How Ex-Google CEO's Advice to Steal TikTok's IP Highlights The West and The African Elite Establishment

Renowned American business leader and billionaire Eric Schmidt who is Google’s former boss in a talk at Stanford University days ago advised students on how to steal Tiktok’s intellectual property (IP) and be successful in the end. This statement has generated a lot of reaction. I also agree it does raise ethical and moral issues however I am more interested in a deeper aspect of the statement- what it actually reveals about the state of our world.

We all know I.P theft is wrong and facilitates unfair competition, in fact theft in any form is a crime but have we not been operating in this design for so long without even noticing it? I mean the modern world which is led by the West generally came into force/power/being by “stealing” manpower and land of the “rest” (black and brown people). Making the term “West” problematic in its modern sense. While reparations still remain out of the question, in the case of Schmidt’s statement (giving him the benefit of the doubt) does indicate the success of the “would-be Tiktok copycat” will mean settlements anyway involving hiring lawyers to clean up the mess. A poet once said the world is like a crime scene where perpetrators of the crime are the same people carrying out investigations.

In times past African textiles were the target and a subsequent victim of intellectual property theft. In the sixteenth century cloth currencies were one of the modes of exchange on the West African coast and textiles woven by the Fula people were in high demand. Portuguese traders would arrange in producing replicas on the Cape Verde Islands termed Barafula which deliberately imitated the Fula textile patterns (1). They made unfair gains in the process but this does not end here, later Dutch colonialists would also imitate African textile patterns and class with their newly-developed machine printing method after failing in Indonesia with imitated Indonesian textiles.

The success of imitations in African markets led to the destruction of Africa’s rich local textile industry which never got to develop to its full potential. Till date these agencies still maintain a foothold profiting the most from the African textiles industry. What is worse is that parties sought to misinform and change the narrative by claiming the African textiles are not originally African because they were manufactured elsewhere. Despite the fact that these machine prints involved adopting patterns, colour scheme and design of traditional African textiles, and continues to be driven by African preference and class (2). Such claims are fanned by parties who continue to profit from cultural appropriation. But as I said in my book (Journey of West African Textile Traditions) these claims are synonymous to saying a song sang in African rhythm and language isn’t authentically African because it was produced by a Western music recording company. African textiles are a pure manifestation of African culture and propagating doubts of originality is similar to attacking the culture at its core- its very identity, which is exactly what the colonial project was about.

The colonial project and its progenitor “transatlantic slavery” would not have been possible without the full co-operation of the ruling African elites. It wouldn’t take a sage to come to the realisation most African leaders are the perfect present day African elite slavers when they actually make a living from “stealing” from their masses for parochial interest. Let’s talk about the elite power continuity phenomenon. A good observation of the leading members of the political parties in Africa reveal descendants of some elites who benefited from unfair colonial era dealings (e.g land, trade) and pre-colonial dealings in the slave trade with European counterparts. Aside these old elites’ close proximity with the European class then, they most importantly had the means from unfair gains and were better positioned to take advantage of Western education when it was introduced in the colonies and studying abroad as well. By so doing positioned themselves for future government roles- positions of power, all at the expense of the masses. We can find traces of this as far back in the 1500’s.

A classical example is the sixteenth century Kongo king Nzinga Mbemba also known as Alfonso I who traded hundreds of enslaved Africans for his son’s education in Portugal. Other elites and members of his council who had the means did same (3). A look at parallels in modern times; take for a instance the African nation of Ghana with a per capita income of $2328 but losses millions of dollars on regular basis to mismanagement and corruption by individual political elites. This implies that for every million dollars lost to one corrupt individual, thousands of Ghanaians’ livelihood is lost/stolen. Clear similarities with the 16^th century African kingdom of Kongo elites who were trading the lives of thousands on a regular basis with the West for personal comfort. The relationship of the African ruling elites and the West is one that has stood the test of time.

Though some tensions may have arose here and there as is usually the case when jostling for power, deep down they know they need each other and most of all know their common interest- exploiting the African masses. Well we all know not all of the ruling class mentioned are directly related to the past elites, regardless, why are these African political elites so occupied with their self-interest and that of their paymasters (the West)? They are just operating in a frame of design that has always been there. They are simply inheritors of thought.

By this I mean the thought of those past African elites who sold fellow men into slavery for personal gain. Times might have changed but some things seem to have not changed. Africa might have won the 20^th century struggle for political independence from the West but it is still tethered to the colonial structure (neo-colonialism) which is just not visible now as it used to be back then but trust me it is there- still here. A world that cannot be fair in upholding justice and accountability remains a playground for the rich and powerful.

References

1. A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution by Toby Greene.
2. Journey of West African Textile Traditions by Seyram Agbleze.
3. Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World by Howard W. French

Brief Note on the Contributor
Seyram Agbleze is a Ghanaian writer, artist and decolonial thinker. His works explore identity, migration and power. Notable works including Still Here, A Forgotten People and Journey of West African Textile Traditions. He was educated at Central University College. In 2022 he was named in Undocublack Network’s Black Personalities of Choice for Black History Month (Lift Every Voice Up Series). He is a recipient of the Thetis Blacker Award from Temenos Academy, London (patron King Charles III). He is also a fellow of the Merian Institute for Advance Studies in Africa (MIASA) and the first non-postdoctoral fellow to receive this prestigious fellowship.

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