Author: Mohammed Maoulidi

Child slavery lawsuit shines light on multinationals as accessories to human rights abuses

Mohammed Maoulidi

By Mohammed Maoulidi

 

In an interconnected world where communications have never been more sophisticated and penetrating, it is proving difficult for companies to claim that they do not know details of their businesses, even in remote areas. In our information age, ignorance is no longer an excuse; it is not even a plausible defence. Sooner or later malpractices are exposed. Company profits are then compromised by government fines and lost business. The risks of exploiting Africa are proving costlier and harder to avoid, as the chocolate child labour scandal of 2015 illustrates.

But what can be done against multinational corporations that abet human rights violations by turning a blind eye to abuses which boost their profits? Choosing not to act with due diligence regarding the origin of products from Africa or doing such investigations haphazardly or half-heartedly can be costly to a firm. Public relations problems are one result, sometimes leading to a buyer backlash in the form of a consumer boycott. Expensive global brands can have their expensively-maintained lustre tarnished. Customer loyalty suffers if buyers distance themselves from companies for which crimes against humanity are committed for the sake of company profits, whether these companies profess to be ignorant of such crimes or not. Consumers know that by purchasing products tied to human rights abuses they are condoning such abuses.

In late September 2015, a lawsuit filed against the world’s three top chocolate makers for involvement in human rights abuses in Africa illustrated another form of consumer protest that is also costly for multinationals.

This article is extracted from the November 2015 edition of IOA’s Africa Conflict Monitor (ACM) and is authored by ACM analyst Mohammed Maoulidi.

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African land is a profitable but potentially dangerous investment

Mohammed Maoulidi
Slicing up Africa: Activists cut into an African-shaped cake outside of the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) to protest DFID’s role in facilitating the acquisition of African land by large multinational conglomerates. Photo courtesy Global Justice Now/Flickr
Slicing up Africa: Activists cut into an African-shaped cake outside of the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) to protest DFID’s role in facilitating the acquisition of African land by large multinational conglomerates.
Photo courtesy Global Justice Now/Flickr

By Mohammed Maoulidi

African agricultural land is destined to become more valuable and coveted by foreign nationals, but a lack of transparency in land sales to foreigners provokes anti-foreigner sentiments and the plight of Africans displaced by land transfers may convince displaced persons to become violent.

Foreigners mostly seek agricultural land and land for tourism developments, but all foreigner-owned land in Africa holds the potential to prompt violence from displaced people

Private equity funds are aglow with prospects of profits to be reaped by clients who get in on the acquisition of African agricultural land. Why not, when vast areas can be purchased cheaply from chiefdoms and local and national governments who have failed to exploit the potential of the land to feed their own people. Sometimes land is available simply at the price of building local infrastructure and providing local populations with community halls and soccer uniforms. Foreign purchasers sweeten the deals by promising jobs, making available advanced technologies and improving the food security of local populations.

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