BRING DOWN YOUR AIRFARES OR GET OUT OF AFRICA

You are here > Home > News > Report 1 > Report 2 > Report 3

BRING DOWN YOUR AIRFARES OR GET OUT OF AFRICA
By Jacques Sotero Agboton

Author of Philosophy of Engagement (An ideological basis for the liberation of African people)

American and European airlines are bilking African passengers

There are no reasons for airlines to charge African passengers 4 to 5 times higher airfares than passengers of Europe, Asia and the Middle-East for the same duration of flights.

It is apparent that the prohibitive airfares are to limit African passengers from crossing frontiers where they can explore personally environments so far denied them by white racists and their institutions under so-called immigration laws.

Also, beneath the veneer of the language of public relation used by these airlines which has fitted in very well with the sordid hypocrisy practiced by whites or their corporations since their incursions into Africa, no one should wonder now that free circulation of persons, free trade and globalisation are but meaningless statements shown to be false not in some but in all respects.

It is not only the racism of whites we should condemn but the unbridled greed of directors behind their corporations left to operate on our soil and defraud our people.

DELTA AIRLINES, NORTH AMERICAN AIRWAYS, AIR FRANCE, IBERIA, LUFTANSA, SN BRUSSEL AIRLINES, TAP of Portugal and BRITISH AIRWAYS are charging African passengers for cross-Atlantic flights between 1200 to 2200 Dollars for economy passengers while these fares would have been First Class between North America and Europe. Fares between North America and Europe can be as low as 200 Dollars.

It will be spurious for anyone to talk about market forces since as many as 30 cities in Africa and to name a few: Dakar, Banjul, Freetown, Monrovia, Accra, Lagos, Abuja, Douala, Bamako, Libreville, Addis Ababa, Kampala, Nairobi, Mombassa, Harare, Luanda, Maputo, Johannesburg serve as gateways to as much as 200 million potential customers. That is, only if they were not Africans or rather, except they were Blacks.

It seems that more than 10 years later, the legacies of Apartheid have yet to vanish since the notorious South African Airlines, carrier of these renegade racists who are still important shareholders; SAA cannot adjust its fares in spite of having a CEO who is Black and Black managers posted in but symbolic positions. Illogically, the fare New York to Dakar is the same as the fare New York to Johannesburg. You will be amused of the reasons Ghost SAA experts give in the computation these fares. Alas, some combatants of the liberation struggle in the hierarchy have forgotten the sacrifices in lives of entire generations so as to be cosy with their oppressors for crumbs of a pay check, a bonus…and sometimes bribes. That is not to say, the hand that gives in not as corrupt as the hand that takes. But, the betrayal is painful, and costly.

Beside that, we have in every metropolis in Africa, the embassies of these whites expropriating entire roads or avenues under their schizophrenia that some dialysis-ridden Bin Laden will terrorize them while our people queue before their consulates to suffer indignities of rejection and the extortion of their money for some cracked-up application fee. Meanwhile hordes of these Europeans and white North Americans do not pay for visas when entering African countries.

Instead of whining or complaining, it is time for Africans on the continent as well as in the Diaspora to begin targeted boycotts, airline by airline, until their fares are reasonably lowered or until these corporations leave our continent. For once, let there be a generation of men and women who will not allow that more than 500 years of brutal exploitation and inhumane slavery continues in Africa.

Firstly, a global campaign has begun with advice to the management of these airlines they are being monitored and advised to lower their air fares. Secondly, public protesting will begin before their local and regional offices as well as the homes of their senior staff until their total operation ceases or fares are lowered.

Conscious African Brothers and Sisters are called to adhere strictly to the boycotts which are to be announced and to use every media possible to spread the word.

Culture