Africa: Unveiling the Diversity of Chinese Finance in Africa

  • Comment (3)

guest column

China increasingly is playing a crucial role in African economies. Two-way trade between China and Africa exceeded U.S. $106 billion in 2008 and Beijing is the leading trading partner with South Africa, the continent’s largest economy.

The role of Chinese finance is a key driver of this trend. Through diversification of instruments and sources it is setting the pace for Chinese engagement and concurrently providing a window into its changing approach to global finance.

The conventional view of Chinese finance in Africa is that it is a lump sum concessional loan, negotiated in secret between Beijing and the host government, built around the twin pillars of a substantive Chinese investment in infrastructure in exchange for access to African resources. The idea is that it is all wrapped in a commitment to non-interference and peopled by Chinese companies, unskilled labour and supplies.

Such is the power of this image that African leaders themselves have been seduced by it. Former leaders Olus?gun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Omar Bongo of Gabon and, most recently, Guinea’s Moussa Dadis Camara all believed that this was the definitive Chinese approach and pursued arrangements with Beijing on this basis. And in the main, their efforts to secure such deals have been dogged by controversy.

Chinese financing towards the continent, in fact, has always been more diverse than is commonly assumed. Financial restrictions on Chinese banks in the past have been placed by Beijing, which have limited their role to operating in the domestic setting when coupled with smaller reserves at the time and lack of experience. Following a series of policy innovations – especially after the establishment of national policy banks in 1994 and the subsequent opening of commercial banking – the scope for involvement abroad widened considerably.

Today, the spectrum of Chinese financial institutions operating in Africa ranges from those with direct ties to the government and its largesse to that of an emergent group of private banks and investment houses.

Those with the closest links to Beijing, such as the China Development Bank, are involved in conventional project finance as well as some more politically-motivated projects, such as the China Africa Development Fund.

China Eximbank, though obviously a policy bank and involved in large-scale infrastructure projects, nonetheless has increasingly sought to emulate the practices and conventions found in other leading national export banks.

Industrial and Construction Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest by market capitalisation, has pursued a joint venture strategy since 2007, purchasing 20 percent of Standard Bank and benefitting from its established position across Africa. It has been taking the lead in structured project finance deals and, through Standard Bank, is poised to use its financial resources to expand into retail banking.

Private finance like China Merchant Bank is testing the waters in Africa while the murky Chinese International Fund (CIF) is pursuing its own joint venture strategy in Guinea and Zimbabwe.

Understanding this diversity of Chinese financial actors is important not only for African policy makers and corporations, but it also sheds light on the changing nature of China’s business engagement with Africa.

With increasing Chinese government financing linked to real projects awarded to Chinese companies, the flow of these funds needs to be managed. Yet the presence of Chinese banks abroad and in emerging markets in particular is limited as these institutions are unable to handle remittances and advances in African countries. The pressure to have a more meaningful presence in Africa is to a large extent driven by the corporate customers of Chinese banks in the domestic market. Such customers would much rather be dealing with Chinese banks or banks that have partnered with Chinese banks.

A series of recent initiatives by Beijing has bolstered the exposure in Africa of Chinese financial institutions.

At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation meeting in Egypt late last year, China announced it would support Chinese financial institutions in setting up a special loan of U.S. $1 billion for small- and medium-sized African businesses. This is a clear sign that Beijing wants to encourage them to take a credit view on local companies. This was further supported by a Chinese commitment to cancel debts associated with low- or interest-free loans that were due to mature by the end of 2009, paving the way for improved credit terms in the future for these countries.

The broader implications of Chinese experience in the financial sector in Africa and other parts of the developing world are manifold. Chinese corporates have seen a movement to conduct overseas trade on open-account rather than the more traditional letter-of-credit terms with overseas customers. Moreover, in the wake of the global financial crisis, China has demonstrated a willingness to play a much more assertive role in international finance by proposing alternatives to the U.S. dollar in settling international trade transactions.

China is currently piloting international trade settlements in renminbi (yuan) in a number of Chinese cities. The pilot scheme allows for 400 approved Chinese enterprises in five approved cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhuhai, to settle trades with their counterparts in Hong Kong, Macau and Asean member countries.

If the renminbi is finally allowed to trade freely it is only natural that a large part of international trade will be conducted in renminbi. For Africa, whose trade is rapidly shifting eastward but is still dominated by the dollar (except in Francophone West Africa) the switch to renminbi will be a natural progression if the current trends in trade continue.

Clearly then, as Chinese corporates evolve and their banking system becomes more internationalised, these changes seen in the developing world will be increasingly reflected in global trends in international finance.

Chris Alden is a reader at the London School of Economics and senior research associate at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Riaan Meyer is a research associate at the SAIIA.


Copyright © 2010 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Comments Post a comment

  • upliftdarace_144
    Feb 10 2010, 09:27

    Titled : IS AFRIKA FOR SALE ?

    1) Points Of Interest :

    A) I’ve heard that one Afrikan country made a 99-year deal with an

    Asian country to lease a part of their land.

    B) China has given The Ghana Technology University College a

    $70 Million Dollar Memorandum ( ? Promissory Note ) ..Is This A

    Bribe Of Sorts ..Is Afrika For Sale ?

    2) How can anyone make a deal for the next generation ?

    3) What can we do about it ?

    4) Organize and get those crooks out of office or any position of

    power.

    5) Pray to God For insight and divine intervention.

    6) Afrika Is being targeted by many who are not respecting Afrika.

    7) We must stop selling ourselves and respect ourselves, our

    families and God.

    8) AFRIKA IS BEING FINANCIALLY & SPIRITUALLY GANG-RAPED

    By The ROBBERS OF OUR PEOPLE !!!!!!!

    But NEWS OUT OF THE EAST (CHINA?) AND OUT OF THE

    NORTH ( RUSSIA ?) shall trouble him: therefore he shall go

    forward with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many

    Revelations 16:12

    And the 6th angel poured out his vial upon the great river

    Euphrates; and the water of it was dried up, that the way of the

    KINGS OF THE EAST might be prepared.

    [Daniel 11:14 ]]

    And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of

    the south(AMERICA / BABYLON ): ALSO the ROBBERS OF OUR

    PEOPLE shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; BUT

    THEY SHALL FALL !

    AFRIKA IS THE LATEST TARGET OF THE WHORE OF BABYLON :

    The Dazzling Lights Of Glamour Are Shining On A Country That Is

    Being Attacked On

    Multiple Levels . What Is Being Done To Afrika ( By Deception )

    Has Already Been Done In America And Other American-

    Influence Countries.

    Here Is A Brief Summary Of Some of The Attacks On Afrika :

    1) Islamic Slavery – going back to around 700 A.D – to the present

    2) European Slavery – around 1440 A.D. – 1800s

    3) American Slavery –around 1660 – 1863

    4) American Disguised Slavery via different names :

    a) So-called former slaves forced to work for their so-called

    former masters Many were lynched [ Read Ida B. Wells The Red

    Record & 100 Years Of Lynching ( By Ralph Ginzburg) –

    b) The Convict Lease System ( Late 1800s )– forced many

    Black Men To Work In Camps Called Prisons (Disguised As State

    Institutions), But Actually Owned By The Richest Former Slave

    Owners [ See Movies Like “Sounder” starring Kevin Hooks & “

    Life “ (A So-called Comedy Starring Eddie Murphy & Martin

    Lawrence]

    c) The Current Criminal Justice System – Has Used Unjust

    Laws To Target Blacks (Crack vs. Cocaine) And The Poor

    Whites Too (Meth & Crystal)

    d) Television was introduced to most of America and by the

    1960s it had replaced Radio as the leading Family entertainment.

    e) Media Today is being Used To Change Afrika into America :

    THE WHORE OF BabyLON !!!

    [Check Out :

    WHO BROUGHT THE SLAVES TO AMERICA ?

    [ http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/42787621/Who+brought+the+slaves+to+ameri ca?tab=summary ]

    for full length video

    FRITZ SPRINGMEIER A Bold Christian Truthseeker

    The Top 13 Illuminati Bloodlines

    [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k73Q2_f4vKU ]

    WAKE UP !!! STAY UP !!!

    [ www.libradio.net ]

    [http://www.allafrica.com]

    Life Is A Game. Have Fun . Luke 18:17 - Isaiah 11:6

  • upliftdarace_144
    Feb 10 2010, 09:28

    TITLED : Kidnapped & Separated Afrikans Need Help Getting Home

    HeyNow Afrikan Family !

    On Afrikans Investing In Technology , Afrikans abroad & In Afrika

    Should Invest In The Technologies around the world And Have It

    Shipped To Afrika With The Know-How To Do It Ourselves.. We

    SHOULD NOT just allow countries to come into our countries and build

    and settle on our lands. If you will allow a stranger to run your country,

    Then you will allow then to run your state. If you will allow a stranger to run your state,

    then you will allow them to run your city, your neighborhood, your home, your family,

    yourself.. We Black Afrikans will be free , when we stop selling ourselves !!!!!!!

    America (The Whore Of Babylon) Is Trying To Re-vive it'as dying

    soul via other ASIANS & CAUC - ASIANS , But Prophecy Is

    Pronounced :

    And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of

    the south(AMERICA / BABYLON ): ALSO the ROBBERS OF OUR

    PEOPLE shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; BUT

    THEY SHALL FALL ! [Daniel 11:14 ]

    ATTENTION AFRIKA , you have 300 million citizens spread

    abroad that need your help getting back to our roots. While you

    are looking to countries like America & China to uplift Afrika, Many

    of us Black Afrikans spread abroad are proficient in a lot of useful

    technologies.

    What can you do to help us ?

    1) Start with contacting Pan-Afrikanist organizations like BLACK

    STAR MEDIA (Modelled after Marcus Garvey’s Vision For Afrika) : They are at

    [ www.libradio.net ]. The CEO of BLACK STAR MEDIA is Keidi-Obi

    Awadu. He has been on the frontline fighting for our freedom for

    over 30 years.

    2) Lobby Your Embassy Diplomats To Grant Dual Citizenship and perhaps some land in

    their respective countries To Your Scattered.

    Afrikans In The Diaspora.

    So please help us to return to our Mama Afrika as Israel

    under Moses escaped their exile !!!!!!!

    [ There will be an exodus of nations leaving America ; returning to their ancestral homes

    e.g. Black Africans to nations like Ghana, Sierra Leone, etc…]

    Jeremiah, chapter 50 : 16

    Cut off the sower from Babylon ;and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest

    For fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and

    THEY SHALL FLEE EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN LAND .

    Thanks You Ghana & Senegal For Offering Repatriation Options. Senegal Is Reaching Out To The Haitians (Ayitians) Who Have Been Constantly Attacked By The Weather Weapons

    (see : [ http://www.infowars.com/playing-with-weather-stirs-debate-in-china/ ]

    MAMA AFRIKA YOUR CHILDREN WANT TO COME HOME !!!!!!!

    [Check Out :

    WHO BROUGHT THE SLAVES TO AMERICA ?

    [ http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/42787621/Who+brought+the+slaves+to+ameri ca?tab=summary]

    for full length video

    WAKE UP ! STAY UP MY BROTHERS & SISTERS !

    [ www.libradio.net ]

    [ www.allafrica.com ]

    [ www.gcnlive.com]

    - Life Is a Game. Have Fun. [ Luke 18:17 / Isaiah 11:6 ] :

  • whites do it better
    Feb 10 2010, 10:47

    to Ghana Gharvey AKA upliftdarace_144:

    Oh my! How uninformed you are.

    None of those things were ever invented by the Africans. Never do the Africans invent things. The examples you noted above are of people who hold some patents on items that White European people have invented. Interestingly enough, none of the people you cited has an African name...that’s because the Africans cannot invent or built anything. But they are very skilled at breaking and destroying things. Look at the DRC or Zimbabwe. The Africans have an IQ 20% below of their Oriental counterparts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race,_Evolution,_and_Behavior. So give us a break and go back to your hut.

    We are sorry that our ancestors were intelligent, advanced and daring enough to explore the wild oceans to discover new countries and to concur and develop these.

    We are sorry that those who came before us took you out of the bush and taught you that there was more to life than beating drums and chasing animals with sticks and stones.

    We are sorry that they planned, funded and developed roads, towns, mines, factories, airports, all of which you now claim to be your long deprived inheritance so you have full right to change and rename these at your discretion.

    We are sorry that our parents taught us the value of small but strong families, to not breed like rabbits and end up as underfed, illiterate shack dwellers living in poverty.

    We are sorry that when they provided you with schools, you decided they looked better without windows or in piles of ashes. We happily gave up those bad days of getting spanked in our all white schools for doing something wrong, and much prefer these days of freedom where problems can be resolved with knives and guns.

    We are sorry that it is hard to shake off the bitterness of the past when you keep on raping, torturing and killing our friends and family members, and then hide behind the fence of "human rights" with smiles on your faces.

    We are sorry that we do not trust the government. We have no reason to be so suspicious and short sighted seeing that there has never been a case where any of these poor hard working intellectuals were involved in any form of corruption or irregularities.

    We are sorry that we do not trust the police force and although they have openly admitted that they have lost the war against crime and criminals, we should not be so negative and just keep on hoping for the best.

    We are sorry that we basically flung open our border posts, and now left you competing for jobs against illegal immigrants from our beautiful neighboring countries. All these countries that have grown so strong after kicking out the "settlers", you should follow their excellent example and grow big and strong like them!

    We are sorry that we don't believe in witchcraft, beetroot and garlic, urinating on street corners or trading woman for cattle, maybe we just grew up differently. So sorry that when we are forced into sharing the same establishments, sometimes we loose our temper, that is totally uncalled for.

    We are sorry that your medical care, water supplies, roads, and your electrical supplies are going down the toilet because skilled people who could have planned and resolved these issues had to be shown away because they were of the wrong ethnic background and now have to work in foreign countries where their skills are more needed.

    We are so sorry and should really try harder to be more tolerant and learn to get along with EVERYBODY around us, one big happy family.

    Now here are some fact from our well versed reader juhlman

    Here it is LIAR! Every one knows you're a liar "Uplift", I've told everyone where to fact-check your lies...................... when you have something interesting to say, say it! But don't bog us all down in your self-serving lies....................

    Here's "my" "cut-n-paste" you liar................!

    ........ I thought "Uplift" would stop posting their lies when I originally confronted them - but NO, "Uplift" only stopped posting his lies and exaggerations for a while - thinking I was not looking...............

    "Uplift" makes spurious claims to assert some kind on "African" pride on these boards. He makes posts that attribute some great "invention" or technological "leap" forward as being the result of some sort of "African" achievement!

    I will NOT disparage the great leaps towards our collecitve knowledge that Africans or persons of African descent have contributed to our world or society, yet "Uplift" spouts off facts as if we couldn't "check" his "facts" on the interwebs..........................

    Here is a sampling of "Uplift"'s so-called "facts"......... I've posted the Wikipedia and other interwebs links so you can see for yourself whether what "Uplift" says is true.............

    "Uplift" claims that the following persons "invented" the following things:

    • Sarah Boone - IRONING BOARD - April 26, 1892

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironing_board#Ironing_board

    “On 16 February 1858 W. Vandenburg and J. Harvey patented an ironing table that made pressing sleeves and pant legs easier.[3] A truly portable folding ironing board was first patented in Canada in 1875 by John B. Porter of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The invention also included a removable press board used for sleeves.[4]”

    • John A. Burr - LAWN MOWER

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn_mower

    “The first lawn mower was invented by Edwin Budding in 1827 in Thrupp, just outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire. Budding's mower was designed primarily to cut the lawn on sports grounds and expensive gardens, as a superior alternative to the scythe, and was patented in 1830. It took ten more years and further innovations to create a machine that could be worked by animals, and sixty years before a steam-powered lawn mower was built.”

    No mention whatsoever of John A. Burr. However, you will find mention of John A. Burr’s “improvements” to the “lawn mower” here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_lawn

    “An African American inventor named John Albert Burr patented an improved rotary blade lawn mower on May 9, 1899, U.S. Patent 624,749, with the wheel placement altered for better performance.”

    • Marie V. Brittan Brown - HOME SECURITY SYSTEM - Dec 2, 1969

    I can’t argue with this one, websites are hard to find on this example, but it safe to say that Marie V. Brittan Brown did invent the “video” home security system in 1969.

    • Buridge & Marshman – TYPEWRITER

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter

    “No single person invented the typewriter. As with the automobile, telephone, and telegraph, a number of people contributed insights and inventions that eventually resulted in commercially successful instruments. In fact, historians have estimated that some form of typewriter was invented 52 times as tinkerers tried to come up with a workable design.”

    However, again you will find mention of their improvement to the “typrewriter” here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman_Marshman

    But note that the date is 1885, earlier versions appear at least as early as 1714. While Mssr’s Burridge & Marshman “improved” the typewriter, they certainly did not “invent” it.

    • George Carruthers - X-RAY MACHINE

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_machine

    The X-ray was “discovered” by a European, the machinery involved to project “x-rays” would necessarily have been invented by the person who discovered them in the first place.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray

    “Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen is usually credited as the discoverer of X-rays because he was the first to systematically study them, though he is not the first to have observed their effects. He is also the one who gave them the name "X-rays", though many referred to these as "Röntgen rays" for several decades after their discovery.

    X-rays were found emanating from Crookes tubes, experimental discharge tubes invented around 1875, by scientists investigating the cathode rays, that is energetic electron beams, that were first created in the tubes. Wilhelm Röntgen was the first to systematically study them, in 1895.[26]

    Among the important early researchers in X-rays were Ivan Pulyui, William Crookes, Johann Wilhelm Hittorf, Eugen Goldstein, Heinrich Hertz, Philipp Lenard, Hermann von Helmholtz, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Charles Glover Barkla, Max von Laue, and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen.”

    George Carruthers did NOT “invent” invent the x-ray machine, although he IS an extremely talented man:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Robert_Carruthers

    “By 1964, Carruthers began employment for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. where his work focused on far ultraviolet astronomy. 1969 was the year he received a patent for his invention, the "Image Converter," which detected electromagnetic radiation in short wave lengths, and in 1970, he made the first examination of molecular hydrogen in space. Two years later, Carruthers invented the first moon-based observatory, the Far Ultraviolet Camera/ Spectrograph, which was used in the Apollo 16 mission. During the 1980s, Carruthers helped create a program called the Science & Engineers Apprentice Program, which allows high school students to spend a summer working with scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory. Later on in 1986, one of Carruthers' inventions captured an ultraviolet image of Halley's Comet. In 1991, he invented a camera that was used in the Space Shuttle Mission. During the summers of 1996 and 1997 he taught a course in Earth and Space Science for D.C. Public Schools Science teachers. He also helped develop a series of videotapes on Earth and Space science for high school students.”

    • George Washington Carver - PEANUT BUTTER - PAINTS – PAINT STAINS – ETC

    I won’t even argue the point, G.W. Carver was a brilliant man…………. A truly great man

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver

    • W.A. Dietz – SHOE

    Are you freaking kidding me? “Uplift” has found that an African “invented” the SHOE! Well, I suppose since science acknowledges human life began in Africa, it is more than likely that an African thought of the “shoe”, 3,000 years ago…

    Oops! I was mistaken, per Wikipedia the “shoe” was “invented” in what is now the U.S.A.!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe

    “The earliest known shoes date from about 8000 to 7000 BCE and were found in Oregon, USA in 1938.[1] However, tanned leather, the material most commonly used for making shoes, does not normally last for thousands of years, so shoes were probably in use long before this. Physical anthropologist Erik Trinkaus believes he has found evidence that the use of shoes began in the period between about 40,000 and 26,000 years ago”

    There is NO mention of a W.A. Dietz in Wikipedia. But Google reveals he did receive a patent for a shoe design in 1867, but that is not quite the “invention” of the “shoe” is it?

    http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/history.html

    • P.B. Downing - POSTAL LETTER BOX – Again, MORE drivel from “Uplift”!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_box#History_of_post_boxes

    “In 1653, the first post boxes are believed to have been installed in Paris, France.[1] By 1829, post boxes were in use throughout France.[2] In Britain the first pillar post boxes were erected in Jersey in 1852. Roadside wall boxes first appeared in 1857 as a cheaper alternative to pillar boxes, especially in rural districts. In 1853 the first pillar box on the British mainland was erected at Botchergate, Carlisle. In 1856 Richard Redgrave of the Department of Science and Art designed an ornate pillar box for use in London and other large cities. In 1859 the design was improved, and this became the first National Standard pillar box.”

    You can find mention of P.B. Downing here, he “invented” the mail box in 1891, some time after “post boxes” had been first introduced:

    http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/pbdowning.html

    • Charles R. Drew - BLOOD PLASMA STORAGE SYSTEM

    No argument here against this name, Charles Drew, Great American of African descent.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Drew

    • T. Elkins - TOILET (COMMODE)

    Seriously……… “Uplift” wants us to believe that an African “invented” the “toilet”? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet#History

    “The third millennium B.C. was the "Age of Cleanliness." Toilets and sewers were invented in several parts of the world, and Mohenjo-Daro circa 2800 B.C. had some of the most advanced, with lavatories built into the outer walls of houses. These were "Western-style" toilets made from bricks with wooden seats on top. They had vertical chutes, through which waste fell into street drains or cesspits. Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the director general of archaeology in India from 1944 to 1948, wrote, "The high quality of the sanitary arrangements could well be envied in many parts of the world today."”

    A Google-search of “T. Elkins” shows he was involved in refrigeration, but certainly did NOT “invent” the toilet or commode……….

    http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/telkins.html

    • Robert Flemming Jr. – GUITAR

    So………. A certain “Robert Flemming Jr. “invented” the “guitar”…………… According to Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar

    “The guitar is descended from the Roman cithara brought by the Romans to Hispania around 40 AD, and further adapted and developed with the arrival of the four-string oud, brought by the Moors after their conquest of Iberia in the 8th century.”

    References to “Robert Flemming” or “Robert Fleming” are vague at best, he may actually have “invented” a particular guitar or an improvement of the guitar, but we can rest assured, Romans were NOT named Robert Fleming Jr……………

    I grew tired as I searched “Uplift”’s outright lies and material exaggerations……….

    As if……..

    A “Black” Man (George F. Grant) “invented” the golf tee…… a game with it’s roots in Scotland…… A “Tee”” was a pinch of sand and “gorse” that one placed his “tee” shot on top of……… Although traditionally associated with Scotland, Wikipedia asserts it’s origins lie in a game from Roman times : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf#Origin

    I won't go on to further illustrate the lies that "Uplift" posts here, but you sense a pattern......... "Uplift" uses the example of an ordinary item and then somehow "claims" that they were "invented" by "Black" people................. "Uplift" uses a gratuitously ignorant example of how certain "Black" people "invented" one item or another to reinforce his view of African "pride"......

    I, for one, don't need THAT! I recognize that Africans and people of African descent have contributed and improved on what was "invented" before them!

    Why does some one need to post outright lies and exaggerations?

    If you post here, be FACTUAL, do NOT make up stuff the rest of us can easily research on the interwebs!

    I have posted FACTUAL refutations of what "Uplift" posts here several times........

    This person needs to be BANNNED" - I have shown him to post outright lies or intentional exaggerations of FACT................

    "Uplift" is using this board to affirm their own sense of self-worth with little regards as to the FACTS they supposedly post...........

    AND............... "Uplift"............. I HAVE saved this word document so that the next time you spout your ignorant drivel, I will expose you again!

    If I made a post about how many great "white" or "asian" people "invented" a great many things, I'd be ostracized from the board...........

    "Uplift"............... the next interesting thing you have to say will be your first. I too can make up things about how glorious "white" people are too,, but I do not, because we are not, nor are those of any other race.

    "Uplift", what you don't get is that this is NOT about race, it's about justice and the rule of law for ALL Zimbabweans..........

    When you get your head around THAT, we'll still be here, until then, keep your idiotic drivel to yourself! You do NOT advance the conversation, you merely expose yourself for the idiot that you are!

    Is there anyone else here who wants to buy into "Uplift's" lies?

    "Total Empowerment!"