It's Only Africa.

(Picture taken from BBC Newsnight website.)

by Kwaku Osei, Saybrook College, Yale 2010
Accra, Ghana

I don’t blog.

It’s just not something I do. I have never really felt so strongly about something that I feel the urge to write it down and share it with the world. And on the off- chance that something really gets my blood boiling, I have never felt like I have much to say. This has been my philosophy for the better part of the past few years.

So what is it, you ask, that brought me out from hiding and forced me to go against my philosophy on blogging? Oh, only some new developments in the biggest toxic dumping scandal of the 21st century that no one is talking about! I was so pissed off when I read this article; not only because the Ivory Coast is near and dear to my heart (my older brother grew up there) but also because it is yet another reminder of a global attitude towards the African continent that continues to anger, frustrate, and confuse myself, other Africans, and all human beings with any sense of empathy.



If before now, you haven't heard of the Trafigura Scandal, I encourage you to take 10 minutes to educate yourself by watching this video. For those of you with a little more time on your hands, or with more of a need to procrastinate, this video goes a bit more in depth. And if you prefer to read go here.

The initial article that I linked to (and the one that inspired me to hop into the blogosphere) basically says that emails obtained by the BBC reveal that high level executives in Trafigura, the oil company at the center of the case, knew perfectly well about the hazardous nature of the waste that they were dumping in the Ivory Coast and were perfectly aware that it might have dangerous consequences for the population living there. This discredits their previously held stance that the toxic waste couldn't possibly have caused the illnesses and deaths in the affected regions.

"The e-mails obtained by [BBC] Newsnight show that in the months before the waste was dumped the company knew about the difficulties they would face in disposing of the waste. 'This operation is no longer allowed in the European Union, the United States and Singapore" it is "banned in most countries due to the 'hazardous nature of the waste,' one e-mail warns. Another e-mail points out that "environmental agencies do not allow disposal of the toxic caustic."

This new development raises many questions. Why did Trafigura, knowing all of this, and after being prevented from treating the waste in the Netherlands, decide to move it to the Ivory Coast, a country still recovering from civil war? Why is this scandal so underrepresented in the media, and barely even reported on? How would the coverage and handling of the scandal be different if the waste had been dumped in a different country?

I think the answer to one of these “Whys?” is pretty easy to determine: Because companies, and especially oil companies, are out to make profits. This is what happens when corporations focus solely on their bottom line. Stories like just convince me that a lot of right can be done in the world if we set our goals above the bottom line, putting people over profits.

The other reason why this happened and why it's so under- reported is even more frustrating to acknowledge. After telling this story to my friend Drew Ruben (great kid, founder of Blue State Coffee; y'all should check him out) he said as horrified as he was he wasn't surprised. You see a few months ago, he had the opportunity to meet Harold Koh, former Dean of Yale Law School and current legal adviser to the United States Department of State. Ruben asked him "Why isn't more being done or said about the Darfur conflict?"

Koh’s response? "Because it's Africa."

That's the way the world thinks. It should therefore not be surprising that a company like Trafigura would feel that they can get away with injustice. We also should not be surprised that stories like this never make mainstream media.

After all, it's only Africa.

Check out Kwaku's blog, Afropolithoughts, here.