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The President of France Emanuel Macron, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a representative of the US government are all currently in Africa. They are trying, one way or another, to sway the African nations into condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. But so far, most of the African nations refuse to do so.

The question is why? Has Vladimir Putin been such a friend to Africa or is simply an African distrust of all Western narratives fueled by a stubborn refusal to allow themselves to think in the way they are told to think?

Many around the world has criticized Africa’s stance of non-alignment on this issue as somehow being pro Russia which is very inaccurate. Africa is taking a stance that the Swiss have taken for many generations.

From my observation, this is not borne from a particular like or dislike for any of the parties involved but represents a desire of Africa as a whole to carve out her own foreign policy, carve out her own diplomatic identity, jealously guard her right to think for herself and determine her own destiny instead of having to be constantly told what to think, who to like and dislike and of course how to develop her economy.

We saw this desire in the signing of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) that will form the world’s biggest free trade area of almost 1.3bn people.

However, I believe the real trigger was the pandemic where there was a radicalization and hardening of Africa’s foreign policy where the leaders finally realized that they must look internally to develop their nations and forge a radically different path from before.

While most people may not like the stance that Africa has taken on the issue of the war in Ukraine, I believe we must respect her decision because it represents a maturing of Africa’s foreign policy after nearly half a century when most African nations achieved independence; for the first time, she is  choosing her own part and for this, she must be celebrated because going forward, the world will need a strong, confident and economically prosperous Africa and this represents the first steps in this journey.

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