There are few things that set social media ‘Pan-Africanists’ tongues wagging quite like summits that bring together the leaders of our continent and individual nations. Here, I’m talking about meetings such as the Russia-Africa Summit, the UK-Africa Investment Summit, the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit, the India-Africa Forum Summit, the recently concluded Indonesia-Africa Forum, as well as the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing. These types of summits, coming fast and furious over the last decade, have been quite the rage—and it makes perfect sense. A continent rich with human and natural resources, Africa is a coveted economic partner. For instance, if you’re looking for ‘dirty’ energy, i.e., fossil fuels, all you have to do is travel to countries like Angola, Nigeria, Mozambique, Senegal, and South Africa. If you’re looking for ‘clean energy’ resources like copper, cobalt, and lithium, you can find them in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia, and, despite what is often repeated about its lack of natural resources, even Rwanda. This is why Rio Tinto, the second-largest metals mining company in the world, is currently exploring for lithium in the country. If you’re in agribusiness, Africa is an El Dorado. The same goes for producers of consumer goods. Every African nation is looking for investment, skills, and finances. And guess where those three things can be found? That’s right, in the US, the UK, Russia, China, and yes, even Indonesia. In recent years, as summits have started getting organised by so-called ‘lesser’ powers (such as Korea), I’ve noticed a certain righteous anger centred on two main questions: How can a mere country have the gall to invite an entire continent to a summit? And how can an entire continent’s leadership fly to that meeting? Kenyan CNN journalist Larry Madowo put it rather succinctly, tweeting a picture of African leaders in Bali, commenting, “Indonesia—the world's 16th largest economy—summoned a whole continent with their full chest and we went. Again.” His tweet invited comments like, “The saddest part isn't that these leaders went. It's the ones in this picture who always preach to their citizens about Ubuntu towards self and demanding respect,” “a generation of mentally enslaved leaders in Africa,” and “anything to make African leaders board a plane to junket away from their 'self-created backward continent.' There’s a part of me that feels like Larry and company. It’s the part of me that wants to pretend that African countries aren’t largely at the bottom of every human development index metric. I want to ignore the fact that most African nations, bar a few, contribute almost nothing to global scientific progress. I want to ignore the fact that despite all the arable land we have, malnutrition and hunger besiege too many African people. But I cannot, and will not, ignore what I see in front of me. We can either continue to pretend that we can see the emperor’s new clothes (and behave like we have no issue with our underdevelopment), or we can face the challenges of our reality head-on. As President Kagame remarked in Bali, African countries can gain a lot from a closer relationship with Indonesia, a country with a population of over 275 million people and a GDP of USD 1.37 trillion. There can be trade, educational, and scientific exchanges. The same goes for Russia, China, India, the US, and the UK. ‘Can’ is the operative word. Now, if some African leaders choose to waste those trips doing God knows what, does it mean that those summits are useless? No. As a Rwandan, I have no issue with my president flying across the world to sit down with leaders from across the globe and look for partners to help fuel Rwanda’s development. Why do I have no issue? Because I trust that President Kagame is doing the job we mandated him to do: lead us to prosperity. And by all means necessary. The author is a socio-political commentator
