Foreign Residents and "The New Scramble for Africa"

I found the YouTube clip embedded below pretty interesting.  One of the reasons is because concerning the type of videos they're criticizing, that advertise the relatively-low cost of African living to expatriates, I've participated in a few myself, albeit for another platform.  And besides that, even with this blog I largely encourage expatriation or at least visitation to the Motherland.

I understand where the presenter is coming from.  Over the last few centuries, foreigners, most notably from the West, have more or less used Africa as they will.  This often results in exploitation of resources, while natives get the short end of the stick.  And as pointed out in the clip, in the past that standard may have been based more on foreign military superiority.  But now, it revolves around Western currencies being exponentially more valuable than their African counterparts.

AFRICAN INTERACTIONS WITH RICHER FOREIGNERS

This video has opened my eyes a bit, but generally speaking it hasn't changed my disposition.  I know why I encourage people to come to Africa, and it has nothing to do with looting the continent or sh*tting on locals.  A lot of times, that may end up happening anyway, but it isn't always by design.

For example, a few years back a friend from the States came to visit me.  About a week into the trip, I saw that he was treating some of the locals like lackeys.  I didn't approve and confronted him on the matter.  And his response was like, they keep asking him for money and offering themselves as servants, so he's just going with the flow.

The above video takes sort of a racial approach to the matter, which I think is over simplistic.  Critics often adopt this 'us versus them' approach in the name of - let's say for lack of a simpler term - marketing.  But again, the world is more complicated than that.  For instance, the aforementioned homey was a proud African-American, not a White person from Europe.

HOUSING REALITIES IN AFRICA

The presenter implies or states that the reason rental costs in African cities are becoming unaffordable to most locals is because landlords are rather catering to an increasing influx of richer foreigners, who are willing to pay more.  So she more or less places to blame on said foreigners, as well as Africans who may encourage them to come over and exploit the system.  What she doesn't seem to take into consideration however is that the same African landlords prioritize money over affordable housing which, within the context of the argument, is self-evident.

And if the goal is profit, then why wouldn't they?  Recently, I went out apartment hunting in Accra.  And I'm pretty sure the dudes I was liaising with raised the price when they heard my accent.

They were middlemen which, within the context of doing business in Ghana, are rarely ideal, especially if they're informal.  But if you're looking for affordable housing in a country like this - perhaps any country or State in the world these days - you may have to venture into the outskirts, not within the capital city.

It's sort of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't kind of situation.  Housing is more expensive in Accra, but it's also in these types of urban settings where commerce is concentrated.  You can then say 'okay, I'm going to go out to the bush, where housing is cheaper'.  But it may also be harder out there to make money.

Based on my experiences, the cost of living in the big city is higher than residing on the outskirts.  But outside of housing, all things considered, it isn't a whole lot so.

Anyhow, the original point I was intending to make is that in Africa, money is more of a defining factor than race.  Africans aren't generally racist, but they can be quite classist.

Money doesn't flow out here like it does in the West.  So when it does rear its head, Africans know how to capitalize in ways which may seem unethical to critics who can't see or appreciate the bigger picture.

THE HISTORY OF MONEY IN AFRICA

Recently, I got into sort of a debate with someone who was arguing over something that he never actually studied, while on the other side I knew some of the recorded history behind the subject.  What it centered around was the presence of money in Africa.

I was trying to impress on him that money, as we depend on it today, is a recent phenomenon in world history, something that only really took hold during the last couple of centuries.  That's true not only in Africa but around the world, more or less.  But he was rather arguing that the use of money has always been ubiquitous in the Motherland, in the form of cowrie shells and things like that.

But again, my point wasn't that money never existed, but rather, in recent times, we've been forced to depend on it.  For example, during the days of colonialism, it was mandated that Africans, such as Ghanaians, pay taxes to their colonial masters. That's to be expected within the context of colonialism.  But the catch was, some of those taxes had to paid in European currency.  And the only way to get that currency was to work for the colonial masters.

That's one of the methods in which modern money was introduced to the Motherland.  And it's even like that to this day, in a manner of interpretation. 

For instance, you can't pay an electricity bill in Ghana with farm produce, livestock or even gold, like you can't barter to settle utilities.  You can only do so using Cedis, issued by the Bank of Ghana, an institution which is more or less a holdover or result of the days of British colonialism.

A second factor that led to widespread adopting of modern, bank-issued currency was the desire for colonial goods.  In other words, the Europeans brought over products that Africans wanted.  And again, the conventional way to get them was via purchase with colonial-issued money.

And what I'm trying to get at is, if you honestly look at history, no one should expect that all of a sudden, African businessmen are going to start loving their own more than they love money.  I think any typical group of people, anywhere in the world, is like that.  Indeed, I would presume that the aforementioned realities which contributed to the widespread use of bank money in Africa were pretty much common across the globe.

And I'm not saying this in any type of judgemental way, as if any of us can change history.  But that's the nature of real estate.  If you, as a landlord, have a group of outsiders who are willing and able to pay more than locals, chances are, unless maybe said outsiders are dangerous criminals, you're going to end up taking the money.

CONCLUSION

You can't imagine that every richer foreign resident who relocates to the Motherland has bad or exploitative intentions.  I think it's safe to say that most countries, no matter where in the world they are, actually welcome the presence of foreigners who have more spending power than locals.

But that said, it's also true that coming from the West to a place like Ghana doesn't always bring out the best in people.  I've seen it happen so many times.  Just being from the U.S. or Europe and coming to Africa puts you in a enviable social class, one that you likely don't enjoy at home.  And when that happens, if you're not mature or grounded enough to handle it, it may get to your head, and you may start thinking like a colonizer - for lack of a better term.

But that reality, all modern things considered, should not be used to discourage anyone from coming over.  Instead, visitors have to be made to know what to expect, sorta like how, if a teenager is drafted into the NBA, he needs a mentor to help him navigate the associated temptations.  And if a foreigner ruthlessly exploits those advantages nonetheless, that's more of a personal character issue.  But you cant really expect landlords, anywhere, to become hardcore nationalistic unless there's some (financial) incentives involved.