The Russian atrocities against civilians in Ukraine have been met with silence from Dar es Salaam, Harare and Juba. Not a word from Addis Ababa, Maputo or Khartoum. On Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the Ugandan President’s son, lieutenant general Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is clear: ‘Putin is absolutely right!’
Nearly half of Africa’s 54 nations refused to vote against Russia at the United Nations last month. Not only African governments but multitudes of Africans, even in countries that opposed Russia, such as Kenya, enthusiastically support Vladimir Putin. And the curious thing is that it’s the very countries that have historically received the most western aid that seem most in favour of him. In fact, they support him because he is the West’s enemy. Tough luck for Ukrainian civilians.
The argument is simple: historically Britain, Europe and America, the main givers of aid, were imperialists. As capitalists, they are still fixated on exploiting rather than uplifting Africa, it’s believed. Westerners treat African migrants cruelly, support Israel and kill Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans and Somalis. By contrast, in African schoolbooks and official histories, the Russians (when they were Soviets) are portrayed as Africa’s true benefactors, because they supported sundry liberation wars against white colonials. ‘We are with Russia… teach them a lesson,’ says Julius Malema, the South African politician who also sings about shooting Boers.
The very countries that have received the most western aid now seem most in favour of the West’s enemy
Ironically, we created this situation ourselves. Britain helped African countries become leftist regimes and then stay that way, shovelling aid at their revolutions while they circled the drain, sponsoring just the sort of tyrants who now gravitate towards Putin.
When my family’s farms were expropriated without compensation in Tanzania in the 1960s, the man who completed the documents to endorse this theft was a British official called Wilson, seconded to Julius Nyerere’s socialist regime by Harold Wilson.
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