2023-05-25 14:01:00
Time.news – Celebrations in Africa always have a symbolic value. Rich in rhetoric but also in auspices. They belong to the life of communities and states. Even on this day, which is celebrated as Africa Day, the continent has mobilized.
Today we remember the founding of the Organization of African Unity (Oua), which took place on May 25, 1963, sixty years ago. In some countries rhetoric seasoned with anti-colonialism takes over.
In others, however, we look to the future and to the challenges, which are not rhetoric, which await a continent tried by the Covid pandemic, by the inflation of energy and, above all, food prices due to the global economic situation aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
But there are other challenges as well. Terrorism, for example, and far from defeated indeed, is rampant in many countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, which seem to be unable to deal with it despite the countries having been shaken by coups d’état.
Since the arrival of the military to power, the situation has worsened, so to speak, and anti-colonial rhetoric has been powerless, in particular the anti-French sentiment that pervades the populations of these two countries, but also sympathy, which has become structural with Russia, which supplies weapons and mercenaries of the Wagner Company. The whole Sahel is pervaded by an unprecedented jihadist wavewith the international chancelleries concerned about the possible connection with international criminal organizations.
Registries which, however, they have not been able to fix the problem because they have privileged security intervention – necessary – for development cooperation. Terrorism in the Sahel, as well as in Somalia, feeds on rampant poverty, on the inability of states to meet the needs of the population. One might say that the most effective weapon to fight terrorists would be to implement economic reforms and a welfare state worthy of the name, so as to get their privileged terrain, i.e. poverty, out from under the terrorists’ feet. I’ve been working for a while.
But they are many other challenges awaiting the continent, especially economic ones. The whole of Africa must have economic diversification as a beacon, it cannot rely solely on raw materials, even if they are precious to have the resources to create an industrial manufacturing fabric. From this point of view, the imbalance in relations with China, the main trading partner of the continent, is significant.
In the first four months of 2023, Chinese exports to African countries grew by 26.9%, while those of Africa to China decreased by 11.8%. An evident imbalance, aggravated by the fact that Beijing exports finished products to Africa – textiles, clothing, machinery, electronics – while African exports to China are dominated by raw materials such as crude oil, copper, cobalt and iron ore, of which the Dragon is extremely in need. Precisely for these reasons, the continent must work with more determination to build a manufacturing production fabric.
Furthermore, this is the great challenge facing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCTA) – which came into force in January 2021 – a market of 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of around 3.4 trillion of dollars. A commercial area that is struggling to take off due to the lack of safe infrastructures capable of connecting the states but above all due to the risibility of African manufacturing.
Only raw materials cannot circulate among the countries of the continent, these are taken up by multinationals and bring benefits to a few. Africa lives in a paradox: is rich in resources, but, for example, the two giants in the production of oil in sub-Saharan Africa – Angola and Nigeria – import about 80% of their fuel needs. It should not be overlooked that raw materials are subject to fluctuations on international markets.
Another challenge is that of electricity. Still in 2023, millions of Africans remain in the dark, and this too is a paradox given the potential of the continent: solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, clean energy such as green hydrogen. Putting all this into a system would give a boost to the single market and therefore to sustainable but above all lasting development. A question that only a supranational organization, such as the African Union, can address.
Then there are purely political issues. Let’s leave aside the African presidents who last forever without producing benefits for the populations but only animated by power bulimia and, often, supported by the West itself so attentive to the rule of law. The point, to stay with today’s celebrations, and give to the African Union an equal role in international fora.
A hypothesis that is materializing and could become concrete: a seat, so to speak, permanent, not only as an observer, as has often happened in the various G20 or G7, where from time to time, some African president or the exponents of the African Union themselves. As well as satisfying the African Union’s request for a seat on the UN Security Council remains.
Formalize and materialize a “permanent” presence would have the meaning of transforming the African continent into a power that decidesand, therefore, no longer with a subordinate role that from time to time negotiates with this or that western state, but protagonist of its own future in the face of international powers. All of this would be a paradigm shift because it would lead Africa to discuss its own economic, political and social development with the developed West as equals. It’s not just any thing, it would be epochal.
#continent #dignity #par #West