Guest post by: Eileen Wakesho and Omayma Gutbi
Recent years have seen what the world defines as a massive refugee crisis with agencies like the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, showing that forced displacement affected more than 65 million people in 2015. Germany’s Angela Merkel defines the “crisis” as the biggest challenge in European affairs in her time as chancellor while Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned that the migration crisis could pose a major threat to the “soul” of Europe. The French president when visiting Nigeria in July this year said African youth need to get over colonisation and Africa needs better population plans. Shamelessly, Mr. Macron said migration would pose problems for Europe for decades because of unplanned population growth in African countries. This is ethno-cultural discourse, call it racism if you wish. There is a genuine fear of change of the demographic composition of Europe as more Africans and Middle Easterners are “becoming” Europeans, which is a dominant driver of anti-migration fever. Islamophobia is, again, being used to block migration; imagine if Europe becomes predominantly Muslim! Such definitions can easily be carried as the absolute truth without unpacking issues that are critical in understanding both the causes of migration and the European panic about it. They can also lead to European violation of international humanitarian principles, such as the EU using taxpayers’ money to pay the government of Sudan to equip its militia to guard Sudan’s northern borders so that migrants from the Horn of Africa cannot reach the Mediterranean. European countries are, increasingly, taking extreme paths to stop flows of migrants through the eastern corridor.
A common narrative in recent articles and research papers — that people migrate from Africa to the global North in search of better economic opportunities – similarly assumes European economic superiority. This narrative is not only limited in its ability to look at other more significant causes of migration, it also shifts the burden to the “victims” (the migrants themselves), avoiding structural causes and geopolitical influences. Moreover, it fails to acknowledge that migration is an extremely complex phenomenon and that there is no single narrative to explain it.
Away from European officials’ rhetoric, waves of migration are attributed to colonization and post-colonial global extraction of Africa’s resources. “We are here because you were there” is not an uncommon statement. It is critical to unpack this assertion to understand the underlying sources of African migration patterns.
A joint report of the United Nations and African Union in 2015 estimates that $60 billion USD leaves Africa illegally each year. $60 billion USD. Indeed, Africa does not need external assistance to keep its people within the continent; it needs strong political will to control illicit network of wealth extraction, it needs to mobilize its domestic resources and invest them to ensure decent standards of living for its citizens. In an Al Jazeera article entitled “To stop migration, stop the abuse of Africa’s resources,” Historian Lorenzo Kamel argued that the solution to ending migration is not in deploying troops to Africa, but stopping the economic abuse and destabilisation of African countries. Many African scholars, including Ngugi wa Thiong’o, have been making the point for years that it is time that the global North “give back” to Africa. The chestnut of Europe “investing” in Africa must also be unpacked to unveil the real issues around exportation of raw materials that makes it impossible for local populations to sustain their economies. Massive exploitation of Africa’s rich natural resources by companies are among some of the deeply rooted causes of migration that cannot be addressed by cosmetic interventions. Policy interventions introduced by European countries offer only short-term solutions and fail to address the structural issues that are at the heart of migration.
Nevertheless, both the media and leading United Nations agencies avoid tackling the complex issues that push Africans out of their beautiful countries, instead basing their analyses on their own interventions. A case in point is the article by the New York Times entitled, “In South Sudan, a never-ending hunger season puts Millions in Danger.” The article is not necessarily untrue, but it is at the very least incomplete. It fails to help the reader appreciate the wealth of South Sudan’s natural resources including oil and its ability to be a major agricultural producer. The article embraces a single narrative of despair and fails to ask the hard question: who is robbing South Sudanese of their wealth and continues to push women and men of South Sudan to abject poverty and a state of dependency despite the country’s resources?
Recent events such as TEDx Kakuma, are brilliant in conceptualization, but they also demonstrate a deliberate effort to build a narrative around the need for refugees and migrants to find solutions within their spaces and not “out there.” Is the best strategy to push refugees from seeking asylum and instead urge them to “find solutions within” their own regions, hopefully addressing the EU migration “problem” in the process? In fact, the solution is not to stay in the camp and “build resilience,” another sectorial fallacy; the solution is to end the conflict and ensure lasting peace. To be able to do that, we must answer the question of who benefits from Africa’s wars and why wars are always in countries rich with mineral resources. The resources and conflict maps of Africa literally coincide.
How possible is it for Africa and Africans to find solutions “within” while Europe continues to facilitate a continuous flow of raw materials and select well-educated human capital from the continent? The solution to the migration and refugee “crisis” is not to be found in knee-jerk reactions and resulting policies but lies in addressing the structural problems that no one wants to tackle. Europe must stop stripping the continent of its natural resources and allow Africa to thrive. African agency must be accountable to a strong and independent judicial system. The transnational network of criminals who profit from this extraction must be exposed.
About the Authors:
Eileen Wakesho
Eileen works on women’s land and property rights in policy arenas globally. Eileen has worked with Kenya Land Alliance, Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF) and Kenya Institute for Public Policy, Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) focusing on women land rights, land governance and land and conflicts. She has co-authored a peer reviewed book on informal justice mechanisms and formal courts in Kenya and Engagement with Local Communities: Land and Conflict. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in Project Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi and a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication. She is alumni of Landesa’s Women Land Rights Visiting Professionals Program in the USA and Sydney’s Law School Gender and Transitional Justice Fellowship.
Twitter: @EileenWakesho
Omayma Gutbi
A Pan-Africanist, worked on issues of peace and security with focus on arms’ control, security sector reform, and transitional justice. She has a B.Sc. on Sociology and Social Anthropology from University of Khartoum and an M.A on Peace and Development Studies from the University of Juba.
Twitter: @anaomayma
There are lots of truly excellent points here. The economic issues you raise routinely are overlooked. Thanks to the authors!
Let me add 2 other points:
First, there also is a need for African governments to implement cohesive strategies to deal with huge populations of youthful citizens. Positive government engagement with youth remains weak.
Second, Africa’s booming population is not being addressed. There are many more calls for abstinence-only-until-marriage for youth than birth control efforts. But since so many youth are unable to marry, what does that do to calls for them to abstain from sex? It’s not a viable strategy.