For Africans, the Ukraine war is a European problem. The continent has its own set of wars that have been forgotten for ages. These include wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Libya, Mali and Somalia.
Africa remains at the periphery of global power politics. Its economic weakness, continental balkanisation and numerous wars make the average citizen on the continent unconcerned and ambivalent about a war in a country most people on the continent have not heard about.
Africans have more pressing kitchen table issues. These include civil wars, high unemployment, ballooning debt, rising inflation, depreciating local currencies, climate crisis, brain drain, lack of basic health services and poor infrastructure. The list goes on and on. Europe already has these basics. Why should a European war become an African problem?
The recent proposal by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa to have the countries of Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, is a hollow diplomatic endeavour. This diplomacy is not backed by the coercive threat of hard power – the military threat to make belligerents want to stop fighting.
It will receive the contemptuous tokenism of a reception from the presidents in Kyiv and Moscow with little else to show for it. It will have no impact on the geopolitical battle between the US and Russia over Ukraine. Most importantly, it will do nothing to fix the pressing problems that face the average African.
Africa has enough wars of its own that its leaders should be solving. In addition to this, while major wars ravage the continent, low-level wars engulf many other parts of the continent. These include the wars in Northern Nigeria, Niger, Mozambique, and Mauritania.
African states have not developed war prevention strategies centred on the rule of law, good governance and democracy to reduce the proliferation of conflict on the continent. Africa should fix its wars before fixing those of others. Europe’s problems are not Africa’s problems.
Africa has more pressing priorities than worrying about wars in Europe. Europe has shown scant interest in African wars. These wars have dragged on for decades. What makes it worse is that many European powers have been implicated in backing factions in some of the continent’s deadliest wars such as those in the DRC, Libya and Sudan.
Europe has done little to rid the continent of neo-patrimonial rulers that plunder the resources of their nations in collaboration with major European corporate interests. Europe has continued to close its markets off to African exports to protect domestic constituencies.
It has denied access to millions of Africans desperately attempting to cross the Mediterranean in large part to escape wars in Africa. Why should Africans care about a European war?
Europe has the military power of individual states and regional defence organisations to take care of its own problems. The lingering question remains, why are African presidents so interested in putting out fires in Europe when Africa is burning?
