Nkrumah's Infrastructure Journal - A Special Report
Russia focuses its attention on four African nations for railway expansion. The North-South International Transport Corridor will be extended to the African continent - it is official.
It has been a busy year already and honestly, I am still reading up on all the major diplomatic and strategic events that took place in 2024. After the major successes of the Russia-Africa summit and the FOCAC summit that took place in Beijing, we are now beginning to see the physical results of all that talking and politicking, between the worlds most powerful men and women. Unlike the declining empire, that seems to have zero idea as to what the others want any more and therefore has resigned itself from its global hegemonic leadership position - from the shining city on a hill, to a mere observer, incapable of stopping the arrival of the New Paradigm with a shared future of prosperity for humankind. This is a paradigm that represents the opening up of the world to create more, rather than less. A paradigm that seeks out the highest potential for each individual, rather than the lowest parts of the whole. A paradigm that will literally change the daily lives of every single man and woman on earth through scientific and creative interventions into the standard of living; a real quantum leap in human understanding that will undoubtedly change the world around us. We will wave goodbye to desertification and droughts, we will end human starvation and poverty, we will never be short of water again and we will all have access to education and knowledge. No individual will be forgotten this time, because this new paradigm is the paradigm of the other, the forgotten 6 billion, the ones who still cant afford those Nikes even though they made them, the ones who continue to wonder why life hasnāt gotten better, even though the colonialists promised so much to dream of. And dream on they did, until China came along around the millennium and now, watch out London and Paris because somehow, Russia has just found some capital to invest after decades of sanctions heaped on her economy and Putin is now looking towards the West African region for some sovereign partners to dance with.
One of Africaās big issues, is that so many of its leaders are totally in the pockets of the western elite and think-tank institutions where they were trained to be good little lap dogs who constantly look to their foreign master for approval and to be patted on the head as a good and docile pet. Whenever London, Paris or Washington come knocking for resources, they also come with an array IMF and World Bank loans that conditionally impose high interest rates, refuse to spend the money on infrastructure development and impose other financial strangleholds on the nations people with increased tax measures across the economy that in turn are supposed to pay for the debts. This is the westās well rehearsed method of, Neo-Colonial Financial extortion -
Train, insert and buy the countries elite - brainwash them so that they would rather serve the foreign master, than their own people.
Via the western backed loans, pay and corrupt the national elite to allow western companies like Glencore to extract at will. Often resulting in a lack of regulatory oversight, extraction without paying any taxes or customs and human rights abuses where contracts arenāt paid and minors are engaged in slave labor.
The nations citizenry receives none of the wealth, loans or resources. The loans are used to corrupt the elite, fund regime change operations on uncooperative neighbors (like French-ally Ivory coast is doing to Burkina Faso currently) or for meaningless social science programs that aim to brainwash people rather than lift them from their plight. The resources are extracted while the leadership turns a blind eye, because they have been made rich already. The people are left with nothing but an elite that periodically sacrifices them on the alter, using abusive measures to keep them in check, while western governments and corporations are given a red carpet to commit unchecked daylight robbery.
This creates a vicious cycle for the African population, a cycle in which the only way to break free, is to take back their national sovereignty, develop their internal security situations so that there are zero snakes left in the garden and thereafter unleash the potential of those resources so that the people can realize their individual economic prosperity.
Regime change is Africaās most recurrent and likely downfall; it is not that Africa hasnāt already produced great humanist leaders, it is that we shot them allā¦
And so without further ado, from Russia with Love/Agape, we welcome Security with a capital S and it arrives in the form of military support on the ground with troops, ammo, weapons and technical assistance; all in aid of defeating the scourge of terrorism that has been aided and financed by the west since over three decades at least. Infrastructure development, is the next active love to be ushered into the halls of the BRIICS+ diplomacy and it is here that we will really get excited for the results because infrastructure development is the fastest action to eradicate poverty.
Why?
Because of the immediate and massive increase in jobs - Design, management, oversight, legal and technical jobs in the thousands are always created when we build major physical infrastructure.
The infrastructure construction boosts the local commercial economy where the project is being built - the local population engage in sales of food and beverages, small electronics, newspapers and magazines, clothes and miscellaneous items for working outdoors. Construction workers buy lots of local goods throughout the period of construction.
Upon completion - the road, railway, airport or port, will provide newly created permanent direct jobs in the region for the continued maintenance of the project. Indirect jobs will also grow to service the needs of those permanent workers and also citizens and tourists alike, who continuously travel the route, due to its ease of access and speed.
These new jobs donāt disappear overnight just because of some change in government or in policy. Infrastructure remains regardless of what party comes to power and this secures the peoples standards of living and social rights too. Rather than make them beholden to political parties, the parties are beholden to performing for the people and it should always be this way around.
From Russia to Burkina Faso
The Russian Railways company (RZD) is targeting four African countries, Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, and Libya, for infrastructure development. The initiative is a bold move and a new part of Russia's strategy to enhance trade routes and strengthen geopolitical ties through railway modernization. Recent events have moved African markets into the limelight and some are now viewed as pivotal regions for transporting bulk goods, such as minerals, metals, oil and gas, all of which are essential base resources for economic growth.
Moscowās broader geopolitical goals are beginning to take shape in the physical realm and like China, have finally stepped up to the plate. RZD targets key transport corridors on the continent and will partner with the countries of Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, and Libya to develop regional rail networks for improved movement of goods and people.
With big strategic investments in rail infrastructure on the way, Russia aims to bolster trade routes, enhance regional integration, and cement its influence on the continent. Sputnik Afrika has reported that Russian Railways (RZD) is expanding its presence in Africa by focusing on railway construction and modernization and the choice behind those four nations bears some significance when we look at international strategic trade corridors that are already inked down on paper, and are being cemented into place.
"Given the potential of developing trade with [African] countries, we see prospects for the further development and extension of the NorthāSouth International Transport Corridor in the direction of Africa with the creation of the appropriate transport infrastructure." - "We are prepared to actively get involved in this work with interested Russian operators and logistics companies,"
- said RZD First Deputy CEO, Sergei Pavlov at the State Duma.
Why is Russia looking to those four?
What do Burkina Faso, Ghana, Libya and South Africa have in common?
On the surface of it all, it may seem like a pretty random selection but i think we would be wise to assume, that the Russian intelligentsia doesnāt do randomness and they certainly donāt have money to waste at this given time, so what is the planā¦
The plan is to connect Africa to the North-South International Transport corridor, Russiaās version of Chinaās BRI, only smaller and obviously without the scale that China has presented. Not to be deterred though, this corridor will benefit everything that China is doing regarding the BRI and the two projects will co-align and become part of the same whole puzzle. Chinaās BRI mostly focuses on the Eurasian East-West transport corridors that connect Asia with Europe and this is because these routes secure Chinaās hugely important trade relations, so that they can never be cut off from Europe and international markets again via British or American imposed naval blockades and whatnot. That olā Malacca strait issue ehā¦
China is very active in the East African region too and with the economic behemoths on the continent, Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa, for it seems Chinas wealth and creativity knows no bounds and it also seems that China does not wish to see the world separated into regional blocs, run by each superpower. China will push the U.S.A to act on its own principles and allow open and win-win trade with all nations of the world, regardless of political spheres. Russia is pushing in the same direction, entering into security agreements with nations that were previously considered British, French and American only playgrounds and it is seriously irking them all. Ibrahim TraorƩ of Burkina Faso has already tasted the western-served dish for individuals seeking national sovereignty, national resource development and independently chosen bilateral partners and it tastes of bitterness and spite, with a touch of betrayal and murder for good measure. Lovely partners are these in London, Paris and Washington but we can do better says TraorƩ.
Trains, Planes and Automobiles
These three things are flowing into the āDarkā continent like a tsunami; unbound by the neo-colonial āpartners" of the past centuries, these nations now seek partners who seek their national betterment, rather than their conformity and adoration. National betterment could not come any faster than by train, for train is the best form of transport in all the world and Iām saying that with absolute confidence, for it is the easiest to board, the safest and soon to be fastest (MAGLEV) means of travel and provides one with the most space and comfort to move around, all while witnessing the beautiful scenes of the nation your in. Cars are best for local travel or specific locations that are hard to access, Planes are for the long haul, but trains do it all, carving their way through valleys and tunnels under mountains and sea or floating on bridges high in the sky as they cross mountain peaks. Anyone who has watched a You-tube video of the Chinese railway network, will know exactly what Iām getting at.
So Libya, Burkina Faso and Ghana should now begin to make more sense if we are aware of their location on the continent. There has been talk for some decades now of building the African Integrated High-Speed Railway Network (AIHSRN), a flagship project of the African Union's Agenda 2063 and for a long time it looked like East Africa was the only region that would achieve this feat but now with Russiaās well timed impetus, we see more light on the horizon.
Lets see a map for reference:
Above you can see the orange railway line that has been marked out crossing the great Sahara desert and Sahel region, passing through the important capital cities that are also marked on the map.
From Burkina Faso to Russia - by Rail, Road or Airā¦
This project marks a major shift in the world arena and is one of the first serious physical proposals put forward by Russia, for the African continent. Not only are we focusing on one sole nation, but on a whole host of recipients that stand to benefit immensely due to the wide-spread connectivity of the project. The railway links the economies physically and by default this increases a certain quality of co-dependency in the regional economics. The prosperity and health of the other nations becomes very much the concern of your own nation and it is this kind of economic relationship that will build continental unity; not empty words and promises, but hard, physical progress that when coordinated with the other, will bring prosperity to all nations involved (Look at the Russian-led EAEU or the Chinese-led BRI for comparison).
The standard of living is strictly tied to the bilateral and regional economic relationships and it is the security and prosperity that those relationships provide, that will keep any colonial interests from invading the continent ever again and making the peoples lives there, a misery. It makes it much harder for foreign powers to keep their well-paid puppets in place when the regional relations check that individuals intentions and makes certain that they act for the greater good of the continent, rather than the foreign power. If that individual went against their region in support of some foreign power, then they would be easily exposed by their own populations and the nation could restore a leader who works in line with developing the national economy of, by and for the people.
ECOWAS failed its regional task of Economic, Security and Cultural integration, simply because it never really got going with any oomph and was founded by leaders who were very much under the imperial wing. By the time its founding came about in 1975, most of the true Pan-African leaders, who had revived that ancient spirit of republic, freedom and independence for the people, had been wiped of the continent either by assassination or politically organized coups. These, often ended in exile for the given leader and such was the case for our dear and beloved first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. The irony in all of this, is that a lot of those leaders had learnt those very principles of freedom, independence and the pursuit of happiness, in American Universities and it is a despicable truth, that it was the American government, after Kennedyās own assassination and amongst other imperial Europeans, that led that ruthless imperial charge across the continent in the 60ās. By 1965 already, Nkrumah had been put into exile, after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was implicated in supporting opposition forces to overthrow him and Lumumba had been shot, also by the CIA, but this time with the support of Belgian intelligence.
It is a hard truth for many to accept, that the former Republic that was the U.S.A, has renounced its role as leader of the āFreeā world, since some 60 years now and instead, has been actively and almost obsessively engaging in empirical warfare; basically using all of its power to scare small economically undeveloped nations into a corner, on every national development policy that serves their own. It is an almighty shame to have dropped that promethean baton of fire and to see other great republics in Russia and China, almost be forced into a historic position of virtue, due to the depravity of the western leadership. The American and European elite are so utterly devoid of creativity and optimism, that they make Russia and China look more and more reliable and honest each passing day. It is hard for the average African to look up to the western civilization anymore, when this civilization has not done enough to protect the principles and republic, that our own platonic people like Benjamin Franklin have given us. Rather it is on a path of fire and destruction that seeks the upending of all, so that it can maintain its semblance or illusion of control and power. An illusion that thanks to interventions like these above, will surely fade away in a year or two for most individuals on the planet, if they havenāt alreadyā¦.
Welcome to a new era of Rail, Roads, Air and Space travel, all of which has been held back for so long, by the waning imperial hegemon. I suppose its true when we say, āWhere one story ends, another beginsā¦ā
Another brilliant assessment Nick!
Superb updates on what's going in Africa. Keep it up man.