China in Africa: US talk show host Trevor Noah draws fire with ‘colonalism’ jibe
- Loans making China-Africa relationship look ‘like a new kind of colonialism’, Trevor Noah says in recent clip
- The data does not support such a take, analysts say, while highlighting transparency concerns that help fuel this Western narrative
He then goes on to highlight the “debt trap” for political leverage and asset seizures, and also slams what he says is China’s control of Africa’s natural resources, especially precious metals.
Noah, 37, famously recounted life as a biracial child in apartheid South Africa in his 2016 memoir. In 2018, Time magazine named him among the world’s 100 most influential people.
His take on China-Africa ties, however, drew criticism from experts in the field.
“Colonialism is insidious, horrific to people, and we cannot diminish what it really is,” Hannah Ryder, a senior associate in the Africa Programme at Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told the South China Morning Post.
Despite “much respect” for Noah, she found the presentation a “really disappointing take”, Ryder tweeted.
She said it reminded her of the assumption, especially in the US, that the African leadership was not capable of making the right choices for their own development.