Breaking the Curse
Last spring, during the Summit of the Americas, President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a copy of Eduardo Galeano’s famous treatise, Open Veins of Latin America. Curious about the significance of this gift, thousands of people around the world bought copies of the book. Published in 1971, it describes five hundred years of pillage of Latin America by European and, later, American interests. If Chavez were an African leader, he might have given President Obama Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa – a testament to the five hundred years of brutal theft and exploitation that have made the continent the poorest in the world, despite its rich natural resources.
This theft, still alive and well today, is made invisible by images of Africa as a region of drought, hunger, and poverty, devoid of any riches and always in need of Northern charity. On the contrary, Africa is extremely rich – in culture, music, language, history, and natural resources. The "paradox of plenty" describes countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, whose staggering mineral wealth have made them battlegrounds – often literally – for resource exploitation. While this wealth generates billions in revenue, the majority in these countries continue to live in poverty. In the case of conflict-ridden countries such as the Congo, millions of people have died in wars fuelled by the looting of its resources.
The pillaging of Africa is also achieved through other means. Each year, the global South loses an estimated $160 billion in revenue due to commercial tax evasion – almost twice the amount of aid it receives from the North. Breaking the Curse, a ground-breaking report co-authored by Inter Pares counterpart Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa), paints a damning portrait of the systematic drain of mining-generated wealth from Africa. While mining companies worldwide recorded windfall profits, the standard of living of people living in countries where these minerals were mined did not improve. Looking at seven resource-rich countries in Africa, the study demonstrates that government tax breaks and illegal tax evasion schemes by mining corporations have meant millions in lost revenue for these countries. The report proposes measures to redirect this income to African communities and countries for their development.
As a mining superpower, Canada plays a major role in exploiting Africa’s mineral resources. Canadian mining companies held $14.7 billion in assets in 35 African countries in 2007, a figure estimated to reach $20 billion by 2010. Through research and advocacy, TWN-Africa and Inter Pares are asserting that the accumulation of wealth in the North must not come at the expense of Africa’s economic and physical security.
Breaking the Curse is available on 
TWN-Africa's Web site. For more information on Canadian mining interests in Africa, read Pambazuka News' special issue on Canadian mining in Africa. For a closer look at mining in Ghana, view the Inter Pares photo essay "The Price of Gold."
| Reviewed August 19, 2009 |  |
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