Why Africa must come first and foremost

IN this edition, we publish an abridged version of the Adebayo Adedeji Memorial Lecture delivered in Addis Ababa in March by Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the African Union High Representative on Silencing the Guns. He made one salient point that every African leader should heed: “While acting together, we should not shy away from making friends or allies outside the continent. But we should always act in our own interest as Africans first and foremost. That is our social contract with our people.”

Chambas knows what he is talking about. He is a seasoned Ghanaian politician and diplomat, having served as President of the Economic Community of West African States Commission, and as the Under-Secretary General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, among other important global roles.

We make this point because the African continent is caught in the middle of a yet another reordering of global politics that is not of its own making. Since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war in February last year, which has completely rearranged international relations, the big powers from the East and West have been intensifying their efforts to win the continent round

Last December, the American President, Joe Biden, convened a USAfrica Leaders Summit – the second since Barack Obama organised the first one in 2014. Donald Trump, on the other hand shifted America’s focus away Africa.

But then, we wonder, what new thing would African leaders have learnt from Trump who was behaving like some of the despotic presidents in Africa? Unleashing his militia against the seat of power in Washington because he was not too happy with the result of a democratic election seems like what we have seen in some African countries.

Now, with Biden at the White House, and with the Chinese and Russians, among others, making huge inroads into Africa, the US has upped the ante. In the last few months Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, US ambassador to the UN Linda ThomasGreenfield and the Vice President herself, Kamala Harris, have all made their way to the African continent offering a stronger economic partnership that many view as a challenge to the Chinese presence in Africa.

What does this really portend? It clearly means that Africa is important to the rest of the world, which it has always been. But Africans appear not to have been wise to this, and have allowed outsiders to claim a huge chunk of this rich and massive cake at the expense of Africans themselves.

What is happening is that Africans have lost the mind games that are being played internationally. The subliminal messages being sent out by outsiders is that the continent cannot stand on its own two feet, and that it is only through external assistance that progress will be made.