The End of Europe’s Civilisation mission project in Africa

Introduction

What refreshed in Europe’s south-eastern corner in February 2022 has brought unexpected global twists in civilisational and geostrategic dynamics. On closer examination these changes exacerbated by clash of weapons fit neatly into long durée history precisely of European intergenerational designs on Africa. This article set out a limited treatment to lay bare the profound processes of geopolitical change, the drivers of its transformative initiative and potentials for civilisational renewal toward genuine independence in Africa.

Africa in European Design

There is a very long history of relations between Africa and Europe anchored mostly on trade and conquest in both directions. Roman empire conquered swathes of territory in north Africa until it petered out in the 7^th century. Historical records testify African military victories in Europe before the 9^th century in Spain among other places. The military, economic, intellectual, political and religious sophistication of these conquests and developments therein drew strongly from Africa and particularly Islam. Nevertheless the intergenerational cultural exchange were rich and deep as is evident in Ethiopia, Sudan, Germany, Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.

However late 15^th century inserted a new equation that upset the geopolitical equilibrium. The ill-fated Christian crusades in West Asia, the costly long intra-European wars and the discovery of the new world (Americas) opened a new chapter of European resurgence. The former Portuguese search and mapping trade routes to Asia via Africa slowly transformed into designs to dominate Africans. This connects to the reversal of her diplomatic relations with Benin empire and Congo kingdom towards her first slavery project.

Remember that Portugal was expanding and consolidating her colonial possessions in Brazil. Her joint-genocidal enterprise with Spain against America’s indigenous peoples initiated radical manpower decline in a short time that triggered search for new labour. The immoral religio-theological justification of inferiority of indigenous peoples including Africans by Juan Gines de Sepulveda (1550) opened the way for their systematic dehumanisation, exploitation and destruction by the Spanish (Europeans). On the back this dehumanisation strategy toward cheap African human resources, Portugal unilaterally abrogated its friendly diplomatic relations with Benin empire & Congo kingdom for disrespectful impositions.

Once Europeans uprooted Africans from the pantheon of authentic humanity, respect and equality of brotherhood; the full weight of her intellectual and institutional heritage constructed the most regressive policies of Africans dehumanisation. Trans-Atlantic slave trade came naturally while 1885 Berlin Conference only later verified an intergenerational pan-European vision on Africa. Simply put, it defines Africans as inferior to Europeans and Africa as the wealth of Europe. 

From an economic perspective, these buccaneers raised capital via loans for occupying Africa, enslaving Africans, super-exploiting them to death in the new world and most importantly savagely mistreating them at home for export-oriented primary resource extraction. For each devalued African life, profit is assured after loans repayment. War is profit and each one is programmed clinically by the global elite since the 17^th century.  An alert visitor to London, Paris and Brussels will be confounded at the density of wealth concentration and how they came about. African wealth in material and blood made Europe and is evident in each case.

European Civilisation Mission

It is very sad that many Africans today erroneously still believe that European presence on the continent is positive. This resonate most with populations claiming to be followers of Christ, who are allergic to critical analysis and forensic historical insights. They equally exhibit myopia by conflating their view of Christianity with European deicidic abuse of authentic teaching/practices of the Christ. They also froth ignorance of genuine qualitative evangelical examples of the Christ and St Paul.

European civilisation mission is a rationalist and racist manifesto of disrespect, inequity and inequality against indigenous peoples who they considered sub-human, devoid of dignity and inadmissible to human condition. It deemed Africans as children in perpetual need of European paternal direction. It deprives Africans of awareness of truth, ability to reason, capacity to conceptualise and understand mystery, the Spirit, divinity, theological articulation and philosophical sophistication. 

What Africans own must be taken away by force, what they know must be erased, and what they aspire to must be obstructed. Simply put, Africans must be dominated in religion, innovation, creativity, economy, philosophy, history, intellect, research, axiology, ontology and existence. Immanuel Kant, George Hegel and Albert Schweitzer to name a few were unrepentant devotees.

It is on these basis that agents of colonial Christianity regrettably set about to ‘evangelise’ Africans in collusion with colonial empires under the barrel of the gun. Sadly most of them lacked authenticity, genuine spiritual education and credible mystical insight to detect the Spirit non-judgementally in Africans. This is the reason why after fake prayers Europeans took African lands and Africans forlornly held the holy book. 

Civilisation mission is a geostrategic policy for depersonalisation, dehumanisation, unjustified pre-emptive attack on Africans to steal their lands/resources, industrial scale genocides of Africans, epistemic violence on African history, heritage and civilisation, and the creation of hybrid and demoralised African society devoid of self-knowledge, dignity, truth, history and pride. Defiance is met with death. In dictates that Africans must learn without liberation, and be educated without transformation while looking up to Europeans with fervent inferiority in every aspect of human endeavour. Dehumanisation plc!

 Geoeconomic Patterns and Debt Regime

The economic structure designed for Africa by Europe is an extractive, consumptive, dependent and borrowing operation. There’s no room for economic independence or sovereignty because such will eliminate profit margin, resources value, dilute market quality and empower Africans. For this reason flag-independent neocolonial states were set up for indigenous comprador elite to continue the exploitation, marginalisation and imposition of oppressive unjust structures on the peoples. National exports are mostly unprocessed primary goods, currencies are debased, fiscal/monetary policies depend on foreign (World Bank/IMF) loans, unconstrained domestic markets and in many cases central banks are illusions.

Dependent populations are choked with odious debt which can never be fully reimbursed. No nation, people or state have ever stood up as truly independent or sovereign with massive foreign debt because debt servicing consume most of the internally generated funds, export revenue and new loans. This pattern dominated Africa effectively between 1960 – 2000 mostly on the basis of European surplus disposable capital and low debt per GDP.  

With such fiscal and monetary construct, European geostrategic initiatives and power projection on the continent via media manipulation, proxy conflict sponsorship, abusive trade deals, coup plots, regime changes and election supervision etc are inserted with unrestrained bravado. Particularly (African-on-African) wars ensure profit through dedicated supply chain of imported weapon system to all parties while the conflict is dragged for maximum exposure. Africans pay double in blood and signing away mineral rights. This has been the pattern for 2 generations until recently.

Russo-NATO Rebalancing and Opportunities

When Moscow moved to settle her 100+ years geostrategic accounts with the collective west via Ukraine, Africa didn’t come up directly in the grand scheme of things. Noise by reactionary forces were initially raised on mainstream media pretending food shortages and supply chains disruptions. What has emerged is that whether by design or accident, this conflict has procured unintended dynamics that opened new possibilities in Africa.

First, United States’ initiative for European containment manifested with its depriving the latter cheap energy from Russia. Since then European have been buying energy from US at more than 100% cost triggering slow deindustrialisation and uncompetitiveness. Secondly, Europe invested massively in purchasing weapons from the United States. West-bound capital flight! Third, in the absence of anticipated war profits European countries debt per GDP ballooned averaging 100+% crippling service provision, dropping credit ratings and destabilised bond markets. Borrowing cost is growing and domestic revenue generation is insufficient.

Fourth, the weaponisation of sanctions and poisoning of dollar transactions against Russia transformed global markets to favour national currency settlements given Moscow’s formidable resistance. Europe’s credibility (not that it had one) as a reliable trade partner and robust economic custodian came into sharp focus with EU’s brazen policy to steal Russia’s sovereign wealth fund in Belgium. This singular reputational damage is irreversible in the long term. Fifth, diversified global markets opened opportunities for alternative access to goods and services. 

Last but not the least is the decline in Europe’s ability to project power abroad unchallenged particularly in Africa. For France, this is the end of the road because her new poverty brought positive dividend and alternative forces first in the Central African Republic and then in West Africa. This is a mortal wound and final ending of Europe’s civilisation mission in Africa.

The new geopolitical configurations and geostrategic recalibrations by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger is the first fruit of this demise. Coterminous with renewed leadership confidence and refreshed geopolitical alliances, this informs the first light of Africa’s genuine independence and credible sovereignty since 1885. Senegal’s leadership is leveraging this situation by asserting new geoeconomic posture. 

While a continental overthrow of French/EU geostrategic design is complex and time-intensive, new processes are irreversibly unravelling towards independence. The same debt weaponised by Europe to constrain Africa for generations is checkmating Europe with clinical efficiency. European economic downturn is growing as public discontent deepen in services reduction, rising cost of living, narrowing of employment and deficit expansion. Difficult decades await Europe ahead.

Conclusion

European civilisation mission is a geopolitical and geostrategic device for strangling Africa. After 2 generations of flag-independence new possibilities are emerging. Indebtedness and bankruptcy imposed on Europe by Russo-NATO conflict has triggered the first wave of African resurgence by genuine patriots, popular solidarity and rebooted geopolitical alliances. All indicators suggests that Europe’s dreams of Africa under her boots is on death throes.