Page 112 - A People Called Afrika

A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA

imperialists used to send financial support to their colonies
in order to fund infrastructure, military, social services etc.,
in order to ensure that the colonies were able to produce for
them economically through the colonial extractive industry.
After World War II, aid evolved to become an even more
strategic tool globally, used to influence policy positions of
governments, as demonstrated by the US Marshall Plan (or
European Recovery Program) that released funding to coun-
tries in parts of Europe between 1948 and 1951. Countries in
Europe were struggling economically, including former col-
onizers United Kingdom, Belgium, (West) Germany, Portu-
gal, Italy and France, and since the US needed allies and did
not want them to fall under communist influence, it funded
them. This was at the dawn of the Cold War when the USA
and USSR were facing off for purposes of global domination.

Therefore the US provided loans to businesses in strategic
countries that these businesses then paid back to their own
governments, which then used the funds for infrastructure to
benefit the businesses. This led to some positive outcomes
that convinced the West that aid would be a potential tool
for funding growth in Afrika. Thus, aid was released to Af-
rika, with the thinking that the continent would go the way
of Europe. But, according to findings, as aid to Afrika grew,
development became sluggish, the rich got richer and the
poor got poorer. Afrika is said to have received USD 1.4 tril-
lion in aid between 1956 and 2018, but to have lost USD 2.2
trillion through tax evasion by multinationals, embezzlement
of funds, outright theft by government officials and adminis-
trative costs i.e. aid industry’s salaries and overheads and al-
lowances. Such that by the end of it, very little entered/enters
the destination country or even made/makes it to the ground.

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