What is unprecedented in this war is the fury with which the Western media, especially in Europe, are splitting in two to blame and even demonize the countries which choose to remain neutral in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In addition to India and China, we are talking here about many African countries.
However, far from being insensitive to the drama unfolding in Ukraine, what many African countries now refuse is to be mere puppets in the service of Western powers when it comes time to vote at the UN.
This new reality is part of a rebalancing of forces that has been underway since China began to flex its muscles. If it is now being expressed in broad daylight, it is because the hegemony of the Western world which has lasted since the end of the cold war is wavering a little.
Without going into the ins and outs of this war, this short chronicle aims to give a less Eurocentric reading of the neutrality displayed by many African countries when the time comes for condemnations at the United Nations.
You have to hide your gaze not to realize that this repositioning is symptomatic of a great divide now separating two worlds, two international communities. A separation that we quietly saw coming, but whose magnitude has been exposed in broad daylight by this terrible war.
This new posture displayed by many African countries contains a coded message that Western media are struggling to decipher. In question, the vast majority of African countries have always been dictated by Western nations on which side of the force to be when an important vote comes. If a country wanted to be invited to the concert of nations of which America had been the undisputed conductor since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, it often had to accept this role of puppet.
To put an image, it is as if, when the time came to vote, the representative of France raised his right hand and that, with his left, he urged those of Françafrique to copy his gesture. This time, to the great displeasure of the Western world, many African countries have refused the slogan.
The surprise is total. Europeans even wonder how nations traditionally under their influence could choose such shameful dissent in the face of Vladimir Putin’s horrific aggression on Ukraine.
In truth, this so-called neutrality of the victims of colonialism and imperialism in the Western world hides a coded message that goes something like this: “You have invaded enough countries and imposed your military superiority on the rest of the planet to know how to manage on your own with this conflict which is taking place, this time, on your continent. This war is yours. And if we refuse to join the ranks, it is not for lack of solidarity with the terrible suffering of the Ukrainian people, but to remind you that we cannot continue to be mere pawns on your geopolitical chessboard. In other words, you are no longer the only international community on this planet! »