Africa-Asia into Asia-Africa

– and ultimate beneficiary of the ‘’Spirit of Bandung’’ – co-chaired  the closing session of the ‘’Asia-Africa Conference’’ held in Djakarta, Indonesia. His host, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, had stated that 60 years after the 1955 founding conference, the core vision now is ‘’economic cooperation and welfare of the people’’.The 1955 conference was inspired […]

– and ultimate beneficiary of the ‘’Spirit of Bandung’’ – co-chaired  the closing session of the ‘’Asia-Africa Conference’’ held in Djakarta, Indonesia. His host, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, had stated that 60 years after the 1955 founding conference, the core vision now is ‘’economic cooperation and welfare of the people’’.
The 1955 conference was inspired by a wish for independence from colonial rule by Asian countries of Burma (now Myanmar), India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In his speech Widodo recognised Bangladesh whose secession from Pakistan was aided by India whose Prime Minister did not attend.
 ‘’Independence’’ was associated with a ‘’sovereignty’’ to be respected by big powers; non-interference in their internal affairs (while they supported fighters for freedom in colonised countries); economic development; equality (as opposed to racial contempt in southern Africa); and peace.
‘’Peace’’ was important because the raging Cold War threatened to annihilate the human race with nuclear weapons whose destructive effects had been demonstrated on Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. American opposition to Communist China winning new converts to anti-capitalism was illustrated by the CIA blowing-up up an aeroplane carrying Chinese delegates to the conference in a failed plan to kill Premier Zhou En-lai.
 On his part, the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, on October 4, 1957 launched Sputnik into space and sparked a panic in American leaders which would lead to a race in space and building nuclear weapons associated with competition in assembling Inter-continental Ballistic Missiles (IBMs). The resultant technological race shut China out of competition for admiration by poor non-industrialised Third World countries.
A pandemic of military coups in Africa; internal reform in China during the ‘’Cultural Revolution’’, and deaths of Nehru and Sukarno eclipsed sound wings of non-alignment. When in 1957 Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, retaliatory invasion by Britain, France and Israel forced her to turn to the Soviet Union for military weapons. In 1958, President Eisenhower sent American troops to Lebanon to save the government of President Camille Chamoun; and show the Soviets America’s readiness to support a friendly country. The Russians replied by planting missiles in Cuba. In Indonesia, a military coup was followed by American-approved slaughtering of a million members of the Communist Party.
 China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia embraced development through exploiting ancestral cultural resources. China’s ancient tradition of staffing public administration on the basis of merit through highly competitive examinations had been borrowed by Japan. India’s caste system associated leadership with a special sense of duty and accountability within a cycle of judgement and reward or punishment after death. Japanese colonisation of China’s vast Manchuria region and former European colonies disseminated confidence in the ability of Asian roads to progress and future defeat Euro-American ways.
Japan also combined cultural values and intensively educated brains into powerful weapons. Brilliant minds looked into ancient principles of Buddhism and invented special ways of conducting public administration and running factories. As an example, business enterprises ensured morale in workers by treating them as members of a family who could not be dismissed like contract staff in the Euro-American model. Notions of ‘’humility’’ and being a part of a ‘’group’’ guided relations between workers in a factory and relations between subsidiaries of a corporation. Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and others later lent these techniques to American companies.
President Mugabe wished for integrating Africa’s raw materials with Asia’s technology and financial strength. He did not mention the wrath of Thabo Mbeki and Kofi Annan over up to 800 million American dollars being smuggled out of Africa annually by corrupt corporations and officials.
China promises to collaborate with Africa to build a cobweb of trans-Africa roads and railway lines from Algeria to Maputo; from Cape Town to Dakar. Energy; Chinese tourism, medical infrastructure; extraction of minerals; acquiring tracts of land and capturing retail trade are also in China’s agenda. Malaysian and Korean wood traders are ruining forests in D.R. Congo, Madagascar and Cameroun. Indian pharmaceutical companies are strong in Nigeria’s and South Africa’s markets. Oil deposits in Somalia and Cote d’Ivoire have attracted Chinese construction of football stadia. Asia-Africa is eating Africa.
Africa must focus on: building intensive high quality education for conducting merit-based governance; dredging attitudes of ‘’eating from power’’ inside government jobs; and joining China’s fight against corruption among top leaders. Cuba added technological inventiveness to non-alignment.
60 years after Bandung Africa’s youth must combine their creativity with exploring cultural values; spark and longevity of tropical sunshine to build industrialisation; end Kofi Annan’s rage that ‘’malnutrition is political failure’’ and infuse ‘’Africa-Asia’’ into Bandung’s legacy.