Summitry – Scramble for Africa Sustained

Introduction

Interaction between Africa and various parts of the world is the norm since the beginning of time. However the last 200 years has brought a new pattern of interaction where Africa’s descent is highlighted as a scramble by great powers. In the post-cold war climate, the complexity of this lopsided interaction has taken the shape of domination by both the traditional North and the emerging forces in the Global South. This is the focus of this discuss.

From Berlin to Berlin

Denial of geography is the nemesis of princes. Ignorance of military technology is the path to perpetual weakness for nations. The two universal geopolitical values were clear to the new German Empire concretised by Otto von Bismarck while imposing the Treaty of Versailles in 1871. However 300 years earlier Africa has been in long cathartic reverse of fortune and domination where her most valuable resources were industrially denuded. Slavery by the West and East industrially stripped Africa of its best on the basis of her perceived weakness.

This weakness was codified by the then emerging powers at the Berlin Conference which partitioned Africa without African input in 1885. The internal geographical subdivision where fixed as the building blocks of Westphalia architecture, nation-states. Those lines or boundaries remain in effect to this day. In 1914 and 1939 respectively Berlin sought and lost her place in the sun while the blueprint of its Conference became immutable. Africa turned into dominated pizza parts for various European capitals until the heavyweights arrived later.

Cold War

Conclusion of WW2 removed the old geopolitical guards into diminution as Washington DC and Moscow contested their supremacy in Africa. It mustn’t be lost to all that the uranium oxide used in the building of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively were stolen in Congo by the Colonial Kingdom of Belgium. United States much like Soviet Union was very aware of Africa’s geostrategic primacy. Africa’s ancient basement complex rocks contain huge commercial reserves of precious metals, natural resources, fresh water and other geophysical niches. Both hegemons battled it out on the continent directly or through proxies. Africans bore all the brunt in blood and otherwise.

UK and France consoled as WW2 runners-up acted as remoras on the latitudes allowed by the US hence the fierce colonial wars in Algeria, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and etc. None of the players fought for the Africans but her domination. Africa remained weak in strategy, policy and positioning. The colonial conflicts lasted longest in spots of higher geophysical significance. A divided Africa along colonial lines and short-term initiatives failed to grasp an intergenerational imposition already taking shape waiting for reinvigoration and innovation.

Death of USSR

After 70+ years Soviet Union died without external invasion in 1991. US won the cold war and with her ascendancy became the challenged master of the world. Russia took time to reinject vigour in her geopolitical ambitions, UK and France remain fossilised while Berlin re-emerged behind a matrix of EU states. India and China cracked the shells to wiggle weak fins in a reconfiguring geopolitical waters. Even Brazil finally made a debut in a weak contrast to her super-efficient delivery in the field of soccer. Africa renamed from Organisation of African Union to African Union in a controlled baptism of neocolonisation. The future remained bleak. There is no unity of Africa and Africans rather the shots are called from outside.

Summitry

As the challenged unipolar world unfurled, US moved into self-flagellation in the Middle East while Moscow and Beijing concentrated on economic consolidation with profits rechannelled into armed forces modernisation and economic development. As the ambience of disposable income soured, gaps in supply chains forced a review of probable resources sources and markets and the lot fell on Africa. Beijing played her cards with niche in-road into Africa for a phased strategic projection buttressed on infrastructure development and market expansion. The platform for one-stop-shop is the China-Africa Summit bringing African leaders to kowtow in Beijing.

Then Japan with her advance economic profile followed suit with her own Japan-Africa summit. There is Russia-Africa summit, India-Africa summit and UK-Africa summit. In each summit a collective of African leaders most bereft of skill, vision and awareness fleet about thousands of kilometres from their capitals to rubber-stamp treaties that will chain down future generations. Most of these leaders lack viable health care facilities in their neighbourhoods.

While Brazil and France limit their influence in Lusophone and Francophone countries, it is very clear that the renewed vigour in the scramble for Africa testifies to a refined innovation in grand-strategy and geostrategic initiative. Underlying all these in the war-on-terror format is United States African Command (AFRICOM), which in summary is the template for recolonization of Africa specifically her geological and geophysical assets. The conflicts in DR Congo, Libya and the ongoing conflagration in West Africa are examples of struggles for mineral resources.

These summits are windows for legitimisation of Africa’s dominance in a shrinking world that is opening to the gradual irrelevance of Westphalia building block. Increased hierarchisation of geopolitics has enhanced the position of African state at the bottom devoid of shift in context. Africa is reduced to a single entity despite her continental prowess in a massive of monumental proportion. In these summits a new pattern of domination has emerged, a new form of elites are emerging and another round of intergenerational dependency is shaped.  

Conclusion

The summits show a cultural ambience of ascendance in the dominating capitals and a hubris testifying advancement. It is impossible to indicate how these structures could be fought if such position is decided. The only open avenue for Africans is renewed incentive to reverse the identity crisis which has diminished individual and collective awareness. This cannot be sustained by total removal of the past or concentration on past glories. By providing a nuanced account of history the place of Africans in the present, including appreciating the complexity of structures & policies plus Africans contribution to such self-degradation opens a way towards strategic regeneration to boldly hold the future from a position of strength.