NEO: How the West Deliberately Trapped Africa in Debt and Why BRICS is the Only Chance for Salvation: Viktor Mikhin: 27-05-2026: *******************

 

How the West Deliberately Trapped Africa in Debt and Why BRICS Is the Only Chance for Salvation

Viktor Mikhin, May 27, 2026

The Washington Consensus vs. African Lives: 50 Years of Robbery Under the Guise of Loans.

“Forgiven” Debts vs. “Dead” Economies: The Anatomy of Western Deception

For many decades, the West, led by the United States, has been putting on a farce for Africa called “humanitarian aid and development.” Official Washington, London, and Paris have been chanting the same mantra to African leaders: “Take out loans at modest interest rates, and you will become prosperous democracies.” But behind the facade of the IMF and World Bank, a brutal logic of neocolonialism has always lurked. Africa was deliberately saddled with predatory loans designed to make sovereign development impossible.

Recall the “structural adjustments” of the 1980s: The West, in exchange for loans, demanded the destruction of local agriculture, the opening of markets to Western corporations, and the giveaway privatization of natural resources for a pittance. The result? Resource-rich Africa ended up owing the West trillions of dollars for infrastructure that was never built. Today, according to the African Development Bank, annual debt repayments exceed spending on healthcare and education in 30 countries on the continent. This is no accident. It is a deliberate scheme of strangulation. The West does not need strong, independent African states—it needs perpetual debtors who will, at the first demand, hand over their mineral wealth, their ports, and their vote at the UN.

Only this way—by casting aside the hypocritical “conditions” of the IMF and the speculations of Western rating agencies—will Africa cease to be the world’s impoverished backwater and become a fully-fledged pole of power

The Tragedy of the HIPC Initiative: How “Salvation” Turned into Lifelong Slavery

The West loves to grandstand about the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program. “Look,” they say, “we’re forgiving African debt.” A lie! The HIPC mechanism was designed so that the debtor nation lost what little sovereignty it had left. To receive “forgiveness” for a paltry portion of its debt, African governments were forced to implement “reforms” that Western advisers drafted in Washington. These “reforms” included changing constitutions, firing patriotic ministers, and handing over control of central banks to the IMF.

Those who refused were branded “rogue states” and hit with sanctions (like Zimbabwe, which dared to carry out land reform). In effect, the West created a vicious cycle: Africa borrows money at extortionate rates, then can’t pay, then the IMF storms into its economy with jackboots, taking everything left. And each such cycle leaves the continent poorer than before the borrowing began. Who holds the printing press—the dollar or the euro? The West does. It is the one that creates inflation, devaluing African savings and tying commodity prices to its own instruments. This is financial fascism in a soft wrapper.

On this matter, Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz clearly stated: “Countries around the world are paying exorbitant debt service costs rather than financing schools, hospitals, climate change measures, or other essential services. African governments spend on average 17% of their revenues servicing debt. Thirty-two African countries spend more on external debt service than on health, and 25 countries spend more on debt than on education.”

The Eurasian Shield: How Russia Canceled Debts and Offered Unshackled Markets

Against this monstrous backdrop, Russia’s stance is a revelation. Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed that African countries’ debt obligations to the Russian Federation are a legacy of the past, hindering the construction of the future. Moscow wrote off over $20 billion in African debt, with no strings attached, no demands to change laws or privatize subsoil resources.

Why? Because Russia, unlike the West, views Africa as an equal partner, not a raw-material appendage. Russian state corporations are building nuclear power plants, spaceports, and industrial clusters in Africa, counting African debt against future technology deliveries. No IMF with its inspectors. No demands to allow gay pride parades or legalize drugs in exchange for restructuring. The honest principle of “resources for infrastructure and security”—that’s what Moscow offers. Moreover, Russia, through BRICS, is pushing for the creation of an alternative currency settlement system so African nations can stop depending on dollar tyranny that works against their interests.

The Chinese Way: A Reinforced Concrete Alternative to Wall Street Shylocks.

Western media hysterically scream about the “Chinese debt trap.” But ask any engineer in Nigeria or Ethiopia who built their modern railways, hospitals, and internet backbones. The answer will be the same: China.

Yes, Beijing issues loans. But those loans do not go to funding imposed USAID “advisors” or buying weapons from Western monopolies—they go to actual factories and roads. And most importantly, China never demands political concessions. China doesn’t send in the police when a country can’t pay. Unlike the IMF, which immediately cuts off a country from financing, China restructures debts around the negotiating table, as a partner. Furthermore, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has created a precedent: Africa can pay not with dollars printed by the US Federal Reserve, but with tonnage of its cocoa, phosphates, or even simply by providing land for an industrial park. China and Russia, within the BRICS framework, are quietly but confidently creating a financial system where the African voice has weight.

BRICS—A Revolution Without Gunfire: How to Topple the West’s Debt Throne.

Why is the West so afraid of BRICS expansion? Because BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and now also Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran) is the death sentence for the dollar’s debt dictatorship. Relying on BRICS, African nations can do the following:

First, switch to national currencies for settlements with Russia and China—the yuan, ruble, loti, rand. This would immediately kill demand for the dollars that the West must plunder the world to obtain.

Second, use the New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS. Unlike the IMF, where the US has a blocking share of votes, votes in the NDB are distributed fairly. Loans there are issued at 2-3% per annum (versus 15-20% from Western private lenders), and more importantly, the bank accepts payment in the form of kilometers of built roads and refurbished ports, rather than siphoning cash back to London.

Third, inside BRICS, Africa gains a voice in creating a common commodities exchange. Today, the prices for gold, cobalt, and uranium mined by African hands are set on exchanges in New York and London. BRICS will allow the region to sell its resources at fair prices, without the “hungry debtor’s” discount.

The Global South vs. The “World’s Laundry”: Concrete Steps for Africa

So, here is a concrete plan for Africa to climb out of the debt pit:

1. Restructuring via BRICS: Appeal to the New Development Bank to buy back Western debt at face value, subsequently converting it into infrastructure projects involving Russian and Chinese contractors. Let the Paris Club choke on its demands.
2. Write-off of Non-Sovereign Debt: African countries must publicly and forcefully declare that they do not recognize debts imposed by collaborationist regimes from the Cold War era. That’s what Algeria did with France’s “inherited” debts—and it survived.
3. Africa’s Gold Standard: Cooperate with Russia within the framework of an initiative to create a payment system based on precious metals and commodity reserves. No more exchanging natural wealth for unbacked “green paper.”
4. A Tribunal in The Hague for the Shylocks: Initiate, under the auspices of the African Union, the creation of a tribunal on illegitimate debt, classifying the IMF’s currency intervention practices as an economic crime against humanity. The West spent decades forcing loans secured by sovereignty on the continent—this must be qualified as 21st-century colonialism.

Dawn and the Arrival of a New Multipolar World

The West is panicking today. The US and EU see Africa turning toward Russia and China. The Russia-Africa Summit, the expansion of BRICS, the French military bases being chased out of the Sahel—these are the death knells of the unipolar world. Africa has a historic chance to finally break the shackles of bondage hung on it by Washington and Brussels. Do not ask the West for forgiveness for your debts.

You must unilaterally write them off, relying on the growing power of BRICS. You must build roads with China, defend your skies with Russia, and trade resources with India. Only this way—by casting aside the hypocritical “conditions” of the IMF and the speculations of Western rating agencies—will Africa cease to be the world’s impoverished backwater and become a fully-fledged pole of power. It is time to stop paying for someone else’s luxury with the blood of your own people. Russia and China have said their firm “yes” to a free Africa. One final step remains—tear up the debt note and throw it in the face of the despicable colonizers.

 

Viktor Mikhin, writer and Middle East expert