By Chris Zumani Zimba

US President, Donald Trump on the 13th August, 2018 observed and concluded that China is quietly stealing Africa and soon Africans will be slaves of the Chinese. “China is quietly stealing a continent from you. And India may not be far behind. Currently, the battle for supremacy on the African continent is being fought out between the leaders of Asia’s two superpowers — China and India. I will not be surprised to see China taking Africans as slaves again”. Trump observed.

The US President’s observation is correct that Africa is quietly falling into the hands of Chinese as their future slave masters. A critical analysis of public contracts, state loans, mineral exploration rights and general public resources exploitation the Chinese (as the lead global money lenders) enjoy in Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Gabon, Zambia, Swaziland, Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Mozambique or Ethiopia, it may not be wrong for anyone to conclude that African resources, institutions and to some extent citizens are all falling into the business hands of the Chinese.

This rampart transactional auctioning of the former ‘dark continent’ is being freely championed by African politicians and traditional leaders to the global highest foreign bidders of which the Chinese and partly the Indians are brutally profiting for the cheap and open market due to their growing financial and market capacity. Hence, when the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina says “there are 400 million hectares of arable land in the savannas of Africa that will determine the future of food in the world”, we hope he is aware that the Chinese President, Xi Jinping as well as the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi are seriously taking note of such announcements and positioning themselves benefit a lion’s share from the portion soon or later.

Chris Zumani Zimba is a Political Scientist, Author, PhD Scholar, Lecturer, Researcher and Consultant