Chronicle Editor
Our generation of Africans is lucky in the tragic sense of the word luck. We never knew that we would witness a global pandemic of the magnitude of Covid-19 but now we know. Or did we know that we will live to experience the threat of Nuclear World War III that we are experiencing with the daily escalation of the war in Ukraine. Nowadays we have not only become aware of the threat, but we also have had our knowledge of big arms of war expanded. We now know about the Himars, the Bradleys and the Leopards. The world is changing fast in our lifetime. The present changes, as tragic as they are, have imposed a lot of spectacular shifts in political and economic power. Power is shifting under the feet of global superpowers that have for many decades enjoyed supremacy and dominance. One of the spectacular shifts is caused by the present aggressive drive for de-dollarisation by many countries of the Global South and some in the Global North. The de-dollarisation drive, if it achieves its aims would be as spectacular as the introduction of paper money by the Song Dynasty of China in 1023. The introduction of paper money changed the face of economics as it was known and practised in the world. People no longer had to move around with piles of silver and gold. It is interesting, historically, that it is China once again that is leading the de-dollarisation crusade in the world.
The United States of America, expectedly, is unhappy about the crusade towards de-dollarisation that will see an erosion of its global political and financial dominance. With the US Dollar as the primary reserve currency of the world the United States of America can change the weather and the temperature of world economics as and when it wants for its geopolitical and national interests. The USA can sanction any country financially and suffocate any economy at will. All that power is bound to evaporate if the world achieves a multi-currency regime where the US Dollar is just one of the currencies of the world, not the Alpha and the Omega. In other words, a post-dollar world is in the horizon and the African continent should position itself accordingly. Big changes, political, economic, and financial are overtaking the world and the life of countries is not going to be the same for the better or for worse. The days where the United States would cough financially, and the world catches a financial flue are getting over and another totally different economic and financial climate is becoming. It is a post-dollar world. It is an unknown but exciting world that is unfolding right under our nose.
Post-American Political Energy
It seems that the world is getting fatigued with US power and dominance. Emmanuel Macron, right inside Western Europe, could raise the argument that it is high time European countries shifted from using the US Dollar to avoid being hapless vassals of the superpower that has not been known to pull back from wielding and weaponising its power. American political and economic dominance is being questioned in Europe as it is inside America by some leftist and scholars and activists. There is a growing American professoriate, for instance, that is questioning America’s self-appointed and imposed leadership of the world.
In the Global South, there is a scramble of countries that one after another are applying to join the BRICS collective of countries that are presently led by Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. As I write, Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have formally applied to join the BRICS collective of countries that promises a post-American future and a multi-polar world. It is evident that in the Global South and some parts of the Global North post-American political and economic energy is increasing. One after another world leaders are publicly envisioning a post-American world where America will be one of the provinces of the world and not the centre of the world. The “cocacolirisation and Mcdonaldisation” of the world have come under question and their future is misty if not bleak. The BRICS collective is talking of a new common currency, international banking system and a totally new international financial regime that will be an alternative to the present Euro-American regime. What must concern us is exactly what will be Africa’s part and place in this beckoning world of cataclysmic changes. Africa should not be found unprepared for radical economic and political changes.
Towards Neo-Pan-Africanism
The United States of America is not enjoying the post-American energy that is presently circulating in the world. Recently the US has threatened South Africa with severe sanctions and other forms of punishment for allegedly continuing political and military ties with Russia. South Africa has reacted with protest and arguments, citing long relations with the Soviet Union then and the Russian Federation presently. The US can sanction and punish one African country and get away with it but cannot punish the whole African continent and win. There is need, as the world changes, for strong decolonial Pan-African solidarity that will protect African countries from superpower bullies. What I call neo-Pan-Africanism must be a new and robust form of African unity where African countries will take an injury to one to be an injury to all when it comes to dealing with superpowers in their scramble to continue to reduce the continent to their sphere of influence and theatre of geopolitical struggles. Africa has seen enough in world history to continue to be bullied by the East or the West.
Towards a Multipolar World System
A unipolar world allows the tyranny of one superpower. One economic and political centre of the whole world is unhealthy and undemocratic. Africa, in her interests, should be positioned in such a way that it benefits from multipolarity where other continents compete to trade and relate with the continent in an equitable distribution of power relations where the continent is nobody’s sphere of influence but a partner in the world system. It is in Africa’s interest that there should be many centres of economic and political power. After centuries of being enslaved, colonised, and dominated, Africa should be the spoilt brat of the planet that picks and chooses friends and enjoy monopoly of her own resources. The continent should take advantage of the present chaos and disorder in the world to position itself for economic and political power.
Cetshwayo Zindabazezwe Mabhena writes from Gezina, Pretoria, in South Africa. Contacts: [email protected].
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