Africa experts have long bemoaned the rest of the world’s tendency to focus on Africa’s troubles while ignoring positive developments on the continent. In 2012, Europeans who relied primarily on media reports and press releases for news about African affairs could have been forgiven for having security-related concerns uppermost in their minds. Examples included the runaway success of the YouTube sensation, Kony 2012, which was watched by millions in Europe and North America, sparking wide-ranging debates not only about brigandry, blood diamonds, child soldiers and foreign intervention, but also about images of Africa and how these are interpreted in the ‘West’. The massive attention generated by the video prompted EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Catherine Ashton to issue a statement reminding everyone that the EU fully supported international efforts to end the terror campaign being carried out by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Coverage of the crisis in Mali following the 21 March coup d’état probably did not spark as much activity in the blogosphere as did Kony 2012, but the crisis’ regional dimensions and perceived potential to incubate threats to Europe itself soon prompted many European policymakers and pundits to beat the drums for intervention. In East Africa, violent flare-ups between Sudan and the newly-independent Republic of South Sudan occupied many column inches in the first half of the year. West Africa’s conflicts were remembered in coverage of appearances before international tribunals in The Hague by former Liberian president Charles Taylor and former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo. Meanwhile, Africa’s pirates were never far from European television screens.
European awareness that Africa was changing fast and that many dimensions of the Africa-Europe relationship would also have to change deepened in 2011. The dawning realisation that the tired stereotype of ‘rich’ Europe and ‘poor’ Africa was becoming less appropriate began to be reflected in the tone of policy statements and the placing of new emphasis on business relationships in European and African capitals. The influential British publication ‘The Economist’ even led its 3 December edition with a piece entitled “The hopeful continent: Africa rising”. Nevertheless, for many Europeans, relations with the rest of the world were overshadowed by the ongoing sovereign debt crisis and existential questions about the EU’s future that the crisis forced them to face. Such navel-gazing was not conducive to long-term European policymaking in a momentous year marked by the ‘Arab Spring’, which toppled several North African governments and sent shock-waves through the rest of Africa. Major events in Sub-Saharan Africa from a European perspective included the post-election violence in Côte d’Ivoire, the devastating famine in the Horn of Africa, the independence of South Sudan, and ongoing instability in Somalia and the Sahel. From an African perspective, if introspectiveness prevented Europeans from responding adequately to fast-moving events and taking steps to deepen relationships with African countries and institutions, there were other options for partnerships – most notably China.
African-European relations were marked by several events that appeared to illustrate a trend that has become apparent to many analysts in recent years: the world had changed, the ‘post-colonial era’ was passing into history, and Europeans could no longer take for granted that their model for development on the basis of the rule of law, human rights and democracy backed by aid flows and conditionality was one that African partners wanted to emulate. The global financial crisis, which descended into a full-scale crisis for the stability of the euro in 2010, seemed to confirm to Africans that Europeans did not have all the answers. As Libyan leader and former AU chairman Muammar Kadhafi argued, “Africa has other choices. Let every country and every group govern itself. Every country is free to serve its own interests. Africa can look to any other international bloc such as Latin America, China, India or Russia.” The attractiveness of competing political and economic models such as those of China and Russia continued to rise, at least until the last days of the year and the stirrings of popular protest against authoritarian rule and economic stagnation in North Africa.
The global financial and economic crisis, which hit both Africa and Europe hard in 2009, dominated relations between the two continents. European foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa dropped sharply, while fiscal pressures on governments started to have an impact on official development assistance (ODA). Western aid traditionally slips in the years following a recession, but this time middle income countries have emerged from recession faster and have stepped into the gap left by European donors. Concerns resurfaced in Europe about competition with China for influence in Africa, and the supposedly waning global influence of the EU.
Africa-Europe relations revolved around several major issues during the year. African crises once again drew a lot of attention in European media and political circles, especially with regard to France’s intervention in Mali and its aftermath and the end-of-year escalation of violence in the CAR and South Sudan. The fate of African migrants to Europe made headlines but did not result in much political action. The future of relations between Africa and Europe was a recurring theme during the year, highlighted by the AU’s 50th birthday celebrations and apparent in several discussions at the continent-continent level and between the EU and African Regional Economic Communities (RECs). African politics also came into focus, particularly the elections in Kenya, Mali and Zimbabwe. Nelson Mandela’s passing was widely mourned throughout Europe. Security cooperation continued to be a major area of focus, particularly in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel regions. The evolution of mutual interests in sustainable economic development resulted in significant progress in tortuous EPA negotiations.