New scramble for Africa: West and allies vs anti-neocolonialism

Africa might get some overly respect from Europe and the West in general, thanks to the new Cold War, or should we call it Cold War II?

Since the Ukrainian-Russian war began in early 2022, there had been moves by the West to improve its interactions with this continent. There is a bit of new scramble for Africa by both sides of the global divide.

The West and its allies like Ukraine tend to invite themselves to the continent while the other camp gets favoured by Africa as part of their anti-neocolonialism drive, especially in West Africa. We have seen the military junta that took over in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso doing the unthinkable by kicking out France.

Others try other means to lure the continent to their side. International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola raised some eyebrows from the left by making the UK the first country to visit after his appointment.

The left sees it as a bad omen and that he should have chosen a non-Western country for his first tour, rather than a European country. To them, this signals a change of direction in terms of foreign policy to be more Western-inclined rather than a look-East approach pursued by Jacob Zuma during his reign.

But Lamola this week said under him, foreign policy will remain non-aligned as in the past.

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Even the war-torn Ukraine is focusing on Africa. You would expect Kyiv to be more concerned with how to fight Russia than embark on diplomatic missions to African states.

Since last year, Kyiv had concentrated on expanding its presence in Africa.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration’s announcement to open diplomatic missions in three African countries – Congo, Rwanda and Cote d’Ivoire – surprised many because Kyiv never showed interest in Africa prior to its war against Russia.

Perhaps this is part of its fighting strategy to build a united front against Kremlin. But there is reason to believe that such activity is due to Kyiv’s desire to provide wider geographical coverage and demonstrate public support for Zelensky’s peace initiative from as many states as possible.

Ultimately, this might ensure the Western-backed peace agreements in Ukraine favoured the West and their Kyiv proxies.

Nevertheless, most African countries realise the absurdity of the format of the negotiation process proposed by Kyiv to resolve the conflict without the participation of Russia, and without taking into account the prevailing geopolitical realities and the situation on the battlefield.

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Some say the money Ukraine spent on opening missions would have been better spent on reinforcing its defences.

Analysts from the Associated Press believe through the “fan” opening of its embassies in Africa, Kyiv, with the political and financial assistance of its Western curators, seeks to curb the growth of Russia’s influence on the continent. They use “black PR” technologies to discredit Russia before the African public.

Also earlier, the special representative of Ukraine for the Middle East and Africa, Subkh Maksym, reported that in 2023, Kyiv organised conferences and round tables for African politicians and diplomats. Ukrainian propaganda about the “aggressive” nature of Russian foreign policy is discussed at these events.

Zelensky and his Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba play an active role in these Ukrainian “influence operations” in Africa.

Kuleba made two large-scale tours of the African continent, including his visit to South Africa in what some experts believe was attempt to increase diplomatic pressure on Africans to persuade them to sever friendly relations with Russia.

Whether this will succeed or not can be measured against the invitation of Russia by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, as their new friend, replacing France.

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