In 1976, in an effort to bolster the China-Africa relations that had blossomed throughout Africa’s liberation wars for independence, China issued a rare (at the time) interest-free loan for the construction of TAZARA railway.
TAZARA, short for Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority, has since the start of its operation nearly 50 years ago been a shining model of economic cooperation between allies across the oceans. The 1,860 km single-track railway links Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam and Zambia’s New Kapiri Mposhi in a way seldom seen.
Over the last five decades TAZARA railway has played a pivotal role in the transportation of copper from Zambia to the neighbouring Tanzania for export overseas. The cooperation has resulted in significant economic development for both African nations that are China’s traditional allies.
During the recent Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing in September, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan met with their host, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at the revitalization of the ageing TAZARA railway infrastructure. In addition, the MOU sought to improve the rail-sea intermodal transport network across the entire East Africa.
Given China’s phenomenal technological development and status as the world’s second largest economy, President Xi also offered to assist with connectivity in keeping with the challenges of modernity, so that Africa is not left behind amid the rapidly globalizing international world order that is inter-dependent and inter-connected. TAZARA railway has also come to symbolize the deepening high-quality Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that is based on China’s win-win and philosophy of shared future cooperation between Beijing and the African continent.
The story of TAZARA railway cooperation was brought to mind by this week’s visit to Angola by the outgoing US President Joe Biden. Throughout his term of office, President Biden has decried China’s eminent role in Africa’s development and a growing voice in geopolitics, falsely claiming that the cooperation was one-sided in favour of China.
However, Washington’s major concern is the overall meteoric rise of China in international relations. Some Western commentators have even been so desperate as to describe China as a new “colonial power” in Africa. Of course, the claim is plain baloney.
But as he gets ready to vacate the White House, President Biden appeared to want to build his legacy as the first ever sitting US President to visit Angola, Africa’s foremost oil-producing nation. The visit, despite littered with too many unanswered questions in the wake of President Biden’s imminent departure from office, took place as part of Washington’s very public declaration to counter China’s influence and impact in the continent.
For some curious reason, President Biden also elected to choose rail infrastructure as an area of cooperation with Angola, Zambia and Tanzania, focusing on the development of Lobito Corridor to improve public transportation network aimed at whisking away avalanche of minerals out of the three nations towards the US markets. It remains unclear if President Biden’s signature and word will carry weight as President-elect Donald Trump will assume office in January, complete with his own brand of foreign policy that is notorious for its unpredictability in multilateralism.
In the Angolan port of Lobito this week, President Biden met with the leaders of Angola (his host), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Tanzania to sell his counter-China programme based on extending a railway for a more efficient transportation of minerals from all the countries, including other goods and services.
The US also announced it was providing a multi-million dollar loan to support the Lobito venture. No details were made available about the loan repayment conditions. The first phase of the project, according to the White House, would be to extend the existing railway from Angola to the DRC’s mining heartland. The urgency, and focus, of the deal is very clear: access to the African minerals.
A US official was quoted as saying the Lobito project could be completed by the end of decade, without providing details. Thus far, it seems the Lobito Corridor project was what in marketing is referred to as low-hanging fruit. It was a quick win for a US President who is a lame duck, and whose decisions raise more questions than answers.
The Lobito project, without any timelines, is likely to be just a talk-show as part of an anti-China public relations strategy. China needs no reason to convince Africa about its philosophy of a win-win cooperation. From the era of Chairman Mao, Beijing has been a friend of the oppressed and colonized societies across the Global South. In the cantankerous international system of today – that is based on unilateralism – China has become a catalyst of South-South relations. Additionally, China’s policy in Africa will not change in the next four years, as is likely the case with the reality of the US nature of democracy.
It is all well and good for President to project himself as a bearer of good news for some parts of Africa. However, I am certain that Africa will not be duped by talk and more talk. To borrow from the US civil rights icon, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Africa must not judge Washington’s foreign policy programme like judging a book by its cover. Instead, Africa must judge the US, and indeed China and everyone else, on the content of their character.
