Seeking a new colonial master

I'm struck by the language used in the Economist's article about the lifting of the European travel ban on Robert Mugabe, the man largely responsible for the ongoing destruction of Zimbabwe. The story goes thus: faced with an increasing Chinese and Indian influence on the African continent, Europe can no longer afford to moralize to Africa's tinpot dictators, or it will lose out on the spoils. Hence the decision to allow Mugabe to visit Portugal to attend an Africa-EU summit, with one conscientious abstainer, the prime minister of the UK.

What strikes me is that all the sound bites, from African and European leaders alike, indicate a story that is not about partnership, but about sale.

Nigeria's minister of finance:

"Nigeria is becoming a beautiful bride. What is happening is the Chinese, the Koreans, everyone is coming around, and if European companies do not wake up, they will see that most of the best businesses are taken."

Apparently the goal is to have all of Nigeria's businesses taken by foreigners. Interesting.

Another unnamed "African official":

"Europe is jealous. They say we have gotten a new colonial master, but our old one wasn't so good."

(I naively thought the best idea would be to have no colonial master at all.)

The [Europeans'] main concession is to be less critical of regimes that are a bit light-fingered, or disdainful of human-rights.

It is interesting that at the end of the colonial period, most of the African colonies were loss-making enterprises for the colonial Governments. Now that Africa's resources are again perceived to be valuable, I guess we can drop the talk about democracy and human rights, and get back down to business.