Hungry for oil and minerals, India and China have become Africa's new colonialists, exploiting the world's poorest continent in the same way as its old European masters, billionaire financier George Soros said.
European nations' scramble for resources, from slaves to diamonds and gold, led them to subjugate Africa's peoples under colonialism.
After independence swept the continent in the 1950s and 1960s, they often supported corrupt and dictatorial regimes.
Over the last decade, amid concern over minerals funding wars from Angola to Democratic Republic of Congo, Western governments and multinationals have largely accepted the need for accountability and transparency in extractive industries.
But India and China, which are pumping billions of dollars of loans and investment into Africa, have not, Soros said.
"They are in the process of repeating the mistakes that the colonial powers have made," Soros said in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
"There's a certain irony of the old colonialists recognising their past mistakes and trying to correct them, and the new colonialists then repeating those mistakes."
Soros, whose charitable foundations disbursed $45 million in Africa last year, hoped that Chinese firms would toughen their criteria for investment, although he said Chinese demand for raw materials had brought benefits to the continent, underpinning its strongest growth in four decades.
"It's the basis on which the economic outlook for Africa is somewhat exempt from the current global downturn," he said, assessing Africa outlook as "quite good".
"I don't expect a global recession. I expect a recession in the developed economies but there are some very positive dynamics for the developing world, particularly resource-rich areas," said Soros, who was ranked as the world's 80th richest man by Forbes magazine last year with a fortune of $8.5 billion......Article conts (-)
European nations' scramble for resources, from slaves to diamonds and gold, led them to subjugate Africa's peoples under colonialism.
After independence swept the continent in the 1950s and 1960s, they often supported corrupt and dictatorial regimes.
Over the last decade, amid concern over minerals funding wars from Angola to Democratic Republic of Congo, Western governments and multinationals have largely accepted the need for accountability and transparency in extractive industries.
But India and China, which are pumping billions of dollars of loans and investment into Africa, have not, Soros said.
"They are in the process of repeating the mistakes that the colonial powers have made," Soros said in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
"There's a certain irony of the old colonialists recognising their past mistakes and trying to correct them, and the new colonialists then repeating those mistakes."
Soros, whose charitable foundations disbursed $45 million in Africa last year, hoped that Chinese firms would toughen their criteria for investment, although he said Chinese demand for raw materials had brought benefits to the continent, underpinning its strongest growth in four decades.
"It's the basis on which the economic outlook for Africa is somewhat exempt from the current global downturn," he said, assessing Africa outlook as "quite good".
"I don't expect a global recession. I expect a recession in the developed economies but there are some very positive dynamics for the developing world, particularly resource-rich areas," said Soros, who was ranked as the world's 80th richest man by Forbes magazine last year with a fortune of $8.5 billion......Article conts (-)
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