Europe is losing ground in Africa and they know it. And because they know that Africa is very important in the world, they have been scrambling recently to patch the deteriorating relations with the African continent. As Micheal Tanchum, a policy fellow at the Africa program of the European Council on Foreign Relations, stated “Any country that doesn’t have a constructive relationship with Africa is going to lose its relative position in the global economy. This is the reason why Europe has been scrambling to patch its relationship with Africa. They have set up summits, attended and spoken at African summits, and sent their diplomats to visit African countries, all in a bid to offer an enticing alliance with Africa and draw them away from those countries including Russia and China which have taken their place. However, It seems African leaders have had enough of European partnerships, and all the offers given by Europe have fallen on deaf ears. The question is how did the Africa-Europe relationship become so bad and why are African leaders shifting away from the traditional European partners? Stay with us as we show you in this video.

Europe has always been Africa’s first partners because of the shared colonial history between the two countries. And the fact is they still want to remain Africa’s first partners because they know that Africa is essential to the growth of Europe. Europe and its former colonial masters have for a long time enjoyed a certain privileged access to Africa but things began to change when non-European actors including China and most recently Russia stepped into the continent. And for the past fifteen years, Africa has had more choice in the partnerships they wish to form with foreign powers. Now, one thing that distinguishes Africa’s collaboration with Europe and Africa’s collaboration with non-European countries such as Russia and China is that the Europe-Africa relationship has always been biased towards Europe. This means that although Europe always preached equal partnership between itself and Africa, the reality is far different. Economic and trade relations between Europe and Africa have always favored Europe far more than Africa. The partnership always ends up with Europe receiving more than it gives.

Aside from this, African leaders have discovered that whenever Europe wants something from Africa, it’s always fond of promising to give billions of dollars to African countries or promising to establish several developmental projects, all in a bid to woo Africa to its side. However, after African leaders have signed these agreements and treaties to confirm the collaboration between the two continents, Europe ended up falling short of the agreement. It’s either they give far less than they promise to give or they give nothing at all. This is the reason why African leaders had to open their doors to non-European partnerships which are defined by equal partnerships.

But then, even though most African countries began to partner with non-European countries, they still tolerated European partnerships until the year 2020 which brought the COVID pandemic. This was when the eyes of most African leaders were opened to the true nature of Europe and the European Union. Every other continent had easy access to the COVID-19 vaccine except Africa because Europe hoarded the vaccines and even when they sent vaccines to Africa, it was discovered that most of the vaccines had expired. Aside from this, when Africa decided to create its own vaccine because of the delay in gaining access to the vaccines made outside the continent, the European Union in conjunction with the United Nations refused to grant the go-ahead to legitimize the vaccines created by Africans. It’s as if they feel that they are the only ones who are allowed to invent or create. Imagine that.

All these failures and disappointments experienced by African leaders from their counterparts brought the European-African relationship to its lowest. African leaders such as Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, William Ruto, President of Kenya and Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda just to name a few began to rise up to speak against the injustice and imperialist attitude of Europe towards Africa. It was during this period that the first wave of coups hit Africa starting in Mali and from there it spread to Burkina Faso, then to Guinea, and finally to Niger. These waves of coups brought another seismic shift in the Europe-African relationship particularly the country of France. Anger at France’s imperialist attitude towards the countries in the Sahel brought a wave of anti-French sentiment, although if you go to the media they would tell you that it was the military juntas that began to spread these anti-French sentiments. Not only that, African countries began to openly partner with Russia and other non-European countries including Turkey and Iran. China’s partnership with Africa which has been ongoing during the last decade was brought to the spotlight. It was at this point that Europe began to realize that they were truly losing ground in Africa and so they began to scramble to patch up their relation with Africa. This led to the organization of the Europe-Africa summit in 2022, a summit which had been postponed and canceled twice prior to that time.

According to Lidet Tadesse Shiferaw, associate director of the European Centre for Development Policy Management, Europe was more excited about this summit than Africa. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, called the summit as the beginning of a “new alliance between Africa and Europe” President Emmanuel Macron of France referred to the summit as a “New Deal with Africa”. Despite all this talk of a new alliance between Africa and Europe, the conclusion at the summit revealed that Europe’s strategy of viewing Africa as a resource ground and a venue for strategic competition where it has to clear Russia and China off the table did not change. Europe ended up pledging to provide at least 450 million vaccine doses to Africa by mid-2022, The Global Gateway Africa-Europe Investment Package of at least EUR 150 billion aims to support the common ambition for 2030 and find a solution to vulnerable migrants. Yet, till today Africa has neither seen heads nor tails of these pledges.

In 2023, the President of the European Union attended the African Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya to bring an offer from Europe to Africa concerning climate change. Now, for decades, members of the European Union have extracted and exploited oil, gas, and other natural resources in Africa to power their industries. This exploitation of resources for the industrialization of Europe has contributed massively to climate change, and out of all the continents of the world, Africa is the most affected. It’s unfortunate that although Africa only contributes less than 5 percent of global emissions, the continent is suffering the most from something that was caused by Europe and the West in their quest for industrialization. But that’s beside the point. The point is Europe and the West have sufficiently used African resources to develop and industrialize, leaving the African continent behind in terms of development. However, now that African leaders are interested in using the same resources, specifically fossil fuel production, to industrialize just like Europe and the West did, the international community is saying no because it’s time for a green energy transition. Isn’t that biased?

The fact is that African leaders are aware that there is a need to transition to green energy after all they are the ones most affected by the edge t of climate change caused by Europe and the West. However, just transiting into green energy without putting proper structure in place isn’t going to help the African economy which is lagging behind in industrialization. Interestingly the reason why Europe and the West are coming into Africa to discuss the green energy transition is because Africa has an important part to play in the transition. Africa is blessed with the minerals needed for green energy which Europe badly needs. They are again positioning themselves for the next stage of industrialization through green energy. This is the reason why the President of the European Union came with an offer to Africa. Europe once again, wants to be Africa’s first partner in the transition to green energy. This means another exploitation of African resources.

Ursula Von Der Leyen, the European Union’s president started her speech by saying that “Today I am here not only to listen to you but also to bring Europe’s offer to be your ally at COP28, and to work together on all issues on the agenda. Then she went on to say that “We hear you, President Ruto and dear friends, when you say that Africa’s first priority is to grow your economy, yes, and lift as many people as possible out of poverty. Climate action is part of the solution. You are part of the solution. Please doesn’t this sound patronizing? She was talking as if she were talking to teenagers who need to be encouraged to do the right thing. The President then went on to talk about how Africa’s resources will be beneficial for the global green energy transition and that if Africa decides to pledge its minerals to help in the transition it would be beneficial not just for the world but also for Africa. She then listed the benefits of the green energy transition for Africa including Job opportunities and energy for Africa.

It was at this point she came up with the offer from Europe. She said that Africa needs massive investment to help in the transition to green energy and Europe is ready to help to bridge the investment gap. Now, guess how Europe plans to bridge the investment gap? It’s through an investment plan they call the 150 billion Euro Global Gateway program. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it does. Recall that the Global Gateway program was something they introduced in 2022 during the Europe-Africa summit held in Brussels. And now, they are introducing the same thing again as if it’s a new project. Do they think that Africa is dumb? Europe is always ready to promise money to Africa because they feel that’s all Africa needs, money which they end up not giving.

Towards the end of her speech, President Ursula said something striking that we can’t help but take notice of. She said that “We are not only interested in extracting resources. We want to partner with you to create local value chains, to create good jobs here in Africa” Did you notice that? Europe is not only interested in extracting resources but they do want to extract resources. This is the main reason they want to partner in Africa and that’s what they have been doing since the independence of most African countries. The other part of her statement where she says that Europe wants to partner with Africa to create a local value chain and jobs isn’t really believable because they have had a long time to create jobs in Africa through their partnership with Africa but they haven’t done anything. So why should Africa believe them now? What’s the difference between this offer of alliance and the previous ones?

In our opinion, African leaders should be wary in dealing with these Europeans. Now that Africa is important once again on the global stage, African leaders should understand that they are in a better position to negotiate better terms for their countries. They must not allow Europe or the West to make them enter into collaborations that would not benefit their countries. Africa is rising and now more than ever, it’s important for African leaders to take advantage of this rise.

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