Development Partners or Bloodsuckers?

 

An Op-Ed by Alpha Amadu Jalloh, Author of “Monopoly of Happiness: Unveiling Sierra Leone’s Social Imbalance”, Recipient of the Africa Renaissance Leadership Award 2025

 

For decades, Africa has been tied to the apron strings of so-called development partners. These partners, primarily institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other Bretton Woods creations, continue to parade themselves as benevolent allies. They come with grand promises of support, poverty alleviation and infrastructure development. Yet behind the façade of goodwill lies a haunting truth. Africa’s relationship with these institutions has largely been exploitative, manipulative and detrimental to true sovereignty. These institutions are not partners. They are bloodsuckers cloaked in diplomatic suits.

 

Africa’s story with the IMF and World Bank is a tragic one. In the 1980s and 1990s, Structural Adjustment Programs swept through the continent like a plague. These programs were forced upon fragile economies under the guise of reform. What they truly did was dismantle public services, gut healthcare systems and strip education of funding. Governments were told to privatise state assets, cut subsidies and devalue their currencies. The result was soaring unemployment, chronic inflation, mass poverty and the loss of control over national wealth.

 

Let us be honest. The IMF and World Bank do not help Africa. They control it. Their loans are not aid but chains. These institutions ensure that Africa remains in a state of eternal dependency. Every dollar lent comes with strings pulled from Washington or Brussels. African leaders are forced into economic models designed to benefit foreign multinationals, not local people.

 

The story gets even darker. When African leaders dare to defy these exploitative terms, they are removed, assassinated or replaced. Patrice Lumumba of Congo was killed in 1961 because he wanted his country to benefit from its own resources. Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso was gunned down in 1987 for refusing to take IMF loans and for prioritising national dignity. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was overthrown for promoting Pan-African unity and economic self-determination. Steve Biko of South Africa was murdered for trying to mentally liberate Black Africans from the clutches of white supremacy and foreign influence.

 

These men were not enemies of progress. They were enemies of neocolonialism. And the system could not allow them to live.

 

Today, the methods have changed but the mission remains the same. Leaders who play by the West’s rules are praised. Those who resist are vilified. Yet despite this oppression, new voices of defiance are rising across the continent.

 

Young and fearless leaders like Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, Colonel Assimi Goïta of Mali and General Abdourahamane Tiani of Niger have boldly rejected the exploitative dominance of former colonial masters. They have expelled foreign troops, cancelled unfair agreements and begun reclaiming their countries’ futures. These men are not perfect but they have revived the spirit of resistance and independence that Africa has long needed.

 

Equally powerful are leaders who have shown through action that sovereignty is not a slogan but a practice. President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania has set a shining example by building her country’s economy through local resources and refusing to rely heavily on foreign debt. Her commitment to infrastructural development, healthcare and education from domestic revenue has made Tanzania a model of responsible, independent governance. She has reminded the world that Africa is capable of solving its problems without donors breathing down its neck.

 

Then there is Namibia’s new president, a woman of unshakable integrity, who recently told the Americans that if Namibians must apply for visas to enter the United States, then Americans must also apply to enter Namibia. It was a simple act of dignity but it sent a loud message. Reciprocity. Respect. Sovereignty. Africa is not a playground or a hunting ground. It is a continent of equals, not beggars.

 

Now contrast these leaders with the usual suspects. Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, William Ruto of Kenya and Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire have become favourite students of the IMF and World Bank. These men boast of economic reforms while their people struggle for survival. They sign loan deals without transparency, enforce austerity measures and push their countries further into debt. They are praised abroad while their credibility collapses at home. Their allegiance lies more with Western think tanks than with the markets and streets of their nations.

 

It is worth asking. What kind of partnership is this where one side always dictates and the other always obeys? Where one side grows richer and the other grows poorer? Where development is promised but misery is delivered?

 

Take natural resources. Africa is home to gold, diamonds, oil, bauxite, cobalt, lithium and uranium. Yet the communities living above these riches are the poorest on Earth. Why? Because these resources are extracted by foreign corporations, protected by World Bank guarantees and licensed under IMF-approved frameworks. The profits fly overseas while the pollution and poverty remain behind.

 

Even the climate crisis has become a new tool of exploitation. The same countries and corporations that poisoned the planet now offer climate financing to Africa, on the condition that Africa gives up land, water and sovereignty in return. It is green colonialism rebranded as sustainable development.

 

Africans must wake up. Our destiny cannot be outsourced to those who profit from our pain. The blood of Lumumba, Sankara, Biko and Nkrumah demands justice. It is time to complete the mission they died for.

 

Partnerships must be rooted in equity, not manipulation. They must empower, not extract. Until then, let us call this relationship by its true name. An abusive arrangement disguised as cooperation. A betrayal wrapped in diplomacy.

 

We must build our own alliances. We must trade with each other, build our industries and reclaim our resources. As Sankara once said, “He who feeds you controls you.” We must now feed ourselves.

 

Africa does not need more development partners. It needs freedom. It needs justice. It needs courage. And most of all, it needs leaders who stand for their people, not for the applause of foreign powers.

 

Let the world know. A new Africa is rising. Not to beg. Not to borrow. But to build and to lead.

 

Alpha Amadu Jalloh

Currently in Strasbourg, France