By Teklehaymanot Weldemichel and Smith Ouma
The African Union has long promoted the slogan “African solutions to African problems”. Yet recent developments across the continent suggest that this proclamation is increasingly hollow.
To begin with, in a world of competing and intertwined interests, there are no purely “African” problems. What makes the continent’s crises seem uniquely African is not their nature, but rather the willingness of many African ruling elites to compromise the hopes and futures of their people for short-term gains—often in the form of token gestures from both former and emerging colonial powers. But these are not Africa’s problems alone; they are global challenges with global implications, and they cannot be solved in isolation.
From wars and genocides perpetrated by state and non-state actors—often with the backing of foreign powers—to ecological and economic crises, Africa’s struggles are tightly interwoven with the interests and interventions of external forces. These are international problems that require international accountability and restraint. The recurring involvement of foreign powers—from the United States and Europe to China, Russia, Turkey, and most pressingly the Gulf states—not only exacerbates local instability but also perpetuates systems of exploitation and dependency. Ruling elites have demonstrated both complacency and extreme naivety in these arrangements.
The solutions to Africa’s problems, then, cannot be considered purely ‘African,’ as the ruling elite often lament. Addressing these problems requires pushing back against external actors who extract the continent’s wealth and are willing to devastate entire populations in the process. To achieve this, Africa and its leaders need to establish a clear framework that fends off both old and new powers seeking to undermine the interests and aspirations of its people, ensuring that the continent benefits from its relations with external actors.
Second, contrary to the rhetoric of self-determination that the proclamation is intended to convey, African leaders are increasingly outsourcing their responsibilities to these same foreign actors. The ascendancy of transactionalism in international relations marked by a discernible predisposition towards bilateral relations between larger powers and their lower-income counterparts in arrangements that give rise to short-term gains is particularly concerning. Perhaps the most striking example of transactionalism was the so-called “trade summit” involving leaders of Gabon, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. in early July this year. There, leaders of these politically and economically vulnerable West African nations were summoned to “negotiate” with the United States. In practice, the spectacle amounted to an auction, or a reverse scramble for Africa of some sort: African leaders eagerly offered access to their countries’ oil, gas, and mining sectors—even golf courses—in exchange for vague promises of security and investment.
The rise of transactional politics has naturally coincided with the erosion—and, in some cases, the effective disappearance—of multilateral peace-making and security mechanisms. Recent approaches to peace-making appear to be increasingly defined by short-term calculations and depend on the willingness of unilateral actors—most notably the United States—to underwrite or enforce them. For all intents and purposes, the United Nations has lost much of its influence, as its involvement and legitimacy have been progressively undermined.
African leaders, however, seem not to “read the room.” The UN system has collapsed, and securing a seat within this deteriorating institution (a seeming preoccupation by some of the leaders) does little to protect Africa from the injustices of old and new colonial dynamics being shaped around the continent. This lack of awareness was evident in recent addresses at the UN General Assembly, most notably by William Ruto of Kenya. While speeches by leaders such as Donald Trump made it clear that the UN is no longer a reliable space for protecting the interests and rights of the weak, African leaders continue to vie for positions in this crumbling institution.
Evidence continues to mount that natural resource extraction—especially in conflict zones—is central to the transactional geopolitics engulfing the continent. During the height of the Tigray genocide, for example, the Canadian ambassador to Ethiopia at the time reportedly expressed excitement to an Ethiopian official about post-war mining opportunities in the region—a chilling reminder of how development is being redefined through the lens of profit, not values and people.
Initiatives like the U.S.-led Minerals Security Partnership openly pursue African mineral wealth under the guise of global supply chain security, yet often sideline African voices and priorities. Peacebuilding itself has become transactional, as highlighted in scholarly analyses (see Hellmüller & Salaymeh and Kobayashi, Krause, & Yuan). Instead of fostering equitable and lasting peace, these processes frequently entrench elite bargains and resource pacts that serve external interests over the well-being of the continent’s populations.
A new wave of colonialism is unfolding—less overt than in the past, yet equally insidious. This afterlife manifests not through conquest, at least not yet, but through opaque investment agreements, peace accords, and diplomatic gestures. If left unchallenged, it threatens to consign Africa to another century of external domination.
The current period of escalation and rapid change presents Africa with a rare opportunity to overcome centuries of subjugation and dependency. Realising this potential, however, requires careful and deliberate decision-making that is primarily responsive to local priorities with sensitivity to emerging global dynamics. It will only be achieved if the continent avoids replacing its existing asymmetric relationship with Europe and the United States with yet another form of dependency.
The urgency of Pan-African solidarity has never been greater. The way forward demands a revitalisation of Pan-African ideals—grounded not only in unity but also in resistance. Africans across the globe must insist upon genuine self-determination, foster transnational coalitions, and reject transactional politics that reduce entire nations and peoples to mere bargaining chips. This moment presents a decisive opportunity to advance a Pan-African movement capable of liberating the continent from the legacies of centuries of slavery, domination, and subjugation under both Arab and European rule.
Africa stands at a critical juncture: it must ensure that, in escaping European and Western control, it does not fall prey to a new generation of colonizers. In contesting Western—and more specifically European—domination, it is crucial not to replicate the same asymmetrical relationships with emerging powers such as the Gulf states, Turkey, China, and others. It requires navigating these arrangements with clear historical self-awareness while maintaining strategic independence and accountability by the ruling elites to the publics that they serve.
Top image by by Road Ahead on Unsplash.
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