The United Nations-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative has allowed Ukraine to safely export 32 million metric tonnes of food. This deal has so far facilitated the export of enough food to feed nearly 150 million people in the last year alone. As the war loomed, the West, in its usual PR shenanigans, ran through its media outlets how Russia was blocking Ukraine from exporting food to the poorest. Africa and poverty have an indefinite marriage with no chance of divorce.
Africa this time, well, many times to be honest, was paraded as this dying population with skyrocketing food prices. Some, even I, almost fell for it. These Westerners are so caring; wow, bless them!
Then a deal between Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, and the UN was struck in July 2022. What were the stipulations? Allow The Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports, i.e., wheat, corn, sunflower products, and other soft commodities shipped from the Black Sea to countries in Africa and the Middle East. The agreement also required Western countries to unblock Russian grain and fertiliser exports and receive sanctions reprieve for their own agricultural goods and fertiliser, but sanctions by the West on Russian shipping and banking are hindering exports and settlements. Now, here is the deal: the Russian part of the deal has not been implemented at all, not even once! The UN admitted that not a single vessel with Russian fertilisers was dispatched under the Black Sea grain initiative—not one!
Remember the West PR shenanigan on how Africans are starving and Russia is blocking Ukraine from exporting food? Well, 50% of the food exported from Ukraine went to the EU, 25% to upper-middle-income countries, and just about 25% reached those poor people they ranted about. Africa was never their target; they don’t care about Africa, but again, why should they? No, honestly, why should they? They (the EU) lifted all tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian grain exports, which unexpectedly triggered fierce competition within Eastern European countries, i.e., local producers faced plummeting prices, which affected their income as most of the grain exports went to Europe, saturating the Eastern European market; they were not sent to the poor. UN Comtrade reported a surge in Ukrainian exports to Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, from $24 million in 2021 to $2.4 billion in 2022.
There have been wars all over Africa and other brown countries, a lot of times actually; the root causes of these wars sometimes trace back to the West, yet none of those war countries have ever had such treatment as Ukraine. When I see Africans changing their profile statuses and killing themselves for Ukraine, I’m lost for words. Let me tell you something: Ukraine sees you as sub-humans; the West doesn’t care about you either. They will use you to gain a loophole so Ukraine can export its food products to them; in fact, everyone in Africa can die as long as Russia is defeated through the West’s proxy war, but little did they know that Russia is not Africa; they’ve met their match.
Africa is not part of their sanction regime; you should listen to these Western leaders regurgitate those three monotonously lame words “The International Community”, which comprises themselves, Japan, and South Korea, or, in other words, the world by us, for us, and of us. They barely make up 15% of “The International community,” as you hear echoed all the time by these infected colonial mindset leftover Western leaders. The West is no one’s friend but itself; it will fight to the last man to maintain their unipolar dominance. Africa should keep the West further away and bring China and Russia closer if it wants to be respected; another 100 years of humiliation should not be contended with.
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Writer: – Ikechukwu Orji –Â
