Acholi folklore is told of Apwoyo, the hare, visiting his sister across the river who was married to Nyang, the crocodile.  The visitor soon learned that Nyang hid ten beautiful eggs in a granary. 

Determine to liberate some of the eggs, Apwoyo devised a plan to eat one egg every day.  The next morning, when Nyang asked Apwoyo to climb into the granary to count the eggs, he stole one egg.  Apwoyo then deceitfully put up one egg to show Nyang, saying out aloud “One” before placing it gingerly back inside the granary.

Then he lifted the very same egg to show Nyang, counting out aloud “Two” and so on until he reached “Ten”. 

Soon, however, there was only one egg left in the granary. Apwoyo proceeded to count the eggs as usual except that he showed Nyang the same egg again and again until he counted “Ten” eggs.   

Satisfied that his eggs were all there, Nyang thanked Apwoyo for his honesty, instructing the thief to take one egg as a gift, in effect, giving Apwoyo the very last egg.  Nyang then proceeded to escort his guest across the river. Apwoyo rode triumphantly on the crocodile’s back with the gift egg held firmly in his bosom.  As the two traversed the river, nyang’s wife who had decided to verify for herself that the eggs were indeed intact, discovered all the eggs gone, and raised the alarm, shouting to Nyang to dump Apwoyo in the river.  Nyang bol Apwoyo ii pii, Apwoyo omoko tong-gi (Crocodile dump the hare in the river, he has raided all your eggs!) Hard of hearing, Nyang misunderstood the message to mean that he must swim faster because a storm was coming.  Only when Apwoyo was safely across the river did Nyang realize that he had been grievously robbed by the thieving hare.  It was however too late for him to do anything about it.

Like the Hare in this tale, too many African leaders have voraciously stolen national wealth from their respective countries and hidden them in bank accounts and real estates across Europe.  Before he was pushed out of power, former Congolese kleptomaniac the late Mobutu Sese Sekou reputedly had billions stashed away in various European accounts. 

Meanwhile, despite the appearance of leading an austere Bedouin lifestyle, the late Moammar Gaddafi and his sons salted away billions in Europe and America.  These ill-gotten wealth are currently frozen by the United Nations until they can be returned to the people of Libya.

But now, if French prosecutors have their way, the Africa’s stolen wealth could be returned to the rightful owner.  In an unprecedented operation that began last fall, the French government is investigating three sitting African heads of state for ill-gotten wealth that have been squirreled away in various locations in France.  The targets include president Ali Bongo of Gabon, president Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo and president Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.  All three sitting head of states are reported to have bank accounts, real estates and expensive cars worth millions of dollars in various cities across France.

In a swift reversal of fortune, prosecutors have since last October been scouring ritzy Paris neighbourhoods for ill-gotten wealth.  Ferraris, Maseratis, and opulent Bentleys belonging to the Obiang family were hauled away on flatbed trucks.  The list of properties being compiled by investigators shows staggering extravagance by family members of these African leaders.

The significance of this unfolding drama is not because there is a sudden change of heart in France and elsewhere in Europe about African dictators and their embezzled money. 

Rather, the real reason is that the long suffering citizens of various African countries who have suffered untold looting from rapacious leaders are now fighting back by teaming up with nongovernmental organizations such as Transparency International to aggressively pursue foreign governments over stolen wealthy from the African continent. 

After years of fighting tooth and nail a reluctant French government in court, Transparency International won a landmark victory in October 2011 which essentially opened the way for French prosecutors to investigate alleged laundered funds belonging to African leaders.

Furthermore, there is an increasingly high political risk for European leaders to be seen to be shielding petty African dictators and their ill-gotten wealth.  In the past the incestuous relationships between European and African leaders saw embezzled funds moving to Europe.

In return, African leaders obtained the political backing from European leaders.  Always, it was: you scratch my back and I scratch yours.  Now, in the information age where Wikileaks exposes the dirtiest of laundry and computer hackers can break into electronic vaults, no secret is safe. 

The long term ripple effect of the current anti-corruption crusade against rich African thieves now spreading across Europe will be felt by corrupt African first families who in the past had no reservation sending looted booty abroad for safekeeping.  Slowly a new way is emerging that will see these ill-gotten gains stripped away.

Then, just maybe, the crocodile will recover some of those stolen eggs.  And, hopefully, some of the raiders will be thrown into the river, eh, jail, for good measure.

Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca