were born with a debt already contracted with the metropolis, in many cases with France.
How does debt work? “If a French multinational, for example, wants to exploit a mine in an African country, it will ask for works, roads to the mine, etc., and the country is obliged to ask France for a debt to carry out the work. The work will be executed by a French company and will therefore benefit from debt money, as these companies do not pay taxes in Africa. To pay the previous debt, African countries are once again indebted in a continuous cycle. When the country is drowned, it has to pay the matter with premiums (oil, for example).”
The activist makes it clear: What the European leaders really mean when they talk about cancelling the debt is that these are structural adjustments. “In the 1970s, African countries were asked to cut back on strategic sectors (education, health, security, etc.) and privatization of public services for the benefit of European multinationals. The newly independent countries were left without a powerful industrial network.” Sani Ladan stressed that Thomas Ankara called on all African countries to renounce their debt and subsequently murdered it.
The answer to Macron is that France is fed up with its policy in Africa and does not want it. In addition, “we are tired of that image that Africa must always have of help. More and more of us are politically and historically aware that things do not recur.”
The full denunciation of Sani Ladan can be heard in the following link, in Spanish.