By: Al Jazeera

Last month, Mali’s government detained three executives involved in the gold sector from Resolute Mining, an Australian mining company. It demanded the company pay the $160m in taxes it owed to the Malian state.

Foreign media outlets were quick to sensationalise the news, framing the arrest as “unexpected” and claiming the executives were being “held in captivity”. Such language has clear elements of neocolonial framing that seek to portray a legitimate exercise of African sovereignty as criminal.

The incident and the media coverage it received reflect the reality of neocolonial resource capture that continues to plague African states. Mali’s move may have been demonised in the media, but it is part of an emerging pattern of African countries demanding renegotiations of unfair contracts. If it picks up momentum, this trend could incentivise others to pursue such measures against foreign companies that make windfall profits off African natural resources.

Mali is one of Africa’s largest gold producers, yet its citizens are some of the poorest with nearly half the population living under the poverty line. The national literacy rate is just 33 percent while access to basic sanitation stands at 45 percent and to electricity at 48 percent. The country has struggled with droughts, climate change and malnutrition.