Africa: from colonialism to the courtship of the great powers

The history of the relationship between Africa and European powers in the past was debated and suffered, where the great powers competed to conquer parts of the continent in order to be able to administer and exploit the resources. Today, more than 60 years after the end of the colonial period, the powers - no longer only European - challenge each other to woo the African countries and win their support. The 55 African states have a global appeal in economic, political, demographic and security. The Americans are back in the game and Turkey, India, Japan and Brazil have great ambitions.

Russia, whose relations with some African states date back to before decolonization (and in some cases, especially during the period of decolonization) exploits the mercenary troops of the Wagner group, which are currently present in Mali, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Libya and Sudan. Although the Kremlin denies any connection, it seems clear that Wagner is an unofficial instrument for the expansion of Russia’s ambitions in Africa. The Wagner Group itself has been sanctioned in the EU since 2020. According to the UN investigation, Wagner also appears to have started supporting faltering dictators in Africa, conducting misinformation campaigns on social media and deploying teams of false election observers. In the case of the Central African Republic, Wagner’s mercenaries killed civilians, ransacked houses and shot faithful in a mosque. In Sudan, Wagner obtained concessions on gold mining and a diamond mine, but in 2019 he failed to support the country’s autocratic leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The February 2022 war in Ukraine exacerbated this race for African influence, mainly due to the reluctance of some countries to condemn the invasion of Russia. In this assessment, it is necessary to consider that Russia has been for some countries a fundamental support for the independence movements, for example for two giants of Southern Africa, Angola (with funds given to the MPLA - People’s Liberation Movement of Angola) and Mozambique (support to FRELIMO - Mozambique Liberation Front). It is clear that Africans do not want to be seen as allies of the West, especially by comparing the massive support given to Ukraine by the EU when African problems have often been ignored.

Relations between China and various African states also date back to before decolonization, and in the last two decades, China has become the continent’s first partner, surpassing the old colonial powers. On 11 January 2023, the new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s first visit abroad was to Africa, in Addis Ababa, home of the African Union (AU). Minister Qin hoped to increase the presence and voice of developing countries in the UN assembly, as the advent of an Asian century and an African century is no longer a distant dream given the irreversible growth of developing countries. In this discourse China, the second world economy, criticized for the predatory nature of its initiatives (which often generate massive indebtedness of the countries involved), compares with the countries of the global south in a "we".

In this race for Africa, Europe inevitably clashes with its colonial past and its passivity, but also with the "removal" policies of recent decades. In 2022, a few days before the invasion of Ukraine, in Brussels - during the French presidency - a summit was organized between the European Union and Africa, where the 27 European countries had presented the "Global gateway" fund, in competition with the new Chinese Silk Road. The fund was never created because the EU has neither the flexibility nor the means of Beijing. The new dynamics should push Europe and reinvent its relations with the African continent in a credible way, to overcome the distrust of the African states, to which it is inextricably linked.

Translated by Cristiana Azoitei