The expansion of China in African countries is the talk of the town, but few people can imagine what it looks like in reality. However, the case of Zambia stands apart - it is truly unique. In fact, the Chinese bought up an entire country under the leadership of the “African Yeltsin,” imposing unaffordable debts on it, and are now preparing to “skim the cream.” But why does China need Zambia?

Zambia is not God knows what, but it is still an independent country, whose government continues its policy of self-destruction and is leading to the actual loss of state sovereignty gained in 1964.

This conclusion was reached by IMF experts, representatives of Zambia’s donor countries and other interested parties. The reason is the fantastic volume of state debt to Chinese companies and funds, which official Lusaka is not able to cover even by borrowing from the IMF, the African Development Bank or other structures. It is coming to the point that Zambia will have to transfer to China its entire energy and transport infrastructure, as well as promising mining industries, including diamonds.

Here we recall the recent story of Sri Lanka, which transferred the huge port of Hambantota to China (70% of the shares for 99 years and Chinese companies in management) due to the inability to pay $8 billion in debt that arose during the construction by the Chinese of a number of monstrous facilities, including the port itself and Mattala - “the emptiest air harbor in the world.”

In the case of Zambia, there is also a “critical amount” of $8 billion. Apparently, for the Chinese it is a “cut-off” - then the process of no return begins.

Cash only

During his tenure, Zambian President Edgar Lungu signed contracts with China for a total of 8 billion in debt, but now the figure is 9.7 billion in consolidated debt, and another 5 billion are hanging somewhere. Lungu claims that these contracts are “working through” and the money “has not yet been fully received.” What “not yet fully fully” means in Zambia is anyone’s guess. Apparently, someone received it, but not everyone and not everyone.

Not everyone likes the situation when the government collects debts from influential creditors without even having a chance to pay them off. Even in Zambia.

Recently, Lungu fired all the ministers of the social bloc due to a corruption scandal surrounding the so-called cash travel program. In short, it is the distribution of cash from European donors to poor households in order to stimulate small businesses and increase the purchasing power of the population. Not microloans, but distribution.

The main donors of this crazy project were the British and Swedes from various charitable foundations. That is, a bearded Swede came to the village of Big Bemba somewhere on the banks of the Zambezi with a bag of small bills and began handing them out. Mainly women, since they and only they do housework among the Bemba, while men catch crocodiles in order to rape them and increase potency (this is not a joke, but a real local belief that leads to human casualties - crocodiles do not approve of sexual violence against themselves) . It is quite difficult to come up with anything more corrupt. It is clear that everyone stole, except for particularly honest Swedish philanthropists. But they, by the way, are horrified by the latest news and are preparing to stop participating in the program.

In January, Foreign Minister Harry Kalaba loudly slammed the door. He was not satisfied with the dominance of corruption and the Chinese. Now the government is actually personified in one person by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Margaret Mwanakatwe, who literally “sits on money,” including Chinese money. It was she who stated that Zambia was freezing all Chinese projects in the country that were less than 80% completed, which caused some bewilderment in Beijing.

Chinese representatives in Lusaka came to President Lung with a question like: “How so, my friend? Have you confused the shores? Lungu responded confidentially (the conversation was private) and said that everything was fine, “all projects will go according to plan,” this woman had mixed up something. The Chinese, however, did not stop and forced Lungu to publicly confirm: “There are no irregularities in Chinese-funded projects.”

Let's say even so. This will not save the country in any case.

Resistance is futile

The main invader of Zambia is the Chinese company BRI. Initially, it actually built a railway to Tanzania (in fact, the only one in the country), but then it turned into a tool for issuing loans and purchasing assets. Already, the Chinese own Zambia's main state television channel and the ZNBC news channel, making resistance futile.

Not only do the Chinese work on the railway (physically - in the form of managers, engineers and even machinists) and at the power plant. The Zambian government is required to participate 15% with its own funds in all projects, which increases the amount of debt exponentially - there is simply no money in the country. There is not even enough money for police salaries, and other civil servants receive their salaries with months of delays, which, in fact, prompted Ms. Mwanakatwe to launch an anti-Chinese riot.

Debt and investment servicing alone costs Zambia half a billion dollars annually, which is surprising in its own way for a country with a struggling economy. Financial penalties for assumed but overdue obligations have long outweighed the country's total savings. This is not just an inevitable default, it is a catastrophe.

The alarm was even sounded at the IMF, where they started talking about the pointlessness of lending not only to Zambia, but also to two dozen other countries in which China is conducting “debt diplomacy.” In response, President Lungu demanded that the IMF Resident Representative in Lusaka, Alfredo Baldini, shut up and “not spread negative rumors among donors.”

There was also local hysteria in the United States: two senators wrote a bipartisan letter to Trump about China’s “predatory infrastructure financing” in African countries. Trump liked it, he did, but things didn’t go further than that.

Among other things, Lungu managed to issue Eurobonds worth $1 billion, which were supposed to serve as a guarantee for the cash distribution program. Now they don’t serve – everything has collapsed, and there is nothing to be surprised at: with a yield of 14%, Zambian Eurobonds were actually state bonds.

At the same time, Zambia is going to buy military helicopters for $95 million (presumably from Russia) and owes Israel $400 million for military electronics. The country can be closed.

Previous attempts at riots against Chinese dominance under President Lungu were not successful. In February, the opposition attempted to impeach the head of state. Its leader, Hakainde Hichilema, a perennial presidential candidate, millionaire, head of his own party and personal enemy of Lungu, produced a secret document detailing the sale of the Zambia Natural Resources Development College to the Chinese state-owned company AVIC International. College is not an educational institution, but something like a research office engaged in geological exploration. The beauty of this story is that the Chinese wrote something on the contract as a signature in hieroglyphs that no African could understand. That is, they slipped the black brothers some kind of paper with squiggles, on the basis of which they received access to geological exploration throughout the entire country. Brilliant.

The Minister of Mining and Mineral Resources, Christopher Yalamu, who protested against all this, went to South Africa and from Cape Town said that there is practically no geological exploration being carried out in Zambia, although the Chinese seem to have found microdiamonds in the west and north of the country. Lungu immediately dismissed the rebel, and Mrs. Mwanakatwe, Lungu’s former colleague from working in the African branch of a famous British bank, began to run the entire government.

"African Yeltsin"

In recent years, Lungu and his immediate circle have been commemorating Mao Zedong in appropriate and inappropriate ways, even hanging his portraits on suitable walls. It turns out organically and naturally - they all grew up under President Kenneth Kaunda, who openly focused on the PRC and instilled this habit in the next generation of Zambian politicians. The Chinese like this, but it was not possible to appease them with this form of sycophancy.

At the recent meeting, Lungu did not leave a single step from Comrade Xi, distracted only by Vladimir Putin, because he believes that these whites from the north can also give a loan. The Northern Whites respond by offering military-technical cooperation, and the experience of the Central African Republic shows that this can be productive.

The result, however, is disappointing. China is demanding the transfer of control over Zambia's electricity industry, and subsequently the rest of the state's assets, as the country is forced to default on various types of debt (bonds, bonds, sovereign debt, etc.). Over the past two weeks, Mrs. Mwanakatwe has been making statements almost every day that there will be no default, sleep well, but what else can she do?

There are rumors in South Africa that the Chinese are openly making drunk President Lungu, who is really prone to drinking alcohol, for which he has already received the nickname “African Yeltsin.”

The same personal claims (if not harsher) are being made against Ms. Mwanakatwa as, in fact, the second person in the country. Zambian and South African media have been closely following the finance minister's controversial personal life. She was repeatedly filmed drunk and once allegedly beat up her 26-year-old boyfriend (she's 56) after catching him having sex with another woman in a car in front of the Mayela nightclub.

Technically, Ms Mwanakatwe is married to the manager of a local mobile phone company. Regarding the incident at Mayela, she categorically denies everything, claiming that the media are blatantly lying. She prefers to communicate with her opponents on Twitter in a mixture of English and Bemba, which has a devastating effect on her image in the eyes of investors. An example for fans: “I have no boyfriend.” Bufi mwandi abantu babufi, which boyfriend is that? Awe mwandi bufi, bufi. There is nothing like that in my life.”

The personal life of the Zambian elite is just an illustration of the fact that the country's state system is completely discredited and, in fact, does not work. The Chinese, with their “debt diplomacy,” act in a very monotonous manner, but in the Zambian case everything falls at their feet. President Lungu and his people are not even trying to resist eastern expansion, which is clearly turning Zambia into a Chinese colony on terms worse than even British rule.

The British in Northern Rhodesia (as Zambia was called until 1964) built schools and missions on Bemba lands and Nyasaland. Cecil Rhodes built a railroad and a copper smelter there, and if the Chinese build anything, it is with the goal of taking it for themselves later. They skillfully exploit the personal weaknesses of individual politicians and the peculiarities of their behavior, gradually penetrating all government structures and pushing out competitors from the country.

There is no ideology in this. It was during the time of Kenneth Kaunda that it was fashionable to wear a portrait of Mao on your lapel. Now everything is decided by money and intimate conversations. And judging by the scale of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing last week, when delegations from 53 countries arrived in China, it will only get worse.

After the British occupation of the Cape Colony (at the beginning of the 19th century) in the 1830s. The so-called “Great Trek” began - the resettlement of Dutch colonists (Boers) to the north, which led to the creation of two republics - the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The main purpose of the resettlement was the development of new pastures, which were the basis for the economic well-being of local residents. But soon the colonists found alluvial diamonds and gold.

Diamonds were first discovered in South Africa in 1866 on the banks of the river. Orange. There are several versions of the discovery of diamonds in South Africa, the most likely of which is the version according to which the first diamond was found by shepherd boy Erasmus Jacobson on the De Kalk farm near the settlement of Hopetown. The yellow diamond, weighing 21.25 carats, was named “Eureka!” (“Eureka!”), according to the first words of the young man who accidentally discovered the gem.

But the main discovery was made by the children of local farmers Jacobs and Njekirk, who found a diamond weighing 83.5 carats, called the “Star of South Africa”. After this discovery, the secretary of the Cape Colony at the time, Sir Richard Southey, declared that “this site will bring incredible success to South Africa in the future.”

Already at the end of the 60s. XIX century Diamonds were found in the bedrock of the modern city of Kimberley, called kimberlites. On July 16, 1871, a company of diamond seekers settled on the farm of the De Beers brothers. The brothers purchased the farm during the beginning of the diamond rush in the region for 50 pounds sterling, and eventually sold it for 60,000. The most important diamond mining site in the Kimberley region was the “Big Hole,” dug almost by hand by miners who poured in here. whose number reached 50 thousand people. by the end of the 19th century. Every day, up to 30 thousand diamond seekers could work here day and night. From 1871-1914, they mined approximately 2,722 tons of diamonds (14.5 million carats), and during the quarrying process they extracted 22.5 million tons of soil. In addition, such famous diamonds as De Beers (428.5 carats), Porter Rhodes (150 carats) and Tiffany (128.5 carats) were found here. Later, new explosion tubes were found north of Kimberley - in the Transvaal, in the Witwatersrand range. Millions earned in Kimberley were spent on their development and gold mining in the Johannesburg area. In 1914, the Big Hole was flooded and diamond mining there was stopped, but production at the Du Toitspan and Wesselton mines ceased only in 2005. In total, about 30 kimberlite pipes, or explosion pipes, were explored here, formed as a result of a short-term but very strong explosion-like breakthrough of ultrabasic rocks to the surface of the earth, which occurred under conditions of enormous pressure and very high temperature.

Diamond rush in Kimberley, 1870s

In 1873, the Earl of Kimberley, on behalf of the British Crown, annexed the diamond fields and named the settlement after himself. From that moment on, the city began to develop at an incredibly fast pace, and by 1900 the settlement had turned into a thriving city. In 1882, electric lighting appeared on the streets of the city (for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth), and in 1887 the first tram in South Africa ran through the city. By 1912 it was a real De Beers company town. Coat of arms of the School of Mines, Kimberley.

In 1896, South Africa's first educational institution for training professional miners and miners was opened in Kimberley, which later moved to Johannesburg and became known as the University of the Witwatersrand.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the capital of the Northern Cape was affected by the battles of the Boer War. In particular, in 1899, the siege of Kimberley lasted 124 days, and all residents of the city, including Cecil Rhodes, were blocked in it. Over the course of four months, the city was subjected to sporadic shelling, during which women and children were forced to take refuge in the De Beers Mine. At the same time, the British created concentration camps for the Boers in the Kimberley.

In 1913, the first flying school in South Africa opened in Kimberley, which began to train pilots for the South African Air Corps, which is now called the South African Air Force. A little later, the first stock exchange in South Africa opens in the city.

Tourism

Today Kimberley is a modern city with wide streets, magnificent parks and gardens, and comfortable hotels. But its extraordinary story, its dramatic spirit of adventure, seems to be here to this day.

You can stay at the Lindberg Lodge farm, built back in 1907 (230 kilometers north of Kimberley on the road to Johannesburg). You will be offered comfortable rooms, horseback riding and even a hot air balloon ride. From above you can view this unique nature reserve, where herds of wildebeest roam. It’s interesting to watch how diamonds are mined in active mines located on the farm’s territory.

Adventure awaits you around the Kimberley. You can canoe the Orange River through Thunder Alley and Egerton Rapids and spend the night at a campground.

Five kilometers from the city is the Bultfontein diamond mine, which is still active. Twice daily from Monday to Friday there are onshore tours of the mine, including a video presentation of the history of the Kimberley, modern diamond mining methods, etc. To visit the underground part of the deposit, advance reservation is required.

You can travel to the Kalahari Desert from Sun City. Then on the way you will see how the savannah is replaced by a semi-desert, you will visit Mmabatho, where the Englishman Baden-Powell founded the first organization of the famous Boy Scouts, and after driving through the vast Stellaland prairies, which are called the Texas of Africa, you will find yourself in the city Kuruman, where you can already feel the breath of the desert. The sun is unbearably scorching, so it is especially pleasant to drink a glass of local Colombar grape wine here. Interestingly, contrary to all the laws of nature, the grapes from which they are made grow a few steps from the desert sand dunes.

But the town of Kuruman is famous not only for wine. It is a stronghold of Christianity in Southern Africa. The first missionaries appeared here in 1801. In 1821, the famous priest Robert Moffat annexed these lands to the possessions of the London Missionary Society. From here came the spread of the Christian religion throughout the south of the continent.

Robert Moffett and his wife came to Africa from Scotland. For almost 50 years they worked in the Moffett Mission building, which still exists and functions today. It was here that the famous African explorer David Livingstone met the Moffat's daughter Mary, who later became his wife.

In Kuruman there is also a real miracle of nature - the water source The Eye of Kuruman, which provides a large amount of water per day.

Near Kuruman, the famous Wonderwerk Cave was also found, in which rock paintings made 8 thousand years ago were discovered, as well as the remains of long-extinct animals.

On the edge of the desert, on the banks of the Orange River, is the fairly large city of Upington. The landscape here is reminiscent of Egypt. Maybe because Orange, like the Nile, gives life to parched soil, water and food to people and animals. Dates and cotton are grown here, and vineyards are planted.

Upington's main attraction is the Kalahari Orange Museum. It consists of several neat white houses scattered on an emerald lawn on the river bank. Previously, there was a Christian mission here, which laid the foundation for the city. There is also a bronze statue of a donkey here - a monument to all the beasts of burden that certainly deserve human gratitude.

And now you are in Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. It was created in 1931 and covers an area of ​​2,046,103 hectares (4 times the size of Switzerland) on the border with Botswana. There are only three roads in the park, which allows you to visit no more than 1% of the territory. But other roads are not laid specifically to ensure a quiet life for animals. Elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, gazelles, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas and jackals are found here. But the vegetation is not very diverse: mainly acacias and climbing plants. The best time to visit Kalahari Park is May-June.

This region gives its name to the kimberlite pipe, a bluish diamond-bearing rock. Now this concept is associated with the beauty and romance of diamonds. At that time, it was more comparable to blood, sweat, tears, and a brutal struggle for power. Some found wealth here, many found despair. On the site of the once squalid miners' huts, spacious houses began to appear, giving rise to modern Kimberley. By the turn of the century, the city had become the diamond capital of the world, while South Africa was gaining a reputation as the continent's most industrialized country. Kimberley millionaires subsequently financed the gold mines of the Witwatersrand.

There are several versions of the origin of diamonds. The most popular - igneous. Diamonds originate in the vents of extinct volcanoes, which are called kimberlite pipe. Where the magma passed, tubes formed, emerging in a ring shape to the surface of the earth. As it solidified, the magma in the pipes hardened, forming kimberlite, in which cubic crystal lattices - diamonds - were born. But only one in a hundred kimberlite pipes contains gem-quality diamonds.
Until 1866, there was an opinion that diamonds originate near bodies of water, because... they were found along river beds. In fact, it turns out that these specimens got there due to long-term soil erosion - being washed out of kimberlite pipes by groundwater and then carried into river beds.

For the first time in the city Kimberley (South Africa) The first diamond was discovered in December 1866, when a 15-year-old boy found a clear stone on his father's farm on the South Bank of the Orange River. He gave it to his neighbor, stone collector Schalk fan Niekerk, who became interested in the find, but could not accurately determine the nature of the stone. The stone was submitted for evaluation to a more knowledgeable person in Grahamstown (South Africa), who identified the stone as “a yellowish diamond, weighing 21.25 carats.” The diamond was sold for 1,500 British pounds and named “Eureka”, which is true, because. it was truly a revelation in South Africa!

In 1867, more diamonds began to be found. On earth, the De Beers brothers' farms were the largest at 83.5 carats. What a surprise the local residents were that these were not scattered stones, but entire deposits of diamonds on their land! And all thanks to the first kimberlite pipe found in the world. Hence the name "kimberlite"- in honor of the city of Kimberley. People mined the first diamonds by hand using all available means (picks, shovels, farm sieves), so these people began to be called “miners.” The territory where the miners worked belonged to a huge number of private owners (more than 1000), who managed to buy a small plot of land and diligently dug and sorted through the gravel. The process went uncontrollably and soon the entire area turned into a noisy hive with narrow and winding passages. The deeper the prospectors went, the more dangerous and expensive it became to bring rock to the surface of the earth. This is how the world famous “Big Hole” was formed, with a surface area of ​​17 hectares and a depth of 240 meters. In the 1870s, the Kimberley produced 90% of the world's diamond production, making South Africa a leader in the business. In 1888, the Englishman Cecil John Rhodes managed to buy up and consolidate all the plots of the Big Pit under his company De Beers, becoming the largest owner in this market. In total, almost 3 tons of diamonds or 14,504,566 carats were brought to the surface.