Africanist Press Podcast Service – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode examines how World Bank's debts, and high interest rates, cripple African and Asian economies, deepening poverty and underdevelopment in the world's most impoverish countries.

This episode is based on John Pilger's 1992 award-wining documentary, War by Other Means. 

This episode honors the life and work of John Pilger, who passed away in December 2023. 

This episode examines how the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank's structural adjustment policies affected Jamaica’s economic and political development from the early 1970s to the present. 

The IMF's loan conditions required Jamaica to implement a range of economic reforms that included trade liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of its market. This internationally regulated program resulted in Jamaica accumulating over US$4.6 billion in foreign debts.

In a 2001 documentary, Stephanie Black examined the devastating impacts of the IMF’s structural adjustment program in Jamaica, featuring a wide range of voices that included former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, and several workers in Jamaica's Free Economic Zones established by US multinational corporations to exploit cheap labor in the Caribbean. 

Material for this episode was adapted from Stephanie Black's documentary, Life and Debt.

In this episode, we examine the role of the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in Sierra Leone’s electricity corruption, showing how the DFC inherited a corrupt electricity contract from British financed corporations, and how US international investment is now financing corruption and deepening underdevelopment in Sierra Leone.  

 This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.

In 2011, Sierra Leone politicians enacted a new electricity legislation that created two parallel institutions, the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) and the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) to replace the state-owned National Power Authority (NPA).

Since 1982, NPA oversaw electricity supply in Sierra Leone, including the fixing of consumer tariffs. In 2016, international financial institutions ranked Sierra Leone 178 out of 189 countries with lowest electricity access. Development agencies stated that weak oversight of the electricity sector was responsible for the poor ranking, and they suggested that dismantling NPA and privatizing electricity supply would enhance electricity transmission and distribution capacity in the country.

However, the dismantling of NPA and the privatization of electricity supply in Sierra Leone has not resolved the country's perennial electricity crisis but has further worsened access to electricity and fueled corruption.

 In this episode, we reveal how local politicians, international financial institutions, and British and United States financed multinational corporations created a transnational project that exploited the dismantling of NPA and the privatization of electricity supply in Sierra Leone to corruptly enrich elites and corporations, whilst imposing fictitious foreign debts on the country.

This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.

Sierra Leone's Energy Minister, Kanja Sesay announced on Friday that he is resigning from the Maada Bio regime because of the alleged failure to pay outstanding debts owed to the Turkish Karpowership contracted to sell electricity to Freetown residents.

Kanja Sesay's resignation was later followed by Maada Bio's announcement that the energy ministry has now been placed under his direct supervision as president.

These dramatic developments came after the Africanist Press Podcast revealed how political leaders of the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) use shell companies registered and operating out of British Virgin Islands, Mauritius, Zambia, Lebanon, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and Kenya to impose fictitious debts on Sierra Leone using the promise of providing reliable electricity that is still unavailable to citizens.

In this episode, we examine the reported "resignation" of Kanja Sesay, pointing out its relationship to the organized corporate corruption associated with the Western Area Power Generation Project, and how Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio, acting on behalf of British companies and American corporations, are responsible for over US$500 million in manufactured electricity debts arising from the Western Area Power Generation Project between 2013 and 2023.

Thus, we highlight that Kanja Sesay's "resignation" is part of an organized effort of SLPP and APC politicians to cover-up one of the biggest corruption scandals in Sierra Leone's energy sector involving leading politicians and international financial institutions.

This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.

The privatization program in postwar Sierra Leone was supposedly advanced by international financial institutions – the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank – as a multi-sectoral development strategy aimed at reducing poverty and corruption, and improving economic growth and quality of governance and service delivery in the small West African country.  

Since 2005, this World Bank and IMF supported privatization agenda has been called different names by successive regimes in Sierra Leone. Inaugurated by Tejan Kabbah as a "poverty reduction strategy", it was renamed “agenda for change and prosperity” by Ernest Koroma, and now rebranded as a “new direction and medium-term development plan” by Julius Maada Bio. However, its unfulfilled promise remained the same and included the supply of reliable electricity, the creation of value-added agricultural productivity, developing a national transportation network, and sustainable human development through efficient social service delivery.

Twenty years later, this IMF/World Bank privatization agenda in Sierra Leone has produced, and still produces, the reverse of its pronounced objectives. Today in Sierra Leone, more than 90% of the population live in absolute poverty, with expenditures below US$1 a day, according to the IMF. With rising youth unemployment, high infant and maternal mortality rates, poor growth performance, lack of income and access to basic social services, and excessive debt overhangs, the country’s development prospects still remain grim.

Consequently, instead of advancing economic growth and reducing poverty, Sierra Leone’s privatization program has heightened political corruption and led to intensified multinational exploitation. At the heart of this development nightmare is the hidden competition between British financed corporations and United States-backed companies for control of non-transparent service-related contracts and corruptly awarded critical infrastructure projects.

In this episode, we discuss how the British Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) used shell companies registered and operating out of British Virgin Islands, Mauritius, Zambia, Lebanon, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, and elsewhere to impose manufactured debts on Sierra Leone between 2013 and 2023 with the promise of providing reliable electricity that is still unavailable to Sierra Leonean citizens. We highlight how Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio enabled these corrupt energy agreements in the last 15 years, and how various energy and finance ministers of both the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) served as agents for British financed companies and United States-backed corporations in the corrupt use of the privatization program to facilitate state corruption and multinational exploitation.

Thus, we use the ruthless competition between the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) over the multimillion dollars non-transparent Western Area Power Generation Project loan agreements involving Blue Flare (BVI), TCQ Power Ltd, CEC Africa Investments Ltd (CECA), Milele Energy, the World Bank, African Development Bank, and other financial institutions to further illustrate how the privatization of social service delivery in Sierra Leone is corruptly enriching multinational companies and the local political elites, while increasing the sovereign debt crisis and worsening living standards for regular citizens.

Hence, the current political and economic crisis in Sierra Leone, including the rigged June 2023 elections, skyrocketing taxes, and ongoing human rights violations, are directly linked to the unscrupulous competition between British companies and American financed corporations to exploit Sierra Leone’s privatization of social service delivery.

This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.

In previous episodes, we mentioned  how the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) issued more than US$500 million in debts between 2019 and 2023 to the Maada Bio regime through unscrutinized and non-transparent infrastructure and service related contracts awarded to shell companies registered and operating out of Lebanon, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, and elsewhere.

These non-transparent loan agreements include US$150 million to the Summa Group for the expansion of the Freetown airport, US$217 million to Milele Energy and TCQ Power for the supply of electricity to Freetown residents, and a US$100 million to Africell for mobile telecommunication services. These US-funded debts, in addition to about US$172.1 million extended credit facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also issued in the last five years, have worsened Sierra Leone's sovereign debt crisis.

In this episode, we assess how these non-transparent foreign debts and corruptly awarded international contracts lead to higher taxes and youth unemployment, and how the national debt burden undermines economic prosperity and contributes to drug abuse and worsening standards of living for regular citizens in Sierra Leone. 

We also continue to highlight the role of Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio in these corrupt corporate agreements, and how the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) serve as proxies for British financed companies and United States-backed corporations exploiting Sierra Leone. 

This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.

Walter Rodney was a historian, political activist, and academic. Born in 1942 in Georgetown Guyana, Rodney’s research focused on slavery and colonial imperialism in Africa and the Caribbean. His notable works include How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgetown, his home city, in 1980 at the age of 38.

 In this episode, we produced Walter Rodney’s lecture on “Crisis in the Periphery: Africa and the Caribbean.”

In this episode, we discuss how hidden competition between British financed corporations and United States-backed companies for control of non-transparent service-related contracts and corruptly awarded critical infrastructure projects in Sierra Leone have worsened the country's foreign debt crisis. We examine the risks such developments pose to democracy and real economic propserity in the small west African nation.

We highlight how Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio enabled these corrupt corporate agreements in the last 15 years, and how the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) function as political proxies of British financed companies and United States-backed corporations exploiting the country. One such example includes the unscrupulous struggle between the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) over the multi-million dollars non-transparent Western Area Power Generation Project loan agreements involving Blue Flare (BVI), TCQ Power Ltd, CEC Africa Investments Ltd (CECA), Milele Energy, the Bank World Group, and other financial institutions. The same example applies to the Lungi airport loan arrangement with Summa Group, and the DFC's investment loan pumped into Africell.

We point out that the current political and economic crisis in Sierra Leone, including the rigged June 2023 elections and skyrocketing taxes, are directly linked to the unscrupulous competition between British companies and American financed corporations operating in the country.

Thus, the United States and Britain, as leading partners of the SLPP and APC political leaders, must ensure that their current political and economic engagements in Sierra Leone include the protection of the lives and freedoms of all Sierra Leoneans.

This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press. 

Carlos Cardoso was assassinated in the Mozambican capital of Maputo in late November 2000 while investigating the theft of US$14 million from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM).

Born in 1951 to a family of Portuguese exiles, Carlos Cardoso supported Mozambique’s armed struggle for independence from Portugal, but as the years went by he became increasingly critical of FRELIMO government policies that mostly benefited wealthy businessmen and leading politicians.

Eventually, Cardoso questioned the sudden wealth of FRELIMO government officials, charging that the size of Mozambique's legal economy (around US$4 billion at the time in a country of 19 million people) could not account for Maputo’s banking and real estate boom. His investigative reports covered money laundering, drug trafficking, and other illegal financial activities of Maputo's political and business elites.

This episode looks at the life and work of Carlos Cardoso, arguably considered by many as "Africa's most creative and fearless investigative journalist."

The episode is part of the Africanist Press African History Series that aims to feature voices, institutions, and individuals engaged in the story of Africa’s past and present development.