The 140th anniversary of a critical moment in human history will be marked on 15 November 2024. And the odds are that it will conveniently go unnoticed. On an unremarkable Saturday morning in 1884, people in Africa woke up thinking of breakfast, or perhaps their business for the day. But unbeknown to them, a select group of representatives of various European powers had woken up in Berlin, thinking of how and what Africans would think, how they would live and behave, and who they, their land and their resources would be owned by for the next several years.
This gathering resulted in the carving up of Africa into European properties and would come to be known as the Berlin conference. For the Europeans involved, it marked a huge stride forward. For the Africans it was a catastrophe, one that still plagues and shapes their lives today.
You can see the economic, political, psychological and security legacies of the conference today in ludicrously counterproductive borders, tragic life expectancies, disastrous economic indices and predatory economic orthodoxies that continue to benefit the colonising states. You can see it in infant mortality rates, children working in mines to enrich international corporations, famines and entirely needless warfare fought with expensive weaponry by destitute people. Or the small boats, stowaways in the rudders of ships, and the bodies of Africans floating ashore in Europe.
You can see it in the proliferation of bleaching creams – literal poison placed on the skin to make it lighter and whiter. You can hear it in the petrified screams of poor rural African children being caned in classrooms for not speaking or reading with adequate proficiency the “official” European language imposed on them. You can read it in western publications pouring paternalistic scorn on African nations for becoming closer to non-western powers – as though it were inconceivable that they could be the masters of their own destiny or intelligent enough to identify what is in their own interests. You can see it in Britain’s ludicrous endeavour to transform Rwanda – a nation recovering from genocide – into a “deterrent” for threatened, fearful and desperate people who may seek refuge on their shores.
But despite the bleak backdrop, I see a glimmer of hope. This year appears to have been one in which many African populations accelerated the process of throwing off the shackles placed on them in 1884. Some used democratic means, and some – notably in nations still dominated by France – did not.
It would be wrong to romanticise coups. Africans especially know the cost: strong men, security issues, strife (political and civil) and structural adjustment programmes. But coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger (three of the poorest nations on Earth) and, for a moment it was hoped, Gabon, were welcomed and celebrated by many in the region.
The elation in response to these successful coups demonstrates that it would be equally wrong to romanticise the status quo of sham democracies with farcical elections. The cost is exactly the same thing, only with an added respectability: strong men (in suits as opposed to khakis), security issues, strife (political and civil) and structural adjustment programmes (perhaps under a flashy new name).
Listening to everyday people on the ground, as well as respected African intellectuals such as PLO Lumumba and officials such as Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the former African Union ambassador to the US, these were not viewed as run-of-the-mill coups. Instead, they were welcomed as legitimate and overdue revolutions against French continuity colonial activity and the ineffective, inept puppets it spawned. The coups and subsequent pacts formed between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are – admittedly with a hint of caution – viewed as a source of hope in a sea of landlocked hopelessness.
Hope also sprang from west Africa not allowing itself to become a new frontier of a proxy or forever war. Despite much encouragement from France, Ecowas – the Economic Community of West African States – did not invade Niger in response to the revolution. Such an action would have ended in guaranteed disaster for the region, which has a population roughly equivalent to the EU.
Meanwhile, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have formed an economic and military pact, with whispers that they may merge into a single unit. Another very welcome development. Though many predict this joining of hands will end in failure, I sincerely hope it does not. Success is contagious. And this new grouping in the Sahel presents a critical chance to demonstrate the possibilities of pan-Africanism and the clear economic opportunities to the people of the continent.
Stood alone, the microeconomies of, say, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and most African states will always be prey to even mid-league economies, let alone the US, the EU or China. Pan-Africanism, an idea seen for the past few decades as both a dated pipe dream and a delirious punchline, would finally be given a protracted shot at success, serving as a development dream come true and a poverty-crushing engine for Africa, by Africa.
It could help reverse the damage set in motion by the original coup plotters back in November 1884. To all lovers of humanity and even despisers of “small boats”, that is something from which to draw hope.
Nels Abbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
