Slavery is Back....

Slavery is back, this time though it’s the Chinese who are cracking the whip against black backs, at least, that’s the story if (Peter Hitchens) is to be believed; reporting from Zambia in the unlikely abolitionist newspaper, The Daily Mail, he exposes the modern day slave trade in which millions of Africans are being sold as chattel to the highest bidding China PLC by unscrupulous African governments and leaders. It’s not rice or cotton that’s king but minerals, iron ore, copper and zinc that are being ripped out of the earth to feed China’s rapacious appetite for wealth and industrialization, he writes. I hope my entre gives a little of the hyperbole masquerading as journalism in Hitchen’s piece.

It’s not the very verifiable fact of China’s expansion and consumption in Africa that’s contentious in this piece, but the insidious but nevertheless, predictable Daily Mail take on the story. Confronted with a story of Africans negotiating the torturous process of opening up to the world economy, they choose to portray a simple story of passive Africans lying down and taking it. It’s a bit much to take from a paper that laments within its pages the demise of colonialism, and many of whose readers and writers no doubt mutter beneath their breath that the place was much better run when they were around. Scratch the surface of the Daily Mail’s new, benevolent concern for Africa’s fate at the hands of the Chinese and what you will find is this: A palpable fear (and jealousy) that the ‘yellow peril’ is back with a vengeance eating up the yummy goodies that should rightfully be consumed by the west and the predictable patronizing attitude that this poor continent is doomed.

In his piece, Hitchens interviewed Zambian opposition leader, Michael Sata, who is vigorously querying the Chinese presence in his country and questioning its benefits. Despite the obviousness of a story here – Hitchens could have led with a story of how some Africans are working for the welfare of their citizens, and covered more in depth the challenges they faced, he followed the spurious but sensational line that a new slave trade is afoot. It’s powerful stuff – but hey we all have something to cry about – give me something to shout about.

Yes – but the story makes people in the west aware, right? Well, no. All it engenders is the feeling of hopelessness that this/that continent cannot be saved – and here comes another group of rapists to attach in Liffey’s words ‘this poor helpless continent’. It’s a feelgood movie for the folks back home; (there but for the sake of god…).

I’d like to hear about how the efforts of people like Michael Satu can be taken forward; for one, it seems obvious to me, that the next steps should be to unionize the workers and make them aware that China has a lot more to lose than gain if the mines close.