Africa at the Crossroads
It does call for new thinking and re-imagination
of the direction that Africa must take from here. First, there is a history to
what Africa has become. We did not just find ourselves where we are. We have
been made; fashioned according to what extra-African forces thought of Africa and
wanted for and from Africa. It has never worked; at least not for Africa and
Africans. Africa and Africans must now make choices. Between continuing
creating Africa in the fashion of competing trans-African forces or breaking
ranks and looking in for an African continent that must work and work for
Africans.
Clearly, the international system is undergoing
major geopolitical shifts. And with them are major shocks in Africa. Amid
changing geopolitical dynamics, Africa is both searching for and being courted
by “new” strategic partners. It almost became clear that Africa was torn
between choosing between the west and the east. Many commentators thought of
Africa as having to decide between the US and its western allies, which has unsuccessfully
attempted fashioning Africa in their way since the end of the Cold War on the
one hand and China on the other.
But, then there is Russia too. Since the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the African political capital largely
dissipated. As the Russian Federation sought a new identity in the new world
order, it turned West with Russia’s new leaders abandoning the past. Africa has
largely served as a scapegoat for Russia’s problems since the end of the Cold
War. Today Russia is attempting political relevance beyond the middle east. From
annexing parts of Ukraine to being actively engaged in the dirty wars of the
middle east, Russia is clearly, and apparently desperately so, seeking
relevance and global spheres of influence. But Russia must reign wide and far
and Africa is the most – and indeed traditional – battle zone. This is that continent whose leaders have perennially
failed to devise an African vision outside the realm of competing foreign forces
and interests.
Even as Africa it is attempting a search for
and being courted by “new” strategic partners, it becomes clears that the
so called “new” strategic partners are only new to the extent that they are
doing what they are doing in different times. They remain the same actors that
have inter-changeably held Africa hostage for centuries. It is sad to see the current scramble for
Africa. This brings with it memories of the pains of 500 years of slave trade,
historical colonialism, Africa’s role in the major wars – in which Africans
fought wars whose owners and ends they knew not – and then of course the pain
and loss that came with 5 decades of the Cold War. Which way Africa?
Africa at the Crossroads
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
March 13, 2018
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