Scramble for African Pie

Can you not ask if the Good Samaritan Sir Bob is unwittingly playing into the hands of the neo-imperialists, asks Binay Kumar.

Remember the Live Aid concert held on July 13, 1985 in London that raised millions for Ethiopian famine victims? We do not know what happened to those millions though we do know for sure that nothing changed for either Ethiopia or Africa.

Anyway, at the heart of that initiative was the Boomtown Rats British singer Bob Geldof, now better known as Sir Bob. He is at it again; he unveiled on Tuesday plans for another star-studded concert to fight poverty in Africa - but insisted it wouldn't be Live Aid II. This time it is not about raising money; as he explained, its only about raising awareness of the dire poverty in Africa that kills millions.

Sir Bob is an honorable man and his intentions are honorable indeed. His life-long quest for drawing attention to Africa's plight cannot but be applauded. What intrigues me, however, is the sheer coincidence and convergence of renewed western interest(s) in the African continent. Tony Blair is not as much enthused by Europe these days as he is by Africa. He has made aid to the continent a key theme for Britain's leadership of the G-8 this year.

Remember 'The Commission for Africa' that was launched with great fanfare in February of 2004 by Blair? The aim of the Commission, according to information available in the public domain, was to take a fresh look at Africa's past and present and the international community's role in its development path.

Let me quote again, "The Commission was established to respond to positive changes taking place on the continent, such as the leadership shown by the AU and NEPAD, and also seize on the political and symbolic opportunity that 2005 presented to make a difference for Africa. 2005 sees the coincidence of the United Kingdom's chairmanship of both the G8 and, in the second half of the year, the European Union.

The Prime Minister has made Africa, together with Climate Change, the focus of both. In September 2005 the United Nations convenes the first major summit to review implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals knowing that despite progress in certain areas the goals will not be met in Africa by the 2015 deadline unless there are new ideas and action. 2005 is the 20 th anniversary of Live Aid and the 25 th anniversary of the publication of the seminal Brandt Commission report 'North-South'."

Highly laudable aims that we cannot but appreciate and keenly support. Let us look at some of the other activities around Africa gaining momentum lately. A business consultation was hosted by Shell UK, the oil and gas multinational, on February 23 in London that included international business leaders. What was on the agenda? A discussion on how the private sector -read that for Anglo-American multinationals- could be involved in promoting growth and investment in Africa. Did that give away the 'game'?

No, if you want to believe the BBC which, in close collaboration with the Corporation of London, and again moved by the miseries of the teeming millions in the African continent, hosted a major conference - Africa 2015 - at the Guildhall in London on March 18. The event was attended by "600 people from the diplomatic community, politics, media, business, civil society, public bodies and the international development community". What was the agenda? To focus on the Commission for Africa's report and the Millennium Development Goals for Africa, which we know Africa will certainly miss.

While this is the level of activity across the Atlantic, it could not have escaped attention in Washington. The problem is that the British are past masters of the colonial game. And their approach to the 'new scramble for Africa' is camouflaged in heart-wrenching humanistic bravado. No such luck for the novices of neo-imperialism in America.

But American has not been sleeping on it. According to the highly-respected Le Monde, "The United States is turning its diplomatic and military attention to Africa, not just to the continent's oil and natural gas supplies (although these represent an important future contribution to US energy supplies) but to its metal and industrial diamond resources. It is quietly establishing military training and equipment links with a number of countries to secure future supply lines.

The US political and military interest in Africa has increased significantly in recent years. That is clear from Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Gabon and Angola in September 2002 (he spent just one hour in each) and from President George Bush's tour of Senegal, Nigeria, Botswana, Uganda and South Africa in July 2003."

The US military involvement in the African continent was next to nothing in the cold war years. Africa was the 'back of beyond', an expression so commonly used by Americans. No more; while Iraq, Iran and North Korea have hogged headlines last two years, Washington has deftly moved on several initiatives which can secure for them uninterrupted supplies of raw materials from Africa: manganese (for steel production), cobalt and chrome vital for alloys (particularly in aeronautics), vanadium, gold, antimony, fluorspar and germanium - and for industrial diamonds. And the insatiable US thirst for oil necessarily makes countries like Angola and Nigeria highly attractive for the likes of Chevron and Shell.

Can you not therefore genuinely ask if the Good Samaritan Sir Bob is unwittingly playing into the hands of the neo-imperialists? To quote Ms Clare Short, a long-time colleague of Tony Blair who quit his Cabinet in the wake of the Iraq war, "Debt relief and aid alone without really strong action to end conflict, arms supply, start building order, the basic institutions of a state, leave the poor outside the whole development system".