To take, to tax, to share? These are the questions governments of countries rich in oil, gold, diamonds, platinum and other natural resources are asking themselves. How can they share this wealth with mining companies while making sure their citizens benefit, too? Richard Poplak examines the growing trend towards resource nationalisation. No word in Africa’s post-liberation lexicon causes as much brouhaha as “nationalisation”. Along with its unhappy corollaries—state ownership, state participation, indigenisation—any talk of nationalising mines sends investors and neo- liberal wonks into a frenzy. The spectre of a dark era rises before us: corrupt Big Men swapping commodities for…
Richard Poplak
Africa’s Chinese-built super highway: cheap or a slippery road to surveillance? Drawing the line between infrastructure and national security by Richard Poplak The Chinese company Technologies, the world’s second biggest telecommunications giant after Sweden’s Ericsson, does not attract much affection. It is subject to the usual opprobrium heaped on China’s monster corporations and riddled with so-called “reputational concerns”. Critics accuse Huawei of benefitting unfairly from cheap government money, stealing competitors’ intellectual property (IP) and being uncomfortably cosy with China’s military. Following a series of investigations, American and Australian lawmakers have banned Huawei from bidding on massive telecoms infrastructure projects, fearing…
Mozambique’s Renamo From rebel group to political party and back again: Renamo’s recidivism defies the sunny prognostications of the “Africa Rising” narrative by Richard Poplak For decades, it seemed as if the Mozambican civil war, which raged from 1977 to 1992, was resolutely over. While the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) enjoyed a lock on power, its arch-rival, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), was not disbanded in bloody recrimination following defeat. Rather, Renamo has enjoyed official opposition status in Maputo, many thousands of kilometres from its Gorongosa game park stronghold in the country’s distant hinterland. Recently, however,…
