Gaddafi Rejects Western Control of African Wealth

TRIPOLI — Muammar Gaddafi has rejected foreign control over African resources, telling ministers that the continent should no longer export mountains and import paper promises. His address called for governments to renegotiate mining, oil and infrastructure contracts whose smallest print, he said, contained the largest thefts.

The proposed charter would require local processing, public ownership stakes and published contracts. Foreign companies could continue operating, but every agreement would be translated into local languages and explained at town meetings by executives forbidden from using the phrase market conditions.

“A nation that owns the ground should not have to rent back what came out of it.”

From extraction to industry

Ministers outlined regional refineries, metalworks and power grids designed to keep more value on the continent. The most ambitious diagram linked mines, ports and factories with railway lines so straight that engineers quietly rotated the page to avoid answering questions about mountains.

Business representatives warned that abrupt changes could deter investment. Delegates replied that investment which vanished when asked to share benefits might have been visiting for reasons other than friendship.

Who counts the wealth

The meeting ended with an agreement to create a public contract register and a continental team of auditors. Whether those measures survive political pressure remains uncertain, but the central argument proved harder to dismiss: wealth beneath African soil does not automatically become African prosperity when every road leads outward.