Scramble for Africa June 8, 2007

 Africa has once again become the theatre of struggle between the various world powers. How different is this from the scramble  for Africa in the 19^th-century? Africa has once again become a vital strategic arena for contest between the great powers – the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, and to a lesser extent, India. This has once again raised the spectre of Africa becoming a proxy for other peoples wars and conflicts. In the era of the cold war, Africa became the theatre for conflict between the communists regimes of the east led by the Soviet Union and, and the capitalist regimes of the West led by the United States. How beneficial is this to the long suffering people of Africa? The doubting Thomas’s in Africa will see this as a red herring. They will argue that Africa has nothing to attract the supper powers.  In fact some academics in the US have argued that they do not need Africa. They were wrong. Africa is home to very strategic minerals, and has some of the largest deposits of these natural resources: timber, diamonds, gold, bauxite, and coltan. Of all these oil stands out as the most well known natural resource for which countries like the United States will go to war for. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is about oil. Nothing more.  Oil has become so important that there is intense competition between states and western multi nationals to  secure access to this important resource. According to the UN World Investment Report, foreign direct investment (FDI) flows are concentrated in oil, mining and gas. Eights of the world’s oil producing countries are in Africa: Nigeria, Sudan, Algeria, Chad, Egypt and Equatorial Guinea, Congo-Braziville and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Sudan and Nigeria alone attracted 48% of  Africa’s investment flows.  The United States, ever the highest oil consuming nation, has said it will protect its interests to ensure that oil flow is not interrupted. The US is therefore intersected in Africa for this reason. It needs an alternative to the problematic areas of the Middle East, where US hegemony is under threat from anti-occupation forces in Iraq, and radical regimes in Iran and elsewhere. In Latin America, the US is facing similar problems from the radical Chavez regime in Venezuela. As its problems mount, the US is turning to Africa. At the moment, West Africa supplies 12% of the crude oil needs of the US. America’s own national intelligence Council predicts that this will rise to 25% by 2015. How can America protect its oil source? Apart from the US, France the United kingdom are also increasing their investments in Africa. France has huge investments in Francophone countries such as Gabon, Cameroon and Chad. while the UK also supports its former  colonies.  Apart form oil, Africa exports timber to Europe and china. The American forest and paper Association estimates that. Ghana is a major exporter of timber. Liberia, Cameroon, and Gabon are also on the list as major exporters of timber.   Military basesElsewhere in this edition, we carry an analysis of the concerns expressed by some Ghanaians that the US is planning a military base in Ghana. Both the US and the Ghanaian governments have denied this. But credible evidence points to the fact that is the US is to secure its interest in West Africa, it will need a military base. In February 2007, the US set up an African Command (Africom). The US has established bases and signed access agreements with 5 African countries, including Ghana, Gabon, Senegal, Mali and Namibia.