Somali offer of land to Egypt: is it neo-colonialism?

Source: Somali Current / Elbalad

The Somali government has offered nine million hectares of land to the Egyptian government to develop model farming, according to the Egyptian newspaper Elbalad.

Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture, Salah Halal, said his government will help Somalia in developing its agriculture, livestock and fishing sectors.

The statement came after Egypt’s minister of agriculture hosted Somali delegates led by the Minister of Livestock, Saed Hussein Eid.

Somali government officials said the unexploited nine–million hectares of land will help Egypt to develop a model farm in the country, adding the model farm will benefit the locals.

However, the minister did not disclose the exact location of the land.

Three quarters of Somalia’s land remain unexploited with many multinational companies eyeing the opportunity.

---------------

N.B.: The last time the Egyptians ventured into East-Africa, they were supposed to boost the cotton-based sector of the agriculture in Kenya - with the result that the then introduced heavy pesticide-laden and industrialized cotton farming and subsequently the Kenyan garment industry completely collapsed, while in secret the Egyptians developed into the world's largest organic cotton exporter.

With vast tracts of land just given by so called governments to international exploiters, a serious neo-colonial drive is on in Africa. 

With GMO-fields in Malawi and South Africa now under Monsanto and USAmerican interests contaminating Southern Africa's agriculture, with riverine lands along the Omo in fake Ethiopia (actually Abyssinia) given for cash-crop farming to straw-men companies from India and elsewhere acting for USAmerican corporations, while local people are driven off their lands; with huge junks of homelands given to the Chinese in Kenya for irrigation agriculture in a country which has less than 3 percent tree cover and serious water problems, and now with the unelected place-holder governance of Somalia offering such to Egypt (and their USAmerican backers), the history of African liberation has again received huge blow-backs.

Egypt should better focus on the uplifting of livelihoods in its own downtrodden rural population, which is kept since the days of the Pharaohs in servitude, poverty and poor health, instead of trying to export their exploitation scams.

It always takes four to really Tango: Corrupt local politicians and pseudo-leaders, unscrupulous foreign exploiters, ignorant or misinformed local people and an oversight, which in form of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the so-called United Nations (UN) has been dubbed since long "a Cosa Nostra". If one seriously stands against corruption and extortion, one has to opt out of all four groups - or better now allow them to play any role anymore.

But in the case of Somalia a fifth column will have to come into force in the game of the exploiters: Surely young Somali people would and will stand up against such blatant daylight robbing of their lands, and then they will be called "terrorists" against whom the military-industrial complex of the West will have to be brought in - even if it is only via proxies, like the African Union military forces, fostered by resource-hungry neighbours like Kenya and Ethiopia (Abyssinia).

This vicious circle so far has nowhere been broken where the "Unions" have put their foot down - be they European or - often hidden - Anglo-Saxon American or with highest perfidy proxy-African.

blog comments powered by Disqus