{UAH} OBBO: East or West? In real life, polygamy is best
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OBBO: East or West? In real life, polygamy is best
Posted Saturday, August 9 2014 at 12:40
In Summary
- If Africa is to continue on its current growth path, it must be polygamous in the way it does business with the world. It should trade with the East, West, North, and South — and with devils and angels, in appropriate measure.
So the US-Africa Summit happened in Washington, and Africa's Big Men (none of its Big Women made it to the meeting) are back to the realities of the continent.
Clout is clout, is all we can say. All the raving anti-American leaders, like The Gambia's Yahya Jammeh, were there resplendent in flowing robes, staff, and smiling ear-to-ear as they took photographs with President Barack Obama. It was full house.
The only leaders who didn't show were the likes of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Sudan's Omar el-Bashir, who weren't invited. Bashir was left sour-graping about his exclusion in Khartoum. Unusually, Mugabe acted with dignity this time — he hasn't yet lashed out.
Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leone's Ernest Bai Koroma were invited, but got sidelined by the Ebola crisis they are both dealing with back home.
Beyond the investment deals and moneys, was there something more for Africa? Yes. There were faint signs that a new pragmatism is beginning to set in in Africa over the question of whether to "go East with China" or "stay with the West" in charting the continent's future economic growth path.
China has in the past 10 or so years become the favourite "development partner" for many African countries, outpacing the US by far. African strongmen love Beijing because, the popular view goes, China doesn't lecture them on human rights and corruption. I think that view is amateurish.
Africa's rulers love China because it is rich and is willing to put money on the table. Russia is no more bothered about human rights than China, but no one courts itself as heavily as they do China. What doesn't it have? It doesn't have the money to buy natural resources from Africa at anything close to China's level.
That said, both the USA's and European Union's foreign direct investments in Africa are still bigger than China's. And I was suitably impressed when a colleague dug up information that America's third largest imports from Africa are cars worth about $2.3 billion, almost all of them from South Africa!
Anyhow, it is surprising that after the debilitating Cold War era divide between those countries that were pro-West/capitalist and pro-East/socialist, Africa allowed itself to be trapped in this pro-West versus pro-China trap.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 when the Cold War was still raging. He used to say that when Western journalists and diplomats asked him whether he was pro-East or pro-West, he would reply, "I am pro-Uganda and pro-Africa."
That is a point that has been lost in the "looking East" narrative. There are two things here. First, perhaps the only time polygamy makes sense in today's context is when it comes to the prosperity of nations.
If Africa is to continue on its current growth path, it must be polygamous in the way it does business with the world. It should trade with the East, West, North, and South — and with devils and angels, in appropriate measure.
Secondly, it should look to Africa. The next China-Africa, EU-Africa, India-China, or US-Africa summit should take place, where else, in Africa.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa (mgafrica.com). Twitter:@cobbo3
Democracy is two Wolves and a Lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed Lamb contesting the results.
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