They Called It Aid. We Call It What It Is. episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 10, 2026 · 32 MIN

They Called It Aid. We Call It What It Is.

from Notes on Power by Tsepo Tebogo Matsimane · host Notes On Power

Before Zambia had a functioning public health system, it had an IMF loan. Before Ghana’s oil wealth reached its people, it had a structural adjustment programme. Before Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara could finish building schools and planting trees, he had refused the conditions, and was assassinated.This is not a coincidence. It is a pattern. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.In this episode of Notes On Power, we go deep into the machinery of how international financial institutions the IMF and the World Bank became instruments of geopolitical control over African nations. We study structural adjustment programmes: what they actually demanded, who they actually served, and what they actually did to the people living inside the numbers.This episode answers four questions:What are structural adjustment programmes and what did they do to African nations? How is debt used to extract political compliance from African governments? What does the repeating pattern in Zambia and Ghana reveal about the system’s design? And what would genuine economic sovereignty for African nations actually look like?This is not an episode about blame. It is an episode about architecture. Systems do not produce outcomes by accident. Understanding how they were designed is the first act of power.The Power Bible, the free Power Glossary, and our full digital library are available at https://selar.com/m/NotesOnPowerByTTM , including free resources you can access and share today.Unchained. Unafraid. Unmistakable. notesonpower.netlify.app This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tsepotebogomatsimane.substack.com

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They Called It Aid. We Call It What It Is.

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