For functional democracy and good governance to take root in Africa, Africans must be proactive to develop strategies and mechanisms that will not only birth these, but also  make it possible for African citizenry to own their means of production. Let us not forget that, right from the slave trade, colonialism, and neocolonialism epoch, Africans have never owned the means of production in their continent. As Africa’s cooperation with China in the socio-economic and political areas experiences an upward trend, we must ask ourselves whether this cooperation is for the good of Africa.

Africa is plagued by two major problems: leadership that is failing to steer the continent in the right direction and increased marginalization of Africa’s citizens from the global economy. Will the continent's cooperation with China help it overcome these two problems?

The development witnessed in Europe and North America was birthed by Africa. During the Trans-Atlantic slave trade period, an estimated ten to one hundred million strong and able-bodied people were forcefully shipped from Africa to Europe and North America to work in plantations.  This opened up a new world and increased production of commodities which eventually resulted into the industrialization of Europe and North America.

When direct slave trade ended, European countries such as Britain, Germany, France and Belgium embarked on the scramble for African resources and partitioning of the continent. In the 1884-85 Berlin conference, they agreed on how to share Africa among themselves. What followed was colonial occupation, land alienation, forced labor and imposition of new agricultural paradigms to feed  industries in Europe.

When the colonial period ended, the colonialists granted cosmetic independence to African countries. They (colonialists) remain the major decision makers of major decisions in Africa. Africa's historical colonial relationship with Europe is reflected in conventions such as, Yaoundé Convention of 1963, Lome ACP Convention of 1975, Cotonou, agreement and EPA negotiations among others. These economic ties mostly favor Europe and enable European countries to continue exploiting Africa’s renewable and non renewable resources to the detriment of Africans.

China did not participate in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. China was not part of the 1884-85 Berlin conference. There is no known African country which was once China’s colony. China’s relationship with Africa dates back as early as two centuries B.C. Calling China a modern day neocolonialist is to be out of touch with reality. Compared to the Western aid with strings attached, China’s assistance to Africa is majorly government-to-government by non-currency. This is what Africa needs, if it wants to stay on the road of achieving an accelerated economic transformation.

China's  increasing monopoly  in Africa has made the West, whom are losing ground in monopolising Africa's resources,  jittery. The West  are doing everything possible to discredit China’s positive developments in Africa.

Indeed as you travel in various African countries, you will witness various Chinese - completed infrastructural projects such as national stadiums, dams, housing projects, roads and buildings such as the magnificent African Union headquarters in Addis-Ababa. This is in addition to various Chinese private investments in areas such as trade, commerce, agriculture and industrial processing spread all over Africa that are contributing to the steady economic transformation of African economies. No wonder trade experts are predicting that, bilateral trade between China and Africa will reach US $300 billion by 2015.

As  much as China has presented a window of opportunities to Africa, its increasing influence is associated with predatory threats. China's presence in Africa is spurred by its need to exploit cheap African resources to service its ever rising developmental needs back home. Its commitment  to avail aid with no strings attached to African countries -including dictatorial and corrupt governments - demonstrates that all that China cares about is access to resources and nothing more.

Just like the West, China in countries such as Zambia, Niger, DRC and Guinea is extracting mineral resources such as copper, tin, cobalt, Zinc, gold, as well as oil and gas and exporting them in raw form back home from where they are processed into various finished products that are sold back to Africa at a high cost. This practice is akin to the old trade pattern in Africa that stimulates  industrial and economic development of China as African citizenry keeps on wallowing in poverty.

The Chinese government through its overseas development fund is heavily funding its citizens to acquire large tracts of fertile land cheaply- and sometimes unscrupulously - in African countries such as Tanzania, Uganda, Angola and Burkina Faso.  The parcels of land are used to grow food that is exported to feed the Chinese or be used as biofuels. By doing this, China seems to care less about African citizenry poverty.The country has signed secret deals with some African leaders that impact negatively on African citizenry. Africans must demand total transparency of their leaders and development partners.
 
All over Africa, employees working in Chinese owned companies and private establishments are not happy about the working conditions their Chinese employers are exposing them to. They are forced to work from early morning to the late evening with very little pay. In fact in countries such as Zambia, Uganda and Sudan, African employees working in Chinese companies have taken to the streets over poor working conditions.

African cities and towns are flooded with cheap and imitated homemade Chinese products some of which have been detrimental to the health of African consumers. One would be right to argue that, China, as the West has done, is using Africa as a dumping ground for its outdated technology and unwanted products back home.

We [Africans]  must scrutinize the trade and economic pacts/agreements between Africa and China to the point of their implementation. We must keep on evaluating whether the China-Africa relationship is mutually beneficial as  regards enabling the African citizenry to benefit from their resources.

The author moseswiseman2000@gmail.com is a Ugandan based independent governance researcher, public affairs analyst and writer.