By Serge Vehme
It is a rare privilege to witness first-hand a tilting of the world’s axis. The participants in the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg on 27 and 28 July no doubt returned home with the image of a world that had changed its basis. Forever.
ImagesThe summit was not short of emblematic images.
The first is that of Ibrahim Traoré, the young Burkinabe leader with such charisma that he was promptly compared by all the media present to Thomas Sankara, the hero of the African cause in the 1980s. Traoré’s martial pan-Africanism resonates today in a Sahel in turmoil, and the image of his personal guard, so visible under his camouflage outfits, is not about to be forgotten on the banks of the Neva.
The image of Paul Biya and Denis Sassou-NGuesso, presidents of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, dinosaurs of Françafrique but present in St Petersburg despite Western attempts at intimidation, anxious not to insult the future, is also symbolic.
Finally, there was the subliminal image of Yevgeny Prigozhin, photographed in St Petersburg on 27 July on the fringes of the summit, like a mockery of destiny in the face of a West that continues to disintegrate in a world it no longer dominates or understands.
At the heart of the summit, the news of the Niger insurrection provided an illustrative touch of this acceleration of history to the detriment of the collective West.
We might also think that this West – devastated by its corrupt leaders and its banana judicial system – is itself under colonial management, but that’s another story.
Here, in the heart of the Russian summer, we close the chaotic parenthesis of globalism which, from its hegemonic expansion to its final rotting, has left its infernal mark on the recent history of both Russia and the African continent.
When I first visited Moscow in the mid-1990s, Russia was selling off its family jewels to Western pirates.
Some thirty years later, that same Russia is strong enough to defy the West and disband the African continent from the globalist bloc.
So it is that, 60 years after independence, the black continent is today accomplishing its true de-colonization.
The scandal that is development
Jacques Austruy (1930-2010) was without doubt the most original development economist of his generation.
In his 1965 book „Le scandale du développement“ (the word „scandal“ should be taken literally), he explained that „the paradox of development is that it cannot be economic from its starting point. It can only become economic at its point of arrival, or at best, in the course of its development… Homo economicus has no interest in embarking on the adventure of development if, at the time of the initial decision, the sum of the discounted costs is greater than the sum of the discounted returns“.
From an ex-ante point of view, the costs of development exceed the benefits in every respect. It is only retrospectively (ex post) that we will be able to contemplate the fruits of this „rare and unforeseeable combination of circumstances“.
Jacques Austruy would later clarify his thinking:
„The imperialism of yesteryear loved others on condition that they served and benefited it; the new imperialism loves them on condition that they become it.
Of course, leonine exchanges and military dialogues have made the esteemed division of labour between rider and mount suspect. But they must not make us forget that dialogue, which is not a liturgy, and exchange, which is not a ritual, imply the maintenance of differences…
Development is therefore the result, on a narrow ridge, of a successful tension between respect for the dynamics of a traditional society (the authentic development of a society cannot be its enslavement to a stereotyped model) and a certain violation of its established values (development results from and/or leads to at least partial deculturation).
Once you get beyond the esoteric simplism of theories that reduce development to imaginary functions, or that explain all development in terms of the avatars of historical determinism, always known after the fact, and reminiscent in some quarters of discourses on the sex of angels and in others of considerations on the economic vocation of Santa Claus, you realise that development only really appears when a people is mobilised by a new mystique, which can only draw its strength from its own roots… Development is either original or it is not. “
These lines, written in a column in Le Monde in 1970, are highly topical: respect for differences is here, the new (pan-African) mystique is here, and the historical moment is propitious.
Russia-Africa relations have never seen such a favorable alignment of the planets.
Past, present and future of Russia-Africa relations
Russia is not starting from scratch in its relations with Africa.
After initial failures in the wake of independence (Lumumba in Congo, Nkrumah in Ghana), the USSR won a few ideological trophies (Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola) but also gained cultural and economic influence.
The excellent Telegram „French connection“ channel (https://t.me/frenchconnectiomiloradovich) lists some of the mutual benefits that have resulted from Soviet-African cooperation.
The Soviet Union trained African elites (Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University created in 1960), provided economic and military aid to allied governments and built bridges, roads and hydroelectric dams.
In return, it obtained
– Unwavering political loyalty in international bodies
– Access to fishing grounds in West Africa
– Access to port facilities, air and naval bases (Egypt, Tunisia, Libya)
– Mineral resources: lead from the Congo, bauxite from Guinea, gold from Mali, etc.
It was after the collapse of the USSR that Westerners began to systematically condition their aid through IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programmes: austerity, privatisation, deregulation and opening up the economy to multinationals were all on the menu from then on. This neo-colonialism will soon add „democratic“ harassment to economic predation.
The aim will be to impose Western „values“ on the continent. To the constraint of economic orthodoxy defined by international organisations will be added the ESG criteria of „good governance“ (including the promotion of LGBTism) which have the remarkable characteristic of spontaneously provoking the unanimous revulsion of African societies.
France must be credited with playing a pioneering role in this area, since François Mitterrand’s La Baule speech in 1990 established that French aid would henceforth be conditional on „progress“ in the democratisation of recipient countries.
Russia pulled out all the stops in St Petersburg. Although it accounts for just 1% of foreign direct investment on the continent and has a trade turnover with Africa of just under 18 billion dollars by 2022, Russia :
– Is to provide Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Eritrea with 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of grain each free of charge over the next 3 to 4 months.
– Cancels $23 billion in debt owed by African countries
– Calls for Africa to join the G20 at the next summit in New Delhi
– Calls for Africa to be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council
Sovereignty (food, energy and financial) and technology transfers were at the heart of the summit discussions. The aim is to integrate the most dynamic African economies as quickly as possible into a BRICS + group, the format of which has yet to be defined.
Food security
268 million Africans suffer from hunger, even though 60% of the world’s unused arable land stand in Africa
Russia is prepared to replace Ukrainian cereals, initially even free of charge, and will double its exports of mineral fertilizers over the next 5 years.
In the long term, Africa can and must become a net exporter of food products.
Energy
The economy is nothing other than transformed energy. The exponential growth of Africa’s population and the expected economic development will lead to increased energy needs. Electrification has become an urgent obligation for Africa.
At a time when 600 million Africans have no access to electricity, some 30 Russian projects are being developed in 16 African countries. Civil nuclear projects are the focus of attention:
– Nuclear power plant under construction at Dabaa in Egypt
– Project in Burkina Faso to build a nuclear power plant to supply electricity to West Africa
– Rosatom’s project to send floating nuclear power plants to the shores of Africa
Finance
Russia is ready to pay in national currency for trade settlements with the continent; it is also offering Africa to develop its financial infrastructure and connect it to the Russian payment system MIR
St Petersburg University develops an alternative payment system to Swift based on blockchain technology
Information technology
Russia has achieved digital sovereignty and will be increasing the number of its „digital attachés“ in embassies.
It can export know-how in cloud technologies, e-government (tax administration, registration of property rights, provision of electronic public services) and cybersecurity
From September, African partners will be trained in St Petersburg.
Industrial policy, town planning and transport
A Russian industrial production zone is soon to open near the Suez Canal in Egypt; it will serve as a model for further expansion in Africa.
Africa is accelerating the pace of its urbanization. This is generally seen as a calamity, since the countryside, victims of the rural exodus, can no longer feed the cities, which are unproductive and consumptive megacities.
Russian companies see this as an opportunity to develop transport systems, digitized public service networks and urban transport, among other things. He who lives will see.
The development of transport networks to facilitate internal trade and accelerate the opening up of African regions was another important theme of the summit.
Education
To boost productivity, you need brains, and you need to keep them in the country.
Branches of leading Russian universities will open in several African countries.
Media diplomacy
After RT in Algiers, several Russian media outlets (TASS, VGTRK, etc.) are to open offices in French-speaking Africa.
The West checkmate?
In its fight to the death against the collective West, Russia is targeting the French weak link. The entire „G5 Sahel“ (with the exception of Mauritania and Chad, but for how long?) is in the process of being turned upside down: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are giving the French Gauleiter the boot. And the Central African Republic is voting in favour of PMC Wagner in defiance of the former colonial power…
The CFA franc zone is on the rocks: after Sangaris and Barkhane, the French monetary policeman could be the next satrap to go!
The moment of truth is approaching for Françafrique:
– French is no longer the official language in Mali
– French diplomacy, if it still exists, is no more than a servile relay for globalist wokism. Think of Macron and his attempts to impose his ambassador of anal practices; what African head of state would want to be seen with such people?
– With 44% of all African arms imports between 2017 and 2021 (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), Russia is the leader in arms contracts in Africa. Fifth-generation Russian fighter jets are replacing the Rafale, and PMC Wagner’s security offer is overtaking that of the French army.
– The expected creation of a common BRICS currency will take the scalp of the CFA Franc
If Macron doesn’t want to „leave a vacuum in the wake of Françafrique“, don’t worry: the vacuum has been filled!
In the Great Game of Cold War 2.0, Russia is scoring points and its relationship with Africa goes far beyond one-off food aid or the wiping out of 23 billion in debt.
The Sahel is an important theatre of operations:
– It is a strategic crossroads between white and black Africa
– A corridor for all kinds of trafficking (35% of South American cocaine goes to Europe from there), including human trafficking.
– A major security issue linked to jihadist terrorism
– A reserve of natural resources (uranium from Niger supplies one in three light bulbs in France)
– The heart of Françafrique
France’s loss of control over this buffer zone will have major repercussions for Europe in terms of security, the economy and migration. The European vassals of the United States are unlikely to recover.
For Russia, this is a lever for gradually bringing the whole of Africa into the Eurasian bloc.
If the graft takes, Anglo-Saxon globalitarianism will be a thing of the past.