Excuse me China

A few years ago, the term ‘Libya borga’ was in vogue in reference to our returnee compatriots who risked their lives to the north African country to earn a living.  The returnees, mostly those deported or those who have made enough to come back home or have seen the vanity in their sojourn, join us home to start a new life.

For the brave and courageous, who make enough to continue, their journey in search of greener pastures goes beyond crossing the Sahara Desert. They take on the mighty and violent Mediterranean Sea to cross over to Europe. The result is often catastrophic as the sea sometimes swallows the dingy they travel on.

According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 1,000 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Europe in 2019, the sixth year in a row that the “bleak milestone” had been reached.

It even gets grimmer. At least 18,000 people have lost their lives in Mediterranean crossings since 2014, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Those who God and luck smile on spend months, if not years in detention centres—hoping to acquire passage into the likes of Spain, Italy, Greece among other European countries that either rescued them or they landed in.

But these days, right-wing politicians in Europe are tightly controlling emigration to their countries, so the situation gets worse for these young people.

Aljazeera reported in October 2019 that for more than a year, Italy and Malta blocked humanitarian ships that picked up refugees and migrants from rickety boats at sea from docking or disembarking passengers in their countries.

Even with the distabilisation of Libya, our people continue to travel and we all watched in pain videos from that country showing ugly videos of reincarnation slavery when our youth detained in Libya were being offered for sale in widely circulated videos.

It was, therefore, not surprising to see another wave of videos showing that some Chinese wearing the xenophobic cap decided to show our compatriots in Guangzhou where power lies.

The Time Magazine of April 16 and other international portals also carried stories that alarmed the world about how some Chinese authorities turned the coronavirus fight on Africans who have not tested positive for the virus.

Excerpts of the Time story read: “Jay has been locked in his apartment in the southern Chinese megacity of Guangzhou since April 9—when a doctor, a local official and a translator delivered a mandatory quarantine order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The order came despite the fact that he hasn’t travelled in three months, is showing no symptoms of the disease and hasn’t come into contact with anyone who has tested positive.

“The English teacher, who comes from South Africa, checks his temperature every day and sends the readings to his landlord. A camera installed in the hallway of his building points straight at his door to make sure he doesn’t leave.”

Jay is lucky to be allowed to stay in his room. Some Ghanaians, Nigerians, Kenyans, Beninoise who were kicked out of their homes and hotel rooms with the tacit endorsement of the police spent the night in the open, in spite of paying rent and hotel bills in advance.

Other widely shared videos online appear to show Africans being barred from entering some supermarkets and restaurants. In one video filmed at a McDonald’s, a worker held a sign that states black people could not enter.

Ironically, this shameful act veiled by the Chinese authorities comes on the back of China’s own condemnation of racist attacks on Chinese people around the world as the virus race around the world keeping billions of people locked down, thousands dead and millions pf other hospitalised.

So where is the African leader in all these?

In Ghana, the Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, released a statement condemning the act and indicated that the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang, had been summoned. We are yet to know the outcome of that meeting. But the Chinese envoy while on a donation spree to our hospitals last weekend whitewashed events unfolding in China, describing the tapes as doctored with some events that happened years ago.

Some of the continent’s leaders, including the Deputy AU Chairman, Ambassador Kwesi Quartey, met the Chinese Ambassador in a boardroom meeting that I doubt made any difference.

In a video making the rounds, Nigerian Speaker of the House Femi Gbajabiamila instructed the Chinese ambassador to watch the clips from Guangzhou saying “We will not allow Nigerians to be maltreated in other countries.

Admittedly, there have been a resounding condemnation of the embarrassing incident which as usual showed how the African is viewed across the world.

While our leaders in the open seem to be condemning the act in private, they hope the next topic will blow this away. After all, in this crisis moment, many of them are counting on the generosity of the Chinese government to save us now and prop up our economy with aid later. But we forget there is no free lunch.

At this time, no African leader will want to rupture the relations with China, which has become the continent’s leading trade partner with the lives of thousands of Africa businesses dependent on Chinese goods. At this time, our leaders have their calabash in hand in search of PPEs and debt relief—they will shout hoarse to be seen as doing something in the fight against xenophobia, but in reality, it is just words with no action.

Once again, this global pandemic provides Africa with an opportunity to take its destiny into its own hands and create opportunities for its people.

But, that will depend on our politicians thinking more about their citizens, rather than siphoning millions of dollars from their economies and depositing them in western banks while jobless young people trudge through the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea to reach in search of opportunities. But for the same opportunities, why will a Ghanaian trader fly over 16 hours to China to buy goods that we could equally produce here?  The push factor compelling thousands of African youth to leave our continent annually is the seeming lack of opportunities. Our leaders must, therefore, make their countries attractive and livable. The net effect is that we can also attract westerners, who like our African leaders can have their secret accounts here. When they pass on, we can also use their funds to develop our countries. That’s fairness.

It’s all in our leadership.  The Chinese privileged for years led their people with vision—a vision that today puts our leaders and our resources at their beck and call. Are we ready as a nation and as a continent to weather the storm after this pandemic and rewrite a new chapter of leadership and governance? Only time will tell.

The author is the President-General of the West Africa Nobles Forum and Chancellor of the Wisconsin International University College

Opinions expressed by our contributors do not reflect the views of theghanareport.com.