ANALYSIS
Resource Extraction and African Underdevelopment*
Patrick Bond
Introduction: Looting Africa
Unequal trade and investment relationships are nothing new for Africa, although
in recent months the world’s attention has been drawn to the continent’s plight as
never before. However, in contrast to the strategy implied by some high-profile anti-
poverty campaigners, Africa’s deepening integration into the world economy has
typically generated not wealth but the outflow of wealth. There is new evidence
available to demonstrate this conclusively at a time when the current global-scale
fusion of neoliberalism and neoconservatism consolidates.
In fact, the deeper power relations that keep Africa down (and, simultaneously,
African elites shored up) should have been obvious to the world during 2005. It was a
year in which numerous events were lined up to ostensibly help liberate Africa from
poverty and powerlessness, to provide relief from crushing debt loads, to double aid,
and to establish a ‘‘development round’’ of trade:
.
The mobilization of NGO-driven citizens’ campaigns like Britain’s ‘‘Make Poverty
History’’ and the Johannesburg-based ‘‘Global Call to Action Against Poverty’’
(throughout 2005);
.
Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa (February);
.
The main creditor countries’ debt relief proposal (June);
.
A tour of Africa by the new World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz (June);
.
The G8 Gleneagles debt and aid commitments (July);
.
The Live 8 consciousness-raising concerts (July);
*A longer version of the argument will appear under the title Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation
(London: Zed Books, 2006). My greatest appreciation goes to Joel Kovel for support during political struggles
at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in early 2006, and for extremely helpful editorial advice.
ISSN 1045-5752 print=ISSN 1548-3290 online=06=020005-21
# 2006 The Center for Political Ecology www.cnsjournal.org
DOI: 10.1080=10455750600704430
C
APITALISM
N
ATURE
S
OCIALISM VOLUME
17
NUMBER
2(
JUNE
2006)