Chika Ezeanya writes:
The African Union is in the conclusive stages of fashioning an African cabotage regime that will ensure that only vessels owned by Africans will trade within the continent’s coastal waters. The legislation when in force will be a much needed, though daring move to liberate African coastal waters from age-long dominance by overseas entities, and a significant step towards the march to a more unified continent.
The history of maritime trading within African coastal waters, particularly south of the Sahara, is a study in foreign domination and exploitation. For over four centuries, European vessels traversed African coastal waters, hauling human cargo in millions from Africa to Europe and the Americas. With the abolition of the slave trade, 19th century West Africa saw vessels belonging to the Royal Niger Company and others strutting the upper and lower Niger River on behalf of the British empire. The reigning trade was the exchange of mostly factory damages and trash from Europe, for palm oil, rubber, cotton and other commodities...[continue reading]