I am writing this piece from the beautiful city of Lisbon, Portugal, where I have been on the conference circuit for the past week. The event was jointly organized by the Portuguese Government and various policy think tanks. The theme of the meeting was, “The Global Game Has Changed: What Role for Europe-Africa Relations?” An online publication has been produced on the same theme and is edited by our colleague Patricia Ferreira. The meeting attracted over 300 participants — no mean feat by European standards! Participants included high-level people from government, the EU and various international institutions.
As Chatham House Rules were in application throughout, I am not allowed to quote who said what. All I can say is that an upbeat keynote address was delivered by the former foreign minister of Portugal, H. E. Mr. Luis Amado, a wise and astute statesman. The British diplomat and Managing Director of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Nicholas Westcott, provided a brilliant summary of the key messages of the meetings. The conference was closed with an inspired pronouncement by Portuguese foreign minister Rui Machete.
The general feeling throughout was that the Fourth EU-AU Summit in Brussels a few weeks ago was a success. It seems evident that the 61 leaders (40 from Africa and 21 from Europe) showed real commitment to taking forward the Euro-African partnership. Our EU colleagues drew our attention to the little fact that it was the biggest Summit ever organized in the Commission’s history since 1957.
I was privileged to be one of the speakers at the Lisbon meeting. My thinking, then as now, is based on three propositions, first, that Europe and Africa are partners of destiny; secondly, that our relations have been weighed down by too much historical baggage; and third, that now is the time to set those relations on a better footing.
Europe and Africa are partners of destiny. We are not only continental neighbours; we have a shared history. The ancient Romans used to refer to the Mediterranean as “Mare Nostrum” (Our Sea). They did not see it as an international waterway separating one continent from another, but as an inland lake separating one region of Europe from the other. For centuries, North Africa served as the granary of the Roman Empire. Africa and Europe were linked by cultural, trade and diplomatic relations. War and conquest were also elements of that rather complicated relationship. Hannibal and Carthage were considered the arch enemies of the Roman Empire. Scientists have never to this day been able to explain how Hannibal crossed the Alps with his elephants and laid siege on Rome for the better part of seven years.
North Africa was part of Christendom before the Arab conquest. Origen, Tertullian and St. Augustine were among the doctors of the Latin Church. And they were Africans. At least 3 black popes were crowned in the Middle Ages: Pope Victor, Pope Melchiades and Pope Gelasius. The Italian renaissance painters Michelangelo, Raphael and others never painted black people as inferior beings. They depicted them as normal people who took their place in the courts of high society. Shakespeare’s Othello was a flawed character not by virtue of his race but on account of his inherent frailties that may be found in any hero.
For much of modern history, Africa’s relations with Europe have been shaped by the myth of Aryan superiority. The Europeans had woken up one morning and decided that Africans were fit for nothing other than as beasts of burden to be enslaved, conquered and despoiled. The Portuguese were at the forefront of the enslavement and rapine that afflicted our great continent for the better part of five centuries.
If we could do a balance sheet of the record of slavery and colonization, the Portuguese would have the worst record. They hanged on to their colonies in Africa – Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Mozambique to as late as 1975. They did not educate the Africans beyond certain servile levels. And they left nothing by way of serious physical infrastructures. I have sometimes whispered to myself, “thank God, my forefathers were colonized by the British and not by the Portuguese or the French!” At least, the British were content to steal only our resources, leaving our people to their own devices. The French and Portuguese stole not only our resources but also the souls of black folk; leaving them confused as to who and what they are as human beings.
Old attitudes die hard. Europeans sometimes still behave as though Africa is theirs by right and that we must re-orient our civilization to fit in with their conception of the universe. Consider the issue of gay rights and same-sex marriage. Our ancestors abhor it. But Europeans insist we must imbibe the new heresy.
Let me set the record straight: I condemn all violent attacks on gay and lesbian people. I condemn persecution of anyone on account of race, tribe, gender, religion or sexual orientation. But I insist that the idea of positively encouraging gay culture is alien to the spirit of our African civilization. My grandparents would consider it an abomination and a curse. They would have been outraged at the notion that a man could marry a man and a woman could marry a woman. We Africans believe a family, by definition, consists of a man and woman bound together by holy wedlock for the purpose of procreation and nurturing of children. The family is the foundation of society. Tamper with it and you undermine the spiritual foundations of civilization itself.
Today, we have an opportunity to re-engineer Euro-African relations on a sounder footing. The Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) provides a basis for strengthening our trade, economic and diplomatic relations. Europe has technology, skills and capital. We have a huge population and an abundance of natural resources. We can do business together. We share the same ideals about democracy, the rule of law and universal values. But we will remain proudly African.
OBADIAH MAILAFIA
