Afrika in Focus Special: Africa Day Special Why the West deliberately keeps Afrika POOR!!

In a compelling episode of "Africa in Focus,"  we delve into the contentious but critically important topic of why Western powers systematically work to keep Africa underdeveloped.

The podcast opens with a powerful reference to economist Howard Nicholas, whose viral lecture exposed how Western economic interests rely on keeping Africa underdeveloped. Nicholas boldly asserted that "the West will never allow Africa to industrialize" because if Africa were to achieve its industrial potential, the standard of living currently enjoyed in Western nations and parts of Asia would collapse overnight.

Historical evidence supporting this thesis is abundant. Former French presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac both explicitly acknowledged France's existential dependence on African resources, with Chirac stating that without Africa, France would "slide to the realm of a third world state." Similarly, American President Dwight D. Eisenhower's statement that "whoever controls the Congo controls Africa, and whoever controls Africa controls the world" reveals the geopolitical significance that major powers attribute to the continent. 

The podcast identifies several specific mechanisms through which Africa's development is systematically undermined. These include the creation of proxy wars that destabilize resource-rich regions like the DR Congo, the deliberate fostering of internal divisions in countries with significant economic potential like Nigeria, and the strategic use of economic pressure through institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Perhaps most disturbingly, the podcast references "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins, which details how Western powers use economic coercion, bribery, and even assassination to maintain control over African resources and development.

Pan-Africanist leaders who have challenged this system have faced severe consequences. Kwame Nkrumah, whose vision of a united, industrialized Africa threatened Western hegemony, was removed from power through a Western-backed coup. More recently, leaders like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso, who has managed to pay off his country's national debt and demonstrate effective governance, has reportedly survived multiple assassination attempts.
 
The path forward requires both mental and economic decolonization. As Steve Biko famously said, "The greatest weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." 

Sources:

Professor Howard Nicholas: The 6 Ways the West uses to Keeps Africa Poor

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa By Walter Rodney (2018) :

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Africa in Focus
• 1:31 Why the West Keeps Africa Down
• 4:05 Howard Nicholas's Economic Revelation
• 8:16 Nkrumah's Vision and Western Intervention
• 12:15 Modern Pan-African Leadership Under Threat
• 14:41 Three Strategies to Disable African Progress
• 19:47 Economics Designed for African Oppression
• 23:08 The Path to African Liberation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Good evening and welcome to this edition of Africa in Focus with myself, kwame Guinean writer, broadcaster, historian, podcaster and entrepreneur. And in this week's edition of Africa in Focus it's a special it's Africa Union Day, africa Day, and we're going to give you a very interesting theme. Subject why the white man or the West keeps Africa down yeah, so why the white man does not want to see Africa united yeah, and so that is the theme for this week's podcast, and if you like what you hear, please share to your friends, family, social media networks, subscribe to Ghana African Folks on YouTube, subscribe to Ghana African Folks on Spotify, and if you'd like to help us continue to bring out some great content from Ghana and from Africa, you can donate, as it is three euros a month and that happens without cost. So you can do that as a one-off payment or you can do it for a monthly installment for just three euros a month, all right. So let's get into this week's podcast why the white man or the West Keeps Africa Down and why the White man Does Not Want to See Africa Unified. So I'm going to put down a very, very powerful video at the front of this podcast that will butter us, that will confirm what I'm going to say about why the white man keeps africa down. Yeah, and this video is a presentation by um economics professor by the name of howard nicholas, who is professor of economics at rotterdam university in the netherlands, and he gave this lecture about. Well, it went viral on YouTube about 3 or 4 years ago and it really set the cat amongst the pigeons and exposed to us what we already knew, and so can you about how the white man keeps Africa deliberately impoverished.

Speaker 1: 2:26

So some of you, many of you, will probably believe the narrative that is spun in Western media the reason why Africa is poor is because you know corrupt leaders, bad governance and you know lack of you know, of proper leadership. This is a narrative that has been spun by the Western media for the best part of 50 years, to the extent that many Africans now believe it to be true that the reason why Africa is not progressing as a continent or their individual countries are progressing is because of bad leadership, bad governments and corrupt leaders. Now they're saying that if you tell a big enough lie and you keep the lie going for long enough, the people will believe it. So people have believed this lie that the reason why Africa is where it is, ie impoverished. Because not positive, because Africa is rich, but I'll come to that in a minute. It's because of these things of, you know, bad leadership, bad governments and corrupt leaders, strict dictators. Now, contrary to that narrative, lies the truth. And the truth is that Africa is deliberately kept in an impoverished state, and this presentation by Howard Nicholas breaks it down perfectly, bit by bit, how the white man deliberately keeps Africa down.

Speaker 1: 4:05

So before I go into some of my analysis as to why that is, if you recall when we did the podcast about why the French must leave Africa, I made reference to two former French presidents, one, the first being Francois Mitterrand, who said way back in 1956 that without Africa, france will have no future in the 21st century. Jacques Chirac former French President between 1995 and 2007, said that without Africa, france would slide to the realm of a third world state. So those two present remarks show you how important Africa is to France. So if Africa is important to France, you don't think Africa is important to the world. And again, another quote I will give you Dwight D Eisenhower, the first black president, long before Obama. This American president, dwight D Eisenhower, had a mixed race mother called Ida Stover and this is why she was killed. He said that whoever controls the Congo controls Africa. Whoever controls Africa controls the world. I want to say that again. Dwight D Eisenhower, president of the United States in the 50s, former general, said whoever controls the Congo controls Africa, and whoever controls Africa controls the Congo controls Africa, and whoever controls Africa controls the world. So what does that show you about the importance of Africa to the global community, particularly Western, you know, economic prowess and Western economic dominance.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Howard Nicholas, he says, and I quote the West will never allow Africa to industrialise. Because if they did, if Africa did industrialise and modernise itself, the standard and the quality of living in the West and in Asia would collapse overnight. So the quality of life, the standard of life that is enjoyed in the West, ie the USA, canada, to a degree, mexico, the European Union, etc. And also Asia, ie China, japan, south Korea, you could put in there Singapore, malaysia, thailand. Right, if Africa was to industrialise, right, the quota of life in all these areas will come down in a big time. Yeah, and he states further that the West would never allow that to happen. He said Africans can try, but they'll build up against it and the West will use whatever tricks it can muster to ensure that Africa never develops.

Speaker 1: 7:26

So that opening paragraph alone should tell you that there is an agenda by the West, predominantly to keep Africa down, because the white man, the European, has never, ever wanted to see the black man rise. Because in his eyes and this is why they enslaved us, this is why they used scientific racism to justify the limits of African people In their eyes, in the white man's eyes, african people are inferior. Don't forget. They had all these theories which, which culminated in scientific racism, that because of the size of our brains and the colour of our skin, african people were basically less intelligent than white people and African people deserved to be treated like heroes of wood and jewels of water. Again, look at another reference Rudra Kipling, the White Man's Burden. You know, read that you could say poem Rudra Kipling, the White Man's Burden, yeah, again justifying the pillage of Africa.

Speaker 1: 8:37

And so, like I said, the white man has never, has never, wanted the black man, the african, to rise. Because they know the elite know, right, not necessarily the ordinary white person on the street, or even your teacher, your doctor, your friend, etc. They may not know, but the elite know that if Africa rises, that is game over for them, game over for the West, and they will never, ever allow an African country to arise. This is why this is another reason why that the white man, like I said, wants to kill Ibn Churri, but I'll come to that just slightly in the second or two. This is why they had to move Kwame Nkrumah from power, because Kwame Nkrumah was certainly the example, the template, the God. That template. Because Kwame Nkrumah said, of all of the books that he studied and read, particularly while he was in America, the book that fired him up the most was the philosophy and opinion of Marcus Mazai Garvey. So Nkrumah was a student of Garvey and Nkrumah's program was essentially Garvey, yeah, and Nkrumah's program was essentially Garveyism manifested.

Speaker 1: 9:59

And so because of this, you know, idea to injustice, ghana, which will then serve as a model and a black print for other African countries to follow, and because Nkrumahs are pan African orientation, particularly towards African unity, and because that could have for the Western hegemony in Africa, nkrumah to go, because, had there been, had Nkrumah not been moved and was able to interest Ghana, because the Nkrumah not been removed and was able to interest Ghana because, under Nkrumah, ghana had a national development plan from 1962 to 1970. So, with Nkrumah not being removed, even CIA documents, the Kansas documents, said that had Nkrumah not been removed from power, ghana would have been a middle-income country in 1970. Look at that by 1970, ghana would have been a middle-income country. Think about that, folks Think about that. So this is why Nkrumah had to go. Yeah, and had Nkrumah not gone, ghana would be in a much better place today and you would have had a United States of Africa which would serve, yeah, as a force for good and also it would serve as a. It would serve as Africa's place in the world, because Africa, a united Africa, would be able to compete with the European Union, with the USA, with China, india. What have you? Yeah, and this is what they feared the United States of Africa, africans, coming together as one solid block, with one single currency, with one trading block and also one African central bank. That was fearful for the western hemorrhaging. This is why they had to get rid of Nkrumah.

Speaker 1: 12:12

If I fast forward to today, we now see Ibrahim Chouhri yeah, a modern day version of Kram of Nkrumah. So, fast forward to today. We now see Ibrahim Chowri yeah, a modern day version of Kwame Nkrumah and he's made many utterances of how the white man wants to keep us down and how they do not have any good intentions for Africa. So Ibrahim Chowri is developing not just Bukini Faso, but also serving as an inspiration to other African leaders. Along with Mali, niger and Senegal, he's serving as a model for other African countries to say wake up, yeah, wake up from your slumber. You know you need to develop your country, you need to endorse the country, because that's the only way that African can free itself from white domination, white terrorism. And so, because Ibn Choway is saying these kind of things and is rapidly developing Burkina Faso and, by the way, he's actually paid all of Burkina Faso's debt within in the last three years. He's been in power for the last three years but he's paid all of the debt that Burkina Faso owed. And that's leadership, that's non-corrupt Governments, that's non-corrupt leader, that's good governments and that's good leadership. And the white man don't like that. This is why they tried to kill him, not once, but twice, but 20 times. And so this shows you that the white man Does not want the African man or the black man To develop and rise above him. Because if he did, shows you that the white man does not want the African man or the black man to develop and rise above him, because if he did right, that's it for the West. And so this, this is why they use all sorts of skullduggery and evil, nefarious deeds to keep Africa divided.

Speaker 1: 14:11

Just give you three examples Before I sort of go on to Howard Nicholas and other examples. You know they start proxy wars in Africa. Dr Congo is a kind of example of proxy war. So they supply the weapons, yeah, and then they create tensions between rival factions and then, before you know it, there's a civil war. So right now in DR Congo there's a war between the government of DR Congo, who are fighting rebels in the shape of the M23, who were armed initially by the West but who recently have been supported by poor Kagame's Rwanda, yeah, and also Yuri Museveni of Uganda. So you see how this works to disable Africa by creating proxy wars.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Secondly, you create friction, or or, or, or fraction, or strife in a country that has great potential, example being Nigeria. Nigeria has fantastic potential. If Nigeria had peace, nigeria would be a powerhouse, because some of the most intelligent people are in Nigeria Igbos, yorubas, hausa's, fulani, ejo, etc. Some of the most clever people, some of the most intelligent people, some of the most business oriented people, some of the most brilliant minds are Ibo, yoruba, hausa, ejo, etc. Fulani, etc. Now, if Nigeria was to experience a peace, you would see Nigeria rapidly growing because they've got the people, they've got the intelligence and the capacity. They've also got more than 250 million people living there and they've got people living there and they've got resources like gold and oil. And this is why, again, the West, the white man, they bankrolled and organised a group that was disabled in Nigeria to stop it from developing and reaching superpower status by funding a group called Boko Haram. And recently it's just been we need to say anyway, but it's just been recently highlighted that under USAID, they were secretly funding money to Boko Haram. So you see, that's the second way in how they create instability within African countries. And the third example I'll give you is famine. They create a situation whereby, you know, people are disfranchised and, because of certain nuances, famine situation arises as what happened in Somalia which I think a few years ago there was a famine in Somalia, which I think a few years ago there was a famine in Somalia or food shortages. So, again, trying to displace the country and stop it from developing industrialised. So these are some of the ways and means in which Africa is kept down again.

Speaker 1: 17:28

To butcher this, you can read a book or get the YouTube Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins. This is a former CIA agent who was a hitman for the CIA of America, who went to these African countries and said that we've got a plan for you and we want you to privatise countries pretty African countries and said that you know we've got a plan for you, right, and you know we want you right to privatise your mining companies so that it can benefit our multinational companies. And so the thing is that if you don't agree to our terms, three things will happen we will kill you, or rather, we'll create we'll create a situation whereby we make your country ungovernable, like they did in the Circus Orange Revolution in Ukraine that toppled the Ukrainian president and brought to this puppet Zelensky Many of you don't know he's a puppet, zelensky's a puppet of the West. Or, if that doesn't work, we will persuade you to follow our plan and try and bribe you, yeah, bribe you, yeah, like they did today with many African leaders. And if that doesn't work, they bribe you, yeah. Bribe you, yeah, like they did today with many African leaders. And if that doesn't work, they'll kill you. Yeah, they'll kill you, like they did Gaddafi, like they did Saddam, like they did Maguful. Maguful was murdered and even Thomas Sankara murdered. So that's how they do it, that's how they hit man, these African countries and does their job. Yeah, all designed to keep Africa in the position that it's in, as he was of wood and draw as water.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Now, when we analyse, you know, howard Nicholas' presentation, one very, very cogent and illuminating point that he made is that he said all the economics that we teach predominantly Africans, right, in your school, in your college and university, right, all the economics that we teach is designed to keep Africa down. I want to say that again, very, very poignant all the comics that we teach in school, university, etc. Is designed to keep Africa down. So why would they do that? Why would they deliberately have a, you could say, a system of economics that keeps Africa down, that is deliberately designed to keep Africa down, if there's no nefarious plan, no wicked intention behind that strategy of teaching economics to Africa to make it poor? Think about it, think about that.

Speaker 1: 20:47

So this is why advocates in publish, not because of bar leaders, not because of corrupt governments, not because of you know, this is why Africa is impoverished, not because of bad leaders, not because of corrupt governments, not because of corrupt leaders, but because it is by design by the white man, by the West, to keep Africa down, because if Africa rises, their quality of life will shrink and they cannot afford that, never can afford that, that. So this is why, on this African Liberation Day, we've got to understand these nuances of what's going on, these western geopolitical games that have been taking place in Africa. They are Congo, somalia, central African Republic, sudan, and we see terrorism that was funded by the West, particularly France, in the so-called Sahel, these Islamist terrorists who funded them? The West. So these are nuances and ways in what they do to keep Africa down.

Speaker 1: 21:51

So we've got to understand on this Africa Liberation Day, africa Day, that we're not free and the fight for sovereignty, the fight for self-determination, the right to control our destiny is what we are literally fighting for. And this is why we've got to support not just Ibrahim Turei, but progressive African leaders, like in Mali, like in Niger, in Senegal and now we see, in Namibia as well. We've got to literally support these leaders and literally fight for our land, because right now, as part of this plan to keep Africa impoverished, we don't earn our land. A large chunk of our land is gone. The north, northern part of Africa is gone to the Arabs Egypt, libya, morocco, Algeria, tunisia, and, to extend, mauritania, controlled by so-called Arabs Mauritania controlled by so-called Arabs. Southern Africa, namibia, botswana, south Africa, zimbabwe you want to frame there Kenya in the east, large chunks of this land is not owned by African people, and so, in order to liberate ourselves, we've got to liberate our land. But before we can liberate our land, we've got to liberate our mind.

Speaker 1: 23:17

Steve Beaker once said the greatest weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. I want to say that again. Steve Beaker said, and I quote the greatest weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. And as long as our minds are messed up with this western propaganda and this false education that we're getting, or mis-education that we're getting, we're not going to be able to free Africa. And a free Africa is anti the white man, because a free Africa is anti the white man, because a free Africa is going to wake up, smell the coffee and do what he needs to do for his own survival. The white man is going to do what he's going to do for his own survival. What are we, as Africans, going to do for our survival?

Speaker 1: 24:09

Because, as the late, great African American historian, John Henry Clark says, it says Africans, you got any friends? So the white man, he definitely your friend. China, india, russia, you know Asia, they're in your friends, beloved. Yeah, putin might be one man, but he's just one man, and even Putin has his own agenda when he's dealing with Africa. Yes, he may not be dealing with you like the West, but he's still a white man, and you need to keep your third eye on Putin, because Putin is not an angel. Someone who's been in power for nearly 25 years is a cunning, tricky dog, yeah, and a cunning, tricky dog cannot be trusted. And so we've got to keep an eye on Putin, not thinking that he's doing it for them, because he's still a white man and they're all the same.

Speaker 1: 25:04

And so I'm going to leave it here, but please listen, listen carefully and make notes regarding that presentation from Professor Howard Nichols, because he breaks it down nicely as to why the white man keeps Africa impoverished and why they are hell-bent on never, ever allowing Africa to indulge and develop, yeah, and so I thank you for listening to this special edition of Africa inrican focus with myself. Kwame, please subscribe to ghana african fix on youtube, subscribe to ghana african focus on spotify and, uh, if you do want to support the show, uh, you can help us with our cost by support, by donating as little as three us dollars a the link is in the comments to the show. So please donate if you would like to. So, until next week, where we'll be looking at what we'll be looking at next week in Guardian Focus. I think we'll be looking at Guardian Focus, but anyway, we have another great content for you next week. So, from myself, kwame, and from all the crew here on Advocate in Focus, thank you for listening and we'll see you for some more great content coming up.