What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
There is between what is happening in Africa and India
African countries Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mali, Chad, Guinea, Niger, and Gabon have witnessed eight coups in the last three years. Cameroon, too, stares at a similar fate in the immediate future. Coups, with all the tribal undercurrents, have been prevalent in Africa for some time now but their frequency highlights point to something else.
The Big Picture
In order to make sense of this, one needs to first look at the map of Africa. Guinea is the west extreme of the stretch, opening to the Atlantic Ocean. Sudan is the east extreme of the stretch opening to the Red Sea, thus the Indian Ocean. Niger, Mali, Chad, and Burkina Faso make up the rest of a contiguous portion – a continental stretch if you may – and together, this region (minus Guinea) is called the Sahel.
Sahel happens to be one of the richest regions of the world in terms of mineral resources. It has some of the largest aquifers of Africa; it boasts of a rich renewable energy potential, and it has a commendable deposit of hydrocarbon reserves.
A belt like this would be the natural focus of the neo-colonialist West is no guess. The first western country to hijack the socio-political future of this region was France, when back in the 60s, it brought its old colonies under the grip of the CFA Franc. These ex-colonies make up a significant chunk of Sahel (Sudan is not a part of the CFA Franc). CFA kept these countries extremely poor and weak as it kept draining their natural resource value, gold, and finances to the French treasury.
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The second wave followed under the guise of GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) after ISIS terrorists and al-Qaeda terrorists were allowed to spill into the region. Sahel is a rugged terrain. With weak governance being a feature of Africa, it was easy for the hired terrorists to set up bases and carry out their characteristic disruptions – to later enable the West to put boots on the ground in the name of fighting Islamic terrorism. In practice, a sizable number of these ‘boots’ were deployed to defend the West’s grip on the mines and the oil/gas fields, while ISIS, or al-Qaeda remained busy running smuggling routes, dealing in drugs and guns, and bypassing the local government controls. It has been a quaint agreement between the West and Islamist terrorists.
Something very important happened in between. Though it did not involve Sahel – the region, it did involve a large portion of it: states that were under the CFA Franc. Post the disastrous 2008 meltdown, Libyan premier Muammar Qaddafi expressed his wish to establish a pan-African currency backed by gold. This was a definite nightmare for the West, because Libya, at that time had 150 tonnes of gold – in Libya, not in the banks of London, Paris, or New York. This had the potential to liberate the entire bunch of CFA nations, as well as the rest of Africa from the western financial scam. We, of course, know how that ended. Qaddafi was bombed and shot in the streets of Sirte. All the Libyan gold – like Iraqi gold – disappeared.
What is Happening Today
Most of what has been happening is under the wraps. One can only find cursory mentions in the media. The onus is on us though. Because we have remained generally indifferent about Africa. Because coups have been a part of the African landscape. Because the biggest loser – France – is not at all keen about the rest of the world uncovering and understanding its 60+ years of the ‘great African financial scam’. And because Indian mainstream media’s poster-boy – the USA – has not been affected directly.
France being forced out of the equation might open up Africa for a battle of grabs yet again. With Russian gas being cut off, there are whispers of Nigerian gas finding a route to the EU. If that indeed is a possibility, then Niger turns out to be an important transit nation for all that gas and its pipelines. Niger already has a significant US presence in the shape of air and drone bases – some of the biggest in Africa. It is due to this sudden centrality of Niger that the US is trying hard to revive the lost art of American diplomacy by inserting Ambassador Fitzgibbon in Niger, while keeping the ECOWAS army on a stand-by mode, in case that fails. It is fair to assume that there would be similar plans for the entire Sahel region.
READ MORE: BRICS: India must take charge of Indian Ocean
Russia has increased its footprints in the region over the last decade. And unlike China, when push comes to shove, they never shy away from a frontal confrontation. However with Yevgeny Prigozhin gone, Russia’s African leadership could be an issue in the near future, especially in the tussle backing the continent’s self-determination against neo-colonial western hegemony. The West already has deep levels of penetration (case in point – many of the coup leaders and their inner circles are US educated) within the elites. Yes, the population may not be impressed with America, but that would not count in the near run.
Lessons for India
This is an interesting sequence: Neo-colonialist imposition of financial fraud and religious terrorism to weaken sovereign nations; African states exhibiting eagerness to become a part of the Global South nonetheless; frantic attempts by the newer and assertive nationalist leaders to push the neo-colonizers out; the West trying to subvert, sabotage, and destabilize. Another crucial learning lies in Russia standing its ground and China cutting its losses and scooting in cases of extreme pressure.
If India is indeed sincere about the long game, then one hopes that New Delhi is keeping a close watch on Africa – because of the sheer similarities between Africa and what is already underway in India.
(Arindam Mukherjee is a geopolitical analyst and the author of JourneyDog Tales, The Puppeteer, and A Matter of Greed.)
Disclaimer: Views expressed are the author’s own
