WINDHOEK---The entry of China and India on the African market is causing a big stir particularly in the West. What seems to baffle the countries of the West is the speed and intensity of the economic bonding between China, India and Africa.
Clichés are being used to over dramatise what is otherwise a healthy meeting of the minds between China, India and Africa by way of creating meaningful economic relationships based on equality.
There are those in the West and their surrogates in Africa who feel that China and India want to relate to Africa in the same way that Western countries did. They argue that China and India are only interested in African raw materials and are adding no value in their business dealings with the continent. What the two countries are doing is simply a new form of economic imperialism, they say.
Well, this comes as no surprise at all. Africa has traditionally been a pawn in the game of politics of Western countries. For decades, Africa has been at the receiving end of Western hegemony and colonisation. The continent was invaded, its people brutalised and natural resources plundered by Western countries. The continent endured slavery and colonisation over a long time. This situation transformed Africa into an empty basket and a continent of beggars.
When the winds of change finally blew over the continent and Africa gained its freedom, the continent was already on its knees. But instead of seeking to lift the continent out of its misery and poverty, the former slave and colonial masters simply fashioned their relationships with the continent of the basis of master and servant.
Donor aid was used to create dependency on the economies of Europe. No significant and substantive interventions were effected to kick-start African economies by the former colonisers and for too long this dependency syndrome has continued. Europe and Africa have been trading on the basis of inequality with the latter being only useful as a source of raw materials and not as a trading partner.
It is this one sided economic relationship as defined by Western countries that the entry of China and India on the African market seek to challenge. The two Asian giants have developed new paradigms of engagement and have raised the competitive equation with the West in Africa. And this can only be good news for the continent.
What remains is for Africa to put its own house in order. Africa may know what it wants in its relationship with China and India but do we know how to get what we want?
Unless African governments and leaders conduct some thorough soul search by defining and redefining own interests and how they can be best achieved, the goodwill and benefits that come with trade links with these Asian tigers may go to the wind.
Africans have to be candid with themselves. They have to ask themselves critical questions like what is in for them and their people in the agreements they sign. They should interrogate themselves about how best the accruing benefits can be obtained.
Countries in Africa often sign agreements even without reading the final print. Many agreements have been concluded at the whim of the pen without thorough scrutiny of what is contained therein. Some of the agreements simply end up on the shelves because not much thought was given to their practical application.
Others are simply skewed in favour of one party.
The bottom line is that China and India offer a new scope of business dealings and Africa should not hesitate to seek favourable terms on trade and investments. African governments must fine tune their strategies and dovetail technologies from these two countries to their growing needs.
by Editor,
New Era Newspaper