In one of her most damning remarks on the hypocrisy of the international community vis a vis the chronic exploitation of francophone Africa by France, Dr Arikana is calling for action to force stop what she stopped short of calling as grand theft. She spoke in a 26-minute-long interview with Roland Martin Undiluted Digital Show in the US. The Voice has transcribed and shortened the very revealing interview. Enjoy.
QUESTION: You were appointed 3 years ago, who appointed you?
Dr. Arikana: It was the then chairman of the African Union then chairman Mrs. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Who made the decision to end your tenure?
It was the current chairperson Musa Faki Mahamat.
Did you have any knowledge that they were unhappy with your performance or did you have any knowledge or did they catch you by surprise?
It wasn’t really a surprise based on some information I had been privileged to which I really can’t disclose at this time, but 5 months earlier.
There has been a lot of discussion from your supporters, they say your break down of the history how modern Africa was created, colonisation and the history of control, the impact France has had on many African countries is why you were let go?
My supporters feel that way and some there are some suggestions and some evidence but like I said am not privileged to that suggestion. But there is some evidence to that.
So you believe that France is trying to silence you?
Let me put it this way. Maybe I lasted longer than I probably would have because of my views on France, and it is not even my view, it is basically stating the facts in terms of what France is doing to Africa.
What are they currently doing?
What they are currently doing and what they have been doing for decades since the cord and code independence of the former French colonies.
What is happening, 7 of the top 10 growing economies are African nations but you also have a significant impact of the Chinese in Africa as well. So, do you believe that the government of France still has control over a number of African nations of their former colonies?
They have significant control over all of their former colonies specifically 14 of them. Just to give you the highlights of what they did when they were giving the independence of former colonies so to speak; they forced them to sign a document which they are calling the pact for the continuation of colonisation. You have to understand they are saying on one hand we are giving you independence which turn out to be political independence but then you also have to sign this document but then you are also going to sign this document which is titled the pact for the continuation of colonisation; so you are going to be independent but then you are going to be continuously colonised.
So two countries Mali and Guinea said absolutely not. We are not going to sign those documents.
And what the French did, they went into those two countries, took everything they thought to have been brought into those two countries, poured concrete into their sewage pipes and completely devastating those two economies.
This was done as a way of letting those other African countries know that if you do not sign this documents, this is the faith that await you.
How has that negatively impacted those African countries?
This has impacted those African countries terribly. If you look at it, the pact for the continuation of colonisation said, those countries were expected to deposit 85% of their bank reserve with the French Central Bank under the control of the French minister of finance. And should those countries wish to request some of those money, (remember they were left with only 15% of their reserve) then they will have to submit a financial statement of their country and if approved, they could only access 20% of whatever they had deposited years before as a loan at commercial interest rate.
The only difference now is the 85% deposited as a loan will now be lowered down to between 50% and 60% but the countries are still forced and required to deposit their bank reserve with the French central bank.
So picture this situation; you are depositing all your monies with France, should you need some of your money, you get it as a loan at commercial interest rate.
So immediately you have a credit with France but you begin to owe France. This has been going on and continues till this day.
So combine what the 14 countries are giving to France, Cash cool hard cash over $500 billion dollars every year. And France takes that money and invest it in it own stock market under the French name and the countries may not know they returns.
Currently for every 14 billion that France takes out of Africa, by the time they finish investing it in the French stock market, they are realising upward of $300 billion.
So you do the math to see how much France is taking out of African countries every year.
Again France has the audacity to look at African countries and call them poor countries.
Why would poor African countries send $500 billion dollars to France year in and year out?
What really gets me the most is how does the world sit back and watch this carnage take place in Africa. Where is the United Nations? This is the body that’s supposed to be looking out for any violation of human rights. It is my humble opinion that singularly, what France is doing to Africa is the biggest violation of human rights.
Women and children are dying of starvation, youth unemployment when the same poor countries are giving $500 billion to France. It simply does not make any sense and I don’t know how the whole world can sit back and watch all this unfold and nobody is saying anything. It is unacceptable. It is wrong and we are simply asking France to do what is right, what is fair and just to Africans.
I attended your exam at the embassy here where you gave a speech of how mother Africa was carved up. For those who don’t know, explain the Berlin conference Berlin?
The Berlin conference was our colonisers’ way of seeing to it that Africa and her children are forever dominated and defeated. They came together in Berlin at the invitation of the then chancellor of Germany Bismarck. To divide Africa in November 1894 to February of 1895.
They met and chopped off Africa into the tiny little economies that we see today. Economies that clearly cannot survive on their own; economies that are easy to disstabilise should they begin to have a leg up.
Economies that will make it very difficult for these countries to trade with each other. You see economic development is increase productivity from one production cycle to another.
If you interfere with the ability of countries to trade, you indirectly mess with their economic development. So that partitioning of Africa in 1884, and those partitioning remain in place today is responsible for a lot of what is happening in Africa. Our inability to grow our economies, our inability to travel from one country to the other.
You look at tourism. If you need to go to Africa and visit 3 different countries, you are going to send your passport to Washington DC 3 different times. And each time your passport comes back you are going to send it again to another country and wait 2,3 or 4 weeks before you get your passport back.
And then you are going to send it again back to Washington and at times those embassies are on the same street, you could have walked from one embassy to the other but you can’t do it. And by the time you get your passport back with the third Visa, the Visa for the first country is expired.
Who needs to go through all that? So, you say ‘forget it am not going to Africa.
So people don’t realize that, that decision has everlasting implications on what goes on in Africa and at the end of the day, it crystalizes down to our failure to grow our economies because it is really expensive to do business from one country to another.
I’m going to Ghana in December. So, if am in Ghana and I want to go to Nigeria, or go to Kenya, what’s the process?
Nigeria is almost impossible because it’s goanna take you a while to go to Nigeria. Am not so sure about Kenya but again you need a visa to go to those countries.
But if I was in France and I wanted to go to Germany, or I wanted to go to another European country
As a US citizen with a US passport you are fine, you can just go. If you are from another country you can apply for what they call a Schengen Visa. A Schengen Visa allows you to travel throughout Europe. One Visa will allow you to travel throughout Europe.
So What am trying to understand is those rules that prohibit me from being in Ghana and I decided that the next 3 days I want to be in Nigeria, those rules were set up when?
Those rules were set up in 1884. However, African countries are beginning to realize that we need to do something about this so a lot of them now within Africa have what we are calling Visa on arrival – where you will show your passport as you arrive at the border then you can apply for a visa and you will get it but not all countries are doing visa on arrival so you will have to check the website of every country for your particular passport what the visa requirements are.
Give us a sense of Africa before the Berlin Conference?
What we were prior to the Berlin conference, we were massive powerful kingdoms. Kingdoms with well established religious and educational systems, kingdoms that precised the Greek civilisation and the Roman empire. If the truth be told civilisation began in Africa.
Have you ever wondered why when they talk about the mathematicians, the ancient philosophers, they were sent to Egypt for training, to Egypt for advancement it is because Africa already had it. The pyramids, the Zimbabwean Ruins. They were there over 2500 years before the Greek civilisation, over 2500 years before the Roman empire. It all started in Africa. That’s part of the history that was cut out and they set out to get us to forget that life as we know it began in Africa. Civilisation as we know it began in Africa. The Europeans stole it for us.
Explain the difference between the AU and AUC?
The African union has the membership of all the 55 African heads of states. The African Union Commission is the working organ of the African union. So the African union has a president who is always another head of State and that membership is for one year.
The working organ of the African union is the African Union Commission and it also has a chair whose term is four years and that’s who chairman Musa Faki Mahamat is.