Africa needs an economic infrastructure like other countries.

When Africa became independent, of course, many of the former colonists and colonizers and exploiters of Africa wanted to show Africa how much you need us. Of course.

Of course, you can not be an independent people without economic independence. Every independent country knows that. The American Revolution was not just about independence in the political sense, and even in the psychological sense, Americans knew that they had to be economically independent from England.

There are still many Anglo-files who look towards England as cultural greater, and many Americans continue this, including in the way American promote these English actors into the great actors and the best of their generations. Americans continue to do this, and it's good for British actors, many of whom are our great actors, to continue to have this culturally hegemony, even with the American Revolution. This gives them good work not only in British movies but in the many English-speaking movies, including English-speaking American movies.

But Americans understood and continue to understand they need to maintain their economic independence, and they continue to understand this, even when others are gaining on them, as in manufacturing and electronics, say the Japanese or the Chinese or even the Germans. Americans understand that to be independent you have to have an economic independence and an economic infrastructure.

Europeans understand this. Almost everybody understands.

Africans understand this, we assume. Although everybody tries to tell Africand they can be independent without economics. Integrationists continue to tell them that.

Nevertheless Africans are going to have to learn economic independence, even in association with those "good people" investing in Africa, whether Chinese, Japanese, Americans, Germans, anybody.

Perhaps Africans are going to have to do like the Indians, insisting that in these companies, that African people must be the majority owner in a business. That they can partner with other nationals in various industries and businesses, small or international, but that Africans must have majority ownership.

They might also have to insist that non-Africans can rent African land, but not buy it. Maybe they have to make these insistances.

It's very easy to have neo-colonism with Africans, no matter who are the neo-colonists, including other Africans.

Let's say we went to the Native American Reservation. We can rent the land from these great people, but certainly we shouldn't be able to buy land on Native American Reservations, or Native American nations. Of course, not. In fact, all of us should be renting land from the Native Americans and the Mexicans. We should all be paying rent to these people. But of course we're not going to do that. Of course not.

However, unless Africans want every nation to own Africa except for Africans (again), they might have to do like the Indians. Certainly with businesses, making certain requirement, and certain restrictions on land ownership also. They have to make sure of course that all of this is quite legal. Possibly there are international laws.

Sometimes the laws are just common laws, like when restrictions are set on Africans all over the world, but just not on the books. It's called racism. Sometimes it's called we just don't like you. Sometimes it's called stereotyping. Sometimes it's called many names except the true name.

Certainly Africans like Americans understand that independence also is economic independence, and an economic infrastructure. Africans have always understood this on the intellectual level and on the theoretical level--however most of the leadership that tries to materialize this understanding.....well, we all know that history.

We witness that there are a lot of nay sayers also, who are coming up with the various problems that arise from this type of economic investments, from distrust of the motives of the Chinese to distrust of the business competence of the African people, including the well-known corruption of African businesses.

Certainly all African business professionals are not corrupt, however, if this is the perception it is problematically for honorable African business people to do business. So certainly the Chinese when doing business with African business people are going to have to work with these Africans to prove that these are honorable businesses and honorable business efforts. This is a problem of proof for both the Chinese and the Africans.

It's also possible that the nay sayers are corrupt in their motives.

Nevertheless, we don't want the Africans again to become the pawns of another people. Certainly the Chinese might make better colonials than the Europeans, nevertheless we don't want the Africans to just become the pawns of another colonial power after their own self-interests and not the interests of African peoples.

Nevertheless, this is something for African peoples to determine. It's good that the Chinese are interested in doing business with African peoples, and are taking an interest in the development of the peoples of Africa. It's good if the Africans are able to relate to the Chinese.

Certainly Europeans who are concerned about both "colored peoples" are going to be wary of this coalition, and possibly might try to disrupt it.

If so, it's probably not going to be the type of disruption that you even notice European involvement.

The Chinese and Africans are going to have to make sure that they work together wisely and that both have a perceptual problem as it involves Western powers and Western hegemony. Much of these perceptual problems are stereotypes that Westerners have of non-Westerners, others have been the mistakes, misdirections and corruptions of the peoples themselves. Yet, no different than the mistakes, misdirections, and corruptions of European peoples.

Nevertheless, we applaud the interest of the Chinese in the African peoples and the interest of the African peoples in the Chinese peoples. However, the interests of neither should be just rank "self-interests."

The Chinese and Africans in working together on these projects should learn from their own histories and the histories of other peoples.

And if the Chinese just want to be the world's new colonials, don't make the same mistakes as the world's old colonials.

But in the meantime--message to the schoolchildren--continue to learn Chinese.