Slavery Model for Africa

An initiative for "full private stewardry of labor" was announced at a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa by World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500 years of Africa's free trade with the West. The initiative will require Western companies doing business in some parts of Africa to own their workers outright. The audience included Prof. Charles Soludo (Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria), Dr. Laurie Ann Agama (Director for African Affairs at the Office of the US Trade Representative), and other notables. Agama prefaced her remarks by thanking Schmidt for his macroscopic perspective, saying that the USTR view adds details to the WTO's general approach. Nigerian Central Bank Governor Soludo also acknowledged the WTO proposal, though he did not seem to appreciate it as much as did Agama.