In his Africa Day message this week, the head of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, lamented that the continent had become “the collateral victim of a distant conflict… between Russia and Ukraine”.
He was referring to the economic hardships visited upon Africans by the war. Concurring, President Cyril Ramaphosa bemoaned the fact that “even those countries that are either bystanders or not part of the conflict are… going to suffer from the sanctions that have been imposed against Russia”.
The word choices by Africa’s top bureaucrat, and by Ramaphosa, were more profound than they might have intended. Collateral damage, of course, refers to unintentional deaths and injuries among civilians. The lot of such victims is characterised by powerlessness. They have no choice about whether war is declared or whether the destruction and bloodletting are justified, and no say in how long the hostilities will continue.
What would we say if eSwatini tried to seize swathes of Mpumalanga or northern KwaZulu-Natal, on the basis of an alleged historical claim?
To the belligerents, the victims are invisible and of no consequence, their views irrelevant to the equation. In this case, the victims include all of Africa’s 1.3-billion people. Can you imagine the same happening to China, with a population only marginally bigger?
Those who are familiar with our continent’s long history with outsiders will be tempted to ask: what’s new? After all, haven’t Africans been exploited and abused for centuries in pursuit of other people’s interests — by the transatlantic slave trade to provide labour for the colonialists in the Americas, and by the extraction of resources by European powers. And what of Africans who served on the side of the British Crown in World War 2, to be rewarded with a bicycle and perhaps a khaki suit?
But with the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (later the AU), Africans may have thought a new day had dawned; that they finally had a vehicle for their aspirations and a bulwark against foreign abuse. Alas, the AU has been only partly successful in meeting this expectation, mainly because of the failure of most leaders to live up to the organisation’s raison d’être — to enable Africans to speak with a united voice to further their interests, as opposed to dancing to the tune of outside actors.
Ignoring the AU founders’ dictum, in Kwame Nkrumah’s words, to “face neither East nor West” and be nonaligned in the ideological and economic contest among global power blocs, our leaders have hitched their fortunes to one or the other, which has resulted in the continent’s confused and divided stance on critical world issues. The tribal war between Russia and Ukraine being today’s case in point.
When called upon to take a stand at the United Nations on Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, some Africans voted for, some against, and others abstained. Taking sides like we were back in Cold War times.
Yet condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was preceded by its seizure of Crimea, would appear to be a no-brainer for anyone committed to respecting international law.
To “stand with Russia” — in the words of some of our compatriots — in its violation of a neighbour’s borders is tantamount to endorsing global anarchy in which a country can simply seize its neighbour’s territory as and when it sees fit, even if this conquest comes at huge human cost, including the lives of civilians.
What would we say if eSwatini tried to seize swathes of Mpumalanga or northern KwaZulu-Natal, on the basis of an alleged historical claim? Or if Lesotho demanded a part of the Free State for the same reason?
Called upon to take a stand at the UN on Russia’s invasion, some Africans voted for, some against, and others abstained. Taking sides like we were back in Cold War times
But apropos Russia’s breach of international law, it would also be remiss of us to turn a blind eye to Nato’s seemingly insatiable need to expand its sphere of influence, even if it pushes the world to the brink of war. Also, we cannot support actions such as Washington's murderous escapades in Libya, Iraq and many other countries. In the case of Iraq, the invasion was accompanied by blatant lies about weapons of mass destruction.
If the Ukraine crisis has taught us Africans anything, it is that in an intertwined, global village, it is folly to assume that choosing to be “bystanders” will spare us from the consequences of someone else’s perilous course of action, be it launching an ethnic conflict in Europe (of which there have been a few in the past 100 years), pushing us all into a global war, or destroying our common environment.
Africa needs to act to protect its own interests of peace and development to lift its peoples out of poverty and disease. We must make our united voice heard, to further our own interests, not those of others. It is a given that a confused and divided AU will not be able to effectively advance the cause of the continent in any sphere, from reform of global organisations such as the UN and exhibiting solidarity in international relations to stemming illicit financial outflows.
The AU’s decision, therefore, to support efforts to mediate a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war deserves the continent’s support. Even if its stance risks being undermined by the disunity of its member states, as shown by their dismal performance at the UN.
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