Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized India's growing involvement with Africa during his recent visit to Nigeria.
Africa is the second largest continent on the globe, and known for so many conflicts that have led to increased insecurity in the continent which caused humanitarian crises. They include civil wars and insurgencies, ethnic tension, and resource based conflicts, and all those are challenges that the continent has to deal with. Nevertheless, contrary to these conflicts; India has gradually established itself as an active and influential actor and player on the African continent.
Conflicts in Africa
Africa, the second largest and second most populous continent over the world, has been suffering from conflict for a long time. These conflicts originating from historical premises, political disagreements, ethnic and economic issues and all these are disastrous to the continent’s growth and stability.
Historical Context
Most of today’s conflicts sweeping across the African continent can be attributed to colonialism. Due to the greed of the European imperialists to exploit the African continent they decide the boarders for each country without regard for the ethnic, cultural or political demography of the area. This eventually resulted in the formation of artificial states where various and indeed conflicting groups where found within the same borders. African post-colonial conflicts are moulded by colonialism effects, such as economic domination, ethnic animosity and legacy of institutional frameworks.
Major Conflicts in Africa
- Rwandan Genocide (1994): One of the most horrific events of the 20th century, the Rwandan Genocide saw the massacre of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by extremist Hutu militias within 100 days. Undoubtedly the genocide was founded in ethnic tensions, which were escalated by colonial policies that privileged the Tutsi elite from the Hutu mass. The genocide completely disoriented Rwanda socially as well as economically since the society and the economy were destroyed.
- Civil War in Sudan and South Sudan: From 1983 until 2005, Sudan saw one of the longest civil wars in African history. The war was on a basis of religious, ethnic, and economic strife; the primary parties being the northern government with rebels in the south. Total causalities of the war were around 2 million and millions of people became refugees. After the efforts put in the CPA in year 2005 it received the freedom in the year 2011. However, three years later in the year 2013 South Sudan was again destroyed by a civil war, which originated from political oriented conflict of power and ethnic issue.
- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Conflict: The DRC has been in conflict for nearly 3 decades with different armed groups’ maintaining a stranglehold on mining resources. The second Congo war that was from 1998 to 2003 involved nine African countries and the conflict claimed the lives of 5.4 million people. Though there has been made a resolution to cease the fighting in DRC eastern region, ethnic rivalry, insecurity on resources and poor leadership feeds violence.
- Somalia’s On-going Conflict: Somalia has been engulfed in civil war since the time its central government fell in the year 1991. But due to clan-based militias, group of Islamists such as Al-Shabaab, different foreign interferences contributed to this long-suffering civil war. Due to the absence of a legitimate government, there is a lot of disorderliness, and cases of piracy, and humanitarian disasters.
- Ethiopian Tigray Conflict: It was in November of 2020 when the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian federal government first engaged in armed confrontation with one another. Violent conflicts have continued to claim thousands of lives, displaced citizens, and trigger severe humanitarian shocks. The main cause of the conflict is political power struggle and historical encounter between TPLF and central government.
Root Causes of Conflicts
- Ethnic and Religious Divisions: Most African conflicts are as a result of ethnic and religious differences. These divisions were further encouraged and reinforced by colonial actors who occasionally played the ruling groups against the ruled. In post-colonial Africa, political leaders have canvased on these divisions to their own advantage with an associated violence.
- Competition for Resources: Africa endowed with minerals, oil and arable land wealth has often been a curse rather than a blessing. Due to the struggle to obtain these resources there have been conflicts most especially in the DRC, Nigeria, and Sudan respectively. Such resources are used by rebels as well as corrupt governments for financial sponsorship of their actions, thus extending civil wars.
- Weak Governance and Corruption: a weak state and corruption that hampers the African governments in running the nation and meeting the needs of its people. This results in opportunities for armed struggles since oppressed people and territories fight for perceived oppression and exclusion.
- Historical Grievances and Colonial Legacies: Most of the boundaries the colonial masters drew did not respect ethnic, cultural, and political structures creating conflicts in the new post-colonial states. Historical grievances, such as land disputes and unequal distribution of resources, continue to drive conflicts.
Consequences of Conflicts
The consequences of conflicts in Africa are devastating and far-reaching:
- Humanitarian Crises: It leads to refugees, deaths and serious humiliating humanitarian crisis. The living conditions of refugees with particular emphasis to internally displaced persons remain very adverse in terms of an inadequate supply of food supplies, water and little or no access to adequate health care.
- Economic Disruption: Through often violent confrontation, conflicts delay or prevent people from earning a living, degrade or even destroy what communities have already built or wished to build, and dissuade those who might otherwise invest in a country or a region. This hinders development and on the other end increases poverty.
- Social Fragmentation: Disputes exaggerate communal cleavages consequently social disintegration occurs and the social contract is eroded.
- Regional Instability: Interparty hostilities that exist in one country affect other countries in the region, making it difficult for the region to find harmonious conditions for the development of peace.
Building paths to Sustainable Peace
- Strengthening Governance and Institutions: Building strong, transparent, and accountable governance structures is crucial for addressing the root causes of conflicts. Good governance can prevent problems related with equitable sharing of resources, enforcement of the law and solving of complaints before they degenerate into use of force.
- Promoting Inclusive Development: With equitable development frameworks where the advancement of the least advantaged is a main goal, more states and territories can attain reserve energies and deny provocation. When the government spends its money on education, clinics and hospitals and building schools and roads it provides work for those who would otherwise fight and, besides this, raises the living standard thus negating the need for war.
- Conflict Resolution and Peace-building: Conflict management involves mediation, dialogue and pursuing of the general cause of peace. Engaging all stakeholders, including local communities, civil society, and international partners, can help build lasting peace.
- Addressing Historical Grievances: To reconcile people it is important thus to recognise grievances and injustice that may have occurred in the past. Inclusive political transformations like TRC, amendment of Policies concerning land dealings and financial compensation do assist in healing of the nation.
India as a New Partner in Africa’s Development
India's relationship with Africa dates back centuries, built on shared histories, mutual respect, and cooperation. This relation has changed over the last few years, and India became one of the leading partners of African Nations. The current trade, defence, and cultural relationships between India and African Nations have reached new heights, and India will always support the continental process and assist in dissecting any advantageous collaboration. In the following sections we will see the different dimensions on India’s increasing engagement in Africa’s development.
Historical Ties
The relations between India and African Nations could be characterized by long history and decades of trade and immigration. Indian Ocean has always acted as transportation channel for people as well as trade and cultural exchanges. Indians effectively settled in more than fifteen countries in Africa in the colonial years making significant impacts on the socio economic growth of the continent. The two regions were steeped in the struggle against colonialism and for independence thereby fostering a strong relationship between India and African Nations.
Economic Cooperation and Trade
African Nations economic relations have developed as an important prospect for a strategic economic partnership. India and African Nations trade relations have developed over the past period. India’s trade relations with African Nations consists of importing petroleum products such as crude oil and minerals, and importing agricultural produce, though exporting goods such as pharmaceuticals, machinery, textile, and consumer goods among others. The impacts of this trade relation are the trickle down affect in both regions, in terms of development and employment chances.
India has also invested a lot of money in African Nations especially in the energy, telecommunications, agriculture and infrastructure. Today, companies from India have invested in African Nations taking central role in its industrial development and the process of its economic diversification. Importantly, the projects involve important areas of Africa’s need with samples like power plants, oil refinery, and telecommunication.
Development Aid and Capacity Development
Another issue is a development assistance of India to African Nations which can be regarded as a sign of the country’s new role in the continent. Thus, there are numerous schemes extended by the India to the African countries to finance and develop their projects and programs. The ITEC is one of India’s unique scholarships and technical cooperation programs that aims at fostering technical cooperation and entity building in African Nations especially through offering training and technical cooperation in areas such as agriculture, health, information and communication technology, public administration etc.
India has also offered soft credit and grants in its commitment to infrastructure development in African Nations. Such projects involve the development of roads, bridges, railways, harbours and any other project that may promote transport and development. Also, India has accessed to participating in construction of schools, hospitals and other civil infrastructural projects including rural development all which have the impacts in uplifting the socio-economic status of these African countries.
Strategic partnership and diplomacy
India believes that African states are sovereign, which synch with India’s approach of not meddling on the affairs of African nations. Currently stronger diplomatic relations exist between India and most African countries and now provide cooperation in security, Defense, climate change, and sustainable development. These are exhibitions of diplomacy through official visits, negotiations, and other forms of annual engagements, Memorandum of understanding and or agreement and multilateral forums; for instance the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS).
The IAFS began in 2008 to act as a forum for India and the African nation to engage in crucial discourse. These special meeting of the leaders are for the purpose of expressing their concern on similar issues and possibly looking for possible ways to cooperate and find solutions to the problems. India has declared a number of programmes through the IAFS which it has introduced to foster the growth of African Nations such as lines of credit, scholarships as well as joint research endeavours.
Improving Information and Transportation
Education and health are two sectors which have witnessed a lot of input from India in Africa’s development. Indian generic medicine manufacturers provide affordable drugs to the African countries to cater for the health sector needs including malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Cheap and access to generically priced medicines have enhanced health and continued to save numerous lives all across the continent.
Indian education has supported African students and other professionals by offering scholarships as well as training. Some of the Indian universities and educational sites have begun arranging partnerships with their counterparts in African nations for the purpose of sharing knowledge and experience. All these educational entre commenced to equip the African youthful generation with skills and knowledge requisite for the development of the nation.
Investing on Renewable Energy and Sustainability
In the face of climate change and environments issues affecting the globe, India & Africa have fostered partnership in propelling sustainable energy & development. India has assisted African nations in their quest to embrace their renewable energy sources in the form of solar, wind and hydro respectively. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched by India, has the objective of fostering deployment of solar energy in members countries a majority of which are in Africa.
India has also offered his services and technologies for sustainable agriculture, water management and environment protection to African countries. These Indian driven green technologies and sustainable practices are believed to support African Nations in attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Conclusion
The increasing involvement of India in African Nations responds to a simple fact: there is a great and long-lasting friendship between two different continents. Today, the economic relations between the African States and India are actively developing through economic cooperation, development aid, bilateral and intergovernmental contractual partnerships and actions in the fields of healthcare, education and renewable energy are actively developing and affect the positive prospects of African sociotechnical construction. These relations will remain most important as both regions face manifold challenges of the 21st century and cooperate in order to adequately respond to them and grasp new opportunities for development. The common factor of collective growth is the key to further India-Africa relations towards better tomorrow.