Mxolisi Ncube
Africa has been for a long time the stepchild in global affairs.
It is under-represented at the United Nations without a permanent seat on its security Council.
The US and the West have struck alliances and treaties such as ASEAN, Nato AND Nafta with nations across all continents accept Africa.
As the world is glued to TV screens watching the mounting excitement at the Qatar soccer world cup, Africa is also under-represented as a continent in terms of competition slots compared to other global regions. Africa has five slots in Qatar compared to Europe’s 13.
Is all this about to change?
Next week in Washington President Joe Biden will be hosting about 45 African heads of state in Washington for the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit. According to the U.S. State Department, the summit will demonstrate the United States’ “enduring commitment to Africa and underscore the importance of U.S.-Africa relations and increased cooperation on shared global priorities”.
While the ostensible aim of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit is to build on “shared values to foster new economic engagement, advance peace, security, and good governance, and reinforce the commitment to democracy, human rights, and civil society”, some see it as an attempt by Washington to woo Africa at a time of a major realignment of global forces.
In the wake of the Ukraine war, the US and its Western allies are in an unseemly haste to forge new alliances against especially Russia and China.
African nations are an obvious target.
In a visit to South Africa in August this year, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken outlined a reset of Washington’s relationship with continent.
Blinken outlined what he said were U.S. priorities for Africa - democracy, investment, security, countering global warming and clean energy. He appeared mindful, however, of the sensitivities and even anger among Africans at the previous Trump administration’s approach to the continent as “shithole” countries and said Washington would not treat democracy “as an area where Africa has problems and the United States have solutions” but recognised the common challenges to tackle together as equals”.
“By 2050 1 in 4 people on the planet we share will be African. They will shape the destiny not only of this continent, but of the world,” he said.
Blinken spoke about the effect of the Covid19 pandemic had on African economies as well as food insecurity which had been deepened by the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
He stressed the value of democracy and the threats to it and said Africa was an “equal partner” that the U.S. wanted to work with and not “dictate to”.
“Our strategy is rooted in the recognition that sub-Saharan Africa is a major geopolitical force, one that shaped our past and is shaping our present and will shape our future.
“It’s a strategy that reflects the regions complexity - its diversity, it’s power and influence - and one that focuses on what we will do with African nations and people’s, not for African nations and people,” Blinken said.
Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, was blunt in her response. She accused the West of taking a patronising and bullying attitude towards Africa and made it clear South Africa had different views from the US on Ukraine, China and Israel and the Palestinians.
She said the different approaches by the international community to different conflicts sometimes “lead to cynicism about international bodies” and referred especially to the plight of the Palestinians.
She said South Africa had experienced pressure from some in the West to align with its policy on Ukraine.
Proverbially speaking, however, the elephant in the room at next week’s US-Africa summit will be China.
With multilateralism a focal point of South Africa’s foreign policy in its engagements with organisations such as the United Nations and the G20, The country is committed to maintaining the objectives of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-SA (BRICS) partnership to enhance the growth and development of not only South Africa but Africa as a whole.
The BRICS partnership will also be critical for the country's post-Covid recovery.
Since 2003, the annual influx of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa has grown dramatically, from a mere $74.8 million in 2003 to a staggering $5.4 billion in 2018. China’s FDI to Africa decreased in 2019 to $2.7 billion, but despite COVID, it rose to $4.2 billion in 2020. China has created several million jobs on the continent, while the 2022 African Youth Survey revealed that 77% of African youth saw China as Africa's most influential foreign power.
Professor David Monyae, the director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg,who is hosting a seminar on the issue at UJ on Friday, says the debate is timeous and aimed at unpacking current developments to dispel manufactured notions and explain the meaning of interventions by the West and East for Africa.
As the shake-up continues in the world’s geo-political affairs, it’s possible and feasible for the African continent to finally take its rightful place at the global table and no longer be a Cinderella. (840 words)
*Mxolisi Ncube is the editor of African Voice Global, an online news service based in Joburg.