President Xi Jinping             P. courtesy

The newly endorsed Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Tanzania, South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo later this weekend. His visit to East Africa comes at a time when political rivalry in Kenya has given the “East” a totally new meaning: a place to take refuge from the Western value system whenever it is not in favour of the socio-political and economic status quo. Through pronouncements in public rallies and social media, the West is branded the new “devil” while China is the new “angel.”

President Jinping visits a region which in the late 1890s sought refuge in British and German citadels from slavers, Arabs and the “intolerable tyranny of the dominant tribes.” The region still suffers from a generation that heavily invests in the present but rarely in what they might want in future. Fired on by imported technology, the current generation, popularly called the “digital generation” has no qualms surrendering the trusteeship of its future generations to the highest bidder, either from the East or the West.

The Chinese president’s visit comes at a time the continent is faced with a great dilemma. The continent is under the firm grip of the donor countries (especially the West) who control its strategic agenda. On the other hand, the continent is experiencing a surge in Chinese donor money keen to gain a firm grip on Africa’s natural resources.

Africa’s people have been manipulated against their leaders (under colonial rule). The continent’s leaders have also been turned against their people (as happened during the cold war). A replay of people against their leaders is happening in the Facebook and Twitter generation. These episodes have provided minimal space for the continent to think through and actualize its philosophical foundation to act as a unitary body in confronting challenges from both within and externally. The African Union which is supposed to champion African integration is   under the firm grip of donor countries with an estimated 97 per cent of its programmes and strategic agenda budget being supported by donor countries.

Africa is undergoing a crisis of ideas and institutions. Having put little or no investment in indigenous thought leadership, the continent risks becoming a battleground of competing global ideological interests once more. The resultant effect will be continued incoherence; being bogged down by numerous ethnic interests; balancing between its nation-state interests and pressure from global competing interests.

The Washington consensus paradigm on unconditional markets that shaped globalization is now competing with the push for governed markets. Countries from the South that were mostly recipients of policy prescriptions from the North are angling for the reform of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations.

The recalibration of global powers that have dominated Africa’s world view for centuries is a scenario Africans must prepare for. The ongoing global policy changes are likely to open up space for a more democratic global governance system in International financial institutions, justice systems (as in the International Criminal Court), trade and security.

 Africa must rethink the proposition that it is in a global village (low risk space) and wake up to the reality that it is in a global jungle or high risk space. The continuous erosion of national sovereignty by global issues such as migration, climate change, energy security, maritime pollution and international trading systems, among others, further makes it urgent for African countries to rethink confronting the world as individual entities.

To the Kenyan political elites and Africans in general; oscillation between global power interests does little to prepare a generation that can seek to grow productivity, it instead yields a middle class keen on consumerism. The culture of seeking refuge in new systems without seeking to evolve Africa’s own is what has made the continent an underdog for centuries.  This is not the time for Africans to play East and West; it is time to invest in skills and navigation tools to tap from both. President Xi Jinping’s visit should incite all Africans to reflect on the wisdom of Kwame Nkrumah:  "We face neither East nor West; we face forward.”

By James Shikwati

The author james@irenkenya.org is Director of Inter Region Economic Network and Publisher of The African Executive online magazine.