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| So says this article by Joseph Guthrie titled 'Tricking Africa?'. Read below.. |
When the news broke about Akon’s initiative to bring solar
power to 600 million Africans, social media was awash with
praise and mainstream media felt compelled to spread the word.
The Senegalese-American recording artist/entrepreneur officially
became the face of the plan that he had dropped hints about for
a year. Upon first glance, you couldn’t really blame anyone for
extending their adulation.
The world’s second largest continent and its 54 nations have
repeatedly been a target for imperialism, colonialism, and
conquest so seeing a descendent “give back” to the people
struggling to keep their heads above water was indeed a
refreshing moment.
The official Akon Lighting Africa (ALA) webpage is a spectacle to
behold: Akon’s visage and signature adorning his words in the form of
a quotation “…bringing hope to millions and ultimately giving Africa a
better future” greet you as the page loads; three major bullet points
outlining the programme’s overall goals to bring light to the African
masses neatly line up next to that. For lots of people – the global black
diaspora, notwithstanding – this move is beyond major. Akon’s peers in
the entertainment industry – particularly black artists and/or actors –
were very vocal in their support. Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Tyrese,
Timbaland, and Lil Jon used their respective spaces to tell their fans
and affiliates about this incredible academy. Mike Bloomberg and
organisations, including the United Nations, also spoke highly of Akon’s
efforts. Countless Africans tendered their gratitude to Akon for stepping
forward and using his stardom to make a significant difference in their
lives. Truly, it was marvellous to see all of this positivity abounding. Or
at least… it seemed marvellous at the time.
Not even a day after ALA was officially announced, Snoop Dogg took to
Instagram to air a grievance. He bemoaned the fact that major media
outlets prioritised the coverage of Caitlyn Jenner over Akon’s solar
academy, insulting Caitlyn – a transgender woman – in the process. Of
course, I was appalled by the labelling of Jenner as “a science project,”
and when I took to Twitter to air my own views on the discourse
(calling out the attention ALA wasn’t getting using that kind of
transphobic language is quite crass and wholly unproductive, I feel), I
saw that valid questions were being asked about ALA.
JJ Bola – author, poet, and educator – was one of a few people I
noticed looking at the ALA initiative critically. “…Where does that 600
million figure come from? That’s half the continent,” he tweeted. He’s
not far off: The estimated total population of Africa is 1.111 billion
people. Half of that is 550,500,000 – very close to the number of
people that ALA has said they will deliver a clean, renewable energy
source to. Even allowing for lofty ambition, I still believed the target was
achievable considering ALA’s $1bn line of credit and the substantial
political networking ALA has already done to get this realised. And then,
I was presented with a blog post in the Corge that made no bones
about why they thought ALA was merely a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Their lengthy essay laid out major concerns, stating Akon is nothing
more than a “scumbag torch-bearer for the new imperialism that is
coming” to the continent. Initially, the whole thing read to me like an
aimless rant, effing and blinding and throwing out all manner of insults
to Akon’s character. Thankfully, there was a decent amount of
substance to the concerns and a bit of righteousness to the anger. It
also provided answers to my own questions about ALA, upon further
research and fact-checking. Consider the following:
Who is funding ALA? ALA has been provided a $1bn line of credit via
China Jiangsu International, a state-owned international conglomerate,
headquartered in Nanjing, China, specialising in economic cooperation
and foreign trade. China Jiangsu International was founded in
December 1980 and has more than 30 overseas subsidiaries, offices
and branches to extend their reach and influence to roughly 80
countries around the world. According to their website, “CJI has
exported chemical products, API, electrical equipment, and materials
exports, exceeding a total volume of $10bn USD per year.”
Is this a private venture or is ALA not-for-profit? How will it be paid
for? It appears ALA isn’t what you’d call a completely philanthropic
endeavour, to say the least. Quoth Akon: “We invest our own money to
get things started. We go in, plead our case to the country, put up
pilots with our own dollars using sophisticated equipment…It shows
people that we’re not coming in to pull money out of the country, we’re
there to provide jobs for the locals and to enable them to feed their
families.” So what does he mean by this? According to the ALA website,
the average investment per village is $75,000 USD and will see the
partnership of public (read: government, heads of state) organisations
and private firms (read: Solektra, Give1 Project, Akon Corp, Sumec, Nari,
and Huawei) in order to oversee the delivery. Given the private
companies getting involved and private dollars getting spent, one
would expect these companies to see a return on that investment. Sure
enough, Samba Bathily – one of the cofounders for ALA and head of the
holding group that owns Solektra – dropped more knowledge on the
subject. “It means anyone who installs our systems can make
payments over [several] years. Most of these countries couldn’t
allocate the money to pay for a big project up front, but they can afford
if they pay by installments.” [REF.? this I think is the embedded link at
‘knowledge’ above] At this stage, one would be well pressed to make
ALA out to be altruistic.
Source: Mediadiversified.org
Posted by Adebayo A J