Foreign control in Africa doesn’t need to come through force anymore because they can now operate freely and openly through our own leadership. Across the continent, local elites have become the ones holding the door open. These are the local chiefs, political insiders, regional authorities and business people who use their position to make deals, silence opposition and defend policies that serve outside interests. They do this in the name of progress, but the only progress they seem to protect is their own.
In Uganda, chiefs and councils still control access to land and influence how resources are used. Instead of protecting their communities, many of them have aligned themselves with companies or politicians who promise them something in return. Once land is signed away, those living on it have little say. People are displaced or pushed aside and the benefit goes to those who already had power. The same leaders who claim to represent the community are the ones who hand it over. At the same time, access to leadership is made difficult through hierarchies, favouritism and backdoor deals. The system is built to benefit a few while the rest remain on the outside, watching decisions being made that affect their future but don’t include them.
In Ethiopia, the level of elite participation in these systems is more organised. The country has over 29 billion dollars in external debt, with 25% owed to China. Laws that restrict NGOs and independent media mean there’s little room to challenge what government officials and foreign investors agree to behind closed doors. For example, the EPRDF under the TPLF and later the Prosperity Party signed resource extraction deals that weakened local benefit and strengthened outside control. Government officials handed out tax breaks and land to foreign firms without holding them accountable for environmental damage or worker exploitation. Even journalists who try to raise these issues risk arrest or exile. Over 60 journalists were forced to flee or were imprisoned between 2010 and 2021. That’s not accidental. It’s exactly how a system protects itself.
In Kenya, we’ve seen how coal projects in places like Kitui County were pushed forward even though residents resisted. The government said the projects would bring development, but few locals saw any real benefit. Most of the profits and control went to the companies that came in. Not the people who lived there. And in Zimbabwe, coal and gold mining concessions are regularly handed out with no clear process to firms with foreign ties and local political backing. Communities lose land and water access. The deals are done in the name of the country, but they don’t serve it.
This is how the pattern works. Elites use their positions to grant access to Africa’s resources. They partner with outsiders, manipulate laws, control the media and silence criticism. They are not being tricked. They are participating. And by doing so, they give legitimacy to the systems that continue to keep Africa dependent and divided.
Breaking this cycle means recognising where the real power lies. Foreign institutions can only go so far without domestic cooperation. These systems survive because some of our own leaders choose to keep them alive. If those leaders are not held accountable or replaced by people who act in the interest of the people, not themselves, then nothing changes. Accountability, transparency and community participation cannot remain just popular words. They have to become real. Otherwise, foreign control will continue to wear an African face.