By George Esunge Fominyen
President Hu Jintao on 14th February 2009 visited the site on which the Chinese would be constructing a Grand National theatre for the Senegalese capital. What one cannot tell is if he was warned by local officials that the residents of that neighbourhood were not too pleased to have their stadium demolished in exchange for a theatre (listen to the voices in the video clip below).
Not Everyone is Happy
In fact, it was widely rumoured by some in Dakar that the Senegalese government deliberately insisted that President Hu Jintao’s visit the place on a day when the whole city had emptied itself to Touba for the Magal religious feast to avoid the protests from the youths in the area.
These thoughts may be the figment of a few people’s imagination but they say a lot about varying sentiments on the Sino-African relationship.
Add to these the regular western voices warning that China is pursuing a predatory relationship with Africa disguised as friendship. A true friend to them is one who does business and ties it to the respect of human rights, etc. This may give the impression that they (“western democracies”) are not guilty of the same attitude in countries where they have vested interests; on which their economic or energy security lies.
As a distinguished diplomat from the East once told me in a discussion, “we accept that human rights are universal, but do not want these to become an instrument for beating others, the more so when the practitioner of this method, the West, is highly selective in applying the principle. When was the last time a Western leader spoke of HR, or freedom or religion in respect of Saudi Arabia?”
When Shall It Be Africa's Turn ?
As I looked at the Senegalese and Chinese flags tied to a palm plant (brought in from the Middle East at a critical period when traditional Franco-Senegalese relations were faltering), the words of Ambassador Kishan Rana came back to me.
He said, “what is clear is that each state seeks to maximize international options, building networks of friends and cooperation partners in its neighborhood, region and with major and medium powers located afar. Pluri-directional diplomacy is the high priority, to insulate the state from uncertainty and potential insecurity. Economic interests, need for export markets and investments, reinforce this trend.”
From this prism one can understand what motivates the Chinese. For their African “friends” (leaders), this is the new way of getting loans and quick fix development. It’s a shame they are not thinking of how to develop their own countries in the way their partners have done – so as to go in search of export markets and economic interests of their own. It leaves a lingering impression of being an eyewitness to the new dominion over Africa. After centuries of slavery, colonization and neo-colonisation from the West…here’s the age of the East in Africa…?
Comments