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China And Africa: Is The Honeymoon Coming To An End?

Martin McCauley writes: Is China’s honeymoon with Africa coming to an end? At the fourth ministerial forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held recently in Sharm al-Shaykh, Egypt, the usual praise was heaped on China for its engagement with African countries. Beijing announced it was going to pour more money into Africa and increase its presence there, with ‘no strings attached’. However, it is this approach of keeping economics and politics apart that has given rise to unprecedented criticism of the Middle Kingdom by African leaders. In the past, Western governments, NGOs, human rights groups and the media have chastised China for turning a blind eye to politics in the pursuit of business deals. Africans, on the whole, have defended Beijing’s record, contrasting it favourably... 

Modern Day Piracy Tells Us One Thing: Our Armed Forces Are Useless

Thomas Mathew writes: The daring hijackings of cargo ships and passenger liners by Somali pirates, who continue to operate off the African coast, have revealed one disturbing truth: the armed forces of leading nations are not capable of battling an enemy, however small or primitive, who is determined to achieve its goals.It is embarrassing to listen to American and NATO military spokesmen talking about the ‘tactical brilliance’ of the pirates. They even have the nerve to say that these former Somali fishermen turned buccaneers are very well armed and trained. ‘They are very good at what they do,’ one Western military spokesman said, with a straight face, recently. ‘They are well armed.’ Yes, sure they are. And you, professional officers and soldiers, are not very well... 

Is Africa Becoming China’s Bread Basket? It Looks Like It

Martin McCauley writes: China has traditionally been a hungry country. Floods and famine were scourges which haunted the Middle Kingdom’s rulers for centuries. Social unrest flared when there was not enough to eat. One of the achievements of the People’s Republic has been to solve the age old problem of producing enough food to feed the growing population. The one child policy, adopted in 1979, was used to prevent population increase. Beijing claims that it has prevented the birth of almost 300 million children since then. Now only about 20 million are added to the total every year.The one child policy has its downside. One is that families prefer male children. They are pampered (and called ‘little emperors’) and can behave irresponsibly. One family I know has been devastated... 

China Runs Into Trouble In Africa

Martin McCauley writes: As China expands its presence in Africa it gets entangled in some of the local conflicts over there. Attacks on Chinese citizens and property have been on the rise, including the growing number of kidnappings of Chinese workers. In a sense China is facing similar problems to those that have been encountered by Western states for years. The greatest loss of Chinese life occurred in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia in 2007. Nine Chinese workers, exploring gas fields, were killed and others were seized. China immediately abandoned the project. Chinese oil facilities in the Darfur region have been attacked on numerous occasions. In October 2008 nine Chinese were kidnapped and four were subsequently killed. Rebel groups have warned the Chinese to stay out of the Niger Delta.... 

Turkey Wants To Speak For Africa In The UN Security Council

Martin McCauley writes: Turkish President Abdullah Gul has just completed a visit to Kenya and Tanzania. The President thus becomes the first Turkish head of state to visit these sub-Saharan states. Kenya and Turkey signed an agreement on civil aviation and health care. Turkish Airlines has begun direct flights between Istanbul and Nairobi. In Tanzania, Gul pointed out that all but two African states had supported Turkey’s candidature for a non-permanent seat for 2009 and 2010 in the UN Security Council. The Republic of Turkey, he said,  will be the ‘voice of Africa in the UN. It will support Africa on all issues’. Gul mentioned that over 60 per cent of the issues which come before the UN Security Council relate to Africa. The President’s tour is a continuation of the... 

Africa Has Become A Puzzle For China: What’s To Do Next?

By Martin McCauley: Until recently everything was turning out fine for China in Africa: Beijing thought it had come up with a solution to the problem of the continent’s political volatility. Forget about politics and concentrate on business, was the Chinese motto. It worked from Sudan to Angola. However, this year suddenly everything has started to go wrong. So what has changed? The simple answer is that the African leaders who signed the multi-billion dollar deals with the Chinese are either no longer in power or are under threat of being ousted. The new people want to put their stamp on the country and have become difficult to deal with. Take Nigeria, for example: China Railway Construction signed an $8.3 billion contract to build an 81- mile-long railway from Kano in the north to Lagos... 

Turkey Is Moving Into Africa. In A Big Way

(By Martin McCauley.) It seems that the African continent is being targeted by everyone nowadays. Leading nations are forging closer links with the African states, adopting different strategies but pursuing one aim – to widen economic ties and get access to the mineral wealth of Africa. Britain and some other Western nations are pursuing a policy of providing aid to Africa to battle poverty, in the hope of building bridges of understanding that would in turn help to developing business links. The Department for International Development (DfID) of the British government provides billions of pounds to Africa in aid. But this aid has produced meagre economic growth and done very little to reduce poverty on the continent. What it has done is prop up corrupt regimes such as the one in Uganda... 

China and India Vie For Africa

In the late 19th century European powers engaged in the ‘scramble for Africa’. The present day equivalent is the contest between China and India to get their hands on Africa’s enormous mineral and hydrocarbon wealth. The Indians have already been in the ‘dark continent’ for quite a while. They were brought in by British colonial administrators to countries such as Uganda and Kenya to do clerical work. Then Mahatma Gandhi negotiated a deal with London which permitted Indian immigration to South Africa. All went well until decolonialisation set in. Uganda, for one, sent them packing. As Indians had played an important role in the economy, Idi Amin was shooting himself in the foot. Like many other African dictators – Robert Mugabe springs to mind today – economics... 

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