Kamala Harris, the US vice president, is visiting three African countries, including Tanzania. There are plans for the U.S president to visit the continent later in the year, something his immediate predecessor did not prioritize.
They are not the only leaders from powerful countries who have visited African countries in recent years, which has led to a chorus of a ‘new’ scramble for the continent’s resources by powerful countries. This unfortunate depiction of Africa’s place in global affairs is informed by certain factors and dynamics both within and without the continent.
The demons of the past which continue to haunt the present.
It has been more than six decades since the first country in Africa gained political independence, but time has not led to African countries settling the issue of state building projects. Countries continue to grapple with the realities of weak governments, and divided loyalties based on their former colonial masters.
This has meant that, Africa has no sovereignty when engaging outsiders and each country focus on its own interests and those aligned with the interests of their former colonial powers.
Despite talk of pan-Africanism, African countries have gone to wars with their neighbours to protect colonial borders.
Almost every single African country has a border conflict or disagreement with a neighbouring country.
In turn, this has affected their ability to fully embrace trade opportunities among themselves by pilling up all sorts of trade barriers, suffocating economic growth or pursuing individual trade agreements with outsiders turning each other into competitors.
In this vein, countries in the East African Community have other trade arrangements with other countries even though they are within the same bloc.
In less than three decades ahead, Africa will be home to the youngest people in the world, with demographics rising.
This is in contrast to other parts of the world where populations are projected to fall. However, with poor economic projections, corruption, and continued armed conflicts in many of these countries, this youthful population-a vital labour force-is also leaving the continent to seek better economic opportunities elsewhere, mostly in Western countries.
This depressing reality perpetuates the continent’s place in global affairs with the best and brightest fleeing the continent.
The most problematic aspect of it all is the fact that there is unified strategy for African countries to deal with powerful countries while all these other powers have their own strategies to deal with Africa. The U.S, China, Japan, U.K, European Union (EU), India, to name a few have various strategies to deal with Africa.
This has led to many summits where African leaders are summoned in the name of trade, security or being lectured about democracy and good governance. Not a single African country has ever been capable of holding a summit even with a bloc of some countries in say, Asia or South America.
Global powers and emerging powers have clear goals in their engagement of Africa. Part of this predicament was better explained by Mwalimu Nyerere when he was speaking to South African parliament where he said every time he visited Europe he was asked about problems facing Rwanda or another African country, and he replied he does not come from Rwanda but was told he comes from Africa. He wondered that no one asks a leaders from the UK about problems in another European country but that was not the case with African leaders.
To better understand Africa’s place in global affairs, Jakkie Cilliers of the Institute of Security Studies, outlined four scenarios in which Africa might operate in its global relations: a divided world, a world at war, a growth world and a sustainable world.
The observation was that in the current climate of global rivalries, Africa is operating in a divided world characterized by wars, armed conflicts and rising tensions between emerging powers and established global powers.
This means that the answers to a better equipped, well prepared Africa in its engagement with global powers points to solutions found within Africa itself.
That way, it will stop being a continent treated like a pawn, driven by other powers’ interests and ambitions and sit at the table as a partner.
