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NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 12 (IPS) – Whereas the West has closed its ranks in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the response in Africa has hardly been uniform.
Following Russia’s navy invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, varied constituencies inside the worldwide group have reacted with a mix of shock, anger, and trepidation as they ponder the invasion’s implications for worldwide safety.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), lengthy thought to be a marginal participant in international politics, has been no exception, with Kenya notably issuing a strongly worded condemnation of Russia’s aggression on the United Nations Safety Council (UNSC).
Since then, Senegal’s president Macky Sall, the present chair of the African Union (AU) and Moussa Faki, the chairperson of the African Union Fee (AUC) have each issued related condemnation of Russia’s invasion, calling on the latter to ‘respect worldwide regulation, the territorial integrity, and nationwide independence of Ukraine’.
Regardless of the statements from Kenya and the AU, the African response has been hardly uniform, with many of the continent’s international locations opting to remain mute – probably for concern of aggravating Russia. Solely 28 African states supported a United Nations Normal Meeting decision on 2 March condemning the invasion, with 17 abstaining and one opposing the decision.
The divide inside the SSA area turns into even sharper when one considers that, at the same time as Kenya spoke out strongly towards the invasion, its neighbour Uganda abstained from the vote, ostensibly in honour of its ‘non-aligned’ stance in international affairs.
On the identical time, the Ugandan president’s son and the nation’s military commander, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, tweeted feedback during which he expressed sturdy assist for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Globalised racism
Extra broadly, conventional roles in worldwide politics have been reversed a minimum of quickly. Africa, lengthy thought to be a synonym for mindless armed battle and accustomed to being on the receiving finish of condescending rhetoric and initiatives of battle decision, finds itself taking part in ‘peacemaker’ vis-à-vis its civilisational ‘superior’ – Europe.
Western journalists and teachers – lengthy steeped in analytical narratives that designate battle on the idea of ethnicity and different primordial identification elements related to ‘cultural backwaters’ like SSA and the Arab world – are struggling to elucidate the carnage, destruction, and displacement in Ukraine.
The present state of affairs ought to pose as a grim reminder that battle is basically pushed by greed, opportunism, and different materialist pursuits – quite than identification, tradition, or atavistic elements.
Whereas SSA has had its fair proportion of unsavoury, warmongering leaders, who had been eager to use navy energy in pursuit of private aggrandisement, few have been as blatantly dismissive of worldwide opinion as Vladimir Putin.
On the identical time, stories of African college students making an attempt to flee from Ukraine and being barred from coming into neighbouring international locations on the idea of pores and skin color are a stark reminder that centuries after the top of slavery, racism remains to be a palpable actuality in a lot of Europe and the western world.
The AU’s assertion on 28 February, nevertheless, solely condemned racism towards Africans, regardless that racism in the direction of Arabs and Caucasians has additionally been reported. This displays the geo-provincial lens via which many on the continent regard the Russia-Ukraine battle – and factors to a permanent balkanisation primarily based on racial identification in an period supposedly related to better globalisation.
Sub-Saharan relations with Russia
Africa is a big continent comprising 54 international locations.
Due to this fact, any try and generalise their expertise is inevitably fraught with analytical inaccuracy. But for a lot of international locations on the continent, Russia’s geopolitical imprint is minor in comparison with that of the opposite 5 everlasting UNSC members.
At the same time as america and China loom giant within the modern creativeness, former colonial powers like Britain and France proceed to use historic, linguistic, and cultural ties as a foundation for some (admittedly waning) affect. Russia is simply left to scrape the barrel.
With lots of the regimes propped up by the defunct USSR having been changed through the years, Russia’s declare to fame on the idea of Chilly Conflict nostalgia has light and the nation has needed to develop a brand new repertoire and framework of relations primarily based on safety cooperation, commerce and funding ties, and political solidarity (significantly on the UNSC).
Furthermore, whereas some African international locations are key importers of Russian agricultural merchandise like wheat, SSA’s commerce relationship with Russia is generally primarily based on exports from the previous, rendering the area much less depending on such commerce ties compared to international locations in Europe. In brief, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the worldwide response poses a a lot better risk to Europe, each economically and geopolitically, than it does to SSA.
What the battle means for Africa
In opposition to this background, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has a minimum of three implications for its relations with Africa going ahead. First, it lends credence to the view that modern conflicts, be they inter-state or intra-state, are largely pushed by materials elements, often masked by identification politics.
Second, the battle reinforces the notion, lengthy held in Africa, that regional crises are finest resolved by regional actors within the neighbourhood of the battle.
NATO’s and the EU’s sturdy response in assist of Ukraine – regardless that Ukraine is just not a member of both organisation – recollects the view, lengthy promoted by SSA leaders significantly within the lead-up to the NATO-led navy marketing campaign that toppled former Libyan chief Gaddafi, that regional crises are finest resolved by actors within the close to neighbourhood. In different phrases: European options to European issues!
Due to this fact, the AU and sub-regional our bodies just like the Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Improvement (IGAD) ought to anticipate much less of a problem after they insist on taking the lead in resolving conflicts inside their area, whereas on the identical time studying vital classes from the swift motion taken by NATO allies to guard ‘their very own’.
Lastly, the Russia-Ukraine battle is a reminder that even in a world that’s supposedly multilateral, worldwide responses to political and financial challenges are moulded extra by geo-strategic calculations than by philanthropic beliefs.
The media, political, and diplomatic consideration accorded to Ukraine in the course of the invasion far exceeds that given to related conflicts in SSA and different elements of the globe – and it’s proof that that is certainly a world of each continent or sub-region for itself.
Martha Kiiza Bakwesegha-Osula is a World Coverage and Peacebuilding Advisor on the Life and Peace Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.
The views and opinions expressed on this article are private and belong solely to the creator and will not be attributed to individuals, establishments and organisations that the creator could also be related to in a private or skilled capability. Any views or opinions will not be meant to malign any faith, ethnic group, organisation or particular person.
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