Two elder statesmen have urged leaders in the African continent and the Caribbean to aggressively pursue deepened trade ties from their common histories in a bid to unlock the nascent growth and development potential for both global regions.
The two former world leaders spoke at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) 2024 AGM in the Bahamas on Thursday. It was the first time Afreximbank held the meeting in the Caribbean.
Former prime minister of Jamaica PJ Patterson cited the words of Jamaican music icon Bob Marley to underscore the common history between African people and the diaspora in the Caribbean which included the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Western colonial project.
“Our brothers and sisters from Africa have paid us a great honour by deciding to host this meeting in the place where Columbus landed when he lost his way to India. Bob Marley, one of his better lines, and there were many, was ‘stolen from Africa, brought to America’. It is not a question of if. The only question to ask is, why has it taken us so long?
“Imperial powers made a deliberate effort to put differences between us in what they taught us about ourselves. For a long time they were referring to the Dark Continent and singing in the church ‘oh, heathen lands afar’. If it was so good in Europe, why were they trespassing in Africa?”
Patterson said Europe could not exist and attain the level of development it did without plundering the resources of Africa, natural and human.
The Security Council is the powerhouse of security. Africa has no position at present. We must be resolute. The 54 countries of Africa, 44 of the Caribbean must demand a permanent seat at the Security Council.
— PJ Patterson, forrmer prime minister of Jamaica
“Africa has rightly declared it consists of six regions. The sixth region is the Caribbean and its diaspora and we have to stop the talk and walk the walk.”
Patterson said the world order was not designed for the benefit of Africa and its people. Africa requires a just and equitable economic order. Nations in Africa and the Caribbean were promised a new economic order after their anti-colonial struggles but remained underdeveloped while becoming heavily indebted.
“Nobody will stop us if we act as one. I want to illustrate six areas identified in a summit three years ago. At a political level, we have to change the UN. The Security Council is the powerhouse of security. Africa has no position at present. We must be resolute. The 54 countries of Africa, 44 of the Caribbean must demand a permanent seat at the Security Council.”
He said African and Caribbean states must work together to put an end to the practices of established lenders that have introduced a lopsided lending systems that exploits African underdevelopment.
Africa only accounts for 3% of world trade and 0.5% for the Caribbean, but the opportunity lies ahead for Africa and the Caribbean to increase their trade ties.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said he regarded African and Caribbean people as “one and the same”, adding their economic emancipation depended on them co-operating.
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was the height of dehumanisation and greed, but the western colonial project was committed to ensuring a continuous disconnect between Africa and its descendants in the diaspora.
We were made to believe even the food we have to eat will come imported. This is part of received ideas we have taken in. We have to get out of this and nobody will help us.
— Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria
“We have everything. Even for our emancipation, for our liberation, for our development, we have everything and we have to come together.
“We were made to believe even the food we have to eat will come imported. This is part of received ideas we have taken in. We have to get out of this and nobody will help us. One of the first lessons I learnt from my father is what you can do for yourself, do not outsource to somebody else. We have outsourced our development to others. That must stop.”
In Afreximbank’s Africa Trade Report, Afreximbank president Benedict Oramah said the funding institution was intentional about wooing Caribbean markets to deepen their trade ties with markets from the African continent.
“As Afreximbank extends its footprints to the Caribbean and wider African diaspora, the report will increasingly assume a global perspective in addition to its geographical focus on the continent.”
Gateway Partners CEO and board member of the investment committee of the Fund for Export Development in Africa Viswanathan Shankar said: “Historically, to put it bluntly, we have been ousted. But now it is time for us and African and Caribbean nations to come together.”
International Trade Centre (ITC) executive director Pamela Coke-Hamilton said the ITC’s research with Afreximbank shows trade between Africa and the Caribbean held enormous potential for $1.8bn (R33.35bn) for goods and services annually by 2028.
“But we have a long road ahead of us if we’re going to achieve that potential in practice, because getting to that number means getting rid of trade frictions and getting investments into the right sectors.”
However, she said, in the past decade alone, the share of African exports that goes to the Caribbean has been decreasing and less than 0.1% of African exports go to the Caribbean and less than 3% of Caribbean exports go to the African continent.
The reporter was invited to the annual meeting as a guest of Afreximbank.
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