[the sense of history]
The successful second Russia-Africa Summit on July 27-28 represents an extraordinary breakthrough in the development of a new world order free from the domination of Western imperialist powers. Delegations from 49 African countries participated in the summit, including seventeen heads of state. They adopted a 74-point final declaration on virtually all areas of cooperation, trade and security, with a preamble clarifying the fundamental principles that should govern international relations. The summit built on the initiative of the first Russia-Africa forum held in 2019, reaffirming the historic bonds of fraternal cooperation resulting from their common struggle in the 20th century against Western colonialism.
In fact, the Final Declaration of the Summit is a clear challenge to the West because it asserts strongly the growing role and global influence of Africa and the African Union as an essential pillar of a multipolar world. It insists on the need to oppose neocolonialism expressed in the imposition of conditions and double standards that prevent sovereign decision-making about countries’ different paths to development. Russia and Africa also reject the use of coercive measures and expressed the commitment of the signatory countries “to the fundamental principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter, subscribing to safeguarding and upholding international law and emphasizing the need for the adherence thereto by all States,”
The Russian Federation pledged to promote an expansion of Africa’s representation in the UN Security Council. The African countries and Russia are going to create a strategic partnership mechanism and Russia will negotiate opening new embassies in Africa among other measures to improve diplomatic relations between African countries and the Russian Federation. Along with these decisions, it should be noted that the Russian Federation has cancelled bilateral debt with African countries worth US$23 billion dollars is supporting African nations to develop their energy infrastructure. Currently, Russia is engaged in over 30 electricity generating projects in 16 African countries while gas infrastructure projects are also being negotiated to facilitate the shipment of liquefied gas.
President Vladimir Putin thanked Africa’s proposals to settle the conflict in Ukraine, commenting, “The initiative itself, like any other peace initiative, is good… There are things that are already being implemented after we discussed them at our meeting in St. Petersburg a month and a half ago.” Regarding the failure of the agreement on the export of grain through the Black Sea, noting the bad faith and hypocrisy of the West benefiting its large agribusiness corporations, President Putin observed that under the grain agreement: “Countries like Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and some others received, please note this, less than 3% of the total volume, less than one million tons.” On the other hand, it was announced that, in the near future, Russia will supply grain free to six African countries (Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea), while during the current year the trade of agro-industrial products between Russia and Africa has grown by 60%.
The speeches by the heads of State participating in the Summit touched on issues of global relevance, especially for Latin America, stressing the issues of colonialism, neocolonialism and the imperative of defending national sovereignty. President Putin commented, “Sovereignty cannot be viewed as something that can be achieved once and for all. It is something you must fight for all the time.” Regarding the same issue of sovereignty, the head of the Libyan Presidential Council Mohamed Younis Ahmed Al-Manfi said: “Africa believes that it was subjected to unfair exploitation for several centuries and that although formally all countries got rid of the colonial yoke, we haven’t yet managed to create genuinely national states. Now we must strive, together with the African Union, to change the membership system in the UN Security Council. Despite a number of unimportant reforms, the West has recently continued preserving its dominant position. It is trying to exert all-round pressure on us, using our financial debts in its own interest, destroying our economies and increasing poverty and misery in our countries in every possible way.”
Of central importance at the Summit was the topic of financial independence and the use of national currencies in trade. Russian exports of oil and its derivatives to African countries have multiplied by two point six times in the last two years. Being able to pay for these imports in their local currencies would be a great financial relief for African countries and would be in line with the decision recently announced by the president of the New Development Bank of the BRICS bloc, Dilma Rousseff, to offer at least 30% of the bank’s loans in local currencies. Interviewed on July 29th, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Overchuk noted, “We propose the creation of an independent financial infrastructure. This implies mutual settlements in national currencies, the use of national payment systems, which requires an interaction between the relevant structures: central banks, ministries of finance, financial institutions, without this nothing will develop.”
The African countries went through a long drawn out, arduous process of struggle for independence. In North Africa, Egypt had been an independent monarchy since 1922 but it was not until 1954 under Gamal Abdel Nasser that it was possible to end the British occupation of the Suez Canal and, in 1956, to win the independence of neighboring Sudan. France accepted defeat in its brutal colonial war against Algeria in 1962. Morocco and Tunisia had already won their independence in 1956, Niger and Mauretania in 1960. Similar to Egypt, the former Italian colony Libya became an independent kingdom in 1951 but it was not until 1966 that it became an independent republic under the leadership of Muammar al Gaddhafi. By the end of 1961 almost the entire western and central part of Africa had become politically independent from the former colonial powers, France, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
In East Africa, Ethiopia was declared independent in 1947 after being liberated from Italy’s colonial aggression. Somalia became independent in 1960, followed in the coming years by Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Madagascar. Portugal maintained its colonial rule over Guinea-Bissau until 1974 and, after many years of armed conflict, in 1975 finally recognized the independence of Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde. In southern Africa, Botswana achieved its independence in 1966. But Zimbabwe only achieved independence in 1980 after a fierce, bloody war. Namibia was occupied by the apartheid regime of South Africa until 1990. South Africa itself only held its first democratic elections in 1994, won by Nelson Mandela, to end the brutal apartheid regime.
The reaction of the imperialist powers to the independence of their former colonies has been to seek to consolidate their control of Africa’s natural resources and economies through their domination of global trade, international finance and their control of international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Speaking in Algeria in February 1965, Che Guevara explained: “As long as imperialism exists, by definition, it will exercise its domination over other countries; that domination is today called neocolonialism. Neocolonialism developed first in South America, in an entire continent, and today it is beginning to be noticed with increasing intensity in Africa and Asia. Its way of penetration and development has different characteristics; one is the brutal one we met in Congo. Brute force, without considerations or cover-ups of any kind, is his extreme weapon. There is another more subtle one: penetration into countries that are politically liberated”.
During the second Russia-Africa Summit, the heads of state of the African continent spoke repeatedly to condemn the decades of neocolonialism that have continued the impoverishment of their peoples through unfair and unequal treatment by the United States and the countries of the European Union. Among them were the President of the African Union Azali Assoumani, and the presidents of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Uganda, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Libya and Mali, among others.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni commented, “The independence of most African countries does not mean healthy disengagement with the imperialist economies. Up to now, many of the African economies still face the bottlenecks and distortions of the colonial era. Although some progress has been achieved, a lot remains to be done. That is why you hear that the GDP of Africa is currently $2.7 trillion smaller than the individual economies of countries such as Japan, Germany, etc. Not to mention the US or China.”
The President of the Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, commented to President Putin: “It is impossible to industrialise our continent without electrification. You will remember the famous slogan of the great revolutionary of your country – ‘Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.’ Meanwhile, today, 600 million Africans – I will repeat this figure – 600 million Africans live without electricity.”
The President of Mali, Assimi Goïta, said: “Russia has been able to show in difficult moments its status as Mali’s faithful partner, has been loyal, dynamic and has helped us in dealing with difficulties, accompanied us and respected our sovereignty. That is very important in restoring peace, stability and security, which is why we must now, above all, protect our population and defend the territorial integrity of our country. This strategic choice is very important to us, and we must, of course, become completely independent and self-sufficient and strengthen our armed forces. That is why we, in Mali, have a military partnership with the Russian Federation..”
Given these comments by a majority of African leaders, it is no surprise that right now the first Deputy Secretary of State of the United States, Victoria Nuland, is on a visit to South Africa, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is visiting there to communicate her country’s imperial dictates to be shared among the other governments of the region. But the vast majority of African countries have shown that they want to emancipate themselves from the neocolonial yoke, from the racism and arrogance, from the cynicism and hypocrisy, of the United States and the European Union. With their inevitable defeat in Ukraine in sight, it remains to be seen to what extent the United States and the European Union can maintain their accustomed power and privilege in their relations with African countries whose leaders have categorically shown their anti-imperialist position at this second Russia-Africa summit [end]
Nicolas Cinquini 
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