Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:04:55 +0100
Understanding Africa’s Global Relations
Will Sapp
- Mar 27, 2014
Africa’s global relationships are complex. They reflect historical,
geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity and can be understood against
a backdrop of imperialism and its sister, global capitalism. Consequently,
there is no master narrative for understanding Africa’s global relationships
– both past and present.
Africa on the Margins of the World Constitutive Process
It is still helpful, however, to contextualize Africa’s global relationships
into broad, artificial time periods – artificial, much like the
nation-states in Africa themselves: 1) the Scramble for Africa and
consolidation of colonial power vis-à-vis the creation of nation-states from
1879-1905; 2) the interwar years to the emergence of national movements and
decolonization 1906-1961; 3) Africa as Cold War proxy, independence and
civil wars 1961-1991; 4) post-Cold War state reconfiguration and regional
conflict and; 5) the second scramble for Africa and the construction of the
contemporary African state.
European imperial leaders at the Conference of Berlin (1884-85) – led by the
UK, France, Portugal, Belgium and Germany – partitioned Africa as
arbitrarily as the above historical divisions. Borders were drawn with
little to no regard for socio-cultural reality. Unsurprisingly, European
leaders claimed that the partition of Africa was largely an altruistic
enterprise to improve the welfare of people on the continent. However, like
schoolboys with shiny new sneakers, European nations were more concerned
with flaunting their colonial trophies to each other than developing
infrastructure and economic markets for the future.
King Leopold II was likely the most egregious of European leaders during
this period. Leopold, blinded by the mythology of rubber abundance in the
Congo basin, effectively turned the region into a corporation ironically
labelled the Congo Free State. As rubber and ivory resources dwindled and
profit margins fell, Leopold – who had never visited the Congo basin himself
– instituted horrifically violent means of extraction. Although the term
“resource curse” was not coined until 1993, during this period it certainly
applied to the Congo basin and other African nations that were blessed with
an abundance of natural resources yet trapped in the tragic irony of poverty
and forced labour as a result. It is likely that Leopold’s influence in the
Belgian Congo set in motion patterns of practice that would be repeated in
many other African countries over the next century – by nations and
multinationals alike.
Between the two World Wars, Africa reflected global politics on a regional
scale. At the end of the First World War, France and the UK carved mandate
states out of the former Ottoman Empire that were not unlike the fictitious
nation-states created in Africa only decades earlier. By 1922, almost a
quarter of the world was subject to the British crown. The world was
largely governed by empires with Africa, Latin America, and most of Asia on
the margins.
Western European global dominance was short-lived. The First World War
stretched the UK and France beyond their means. As France felt its
geopolitical power slipping in the 1930s it increased its investments in
North Africa by building infrastructure and training military. The Popular
Front government, economic depression, and the onset of the Spanish Civil
War informed colonial policy in North Africa. Increased militarization in
North and West Africa was also a response to emerging nationalist movements,
for example, the creation of one of the earliest nationalist independence
parties, Parti du Peuple Algérien in Algeria in 1937.
It was clear by the end of the Second World War that the British Empire had
reached its pinnacle. The toll of the war extended the UK beyond its means.
The independence of the Indian sub-continent in 1947 represented the tipping
point for the collapse of 19th century conceptions of empire. The monopoly
of trade from India, up the Eastern coast of Africa and through the Suez
Canal was now a fading dream. Riddled with debt, the UK’s presence in Africa
slowly dwindled. Western imperial powers were further weakened and
fractured as their priorities shifted around the ideological divisions of
the Cold War.
Unlike the UK, France viewed its colonies, particularly those in North
Africa, as an extension of France itself. Independence movements were met
with military suppression and protracted wars – the Algerian conflict
(1945-1962) being the most violent example. Britain, in contrast, generally
relinquished control of its colonies peacefully (Kenya being an exception) –
largely in response to its own economic fragility and dwindled resources.
Prior to the rise of nationalist movements, most African economies were
based on artificially low-wages and resource exploitation that fuelled
Western growth at the expense of domestic prosperity. The colonial
export-based primary commodity economies led to the stagnation of economic
growth in the post-colonial context. Britain and France failed to build
requisite infrastructure to support economic sustainability.
Postcolonial Regional Politics
>From 1956 to 1968, thirty-seven African countries declared independence from
colonial rule. Regional African cooperation formally began in 1963 with the
creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) – since 2002 the African
Union. As the name indicates, the organization was designed to promote
African integration and unity as countries embarked upon self-determination.
Concurrently, regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community (EAC) also emerged to
encourage regional trade and fiscal cooperation.
African democratic movements were often marked by single-party dominance.
Ebullient heads of state such as Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel
Nasser, Sekou Touré and Habib Bourguiba captured the imagination of the
world as representatives of African self-determination on the global stage.
The future was certain to hold promise internationally and domestically.
Africa’s newly independent nations often formed their international
relationships in the ideological context of the Cold War and faced
post-colonial depression as a result. Portugal’s rapid collapse after the
death of Salazar led to overnight decolonization in Angola and Mozambique.
Transit, trade and industry suffered. Cold War ideologies flourished. Rapid
decolonization and relocation of Portuguese settlers opened political
vacuums leading to civil war. Those states became proxy conflicts for Cold
War politics with Cuba and the USSR supplying capital and material for the
socialist-led MPLA and the United States and Western European nations
funding the FNLA. These conflicts also had regional ramifications involving
countries as far away as Tanzania (in the case of Mozambique) as well as
proximate nations such as South Africa (supporting UNITA), Zaire, Zimbabwe
and Malawi.
Global economic recession and widespread drought compounded Africa’s
problems in the 1970s. Energy-poor, import-dependent nations such as those
in the Sahel, reliant on the sustainability of global oil prices, were
adversely affected by the two oil crises of 1973-74 and 1979-80. Oil
exporters such as Angola and Nigeria were equally affected. Many nations
therefore resorted to external borrowing and liquidation of resources to
multinational corporations.
Corporations, mirroring the behavior of imperial nations in the first half
of the 20th century, acquired and implemented many of the exploitative
practices derived from state instruments. The deleterious effect of the new
“multinational colonialism” was felt in state treasuries and the working
poor. In 1970, Africa’s external debt burden was just over $11 billion. By
1995, Africa’s external debt had ballooned to $340 billion while per capital
incomes in sub-Saharan Africa decreased by 14% between 1980 and 1987.
A wave of democratization in most of Africa occurred with the collapse of
the Soviet Union, the end of Apartheid, and the fall of dictatorial regimes
(Sudan and Libya the exception). Notorious dictators such as Mobutu Sese
Seko and Idi Amin, who had capitalized on Cold War political divisions to
secure international aid money to fund their corrupt and oppressive regimes,
were dramatically overthrown by latent opposition.
In Western Africa, the post-Cold War fallout resulted in violent and
protracted civil war in countries such as Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and
Liberia. Across the continent, other nations such as Rwanda, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Sudan, Malawi, Somalia, and Burundi similarly fell
subject to devastating civil wars resulting from latent tribal and religious
divisions that were exacerbated by artificial borders, widespread poverty,
multinational exploitation, and macroeconomic mismanagement in the
post-independence years.
The 1990s marked a general decline in Africa’s global relations. The
widespread negative perception was that of a continent stricken with
conflict, entrenched political corruption, resource wars and poverty.
The Rise of Africa
Over the last decade, Africa has rebounded greatly in terms of global
perception and economic reality. Continental economic growth has tripled
since 2002 with the continent averaging 5% GDP growth annually over that
period. Intercontinental cooperation has also been integral to growth.
According to the IMF, from 2001-2010, six of the ten fastest-growing
economies in the world were in Africa. The IMF also forecasts that by 2017,
eleven of the world’s twenty fastest-growing economies will be in Africa.
Countries as diverse as Botswana, Nigeria, Zambia, and Sudan have
transitioned into middle-income nations in two short decades. Pundits have
highlighted the parallels between Africa’s GDP growth over the last decade
and the rise of the Asian Tigers in the 1990s. This comparison is not
entirely erroneous but only captures a snapshot of the renewed promise,
innovation, and diversity of international relationships that have developed
between Africa and the global community in recent years.
BRICS
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and Africa’s Century
Africa’s global relationships are increasingly collaborative thanks in large
part to the development of commodity and manufacturing sectors on the
continent. FDI from BRICS has spurred this development. BRICS investments
in greenfield projects look to surpass those of developing countries as the
top investors in Africa by the end of the decade. By 2010, BRICS
represented 14% and 25% in flows and stock FDI
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in Africa respectively. Nevertheless, traditional Western powers – France,
the United States, and the United Kingdom – still dominate FDI stock on the
African continent.
According to a 2013 report co-authored by the World Bank and the Brazilian
Institute for Applied Economic Research, Brazil’s trade with Southern Africa
has increased from $2 billion (US) in 2000 to $12 billion (US) in 2010.
Brazil has natural linguistic ties with the former Portuguese colonies of
Angola and Mozambique, and possesses geographic similarities with
sub-Saharan countries. To further encourage cross-Atlantic investments, the
Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) has offered incentives for potential
investors. Sub-Saharan African countries have discussed cooperative
partnerships in terms of tropical agriculture, tropical medicine, vocational
training, energy and social protection.
China’s financial influence in sub-Saharan Africa has increased dramatically
over the last decade. Some have dubbed Chinese interests in the continent as
neo-colonial – designed to expropriate African resources to fuel Chinese
growth. African leaders such as Zimbabwe’s Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara recently expressed such concern:
The Chinese must come to Africa on African terms. The terms that will allow
the Chinese to
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but the terms that will also allow Africa to develop, win-win.
However, other African leaders such as Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete
have been less wary, welcoming Chinese
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by citing economic growth and development as the overarching priority in
terms of international partnerships:
Why when we have relations with the others there is no problem? But when we
have relations with China, oh boy! So many questions! Tanzania looks for
investments, technology, markets, and development assistance. This is all we
are getting from China. Our relationship with China is about that, with the
U.S. is about that, with Europe is about that, with Japan is about that,
with India is about that. So if the issue is neo-colonialism then it is with
everybody.
Tracking real Chinese
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numbers is problematic and inaccurate due to China’s lack of fiscal
transparency. Nevertheless, it is clear from both official and unofficial
data that from 2000 to 200 6, China has quintupled in terms of the number
of projects on the continent. At the end of 2011, Chinese investment stock
in Africa stood at $16 billion with South Africa its leading recipient.
Although many regions of Africa still face widespread poverty, civil and
military conflict, political corruption and a perceived lack of organization
within the African Union, it is hard not to be struck by the optimistic
prospects of what may turn out to be Africa’s century. African nations must
allow the past to inform the present and proceed with cautious optimism as
countries around the world vie for strategic economic position on the
world’s fastest-growing continent.
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