“COLONIALISM HAS LEFT A DEEP WOUND IN US,” AFRICA TELLS RUSSIA

Consensus among international relations scholars is that our global order system is currently undergoing changes of great significance. The convergence in Sochi, Russia, of Africa’s foreign affairs ministers and their team attested to the fundamental shift in global relations. Africa’s top envoys were hosted by their Russian counterpart, the veteran foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Africa is in many ways a microcosm of the Global South. The continent represents many schools of thought and various intellectual standpoints. For example, Africa was the epicentre of the Western colonialism of the last century, often characterized by what some scholars has summed up as period better described as a Scramble for Africa. The continent’s natural mineral resources are also a representation of the largely untapped wealth. Upon such resources rest the huge potential for inclusive economic growth. Additionally, the continent’s 1 billion combined population ensures that Africa is a global pole of power, untapped though it is, that could futuristically compete with the established powers that are locatable to geopolitics of today.

Russia and China, like Africa, are also situated in the Global South and therefore Africa’s “natural” allies. That the two superpowers are permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto power cannot be downplayed in any way whatsoever. Furthermore, both Russia and China are leading members of the BRICS bloc, a strategically emerging geopolitical player that seeks to counter the hegemony of the West.

This, in a nutshell, explains the unmistakable significance of the First Ministerial Meeting of Russia-Africa Partnership Forum held in Sochi from 9-10 November. I consider myself extremely lucky to have formed part of the continental media that covered the event.

Minister Lavrov summed it up very well when he explained the secret behind the flourishing ties between Russia and Africa during his closing remarks. He said: “We discuss our desires without blackmail.”

I found the statement heavily loaded, more so as the West was constantly an object of aberration, scorn and scoff alike throughout the two-day affair. “The days of the Western hegemony,” Lavrov said, “are over in spite of the West thinking otherwise.”

The final joint statement of the Forum, a declaration if you like, encompassed a series of important areas of cooperation in the Russia-Africa relations. These include the strengthening of African security, for which Moscow has vowed to play a leading role. The realignment of the global security architecture is what Africa needs in an era of aggressively competing geopolitical interests.

Other areas of cooperation identified were in the areas of food security, and energy. The economy was in inevitably at the centre of the discussions on the thrashing out of the reconfigured international world order. Russia offered to drastically increase its export of grain and fertilizers by a whopping 50% in the not-so-distant future.

Speaking on behalf of the African contingent in his closing remarks, foreign affairs minister of Mauritania, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, said the UN “is our common house that is sadly on shaky ground”.

However, Merzoug said, looking at the packed conference hall in Sochi’s Sirius territory: “The balance of power is happening in the global governance system. Russia and Africa are aligned as the foundations of the new, emerging world order. We are united by history.”

He said Africa as a young continent boasting the majority of the continent’s collective population of 1.4 billion people as being under the age of 25 stood a better chance of achieving history’s greatest developmental goals through “cherished integration”. He further said that in a world where “fairness is lacking”, Africa must play a key role in the reconfiguration of the new world order.

“What we are going through right now is a new era of renaissance,” Merzoug said. “We need to reinforce our independence – politically, economically, militarily,” he said.

He said through the AU, for which he sits at the executive, “economic integration systems at regional levels must be encouraged. All African countries represented here in Sochi today recognize just how important Russia is to the development of the continent. No wonder we have signed so many agreements with Russia here today, including the sharing of technology.”

He concluded to a round of applause: “Russia is a long-standing partner of Africa, and we are all cognizant of that. Colonialism has left a deep would in us,’ he said.

In pursuit of Africa’s Agenda 2063, the continent has achieved a great deal of convergence and a desire for inclusive growth and development. The establishment of African Free-Trade Zone, and also the Pan-African Payment System, are some of the tangible examples of a continent undergoing some significant reawakening.

The continental consensus mechanisms and the greater regional cooperation – from South to North, East to West, bode well for the world’s continent that boast innumerable and avalanche of a myriad of opportunities. Through it all, the Russia-Africa cooperation seems a key ingredient in the pursuit of the illusive greatness to which Mothers Africa aspires.