Those who used to ignore Africa’s problems or, rather, used them for personal benefit, are being pushed out from the continent. While the states and alliances promoting anticolonial, multi-polar policies are taking their place. For example, this is what Russia is doing.
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have agreed on the final roadmap of the emerging Confederation. The new intergovernmental structure will have to be approved at a summit of the three states, however, the date of its hosting is still unknown.
This is not the first attempt to create a new intergovernmental body in Africa to completely end or, at least, to mitigate the aftermaths of a few colonial centuries. A vivid example is Senegambia, a union of the former French colony, Senegal, and Gambia, an enclave wedged into Senegal’s territory and a former British colony. This confederation diluted seven years after its foundation in the absence of further integration progress.
However, things are different when it comes to the Sahel states. The integration across these three countries is based not only on the need to ensure security (a common issue for almost all African states), but also on the obvious counteraction of the former metropole, France, and, in a broader sense, of ‘the hegemon’, USA. The military coups of 2022–2023 in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger brought into power new elites not thinking much of Paris and Washington.
Having replaced the civic governments in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the first thing the military leaders did was to form a defence alliance and ask the French and American troops to leave. The Russian and Turkish contingents (Russia’s Africa Corps and SADAT, a private military contractor) are taking their place these days. The Americans are having grave concerns, because the Russians are actually entering the military bases built and equipped by USA in Niger.
The new alliance will have to go through all the stages of the struggle for true, not quasi-, sovereignty, which is characteristic of the postcolonial period. First of all, it will need to leave the monetary union based on the West African CFA franc, which used to be firmly linked to the French franc and further to the Euro, and supported by France. By the way, the currency name, CFA, is self-explanatory. Being spelled out today as ‘Communauté financière africaine’ (Financial Community of Africa) in a politically correct way, initially this abbreviation had a different meaning of ‘colonies françaises d’Afrique’, or French African colonies.
In 2027, CFA is to be replaced by a new currency, the Eco, having its name from ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States. In January 2024, the authorities of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS, which had imposed economic sanctions on its own members and threatened with a military intervention in the affairs of these three Sahel states. The formation of the alliance and a potential confederation to be established soon marks the start of the competition against Western projects in Africa. China, India, Türkiye and Russia have long been expressing enhanced interest in the Dark Continent. Yet, it is probably for the first time when the competition among the projects forms a new state.
‘The best way to address problems in Africa is to ignore them’ – this is a quote from the renowned novel Congo Requiem by Jean-Christophe Grangé. It looks like those who used to ignore Africa’s problems or, rather, used them for personal benefit, are being pushed out from the continent, while the states and alliances promoting anticolonial, multi-polar policies are taking their place.
At the same time, Africa should not be treated as a chess-board, which the mighty and great powers use to play their games. The momentum to gain sovereignty has not been imposed externally – it comes from within African states and nations. This is what ultimately defines the selection of preferred partners and unwelcome rejection of certain states and institutions. Russia can hardly restore the same influence in Africa as it used to have at the Soviet times. But Africa’s population has increased five-fold since the 1960-70s. As a matter of fact, it is the only continent with a positive population dynamics. There will be enough space for everyone in this huge sales, labour and mineral resource market.
The results of African countries’ voting on landmark UN resolutions, both related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or the confrontation of Israel and Hamas, have shown that most of them either vote against US- or EU-imposed anti-Russian and pro-Israeli resolutions or, at least, refrain from voting on them (through abstentions or absence from votes). In other words, all this is not about a struggle between pro-American or pro-Russian proxies in Africa, as it might seem first, rather it is about the competition of projects, which serve different internal purposes. The objective of the confederation of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso is not to come into conflict with other ECOWAS members, but to draw as many of them as possible to their side. If such an alliance, whether officially or not, adds state members with access to sea and major ports (e. g. Senegal or Ivory Coast, the chances of the Sahel belt to have its economic identity will get much higher.
The attractiveness of Russia as an ally of African states is also quite fair. Russia is Africa’s source to satisfy its basic needs in security and food supplies. At the same time, Russia, China, India and Türkiye can run large infrastructure projects in Africa, building power plants, roads, hospitals and schools. This is a new level of cooperation and cultural expansion.
When it comes mineral resources needed for economic self-reliance, such as gold, diamonds, uranium, copper or manganese, the Sahel states have them in abundance. The concern here is the adequacy of the prices at which they can sell these resources and invest in their own growth. Again, France created its stock from cheap uranium to last for decades by controlling regional commodity exchanges using CFA for their transactions. Well, this time has passed.