I just find it so interesting that in all these chats about inequality and “how bad it’s going to be for Africa” none of these commentators have mentioned the regimes of travel and movement that facilitated the virus’ spread, including to the continent. https://twitter.com/JustKatlee/status/1248853502555758592

I accidentally deleted the very first tweet in the thread, but
https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/1235574179300364291?s=21 https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/1235574179300364291

We can’t talk about how many African countries lack resources + infrastructure to properly respond to covid19 without talking about colonialism, or without talking about the neoliberal policy WHICH ALSO created the space for people like the Gates to swoop in and provide services.

This “these poor Africans” shtick gets a lot uglier when you uncover the political economies of austerity that increased food insecurity, decreased healthcare access & life expectancies, had a negative impact on child and maternal health, and perpetuated continental poverty.

I’m so much less interested in the fact that Africans need help than I am *why* they need they need that help: [neo-]colonialism is a parasitic relationship that manufactures/forces vulnerability and dependency.

“The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world.”

From Kwame Nkrumah’s “Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism,” pdf here
https://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/books/Economics/Neo-Colonialism_KwameNkrumah.pdf