By José Francisco Lumango for the Saker Blog
The answer may not be simple. But the memory of European colonisation in Africa, and its harmful effects, are still visible despite the independence of its states, may be a reasonable way of understanding it. An African adage teaches that “One should never forget the lessons learned in times of pain”, which seems to be the source of inspiration for the African cosmos – the set of entities that formally and materially hold the power relations in Africa – not to forget the tragic consequences of European colonisation, to protect their independence and not repeat the errors of the past. Without being simplistic or too complex, the answer to the question in question may have several reasons:
1. Historical memory of colonisation and the struggle for national liberation: Russia, heir to the Former USSR, supported ideologically, politically, economically, and militarily the national liberation struggles of several African countries, which after the achievement of independence, followed the communist model as the basis of their political, social and economic construction. Even though they later adopted Western capitalism, the mentality of the African cosmos is still of Soviet influence, because it was there that most of them did their military and political training and received economic support to finance the liberation wars to put an end to Western colonisation, with direct and indirect help from Cuba as an intermediary in some cases. The cold war between the USA and NATO against the USSR led to civil wars in African countries to conquer the spaces of influence. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the resurgence of Russia, Westerners looked at the situation as an absolute victory. Despite this, the African cosmos has not forgotten colonisation, the interference of Western countries in their internal affairs, and the rigged processes of massive indebtedness of their economies as a way of controlling their strategic natural resources.
2. Recent memory of wars at the beginning of the 21st century: Beyond colonial issues, the African cosmos has been following since 2001 the behaviour of the West (US, NATO, and EU) in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, sweetened by the Arab Springs, attempted coups in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tunisia, Egypt, etc., without forgetting the massacre in Rwanda and the war in Somalia and Yemen. These wars and coups have destroyed thousands of human lives, social infrastructure, jobs, etc. It was a catastrophe for the entire continent and nearby territories like South East Asia. The existing wars in Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, Mali, Mozambique, DRC, Ethiopia, etc, allow the African cosmos, even those with strong ties to the West like Morocco, for example, not to act frontally against Russia, a fact verified in the recent votes of the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council which suspended it. The expulsion of French forces by the military junta in Mali and their replacement by the Russians through the Wagner group, like the construction of a port for the Russian Nave Arms on the Sudanese Red Sea coast, could be a revealing symptom.
3. The damaging memory of Western unipolarity and the chance for a global multipolar alternative power: For Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, the Ukrainian war is a civil war within Slavic civilisation, through several wars within it: economic-financial, propaganda-media, cultural, biological, radiological, and military war. It is a hybrid war that has ended with globalisation, as confirmed by Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock. For Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, it is not a question of total deglobalisation, but of economic-financial, cybernetic-digital, energy, and commercial deglobalisation. The West was no longer interested in economic-financial globalisation because they lost the battle against China, and cybernetic-digital globalisation (software, etc.) was won by the Indians. This bipolarity also involves the division of the UN Security Council into two blocs: the first composed of the US, UK, France (G7/NATO), and the second of Russia and China (Shanghai Group and BRICS). This situation led to an operational dysfunction of the WTO and led to the resignation of its previous Director General, Roberto Azevedo. In this sense, Jalife-Rahme quotes Philipe Stephens’ article “The world is marching back from globalisation”, where he states that “The US does not see a vital national interest in maintaining an order that transfers power to rivals”. Thus, according to Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, “Everything that is not globalised becomes balkanised”. Thus, the end of globalisation, especially the economic-financial one, as dictated by Larry Fink, will inevitably entail its balkanisation, through two regional blocs, i.e. de-globalisation and bipolar trans-meta-regionalisation, on one side the G7/NATO and EU, and on the other side the BRICS/Shanghai Group and Eurasian Union.
The de-globalisation said by Larry Fink is “neoliberal de-globalisation”, which occurs through the gradual paralysis of global supply chains, which are founded on the reduction of operating costs through outsourcing (relocation of companies) and downsizing (lowering labour costs to increase shareholder profits and value companies in capital markets), according to Alfredo Jalife-Rahme. The African cosmos believes that if Russia, even with nuclear weapons, a continental country with Eurasian tradition, which supplies almost 40% of energy resources and other strategic raw materials to the West, is treated this way, what will become of African countries, which are visibly weaker in military terms? The destruction of Libya for trying to sell oil in Euro and rejecting the USD may be indisputable proof.
The meddling of the West in Africa, beyond colonisation, needs no introduction. The wars and coups d’état in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, the Central African Republic, the civil war in Angola and other conflicts are facts that remain in the collective memory of the African cosmos. If the colonial memory was tragic, the expressive and aggressive interference of the West in the African cosmos is breaking any remaining trust, for historical reasons (over 400 years of colonisation), by unfair competition in the exploitation of natural resources, the massive interference in internal affairs by the IMF in the financing of road and housing infrastructures, etc., and the attempt to incorporate western values aggressively through sanctions and blackmail, even if these values do not correspond to the African historical-epistemic and gnosiological cosmogony.
4. China and Russia as a financial and military alternative for the existential survival of African countries in a multipolar world in the medium and long term: The African cosmos observes with concern and caution everything that Western leaders do against Russia as a result of the technical-military operation in Ukraine, regardless of the causes, which by common sense is perceived since 2014. The reason for this concern lies in the fact that whenever the West finds itself in crisis or politically, geostrategically, and economically cornered, it uses internal or external wars as a way out, a can be seen in the Roman wars, the colonisation of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the Napoleonic wars, the First and Second World Wars. Faced with the circumstances, the African cosmos shows resistance towards sanctions against Russia, abstaining from votes at the UN, in official pronouncements, that is, maintaining certain strategic neutrality, despite the gigantic Western pressure, forcing them to choose a side as if they were still vassals or colonised. It is not that the African cosmos agrees in its entirety with Russia’s technical-military operation in Ukraine, insofar as, there is a history of invasions in Africa carried out by Westerners, Arabs, Persians, and Ottomans. The main concern is the need for an economic-financial and military alternative to the West for its own existential survival, and to protect itself from possible aggressive interference in the long term, when strategic reserves of Western raw materials reach their limit. The way the West behaved during the Covid19 Pandemic in the context of vaccine distribution policies, by buying in advance almost 80% of all vaccines in production in the world, leaving poor countries without vaccines even to buy for a certain period, and changing their position only when they realised that, the non-global distribution of the vaccines prolonged the pandemic, led to the creation of the COVAX system by the WHO, after harsh criticism from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, stating that, “The growing gap between the number of vaccines offered in rich countries and those administered through COVAX is becoming “more grotesque by the day”. And how could it be otherwise, the gesture of Russia and China in the swift distribution of vaccines and protective medical supplies was taken into account by the African cosmos at the time of decision making. As is well known, China’s economic and Russia’s military presence in Africa is seen as an alternative guarantee to what the West is offering. Since 2002, while the West was distracted with its eternal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Arab Spring, Syria, Libya, etc., China entered Africa in silence, massively funding road infrastructure projects etc., without interference in internal affairs, through the adoption of the “Win-Win” strategy.
Russia, on the other hand, has become the main military alternative, accounting for 49% of total arms exports to Africa by 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database, to avoid internal conflicts and protect itself from external interference. Paul Stronski confirms that “The rulers of many African countries look to Moscow from Soviet-era links, and Moscow takes advantage of this and manages to maintain its influence. In the case of Algeria [and Angola], this is done by writing off old debts. Sometimes Russia also makes generous promises, assuring that it will build workshops or facilities for manufacturing or maintenance.
The African cosmos serenely realises that a defeat of Russia in Ukraine will lead the world to a more aggressive, self-centred and militarised Western unipolarisation and the weaker countries will have no alternative for survival and existential resistance. The fear of perishing and becoming a colonial space again seems to be more important to the strategists of the African cosmos than Western values about democracy, neoliberalism, capitalism, etc. For the African cosmos, its course and future depend on the economic-financial cover of China and the military cover of Russia, so that there is a certain balance in its relations with the West.
And it considers the situation of Russia and Ukraine as an internal issue between brothers of the same homeland linked historically, culturally, linguistically, and religiously. But it does not mean that it wants a radical change in its strategic relations with the West. It is only a preventive measure of existential survival.
The way the West treats Ukrainian refugees compared to what has been done with African refugees arriving via the Mediterranean and from the Canary Islands via the Atlantic has not been forgotten, as have the Punic wars between Rome and Carthage and the destruction of Libya. These historical events may justify the fear of the African cosmos in resisting in the face of Western pressure to give up its strategic relations with Russia and China.
This neutrality and strategic ambiguity serve to prevent a geostrategic and existential risk for sovereign and independent countries in the medium and long term. And, according to an African adage “When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers”. Thus, the African cosmos realises that it is grass in this war of titans, and Ukraine only as a geostrategic, geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geofinancial singularity of the hegemonic power struggle between Eurasia and the West. So that may have been the reason they refrained from the sanctions war against Russia, for the lessons learned from their tragic experiences, old and recent, of their relations with the West.
The African cosmos does everything it can to avoid being the grass in the conflict at hand, promoted by the West since 2014, through the coup d’état against Viktor Yanukovich, and the failure to implement the Minsk I and II agreements. Soon, it seems that the African cosmos uses the proverbial philosophy of its ancestors to avoid entering into another’s war, even though it is already feeling the side effects of the increase in the prices of wheat, fertilizers, oil, gas, etc., and the risk of probable retaliations, for disobedience of political guidelines, by the West.
The claim by Macky Sall, President of Senegal and Chairperson-in-Office of the African Union on his recent visit to Russia, in demanding the West remove sanctions affecting Africa’s food security is, without doubt, a clear and unequivocal demonstration of this position. ”
Why don’t the African cosmos support the West in its sanctions war against Russia?
Jose, let’s be honest. One word. Bribes.
Wouldn’t the americans bribe them to _support_ the sanctions ?
Hahaha!
So by being “honest” you then proceed to lie/give a bizare one sentence answer (if you can even call it that).
All below the words given to you above by the author who clearly shows that it’s actually an amalgamation of different things.
You folk, I swear (rolls eyes)
@Saker don’t let these people turn your good blog into Twitter lol
I second your plea. A few but persistent neocon western supremacists, mostly european colonialists (their rhetoric, slightly too sophisticated for Murica, suggests so) have been trolling this site those last few months. Their ‘prorussian” statements are as sincere as those of the russian 6th column.
In that case Africa wouldn’t be so different from the rest of the world.
Anyway, as elsewhere, there are things that are so politically entrenched in Africa that no application of hybrid tools including money can remove them. One is the memory of colonialism. Another, corollary, is pan Africanism and the desire for respect vis a vis the rest of the world. That’s why Russia and China have an intrinsic advantage over the West in Africa, despite the West’s vast and efficient hybrid resources.
Don’t agree. How about latin America and most asian countries. Bribes? Don’t think so.
Benito Juárez, the Mexican holy man, was going to hand over the isthmus of Tehuentepec to the USA if he made him president of Mexico… I can count country by country of Hispanic America all the betrayals committed since selling entire territories for money and power and other baseness.
Latin America ? Bribes.
Bags full of money, a villa in Miami like (Z) elensky or a green card for the whole family.
Most of the above reasoning about Africa can also be applied to Latin America – though Iberian colonialism officially ended 2 centuries earlier.
Child. You are so prejudiced it stinks even off the screen.
Unlike you, a westerner I assume, we Africans are the fastest economically growing continent on Earth and we are exponentially educated, we don’t just play computer games and eat pizza all day.
We are very aware the Tyrant West is a crazy psycho. We have lost all respect for it.
CIA is the biggest killer of African leaders. Despite the death threats. And these have been made I know first hand. We will still not support the West against Russia. How that must stick in the craw of you foolish people.
We look forward and pray daily that Russia smashes the West back to the stone age where there mental level is matched by the circumstances.
Re: bribes.
Spot the projection.
@ CitizenKayne
Hier haben Sie eine Antwort aus Afrika
Machine translations
Here you have an answer from Africa
– Niarela.net, Mali
Africa preferred Russia to the US
… And now the US is actively trying to broaden the anti-Russian front at the expense of African states. Therefore, in the fight for African ‘votes’, the West accuses Russia of deliberately organising world hunger. The fact is that Africa is on the verge of a food crisis. This is all due to food shortages and rising prices, which the West blames on Russia. Over 40% of the grain consumed in Africa comes from Ukraine and Russia. The West claims that grain is no longer being exported because of Moscow.
But African leaders do not believe US President Joe Biden’s claim that Vladimir Putin is responsible for the rise in food prices, especially for staple foods, wheat and maize. Thus, Africans do not believe that Russia is to blame and refuse to blame Moscow for the famine that is starting in Africa. Moreover, they suggest that the main fault lies precisely with the West, which has imposed sanctions against Russia that have affected Russian exports.
According to Macky Sall, president of Senegal and the African Union (AU), “the sanctions against Russia have led to more seriousness, since we no longer have access to cereals from Russia, wheat in particular, but especially fertilisers”. He called on “all partners to lift the sanctions” against Russia on these products. According to Abdoulaye Diop, Mali’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the sanctions are only making the situation worse.
There are several reasons why Africa does not side with the US and why Russia has the advantage. First, Africa is interested in cooperation with Russia in the military, political and economic spheres. Russian instructors have already shown themselves to be successful in improving the security situation in the Central African Republic and Mali.
Moreover, Russia, unlike the United States and France, does not interfere in the internal affairs of the protected country, respects the national, religious and cultural peculiarities, as well as the economic characteristics of its partners.
Russia, unlike the West with its colonial idea of superiority, treats African leaders with respect. The West, on the other hand, does not treat Africans as equals.
https://niarela.net/afrique/lafrique-a-prefere-la-russie-aux-etats-unis
Sorry Jose,
I misread the title and jumped ahead.
In this case the continent has done well and it’s high time they act independently and in their own national interests.
But a few key countries are still very much under the thumb of former colonial masters and especially the global hegemon.
From the web: ‘The noun cosmos can be countable or uncountable. In more general, commonly used, contexts, the plural form will be “cosmoses”. However, in more specific contexts, the plural form can also be “cosmoi” e.g. in reference to various types of cosmoi or a collection of cosmoi.’
This article raises some interesting issues and is worth reading, in spite of the fact that it is rather poorly written (or poorly translated) – to the point of being nonsensical or contradictory on occasion. I realize that sometimes expediency is a must, but I still think contributors to The Saker should make an effort to have their syntax and their English checked by some knowledgeable person. The poor linguistic quality of many texts published here detracts from their effectiveness as well as from the blog’s image.
Bazarov, what is it that you did not understand?
This will be posted at the Saker LatinAmerican in its original Portugese. You can go and read it there.
For information, at the Saker Blog we care about the ideas that our writers put forward and not their ‘linguistic quality’. Most of us do not have English as a first, or even a second language. That includes me.
Your contribution tells me that you did not take time to understand the material, and you are denigrating the writer because he does not have English as a first language. We see this underlying racism each time a contribution by African or about Africa comes in. I understood the material perfectly with some careful reading. But, you want the work perfectly edited, please give us a contribution to keep an editor on site and we will keep an editor on site.
I’ll stop now, and resist the urge to rant.
Perfect answer. If someone is more interested in English literature, maybe this is not his best choice.
Thanks for the Article. Incidentally, one of the best features of this site is it publishes opinions by authors whose first language is not English. Like most members of the Eurasian Union and SCO, including Russia, China, India, Brazil …. and this is what makes these organizations and their members so strong and futuristic compared to the declining – both economically and culturally – western camp. I had no problem understanding what the author was trying to convey. So to those who are native English speakers and writers, I would suggest that they see it as a great honor or privilege when a non-native English speaker tries to communicate with them in English.
It is logical, the white West for six centuries has enslaved and murdered Africans in such numbers that hand in hand they would go around the world through the equator several times. And there are still several contingents of professional assassins in order to keep the population terrified and steal natural resources.
The white slave trade carried out by the Barbary pirates from Europe to North Africa, for centuries, far exceeded the black slave trade to America.
I see that your mental prejudices are greater than telling the truth.
Mentir es un pecado grave.
No one contests that.
But the point is that a large section of Africans were enslaved and colonised recently in terms of world history and they remember who did that. Keep up.
Saker appears to have reached enough influence that the Empire of Lies needs to post here.
I think that we must first clarify one thing when we talk about Africa: is it the Africa of the peoples or the Africa of the Governments, because they are not at all the same thing. And in my opinion, it is very complicated to talk geopolitically about Africa! offensive statement removed … mod
Whoever today’s African Head of State, including Mackyll Sall you are talking about, would not last 24 hours if the West (and France in this particular case) decided to kick him out! This is where they take orders so to speak!
That there is a distinction between views of citizens and he governments in every country is a given and obvious fact dear.
As for Africa you clearly have zero knowledge on Africa. Do you really think the government’s of Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Mauritius, Kenya etc are all idiots.
Most obvious in your clulessness is that you think the head of the African Union is the leader of Africa. What a banana. That’s like saying head of the UN is leader of the world.
Also. Let us remember. All humans originally came from Africa and the entire human race is an African species so even people like you have a million years of ancestors buried in Africa. So please drop the superior act. You are one of the cousins we find embarrassing.
“The way the West treats Ukrainian refugees compared to what has been done with African refugees arriving via the Mediterranean and from the Canary Islands via the Atlantic has not been forgotten, as have the Punic wars between Rome and Carthage and the destruction of Libya. These historical events may justify the fear of the African cosmos in resisting in the face of Western pressure to give up its strategic relations with Russia and China.”
First, thanks for excellent summary of current African positions and motivations.. History is unkind to dying senile Tyrants trying to vainly hold on. It is the night of the long knives everywhere..
I don’t think, except perhaps locally in Tunis, that people remember the Punic wars, and even then among the highly educated or curious. What motivates many many more Africans (and Indians) are actual real-time racist injustices of darker-skinned students at hands of Ukronazis. This played out on social media to absolute catastrophe for AZE. Nazis can’t help themselves and are their own worst enemies.
The West is in zugzwang. It created against Russia these hateful ideological proxies, firmly linked to them at this point, but has in the process lost the hearts and minds of the 85% Rest of mankind.. now it is in the process of losing both the SMO and the fear-factor, fidelity and basic respect of the Rest..
“The West is in zugzwang. It created against Russia these hateful ideological proxies, firmly linked to them at this point, but has in the process lost the hearts and minds of the 85% Rest of mankind..”
This is absolutely true, it reflects a comment I made elsewhere about the East Turkestani Islamic Party, which because of US manipulation & subversion in the Xinjiang region of China, this group sent thousands of jihadists to fight for al-Nusra in Syria, committed huge atrocities, & as a result their cause is lost in the eyes of the world. This is no different to the Azov Battallion, that is who the west partners up with, & the rest of the world hate them for it.
It is quite a big project to attempt to find the corollaries of agreement in Africa across all 54 countries. There are of course many regional and other country differences.
Congratulations José. I think you did a wonderful job in just about +2,000 words.
Why should the West…it’s White Working Class Population…tolerate mass migration from Africa? Of course, the Western European Working Class Population is under no obligation to tolerate this at all.
What you should not tolerate is the destruction of African and other countries by your “White Working Class Population”. Then you won’t have to deal with mass migration. Do I dare say Libya for one.
Actually, if the Native White Working Class-American and European-don’t want mass African Migration into Europe and America…well, they will eventually shut it down whether the Africans like it or not. Perhaps the Chinese in China want to be colonized by Nigeria.
Working Class Native Born White Americans and Working Class White Americans are not responsible for whatever problems Africa has. Perhaps Slavic Russians in Russia can take one million+ Africans into Russia every year.
Are you aware of the recent rape and murder of a 14 year old White Teenage Girl in Fargo North Dakota by a African Legal Immigrant?
War For Blair Mountain
Dear prejudiced mountain thing.
Firstly no white person in America is a native. You are all unwanted colonisers, working class or not and the real natives would prefer you get lost back to Europe where you all 300mn can squeeze your fat butts in with the other 300mn on your tiny home continent of Europe.
You don’t belong in North America.
And yes the white working class in America is responsible for the government and Congress members it elects. Therefore it’s responsible for what happens in Africa. You stole money and assets from Russians and banned their music and sports players when they had no role in their government. So you don’t get a pass on that.
I met alot of white working class in America. Nice people generally. A bit thick. Zero clue about anything outside of their little squares. Easily played by their political class. Huge victim mentally. Lots on drugs or alcohol. High depression rates. Cry babies.
The nonwhite majority…effectively ….and highly racialized Democratic started the war against Slavic Russia eight years under the leadership of Dear African Leader Barack Obama.
What are you going to do if the Native Born White American Working Class Majority does not comply with your Demographic Edict?
You don’t seem to be able to tell the Historic Native Born White American Historic Majority why it is in their interests to tolerate mass African Migration to America. If if you can’t…there is no why reason why they should accept your policy advice which comes down to this:Whitey die!!!!
Thanks for pointing out the reluctance of white working class Europeans or UsAmericans have towards African migration.
May we start by also acknowledging that migration in most cases is not a luxury but a last resort when countries are destroyed by predatory practices of which the white working class Europeans are part beneficiaries? May I also point that the French social security system, just to name one example, would not exist but for the continuous pillaging of 14 African economies? Or the low electricity costs in France using nuclear reactors for the white working class French would not be possible if Niger was not being pillaged of its uranium, something which is the cause of the Al Qaeda in Sahel strawman?
I point these few truths out just to make it known that the migration of Africans is a consequence of insecurity, economic hardship and an unjust economic situation foisted upon the Africans by a western dominated economic system that ensures those ‘pesky’ Africans remain crushed and underdeveloped. This is not one of choice because they love Europe. Far from that.
In case you doubt what I say, read Adam Smith’s wealth of nations and the fact that the Africans are supposed only to run plantations. Any attempts at climbing up scale and mounting transformative factories are destroyed either through sabotage or economic strangulation by stopping either capex or working capital loans. Think about the tragedy of Haiti and the colonial debt imposed upon them by France, The USS and Great Britain. Do you know that up until the late nineties, it was against the law in Francophone Africa to clear out a crop of cocoa and replace with something edible by the Africans? This law was a relic of colonialism and anyone who had gone against it ended up as a subject of a coup d’etat.
It is easy to blame underdevelopment in Africa on corruption and forget to say the corruptors are the 90% West themselves using a comprador elite like every country has. The mafia tactics of which involve offers you cannot refuse? Look at Ukraine if you need a non African example.
VVP today is faced with the same tactics used to force down the price of cocoa and coffee by the imposition of a price cap on Russian hydrocarbons. The difference between him and hapless leaders like Khaddafi who was sodomized with a bayonet is that VVP has a very potent army and more potential weapons.
It takes time to undo some or most of the injustices in the world. The white working class person should understand we are all in this together and if we do not fight against injustice together, the world élite, currently having devoured the black Africans and Brown Asians, will eventually devour the white working class. And that is happening right before our own very eyes under the guise of a great reset and the provoked war using the Ukrainian proxy.
The choice is yours to keep blaming the African migrant who cannot talk back.
You destroyed Libya so you must take EVERY Libyan refugee so on and so forth.
You don’t want refugees, stop destroying other countries.
Also Westerners are very lazy. Immigrants Nd refugees do all the work Nd create most of the successful companies.
Google – Russian and other Jew now run by Indian immigrant
Apple’s – Steve Jobs Syrian ancestry
Elon Musk – South African
All you bunch do it whine, eat pizza and get fat.
The Native Born White American Working Class is under no to allow themselves to be colonized by the Hindus from India….Why doesn’t Modi flood India with a million Chinese a year across the border from China?
Silicon Valley Technology wouldn’t be possible without computer technology being subsidized by the Native Born White American Working Class-for decades via DARPA Programs. Why should Silicon Valley be turned over to the youth of India?
And by and large, India doesn’t produce good IT people, compared to what the U.S. can & did produce.
@ War for Blair Mountain
“We have to start with a simple question: who created this problem? Why do you have refugees in Europe? It’s a simple question: because of terrorism that’s being supported by Europe – and of course the United States and Turkey and others – but Europe was the main player in creating chaos in Syria. So, what goes around comes around. …
Because they publicly supported, the EU supported the terrorists in Syria from day one, week one or from the very beginning. … They sent armaments; they created this chaos.”
“The problem wasn’t people fighting with each other; it wasn’t like the Western narrative may have tried to show – as Syrians fighting with each other, or as they call it a “civil war,” which is misleading. The situation was terrorists taking control of areas, and implementing their rules. When you don’t have those terrorists, people will go back to their normal life and live with each other. There was no sectarian war, there was no ethnical war, there was no political war; it was terrorists supported by outside powers, they have money and armaments, and they occupy those areas. …
To understand the Russian role, we have to understand Russian principles. For Russia, they believe that international law – and international order based on that law – is in the interest of Russia and in the interest of everybody in the world.”
– President Assad’s Banned Interview with Rai 24: Europe Key Perpetrator of Terror in Syria
December 9, 2019
https://www.syrianews.cc/president-assads-banned-interview-with-rai-24-europe-key-perpetrator-of-terror-in-syria/
Syria is not in Africa, but the situation is similar to Libya, Mali, DR Congo etc.pp.
Good article, succinctly canvassing centuries of history.
However, let us not get our hopes up prematurely (not that I don’t wish for all imperial projects to be banished from the Global South, i.e. the expulsion of France, the UK & US from Asia, Africa and Andean (South) America.
Never forget that the obscenely undemocratic EU supports & funds opposition political parties in African nations to help maintain the pretense that they’re “democratic”.
Then a few months out from their national elections, the EU withdraws its funding, leaving the opposition parties high and dry.
And/or, opposition leaders are feted & groomed in London, to be able to activate their followings back in their own country to cause destabilization, civil strife &/or regime change operations (people get scared & stick with the incumbent).
This tactic was recently evident by the UK’s regime change operation of PM Imran Khan in (the former British colony) of Pakistan & in (the former British colony) Sri Lanka – without the firing of a gun. This is as simple as a phone call, btw.
As an aside: the US is not the only country that enforces the Stay-Behind policy.
Just another example of the EU’s elites offering the peoples of Africa false hope – and yet further reason for the EU to be disbanded at the earliest opportunity.
Africa you say. That would be ‘black’ Africa or Arabia to the north. Arabia is too tied up with conflict with each other to have a consistent policy with regard to us. Lacking bribes, if the population has any sense they are not going to want our domination for reasons that are near term and obvious. No need to go back to the Punic Wars.
Black Africa? Supporting the sanctions isn’t self serving, Can’t say that I know for sure, but the claim is that China is heavily involved in the region. China’s big trade surplus produces the funds needed for Chinese to do what they want, should they want to spend on getting support.
Again. You are so insecure and pathetic that your desperate attention seeking supremacy screams off the page.
Again you have no understanding of Africa it’s diversity, in colour – white brown and black – religion, tribe, language or anything else.
As for corruption. I worked in finance in the West, several countries therein, big cities, after going to the most famous universities in North America and England.
I can tell you the poor are bribed with benefits, the education is dumbed down, the entire finance sector in the West is corrupt and rotten to the core, the police is corrupt, the academics and journalists are bought, the lobbyists own politicians.
In California I walked through more rows of beggars and shit on the streets than I have ever seen in Africa.
On top of that mental illness, pardophilia, lack of morals, disrespect for elders is rampant in the West.
You are not free in the West, you are just brain washed slaves, you just don’t know it.
Africa is far more free, aware and less lazy than you.
Plus. The homeless in America outnumber the heless in all of East Africa. And we have higher land ownership than the West.
So get off your high horse cowboy. I have lived in your countries. Lots of good friends there. But you are not better than anyone else. Africa is moving forward. Europe and America are moving back. You are finished. Social, theologically, economically.
Plus. We know the difference between a man and a woman in Africa.
Enjoy your LGBT toilets.
“An African adage teaches that “One should never forget the lessons learned in times of pain”, which seems to be the source of inspiration for the African cosmos ”
And the European cosmos:
“Praise be to God who wrote this Law in His sky,
That humankind must learn through suffering” — Aeschyles, Agamemnon
If we will learn no other way.
A continent that is always exploited and destroyed by the EU. May Mama Africa free itself from the empire and become puppets, and be happy.
I regret the wrong writing of the pole. The correct one would be this:
A continent that is always exploited and destroyed by the EU. May Mother Africa free himself from the empire and her puppets, and be happy.
Then in this case the West cannot out-bribe the Chinese.
What Chinese bribes do you refer to? It is quite clear the the West has always used bribes to control countries, including Europe, but what Chinese bribes are you referring to?
The west has spouted for decades how the Chinese are making unfair trade deals with Africa. Except for 1or2 bribed Africans on MSM, where is the proof.
20 years ago, Israel annually received 6 billion from USA taxpayers and promptly put back 2 billion in bribing politicians & evangelists. In America, they call it lobbying.
I will tell you one Chinese company that bribed Hunter Biden, but it was not the Chinese government. I can tell you all about bidens and American bribery in Ukraine alone, convienently left out.
China actually is not a big briber. It is governments that make the deals and psd them out to take fee cuts.
Chinese are very straightforward. They say they will build a bridge for x. They build the bridge for x. X is the amount agreed and the debt is secured in the bridge. No interfere in anything else. A straight forward deal.
Here is the wonderful highway network the Chinese built in Nairobi. They took.a toll on the cross city road but what a great addition.
https://www.google.com/search?q=nairobi+new+highways&client=ms-android-hmd&prmd=inv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFg7jXgOX4AhVuh_0HHSGQBJcQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ
France in particular have had a wonderful time of it in Africa, milking it dry, while building NOTHING, in fact, playing the trusted divide and conquer heroically, with Canada, under the radar, also sucking African minerals dry.
Nigeria gave America-ZATO the thumbs up for a no-fly zone in Libya, while the rest of the African Union were against. Nigerians run begging to America every Presidential/Party election for Approval.
The corrupt Northern Nigerian government under the guidance of USuk have brutalised its citizens for decades, where it’s officers have learned the tricks of that particular trade in UKUS military academies.
The UE-EU have complained in recent years (well 20) that African governments have sold Energy/Mineral assets to China way under value. 2 things, the Anglo’s were used to taking them for free with a bullet in the face if dissent is shown, so that’s rich and secondly, China’s built a lot of infrastructure in the few decades they’ve settled there.
Still unscrupulous humans live everywhere.
Beware of Africans silence. When happy they usually are very vocals.
Thank you for this remarkable, quite exhaustive, answer, in historical context, to the unequivocal question asked above. One can only enjoy immensely, as I did, finding in it such stiff resistance, all along, to the Empire’s permanent blackmail couched in the following terms: “Now you decide, you’re either WITH us or AGAINST us… Speak now! Which is it?”
As far as I am concerned, this answer sums it all up: “The African cosmos serenely realises that a defeat of Russia in Ukraine will lead the world to a more aggressive, self-centred and militarised Western unipolarisation and the weaker countries will have no alternative for survival and existential resistance. The fear of perishing and becoming a colonial space again seems to be more important to the strategists of the African cosmos than Western values about democracy, neoliberalism, capitalism, etc. For the African cosmos, its course and future depend on the economic-financial cover of China and the military cover of Russia, so that there is a certain balance in its relations with the West.”
With you and your people all the way, José Francisco!
Regards and all the very best,
LR
Machine translations
Macky Sall was in Sochi with Putin because there are big problems in Africa because of the lack of supplies of fertiliser, petrol, diesel, grain from Russia. The Africans know very well that the sanctions are the cause of these problems. And that the problems with grain from Ukraine are fake and propaganda. Attached are two texts in translation. The one from the Ukrainian ambassador to Senegal in full, to do justice to his arrogance and presumption, his loss of reality.
– Cameroun 24
Ukraine. Macky Sall asks the West to lift sanctions against Russia to facilitate wheat exports
President Macky Sall, who has been mandated by the 55 African heads of state to negotiate the resumption of the import of Russian and Ukrainian grain and fertiliser, met today with Russian President Vladimir Putin …
Macky Sall, who travelled with a large African Union delegation, including the chairman of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, called on the West to lift sanctions against Russia, in order to allow the payment of grain and fertiliser.
Russian President Vladimir Putin assured his counterpart that he was aware of the risk of famine in Africa, and would work to ensure that the problems were resolved.
He said that the ties between Africa and Russia will be strengthened, and Russia will help Africa to fight against Western colonialism as in the past.
A statement that the Senegalese president did not fail to welcome:
‚I salute the role played by Russia in the struggle for the independence of African countries. This role cannot be forgotten by Africa.‘ …
The Ukrainian stage of Macky Sall, seems to have been cancelled.
https://cameroun24.net/actualite-cameroun-Macky_Sall_demande_a_l_occident_de_lever_les_sanct-1-1-59472.html
– Senenews, Sénégal
The Ukrainian embassy in Senegal reacts to the Macky-Putin meeting
The President of the Republic of Senegal, Macky Sall, who is also the President of the African Union, went to Russia last week to meet his counterpart Vladimir Putin. Following this meeting, the Ukrainian embassy in Senegal published a report on the Ukrainian-Russian crisis.
In extenso the entirety of its publication!
“Will the visit of President Macky Sall to Putin bring results?
It is still difficult to say. Moscow has already pathetically described the visit of the African Union chairman as “a diplomatic victory for Putin” (Putin’s thesis: “Africa and Russia have reached a new level of relations”).
And can this visit be considered a diplomatic victory for Macky Sall?
Did he receive Putin’s promise to unblock Ukrainian ports for the export of Ukrainian grain to Africa?
Has the Chairperson of the African Union called on the leader of the aggressor country to end the 100-day war (not the conflict!) in Ukraine and withdraw his troops from our sovereign territory?
And at what point did Macky Sall take Putin’s traditionally false narratives that “Ukraine and the EU, which imposed sanctions on Russia, are to blame for everything?”
Time will tell and put everything in its place. We will follow events closely.
However, it is very important for a more objective assessment (not just based on Russian propaganda!) of the situation by the Senegalese establishment to understand a few simple things:
russia is solely responsible for the shortage of grain on world markets;
Putin’s claims that a possible world famine is the result of the sanctions imposed on Russia are cynical lies and a manipulation of the facts;
it is the russian war in Ukraine, not the international sanctions (as we know, imposed on russia for this war!) that is the cause of the food and energy crisis in the world and particularly in Africa;
The Kremlin’s “food for sanctions” argument is a blatant act of terrorism and blackmail of the international community – the Putin regime is openly threatening to starve the population of African countries that are consumers of Ukrainian food, to cause political destabilisation and a new wave of refugees to Europe;
The solution to the problem is quite simple: stop the war, expel the Russian criminals from Ukraine and pay reparations for their atrocities.
But understanding these things requires a bit of objectivity, of not blindly engaging with Russian propaganda, and thus the courage to admit that there is another (besides the Kremlin’s!) far more credible and generally accepted point of view.”
https://www.senenews.com/actualites/nous-suivrons-de-pres-ca-lambassade-dukraine-au-senegal-reagit-suite-a-la-rencontre-macky-poutine_404062.html
The Africans are not unhappy that this war is taking place “in the middle of Europe” and not, as usual, with them or their neighbours. Macky Sall is only interested in fertiliser, grain, petrol, etc., he is after all president of the African Union and not of the world.
Why would Sall “call on the leader of the attacking country” and such? The AU is neutral, Ukraine has to respect that. The tone of the Ukrainian ambassador is reminiscent of the old colonial masters. So Africans are too stupid to understand? The African view is not the “generally accepted view”, but an “assessment based only on Russian propaganda”?
Africans pay close attention to diplomatic etiquette. Form of address and style of speech are completely inappropriate towards an African president. And the Ukrainian ambassador to Senegal probably does not have the necessary rank to make a statement to the president of the African Union.
They know where the problems really lie. With this letter, Ukraine is finished in Senegal.
Thanks for sharing this article on The Saker. It’s comprehensive and informative. It did also confirm some of what I hear from fellow expats…
Lack of Nuance: There is no such thing as “Africa supports Russia” per se. Africans do not have a hive mind. There are differing perspective depending on each country.
From the surname, it seems to me that the author of this article is either from Angola or Mozambique. Both Portuguese-speaking African nations relied heavily on USSR during their War of Independence from Portugal. So it is no surprise that citizens of both countries back Russia to the hilt.
Three English-speaking nations—Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe–also relied heavily on the Soviets to end segregationist white minority rule. So it is no surprise that black citizens of all three countries back Russia too.
Francophone African countries–due to their long domination by France–are also happy to back Russia to the hilt to annoy the Macron government.
Anglophone African countries are a different bunch. With the exception of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa, most of English-speaking African countries are neutral. Kenya and Ghana even condemned Russian intervention in Ukraine at the UN Security Council, but refused to place sanctions.
What this author writes in his article is not representative of the entire continent of Africa. It is more representative of the attitudes of those particular African countries who had to wage war against colonial powers with weapons supplied by USSR and China.
The reality is that Africa’s attitudes towards Russia range from strict neutrality to strong support.
The neutral African countries agree that Russia was provoked, but the Kremlin overreacted. The pro-Russian African nations think Kremlin was justified to do what it did.
Despite these differences in perspectives, what all African nations have in common is their refusal to be used as a tool of geopolitics by the US government.
That is why Kenya, which condemned Russian invasion, decided to assert its neutrality by rejecting Zelenky’s repeated appeals to address Kenyan Parliament by video link. The Ukrainian Ambassador who rejoiced when Kenya condemned Russia at the UN was shocked by Kenyan Parliament’s blunt refusal to grant Zelensky an audience.
Neutrality also explains why the African nations that voted to kick Russia out of UN Human Rights Council (for invading another country) also rejected all pleas by Ukraine and the West to join sanctions against Russia
Caríssimo amigo Nigeriano muito obrigado pelas suas considerações. Aproveito reafirmar de que, como pudeste ler, a intenção do artigo não foi para representar todas as nuances dos mais de 50 países africanos. Pelo simples facto de ainda não termos as informações especificas dos bastidores da diplomacia dos países africanos na sua relação com o Ocidente, Rússia e China. Eu procurei fazer uma leitura simples através dos pequenos detalhes observáveis no comportamento diplomático dos líderes africanos e tentei contextualizar com os factos históricos do continente africano na sua relação com Ocidente, Rússia e China. É apenas um artigo de opinião introdutório, cujas reflexões posteriores vão incidir nas nuances que exiges. Neste sentido, trata-se de um pequeno exercício para uma leitura geopolítica de África feita por africanos, e não importando se é angolano, moçambicano, nigeriano etc. Por isso, com este primeiro artigo tentei construir uma visão geopolítica de África através dos indicadores que a sua realidade nos apresenta.
Em breve terás as nuances. E quem sabe poderemos escrever uma reflexão conjunta das mesmas.
@ José Lumango
Hier ist eine Übersetzung Ihres Textes an @ A Nigerian Guy ins Deutsche (Translator Yandex) Haben Sie meinen Dank und meine Achtung!
Aqui está uma tradução do seu texto para @ A Nigerian Guy into German (Translator Yandex) Tenha os meus agradecimentos e respeito!
Lieber nigerianischer Freund, vielen Dank für Ihre Kommentare. Ich möchte wiederholen, dass, wie Sie gelesen haben, die Absicht des Artikels nicht darin bestand, alle Nuancen der mehr als 50 afrikanischen Länder darzustellen. Für die einfache Tatsache, dass wir immer noch keine spezifischen Informationen hinter den Kulissen der Diplomatie afrikanischer Länder in ihren Beziehungen zum Westen, zu Russland und zu China haben. Ich habe versucht, die kleinen Details, die im diplomatischen Verhalten afrikanischer Führer zu beobachten sind, einfach zu lesen und mit den historischen Fakten des afrikanischen Kontinents in seinen Beziehungen zum Westen, zu Russland und China in einen Kontext zu setzen. Es ist nur ein einleitender Meinungsartikel, dessen weitere Überlegungen sich auf die Nuancen konzentrieren, die Sie benötigen. In diesem Sinne ist es eine kleine Übung für eine geopolitische Lektüre Afrikas durch Afrikaner, und es spielt keine Rolle, ob es sich um Angolaner, Mosambikaner, Nigerianer usw. handelt. Daher habe ich mit diesem ersten Artikel versucht, anhand der Indikatoren, die uns seine Realität bietet, eine geopolitische Vision von Afrika zu entwickeln.
Bald wirst du die Nuancen haben. Und wer weiß, vielleicht schreiben wir eine gemeinsame Reflexion darüber.
Here is a German translation of your text to @ A Nigerian Guy (Translator Yandex) Have my thanks and respect!
Aqui está uma tradução do seu texto para @ A Nigerian Guy into German (Translator Yandex) Tenha os meus agradecimentos e respeito!
Dear Nigerian friend, Thank you for your comments. I would like to repeat that, as you have read, the intention of the article was not to present all the nuances of more than 50 African countries. For the simple fact that we still do not have specific information behind the scenes of the diplomacy of African countries in their relations with the West, with Russia and with China. I have tried to simply read the small details that can be observed in the diplomatic behavior of African leaders and put them into context with the historical facts of the African continent in its relations with the West, Russia and China. It’s just an introductory opinion piece, with further reflection focused on the nuances you need. In that sense, it’s a little exercise in a geopolitical reading of Africa by Africans, and it doesn’t matter if they’re Angolans, Mozambicans, Nigerians, etc. Therefore, with this first article, I have tried to develop a geopolitical vision of Africa, using the indicators that its reality offers us.
Soon you will have the nuances. And who knows, maybe we’ll write a joint reflection on it.